I had to read it...

Believe it or not, I love to read! I actually read quite a bit and I very much enjoy it. For me, it is a stress reliever and a good way to unwind. When I was a kid I would sit and finish an entire chapter book in one sitting. In school, I would sit and eat mints and read hundreds of pages at a time. However, as much I enjoy and always have enjoyed reading for pleasure I have always hated reading for school assignments.

It is one thing to sit and read something that you picked out. The book you choose is probably relevant to the things you are interested in and if you don't like the choice you can put it down and read something else. That is why I've always hated reading for school. You are a prisoner to whatever book you are reading and you have to finish it whether you like it or not.

One of those books that I was imprisoned to this semester is "The Great Gatsby". In high school the book was required reading but I never actually read the book. I fibbed my way through the assignments, watched the movie, and barely passed the course assignments. I was a little surprised and annoyed when this book was one of the selections of this course. In high school I tried so hard not to read it and this semester I had to do it all over again.

I decided that I wasn't going to do the same thing I did in school. I'm in college now and I'm supposed to be smarter, more mature, more responsible. So, I ordered the book online and took it aboard a flight to Europe. I read the first chapter and thought it was "okay." I read the second and got a little interested. By the third and fourth chapter I was hooked. I loved the history and the vivid descriptions of the wild 1920's parties! I loved reading this book!

There is just something about a good piece of historical American literature, like "The Great Gatsby", that makes it so intriguing to read. Books like this help us get an idea of what life was like for our grandparents and those who lived before them. These are things you will never learn anywhere else. You can only experience it inside of a book. That is why "The Great Gatsby" was such a great read.

By the end of the book, I learned so much about our history and got a feel for what the "roaring twenties" were like. The book also taught me valuable lessons about friendship, greed, power, and status, and even family. These are things I wouldn't have expected to learn in a "required-reading novel".

This selection has become my favorite for this semester and I'm sure I will be reading again sometime. A book that good deserves to be read two or three times just to pick out the little details you miss the first time. They say not to judge a book by it's cover and I can honestly say I didn't do that. I judged the book by it's assignment points. That's the only reason I picked it up. It was required. But, even though this book was just "required reading" I enjoyed it very much and I'm so glad I took the time to read it!