The One That Got Away Short Story

After reading the book, I ponder that Nick forfeits a respect to her as a adult’s perspective and I pity her whenever he shows such an attitude.

In “How to Mark a Book”, Mortimer J. Adler delves into the importance of active reading. His purpose is to encourage an audience of readers to not be afraid to write in a book because “…the soul of a book can be separated from its body” (Adler 17). Meaning, a book is more than its physical being and deserves to be cherished for what is written inside of it.

The blazing light was shining in my face and a slight breeze blew through the arched windows. I spotted an open chest in the attic, whilst spring cleaning. The outside rim of the box was covered in dust and cobbled webs; the hinge was rusty, making a creak noise against the ghost-quiet room. Rummaging my hand around the chest there was a scratchy-substance digging against my fingers. As the sun faded from my sight I lifted up the mysterious object. It was an old rustic book; I flipped through the delicate pages, every touch made a crinkling

When I took off the top to that white box on that calm Sunday night, I was instantly transported into this astounding library, that seemed to come out of a movie scene, rows upon rows were piled up with Verne’s, Dumas’, Stevenson’s, and Melville’s. Each week I would open this box and choose a new book. It wasn’t long until weeks turned to days, and I began to greedily treasure my Stevenson’s, truly value friendship with Dumas, prepare for an adrenaline rush with Verne, but most importantly, it was my single Melville that brought me the pinnacle of happiness.

Beautiful imagery laced amidst a wondrous storyline, accompanied by memorable and lovable characters are all elements pertaining to enjoyable works of fiction. Tales that keep one up late into the night forever reading just “one more page” forever propelling the intrinsic imagination for a novel enthusiast. Yet, at times there are deeper meanings hidden between the lines. Symbols, analogies, and latent parallels all connecting to real life events and situations being portrayed by the author. Using literary theory can bring a more profound understanding of the reading material at hand, as well as unique insight as to what the author was feeling or intending to portray at the time of writing.

To truly understand a great novel and its author, the reader must dig deep inside the life

Literature is an essential part of the center of a person’s life. It provides a certain assurance and “feeds the soul” of one. Whether it be a book, TV, or even an advertisement, literature exists everywhere. A person is able to develop many skills by studying literature, and expand the horizon of their learning. An immeasurable amount of insight and knowledge can be gained from the study of literature which contributes in providing readers with an understanding of the past, and a philosophical assimilation of the moral behind a writing piece.

The speaker focuses on the fact that this book ordinary with all the writing covering the front and back of the book, taking away from its true value. The speakers says, “Your book surprised me on the bookstore shelf ”(1) showing that this book is unique, catching her eye. She continues in saying “no blurbs by the big boys on the back; no sassy, big-haired picture to complicate the achievement; no mentors musing over how they had discovered you had it in you before you knew you had it in you” (3-10). This provides further evidence that this book is special to the girl. Another important part of this poem is how the girl discovers a different part of herself. When she starts to read, she feels a new energy, “your poems were stirring my own poems” (23). This new feeling that she is feeling cause her to ponder stealing the book. The girl “wanted to own this moment, my breath came quickly, thinking it over” (38-39). Her quick breath shows that this would be the first time to steal anything from how worked up over it she was. As the rush started dissipate the girl held the book before her “as if it was something else, a mirror reflecting back, someone I was becoming” (46-49). Here as the girl is looking at the book her realizes who she was becoming, a thief, and decides not to take the

this book was to show the reader how to look at literature through a wide eye. To see

A book is like a door, without stepping through the door, you will never know what's on the other side. It is a mystery that can only be unveiled if you open it and look through it. Dana Gioia wants us to take that mystery and open it up, as many young adults have lost interest in the action of reading itself.

Throughout all of time, literature has played an important role in people’s lives. Books are more than just stories to laugh at, cry with, or fall asleep to, but books can teach. Books can teach a person a simple task such as baking cookies or an extremely complex one such as solving for the derivative of a trigonometric path and its parabolic motion. Whatever the subject, whomever the reader, books can teach people many lessons. One of the most important lessons that a book can teach a reader is a lesson about himself, about the difficulties of life, and about living a good life. As time has passed, so has literature itself. Older books focused on historical events, fictional poetry, and important figures; however, books now have evolved to

In other words, reading literature goes beyond just the words of the author. As readers, we become more aware of what the narrator and of what the characters might be feeling. There are feelings that form our underlying base of who we are and a lot of the times we avoid them because they’re a constant reminder of what’s real versus what we want to think is real. From time to time literature may make the readers thing of something personal that gives us a sense of reality. Through John Updike’s Rabbit Run, Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire, Margaret Atwood’s Happy Endings, James Joyce’s Araby, Patrick White’s The Vivesector, and Jorge Luis Borges’ Pierre Menard, Author of the ‘Quixote’ readers come to find a sense of reality within the characters portrayed through these works.

I sat in the very back of the classroom shielding my face with any book that was in sight. That way wouldn’t get called upon to read, but I guess my camouflage of books wasn’t good enough. I was assigned a part in the book to read and I could tell you, I was not happy. As we began to read I could see that my character’s part was starting to inch closer and closer. My heart started to beat out of my chest and the more my throat started to knot up. I was having second thoughts about even coming to school that day, but as I began to read, I started to get more into the book. It began to catch my interest and from that point on I started to realize it was more than just reading a book word per word. There was more to the story than what the paper full of writing would

As the era of literature slowly declines, the expert critiques and praise for literature are lost. Previously, novels were bursting at the seams with metaphors, symbolism, and themes. In current times, “novels” are simply short stories that have been elaborated on with basic plot elements that attempt to make the story more interesting. Instead of having expert critical analysis written about them, they will, most likely, never see that, as recent novels have nothing to analyze. Even books are beginning to collect dust, hidden away and forgotten, attributing to the rise of companies such as Spark Notes. An author deserves to have his work praised, no matter how meager and the masses should have the right to embrace it or to reject it. As

The famous book The Maze Runner by James Smith Dashner, is the famous story about a young man named Thomas who wakes up in the middle of a metallic box that serves as an elevator with no memory of his past, the box opens up to a place called “the Glade” with 60 other boys staring back at him as he tries to run away pass them. Every thirty days a new boy or supplies arrive from the box and for three years they have lived together trying to find clues through the maze that surrounds them; but as they start losing hope it all changes when something unprecedented happens and a girl along with a note arrive through the box. The book along with amazing imagery and relevance to today’s world manages to attract more than just teenagers but anybody that is up for the challenge of the maze, and that is just the purpose of this paper to demonstrate multiple reason of why this book not only deserves to be read but it should hold a place in the literary canon.