I can still recall how the book smelled; it wasn’t the crisp sweetness of a new book, it was more of an oddly reassuring, “I’ve been around the world,” smell. A page or two at a time was enough for a six-year-old girl to fall more and more in love with the enchanting story. Comparable to Daniel Felsenfeld’s experience in “Rebel Music,” the connection was instantaneous. From the moment the Beethoven song began, Felsenfeld was awestruck, as if the music was fashioned for his ears only. After finding himself a bit lost in his mid-teens, Felsenfeld was introduced to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony by happenstance. This introduction led him to fall in love with many other classical pieces, consequently guiding him to a career as a composer. Just as Felsenfeld experienced, there was no way to know that a seemingly harmless book would start a love affair with reading that would last a lifetime, from The Chronicles of Narnia to the Harry Potter series, I was officially fascinated by the magic of reading novels.
I would lay in bed in our small Miami apartment, eyes closed, immersing myself in my mother’s reading. Every word from The Chronicles of Narnia would take me further away. Before I knew it, I was on my way to Narnia,
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My ensuing love affair was sparked in my second-grade class. This petite, red-headed woman, with the sweetest disposition and the most passion for education that I have ever seen, was standing in the front of the room waiting for her students to settle down. Once there was some semblance of order Mrs. Williams announced, “Our first book of the year will be Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone.” We went around the room and read aloud paragraph by paragraph until the first chapter was complete, stopping to define words the class didn’t understand. I was completely captivated. The homework assignment given was to read two pages that evening; I stayed up all night to finish the
“Make them laugh, make them cry, make them wait.” These are three demands for the writing of fiction. By following these demands, an author sparks interest in his/her work. “Make them wait” is a signifigant in creating the interest in the novels The Catcher in the Rye and Lord of the Flies. This essay will explain how making the reader wait creates interest in the two novels stated earlier.
In a world dominated by technology, reading novels has become dull. Instead of immersing into books, we choose to listen to Justin Bieber’s new songs and to scroll through Instagram posts. We have come to completely neglect the simple pleasures of flipping through pages and getting to finally finish a story. Sherman Alexie and Stephan King’s essays attempt to revive this interest in books that has long been lost. They remind us of the important role that reading plays in our daily lives. “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me,” for instance, demonstrates how being literate saved the narrator from the oppressive nature of society. The author explains that even though he was capable of reading complex books at an astonishingly young
Music has a way of bringing out our emotions. We say that there are moods of music, and we know which songs make us happy and which make us sad. But music also connects with us intellectually through the lyrics and what we understand them to mean. Thus, music becomes a way to link aspects of intellectual and emotional life – to combine thought and feeling. In the novel Porgy, we see music used as a tool to do just that; music, whether sung, imitated, or described metaphorically, is used, among other things, to link mental and emotional states.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour”. Making Literature Matter. 5th edition. John Schilb and
In the library she would alternate what types of books they would read. Whenever she would read to him she would read in a way that made you cling to every word the author wrote. In times like these, Rodriguez would become engaged in these books. “I sat there and sensed for the very first time some possibility of fellowship between reader and writer, a communication, never intimate like that I heard spoken words at home convey, but nonetheless personal.” (Rodriguez 228). During this part of Rodriguez’s life, his view towards books changed.
Ever since I was a child, I've never liked reading. Every time I was told to read, I would just sleep or do something else instead. In "A Love Affair with Books" by Bernadete Piassa tells a story about her passion for reading books. Piassa demonstrates how reading books has influenced her life. Reading her story has given me a different perspective on books. It has showed me that not only are they words written on paper, they are also feelings and expressions.
I had gone. . . to the smoke of cafes and nights when the room whirled and you needed to look at the wall, nights in bed, drunk, when you knew that that was all there was, and the strange excitement of waking and not knowing who it was with you, and the world all unreal in the dark and so exciting that you must resume again unknowing and not caring in the night, sure that this was all and all and all and not caring (13).
