Books I've Read

Below is the list of books I've read and not liked:

1. Lord of the Flies
2. The Hobbit
3. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
4. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
5. Out
6. 1984
7. The Red Badge of Courage
8. Hundred Years of Solitude
9. Ramayana
10. The Joy Luck Club
11. Kitchen God's Wife
12. China Boy
13. Black Boy
14. The Plague
15. Raisin in the Sun
16. Nectar in a Sieve
17. Twelfth Night
18. The Alchemist
19. Waiting for Godot
20. Outsiders
21. My Side of the Mountain
22. A Wrinkle in Time

For Lord of the Flies, Out, Nectar in a Sieve, and Raisin in the Sun, there were brief moments when I was engaged in the books. But the interest didn't last nearly as long as I had hoped. To be fair, though, my auditory skills and my desire to enjoy them were underdeveloped back then. I was completely uninterested and bored out of my mind when reading Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1984, Kitchen God's Wife, and most of all, The Red Badge of Courage. I've tried re-reading these books a number of times because I was exposed to them at too early of an age when I wasn't at the maturity to appreciate such material, beginning in the sixth grade! How can you expect modern children to be receptive to those types of reading at such an age?!?! These books set place in an entirely different time, isolated from the world I'm exposed to and am a part of. For Hundred Years of Solitude, I didn't find the writing style to be unbearable, but it wasn't very captivating, either. This is the kind of book where the contents should wow you and because it didn't do it for me, it was more of a chore. I found the characters easy to follow, the life imaginable or as imaginable as can be for an outside observer. It just didn't grab me. The same can be said about The Alchemist. I was able to read The Alchemist within a few hours and had a vivid image in my mind, but I couldn't relate to it. Similarly to Hundred Years of Solitude, Ramayana was easy to visualize and I was able to keep up with the dynamic structure and character contrasts, but I wasn't able to quickly read through it. While I was reading it, I was attentive. But I wasn't necessarily enjoying how all the characters connected, which is probably why at the end I didn't find the experience productive. I saw the connections, but I didn't feel it as a reader. The Joy Luck Club, Kitchen God's Wife, China Boy, Black Boy, and The Plague all have a bleak and struggling identity, which I wasn't receptive to. The first four have a cultural influence. I could almost appreciate the dynamic and depths that the authors' went into; I just didn't feel it considering the subjective, perhaps. The Plague, on the other hand, possesses a mundanely depressive tone lacking dimensions in my opinion. I doubt I can ever appreciate a book that flat. Diversity has always been important to me. Raisin in the Sun and Nectar in a Sieve came closer to me than the other cultural books, but it didn't quite do it for me. At this point I feel that Japanese, Chinese, and Southern cultural fiction is of no interest for me, but maybe I should explore Indian and African literature. I think I evolved as a reader and enjoyed the last two books, not so much because of the difference in cultural exposure but the writing style was more appealing to me, too. Twelfth Night was a huge accomplishment for me because I feared that I would have difficulty adapting to the language usage, but I conquered. Still, I don't think I quite understood Shakespeare's emotional intent because the play was nothing the way I expected it to be. I found the whole charade to be insulting and callous, not dryly humorous. The story didn't amuse me. But I believed it strengthened my focus as a reader. Waiting for Godot isn't the kind of book I imagine too many people enjoying reading. It's more of a book you read so that you can explicate it. I enjoyed analyzing the literature more than reading it. In fact, that holds true for the following books: Lord of the Flies, Out, Hundred Years of Solitude, Ramayana, Joy Luck Club, Twelfth Night, and The Alchemist. The Outsiders, My Side of the Mountain, and A Wrinkle in Time were tolerable, but it was nothing meaningful. I truly believe that I'm understanding the material because I analyze it in group discussions, even debates, and written expressions with success. I suppose that interpretation is also subjective, but my performance really isn't the point.

Books I Have Enjoyed:

1) What Your Doctor Won't (Or Can't) Tell You
2) The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat
3) The Kiss
4) Personal Finance for Dummies
5) Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion
6) The Lingerie Handbook
7) A Child Called "It"
8) Maupassant's Selected Short Stories (In the Spring)
9) The Craft
10) The Modern Girl's Guide to Life
11) The Witches
12) The Lingerie Handbook

I really enjoy productive books because I can make more connections with it, bond with the information, be shocked. I find reality to be far more startling than the contents of a vivid imagination. What Your Doctor Won't (or Can't) Tell You did just that. The horrors that are going on in the medical industry strips away your faith in humanity, lose respect for people in the medical community, and fills your soul with fear and distrust. It exposes us to the reality that even doctors can make horrifying mistakes and demonstrate their capacity for chronic ignorance and stupidity, even more so than the rest of us because of their opportunities. It's the kind of material that stimulates other thoughts in my mind such as society's misguided willingness to excuse and sometimes conceal these atrocious errors. I liked The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat for the same reason why I enjoyed the first book, how enlightening it is. I learn something from it, gain new knowledge, benefit from it; I change from it. What I once believed, what I thought I knew, is a thing of the past after receiving such insights. Personal Finance for Dummies, is admittedly a dry topic, but I enjoyed it because of the consequential advantages from utilizing the information. If it were financially-related, I wouldn't have added it to the list, though.