Types of Fiction and Outside Reading

I've always loved to read and I'm the type of person who can spend an entire afternoon just absorbed in a good book. Before this class, I was only exposed to commercial fiction for pleasure reading. I didn't realize there were so many differences between commercial and literary fiction. I have a greater respect for literary writers now because the books they write are like an artist creating a painting on a canvas. Commercial fiction is just for the money and the story ends up the way the audience wants it to end. I don't like the way this gives the reader false hope for how things in life really end. That's why I like the way literary fiction is truthful and it doesn't water things down. I started my outside reading book, The Poisonwood Bible. I went to Mrs. Faris and asked her which of the books she recommended. She told me that she enjoyed The Poisonwood Bible a lot and that I would too. I've barely made a dent in it, but it seems like a really good book. I can't wait to see how the story progresses and how the characters develop. I also look forward to reading more literary novels throughout this year, and although commercial fiction is enjoyable and easy to escape to another world in, I realize now that there are so many other books out there that teach much more important lessons.

Summer Reading

For my summer reading books I read Salvage the Bones and Never Let Me Go. I enjoyed Never Let Me Go much more than Salvage the Bones. It appealed to my interests much more because I felt like I could relate to the main character Kathy. I liked the way it was more suspenseful than Salvage the Bones. Salvage the Bones was too gory for my taste because of the vivid images of blood. Never Let Me Go was cool because it was set up like a reflection. I loved the way that the author had the relationships form more as the story progressed. I liked that  Kathy went through a journey were she learned a lot about her friends and herself, which I find many people, including myself, can relate to. In Salvage the Bones, it was very boring during the middle of the story because it was only about Skeetah and his dog China. The story really didn't become suspenseful until the last few chapters. I felt like they were both easy reads and not too difficult in general. I felt like the summer project reading journals took away from the book because I was too focused on the topic of the journal rather than the subjects of the books. The MWDS helped me a lot to review the books and it helped me review the characters and major themes too. I suggest for next year that a few less journals are required or a new aspect to the summer project overall . In the end, I felt like the books I read were outside of the range of books I normally read, so it expanded my reading expirence which was helpful.