Again, by reflecting on Mozart’s arrangements and the everyday sounds of nature, for example, the simile “dry crickets call like birds” (24), it brings the persona back to her first encounter of love, and the love of music that has been lost due to time. Therefore, as Harwood yearns to become one with her own self through the journey of music, she aims to restore this longing sensation with her spirit and bodily mind with music, but this can only be achieved through time and the journey to understand herself (Beston 1975, p.
Chopin, Kate. “The Story of an Hour”. The Seagull Reader: Stories. Ed. Joseph Kelly. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2001. 65 – 67.
In elementary school, I would escape to the library, face burrowing in picture books about space. Walking home with arms full of checked out books, I would pass by my parents consumed in another argument most likely about marital problems and sit in the corner of my room - door shut - to indulge my self in my own private get away. I did not check out my space books to read but instead to dream, dream about a world waiting to be explored. A world free of the petty arguments of my parents, the teachers with high expectations and the chores that awaited me at home
Joanne Kathleen Rowling has captured the minds and hearts of millions of readers across the globe with her magical ways behind the pen and with her acts in life. Through her childhood of child’s tales and fantasy, to her middle years where hardship held her back from reaching her goal, to the time of her fame and fortune; Rowling has shown a love and passion for writing. With the birth of her wizardly series, Harry Potter, Rowling’s created a way to escape into the magical world for readers everywhere. Rowling’s showed she her sensibility by creating, Lumos, giving back to those and guiding them when they need it most. Like the stories of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia, All it took for Rowling was stepping through a magical door to experience something beyond her wildest dreams.
One of the most read series in all literature is Harry Potter. The seven-book succession has sold over 400 million copies and has been translated into over sixty languages. What is it that makes this series so wildly famous? What is it about the boy who lived that makes frenzied readers flock to their local bookstore at midnight on the day of the release to buy the latest installment? How is a story set in a world that doesn’t exist about wizards, witches, magic, and mystical creatures so popular? The series has been able to earn its spot on the New York Times Bestseller list and has granted author J.K. Rowling multiple awards because it is relatable. It is not the setting or the events in the plot of the story that we relate to. We relate to what Harry, his friends, mentors, teachers, caretakers, and even enemies feel. Harry is in a lot of ways exactly like us. He represents some of the good characteristics that all of us have as well as the bad. The series as a whole, is about one thing that is stressed over and over again in the novels, love. The Harry Potter series is one of the most read sequences of novels because the central theme is love and self-sacrifice, and readers are looking for a novel that shows them just that.
The upper shelf contains my most varied readings that span from books of love letters, tales of war, and chronicles of bildungsroman narratives. Rows upon rows of books are hidden behind the visible layer, with each story containing a cherished memory. These novels were recommended by inspiring teachers, received from knowledgeable relatives, or discovered on engaging odysseys to the bookstore.
As children in the United States, we grow up listening to the stories of Dr. Seuss and Curious George as we fall off to sleep to the sound of our parent’s voices echoing in our dreams. As we start to grow older and the poetry of Shel Silverstein’s, "Where the Sidewalk Ends" no longer holds our imagination as much as it did at eight years old, we begin to read stories that are a reflection of the environment we live within. We engaged ourselves in the lives of such characters as the Hardy Boys and Willy Wonka.
...me situations or events in the book and Harry Potter is an excellent source. On top of all the parallels between real life events and situations from the book, Harry Potter is fascinating and truly beautiful literature. Ms. Rowling’s is a refreshing, clever and very imaginative author. Her intelligent writing causes the reader to wonder and look maybe from underlying amounts of detail and distinctive use of words and phrases. Harry Potter tickles the imagination and steps out of the bounds of normal children’s literature. Not only does it stir some intellectual thinking but at the same time entertains the reader in a fun and unique way. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone sets new rules in children’s literature; it is truly a masterpiece full of so much imagination and fantasy.