Read YOUR Books

I am a rebellious reader, meaning that whenever I am forced to read a book I will do everything in my power to convince myself I hate it.

No matter how many 5 star reviews I read, the thought of somebody forcing me to read something makes it it instantly unappetizing and the delectable process of reading becomes a nauseatingly fabricated practice.

You may have already come to the revelation that I am in fact complaining about my teacher’s summer reading lists.

A little bit of background: The two books we are assigned to read are Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed and Stephen King’s On Writing. We are supposed to annotate and write a literary analysis for each book.

Don’t get me wrong, this assignment is totally reasonable. But would it kill them to let us pick the book, or at least let us pick from a list of teacher approved books?

Anyways, I will update about whether I like these books or not. If I don’t like them, I will try to include the reasons as to why other than “because the teacher made me read it”.

This leads me to my point, read the books your teachers/mentors tell you to; but also, read the books you are interested in. Don’t be afraid to spontaneously open up a book you know nothing about, or read a genre most people don’t like, because chances are… YOU might like it. Venture outside of your comfort zone and I guarantee you will not regret it.

Also, here are the books I am reading at the moment and my impressions so far:

• Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer: This is a nonfiction book, a genre I enjoy, but is known to be quite dry, especially when it is about a disease such as cancer. Although, Mukherjee gives this book a personal touch by adding anecdotes of his patients and his take on the disease. It also gives a great insight on the unbelievable science behind this tragic disease.
• Benazir Bhutto’s Daughter of Destiny: An autobiography by Benazir Bhutto, the Prime Minister of Pakistan who was assassinated in 2007. So far, she speaks about her family’s shift from a lavish lifestyle to being threatened and tortured, the assassination of her father, and being a political prisoner. Her passion and detail while writing drew me in and forced me, as the reader and a female, to empathize with the struggles and tribulations she faced throughout her life.
• Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?: I actually just finished this comical autobiography, although I had been reading it for months. For those who personally know me (or my reading style) I am a fast reader, but this book is one that you can pick up whenever you want a laugh or a pick me up from a tough day. Her style of writing is very casual and filled with hilarious stories; I know that if I read it fast, I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as I did!

I encourage you to check out these books! But make your own judgement on whether you would like to read them or not, because remember… read YOUR books.

– T.R.