Summer Reading!

In regards to reading over the summer, I started with Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson. I largely base my liking towards a book on the style in which sentences are formatted in addition to a beginning that sparks my interest. Unfortunately this book had neither for me; the sentences were solely informational and had no flavor, and the introducing chapters provided nothing for me but a desire to shut the book and walk away. I stayed persistent, however, and read on through to around one-hundred pages. At that point, I could take it no more and I refused to finish the book; I was insistent on enjoying my summer reading instead of trudging through yet another book of which I was not excited. Consequently, I decided to give The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon a shot, a book that I had been recommended multiple times by numerous acquaintances. Fortunately for me, everyone I had talked to was right! I loved every bit of the book. I surprised myself by how quickly I read it; I got so interested in what was happening in the book that I was oblivious to the time flying by. Right off the bat the book impressed me. The very first sentence about the death of Wellington caught my attention and made me yearn to read on. The way in which Mark Haddon created awkward phrases that are not spoken by the general public, such as “do sex,” made it entertaining and refreshing. I, as the reader, understood that Christopher, the main character, was autistic yet often times Christopher’s reasoning was logical to me. Haddon did a spectacular job of accurately portraying the obscure thoughts and tendencies of an autistic individual while at the same time making it appear normal; I found myself thinking that all of his actions and inner monologue was rational. Christopher Boone’s extreme hatred towards the colors yellow and brown and his refusal to make more physical contact than absolutely necessary add an element of the unusual that sparked my curiosity. Not only was there an aspect of intrigue in regards to the character’s quirky personality and unique thought process, but also in regards to the story being outlined by a mysterious murder. Christopher’s role as a detective was entertaining; while he knew he was supposed to “stay out of other people’s business,” Christopher managed to find loop holes in order to pursue his goal of finding the murderer of Wellington. For example, Christopher knew he should not have been talking to Mrs. Alexander about Mr. Shears in regards to the murder; therefore, he simply casually brought Mr. Shears up so that he was not particularly investigating but rather just “chatting” with Mrs. Alexander. Throughout the whole of the novel, I ended up rooting for Christopher and sincerely hoping that he would succeed in all of his endeavors. When he boldly decided to go to the train station in order to go to London and see his mother, the entire time I was hoping he would follow through and overcome his fears of large groups of people. Again, when Christopher took the A level maths, I was unbelievably excited to hear that he had passed the tests. In the end I am pleased that I did not miserably read through the rest of Three Cups of Tea and that I instead read a book that is very likely to be one of my top five favorite books. (583 words)