2nd Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

This quarter, I finished 4.5 books (2.5 books more than last quarter, that’s a 125% increase) *fist pump*:

The Color of Water by James McBride

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Room by Emma Donoghue

The Scarlet Letter, although pretty rigorous, was not as difficult as I had expected it to be! I understood basically all of what I read, and found it pretty interesting too. A lot of the language and sentence structure in classics is really different from modern YA novels, so it was kind of tough going (and that’s GOOD because I wanted to challenge myself :D), but I think I grasped it well enough.

I decided that I was working very hard gnawing my way through Hawthorne, so I sort of binge-read Wintergirls and Room, two books I would not normally have indulged in, because I thought, after all those aerobics with a classic, I deserved a treat. Rationalizations tsk tsk tsk *shakes head* 

However, I’m actually super glad that I gave myself such rationalizations because these two books turned out to be two of my favorites (I kind of have a lot of favorites but still. They’re awesome.) Wintergirls is a heartwrenchingly vivid (and, strangely, relatable!) story of a teenage girl struggling with anorexia, along with grief and guilt from the death of a close friend. The story is one of strength and recovery, but I particularly loved the beautiful writing style and haunting metaphors, such as:

“The voices swim around her insides and multiplied, charred, tinny echo voices that made a permanent home inside the eggshell of her skull.” 

I JUST LOVE THAT. Why can’t I write so beautifully??? Or actually maybe I can. I need to start doing that.

Room is an equally dark and potent story written from the perspective of a five-year old boy, Jack, whose mother was kidnapped and confined into a one-room garden shed seven years ago and finally explores the outside world for the first time in his life. Jack’s innocent and childishly positive outlook on life and his dependence on his Ma are what make this story so warm and sad at the same time.

The battle for my favorite book this quarter is tight between Wintergirls and Room, but I think the gorgeous writing style gives Wintergirls the final tug on the rope.

Many of the books I read this quarter (namely, Girl, Interrupted; Wintergirls; and Room), while not all that challenging in terms of comprehension, were very eye-opening and disturbing. Yeah, disturbing more than anything else: I met a suicidal girl in a mental facility, a girl who starved herself to the brink of death and sliced open her bag of skin and bones, and an adorable little boy with his aching mother who lost seven years of her life. I’ve grown to have a big sort of empathy for the characters, and learned that, these people actually do exist, and they are so incredibly strong. I need to read more such disturbing books in the future (I LEARN SO MUCH MORE THIS WAY). Also I need to give myself more rationalizations to read books that aren’t necessarily that challenging, like the two I binge-read this time. Because look how much I’ve learned from and enjoyed them!! (wow, was that a rationalization FOR a rationalization? *gasp*)

I read so much (125%!) more than I did last quarter, met my goal of four books including one classic, AND pulled myself through half of Hawthorne. *really swaggy motion that guys do after a sweaty workout* I’m proud, right there. (My friends are also proud of me because they’ve started getting annoying Goodreads notifications from me again.) I think I met my goals this time because I binge-read really hard WITHOUT the guilt. I loved it. I picked pleasurable, disturbing (was that an oxymoron? *gasp*) books, and I loved it.

My goals for next quarter’s reading are (1) finish The Scarlet Letter, obviously, because it’s challenging and I’m already halfway through so there’s no turning back *mwahahaha* and (2) read FIVE books, so I can read MORE than I did this quarter, especially with winter break and plenty of binging time (except still being realistic since third and fourth quarters are when most Science Olympiad competitions are so I need to mete out time for that too). *thumbs up thumbs up*

Oh and also, I can't figure out how to add a Pinterest button widget to my blog (it's been a long day), but nevertheless follow my Pinterest!! (It's actually good, I promise. Followers, this is the part where ALL 9 of you testify.)