Reading is fun, for real

I've been reading again! As an (unpublished) author, I know that If I want to write well, I have to read well-written books. So far this summer I've read "The Awakening" by Kate Chopin which was amazing and "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger. I had read "Catcher" when I was younger and I understood the gist of it. "Holden doesn't like phonies and he is kinda afraid to grow up (or at least that was the feeling I got from it)." Now, I'm reading "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. So far it is really weird and the 15 year old me remembers it being just as weird when I read it all those years ago. Before I started rereading it, the only thing I remembered was a bunch of kids wearing Khaki in a place that was totally separate from the outside world.

Now that I am revisiting it, I see that my memory is a very interesting thing. I remember things visually. I haven't seen a movie of either "BNW" or "Catcher" but I have specific visions when I think of these books. It was my first time reading "The Awakening" so if you have read it, you might have an idea of what the vision that is stuck in my head for that book looks like. (was that an awkward sentence? sorry)

I love rereading books. For some of them I don't remember a thing and for others, I like so see how years of absence have skewed my memory. It's fun to fill in the gaps and make new memories.

Next on my list is "The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. This would be another reread and I've seen the film for it as well. Robert Redford was a perfect Jay Gatsby. The film itself was...eh, but it was watchable. Speaking of film adaptations, I remember when I was in the 6th grade and I saw a copy of "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen sitting on the counter next to the sink in the classroom. (how's that for prepositional phrases?) I literally judged the book by its cover and decided that it would be boring and I would never read it. Years later, I was visiting a friend in Atlantic City. She was working so I was alone at her place, bored out of my mind. I saw that the movie "Sense and Sensibility" (screenplay by Emma Thompson) was on demand and I figured I'd watch it. Those of you who have read my earlier entries will know how much I LOVED that movie. After having seen it, I decided to read every single Jane Austen novel because I knew that there was more in that story that the movie left out.

When it comes to more classical books, I know that there will be several film adaptations and I WANT TO SEE ALL OF THEM. I must be going all over the place right now. I wasn't really organized when I decided to write this. Either way, it's been a long time since I wrote something in here.