Textbooks :(

Reading textbooks is probably close to the most boring reading I have ever had to do. I have great respect for the writers of the books because they are well educated, well meaning individuals, at least I would guess they are; my problem with their product is just how dry and student unfriendly it is . They need a lesson from a good language arts teacher. If they got this, they might be able to produce a product that is slightly more captivating, and readable. I am not naive enough to think that textbooks should be so molded to fit the student that they do not have a professional air, but if they aren't captivating enough to at least keep the readers' attention, they don't accomplish even their primary goal: to make information stick in the heads of the students. A good language arts teacher could show the textbook writers how to use fun and creative word choice to spice up the pros. They could also teach them better sentence fluency, which, besides making the books more fun to read, would also make the meaning clearer. Many times I can recall I have had to comb through a textbook sentence multiple times just to understand its jumbled sentence structure. Textbooks are frustrating reading, but if they teamed up with a good LA teacher, I'm sure some significant progress could be made.

Picking a Good Book

They say that you can't judge a book by its cover. I'd agree. But I also figured out that it is not safe to judge a book by its author either. At least not always. I am a fan of John Steinbeck. My favorite novels written by him are The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, and Cannery Row. I recently read The Winter of Our Discontent, and from start to finish, I was discontent. The first three books I mention are filled with adventure, twists and turns, emotion, interesting characters, and endings leaving the reader wanting more. The Winter of Our Discontent, also by Steinbeck, is none of those things. I found it boring, long, uneventful, lacking interesting characters, twists and turns, and most of all, the vivid, meticulously, and beautifully written descriptions that are what I most admire of him as an author. So, for this book project I am not going to pick a book because of previous ones I've read from an author, I'm going to try branching out and finding another author that I like. I'm going to do some research on authors and novels and try to find one that is very me.