30 Day Writing Challenge: A Book I Love and One I Didn't

A Book I Love and One I Didn't

I am a book lover. I could read books all day every day if I could. I read so many good books, a lot of great books, and a good group that I've fallen in love with, so it's hard to comb through the books I've read, probably hundreds by now, in order to pick one that I didn't enjoy reading. But here it goes. These are some that I remember off the top of my head; they're not completely representative of all of my reading adventures.

Book I Love: The Giving Tree

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The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein, is my favorite book of all time. The book follows the relationship between a tree and a boy. As the boy ages, the boy takes and takes from the tree to the point where the tree becomes nothing more than a stump. They tree cares for and loves deeply the boy, which is why it is willing to sacrifice itself over time. In the end, the tree has nothing left to give, and the boy finally ceases to ask for anything, just to sit on it's stump. The book ends with the phrase, "And the tree was happy."

This story is a story of friendship. Though I don't think the friendship was a completely healthy one, as the boy basically uses the tree throughout the vast majority of their friendship, but it introduces children to the concept of empathy and the beauty of giving. It teaches you that money and material things can't buy you happiness, that relationships, whether it be with other people, or with oneself, are critical for happiness. We need more love, more giving in the world. I aspire to be that tree. I want to give and give until there is nothing left of me, because for me, that will make me truly happy. I don't need a lot to be happy, just to know that I am helping others. 

Other Books (and other literary works) I Really Like:

• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
• Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
• Anthem by Ayn Rand
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
• The Diary of Anne Frank by Anne Frank
• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Book I Didn't Love: Heart of Darkness (sorry Seematter!)

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I read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad my senior year of high school in my AP Literature class. This book follows the journey of a man named Marlow during a trip to Africa as a member of an ivory trading firm. Along the way, he witnesses struggle and brutality between the native people and the colonizers. He meets a man named Kurtz, who is a "prisoner" and "god" of the native people and "rescues" him. Kurtz eventually dies and Marlow spends the rest of the book picking up the pieces after his death. 

It's a rough book to get through, in my opinion. The writing style, the events of the book, it just took me awhile to get through. Keep in mind though, I was also a senior in high school with little motivation to do anything. I'm not sure if I didn't love it because it was a challenge or because I didn't actually understand it completely. Literature is also not my best subject, so I missed a lot of the literary elements present in the book. I also don't think I understood the context of the book well enough. Eventually, I plan to go back and read it again and see if I come to a different conclusion, now that I'm in my third year of college. 

Other Books I Didn't Love:

• Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer