You read 3 (or more) books this past summer. Which book from the summer reading list did you find to be the most "interesting"? In a paragraph or two, tell me what it takes to make a book interesting (in your opinion) and how the summer book you chose met the standard of "most" interesting. If NONE of the books qualified for that title (again, in your opinion) tell me where and why they fell short of your standard.

Finally, tell me what things you read OTHER than assigned books? Did you read magazines, other novels, travel guides for a vacation, instructions for how to work something, whatever? Think it over, this could be a longer list than you first imagine! Which of these other things was the most interesting.... did you use the same standard as you did for paragraph one? If not, why not?

*Feel free to copy and paste this prompt onto your personal page so that you don't forget to answer all parts of it. The deadline for this entry is 5pm on Friday, August 14th.

For a book to interest me it must pass a two qualifications.  First is it must be a very detailed setting with a very detailed set of characters.  This is very important because it allows for me to experience the story as if i were there first hand.  The second qualification for a story to be interesting is it needs to have a good story line with an unpredictable future; this keeps me interested because I always want to find out what is going to happen next.  With this as my standard, the most interesting book from the summer reading list was Brave New World.  This book met the first standard because of the amout of precise details which Christopher Hitchens used to describe the setting, and the characters.  Brave New World definitely fit the second standard because of each twist and turn that happened throughout the story which led to the surprise ending.

This summer I read 3 other books: The Dragon Heir, Eragon, and Eldest.  All of these books were interesting according to my standards.  But the most interesting one to me was Eragon and not because of the same standards.  Eragon was the most interesting because I did not expect it to have the amount of detail it had mainly because I saw the movie before I read the book, and the book is a lot better than the movie.

** Well, I hate to break it to you, but Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World, not Christopher Hitchens! :-) But I agree it has lots of twists and turns. It looks like you enjoy Sci/Fi and Fantasy... in which case you'll want to read Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood... or 1984 by Orwell for sure!

Consider the novel you read for the theme SELF-DISCOVERY.

What exactly was it that the novel's main character discovered about himself/herself? Explain how this discovery was an integral part of the novel's substance or core.

How was this discovery applicable to you as the reader? In what sense could it be applicable to ALL readers? What did you learn about YOURSELF as you watched the character change within the novel?

Answer this on your personal page by 5pm on Friday, Aug.21st.

I read Brave New World for the theme self-discovery.  Bernard, the main character of the story, made many discoveries about himself in this story.  Bernard discovered that even though he was meant to be on the top of the food chain, his physical characteristics made him an outcast of his own peers.  This leads him to feel lonely and he feels like an individual, and because he feels like an individual he starts to think like an individual.  This in turn makes him start to think how people are supposed be individuals, and it is not right to mass produce people to live a predetermined lifestyle.  This is applicable to any reader because  it shows how people are meant to be individual, and that people need to think for themselves and not be controlled like a puppet.