Self-Reflection

I started this final project with a lot of brainstorming and rereading of my old posts. It took me a very long time to find an appropriate connection for my final paper and the connections was actually quite interesting. I connected my first writing project with the last writing project before the final one. It was a very interesting process that I went through. I had never been assigned something such as this so a lot of thinking was required before any writing and editing actually took place. In recent weeks I have only just started to get really ambitious with my schoolwork here at Washington College. I feel ashamed with the lack of effort that I put into this class. I had never worked at my full potential in all of my  high school career and it was only until a couple weeks ago when I had a life changing experience that I realized this. This is one of the  biggest things that is weighing on my mind at this time in my  life. The question that I keep asking myself is why dont I apply myself to anything that has importance. I hope that in the future I will get to work with English professors and actually have ambition in applying myself to writing because I  I know I am good at. I want to be able to affectively apply the skills that I have with writing in the future.

Resources

The Ipad

Since the creation of the computer and the Internet, the world of information has crossed into a new frontier. The electronic revolution has changed the way people are entertained and the way that people gather information. Books and newspapers have not been abandoned and changed into movies and news television but there has been a great shift in attention. Electronic devices such as the Amazon Kindle or the Ipad could soon have a large impact on the future of the paperback book because they allow more than one book stored in a much smaller space and with using fewer resources. This doesn’t mean that people will stop writing but the average bookstore could very well be non-existent in our near future. Some would say that something such as this could never happen or that it would be an abomination to see the reading community change from reading paper books to reading on the an electronic screen. There could be downsides to this change because it is believed by health specialists that watching an electronic screen for a prolonged period of time damages eyesight. Despite the health risk, I would still have to disagree with anyone who believes the invention of the electronic book is a bad thing.

My reasoning behind this belief is that the Ipad can give the user access to a never ending library of literary texts of all kinds that beforehand would be almost impossible to imagine. A massive restructuring of how information and literature travels has just recently occurred and it needs to be embraced by all that value the importance of the written word. This restructuring has allowed publishers of all types of texts spread their works at a much quicker pace. Recently published books or articles can be read instantaneously almost anywhere in the world with just the click of a button. If a volcano erupts halfway across the world, I would still hear about it the very day of its occurrence. Sooner or later, I would probably hear about the volcano within just an hour of the eruption. Information could potentially travel faster than the speed of light one day. That may be a bit of an exaggeration but the metaphor is important. The electronic world does not have to be looked upon as shameful by those that lived in less technologically advanced societies. It should be looked upon with the same exuberance as an event like the American Revolution. The electronic “revolution” is more of a blessing than a curse.

Why should the Ipad be viewed as crime to the literary community? The user is reading the same books that have impacted history but only by different means than our ancestors. We don’t have to cut down trees for the purpose of making paper! If only the same idea could apply to wood being used as a means for warmth or shelter. Publishing companies no longer have to pay companies around the world to cut down trees in the wilderness. Isn’t that such a great idea? It would be a sin to not take this opportunity to stop the destruction of trees because of the facts that we now know of the benefits that trees have on our environment.

Sven Birkets would argue that the readers experience would change in a negative way with the switch to electronic texts. His arguments are valid as they do raise some serious questions but those questions have answers. I grew up learning to love the feel of a book; specifically the physical characteristics of the book itself. Birkets as well as myself have grown to become attached to that feeling. I myself love opening up a book that I have had a decade long relationship with. The Fellowship of the Ring can brighten my mood anytime anywhere because I have so many fond memories of being absorbed into those same pages. It’s traveled to different countries with me as if the book was my best friend. The next generation might lose that feeling but that doesn’t mean the feeling that they get from reading an electronic text would have a lesser impact on their life. I notice a significant change in feel when I switch from reading a book on my Kindle to a paperback but it’s not a bad change at all. It’s just a change in surfacing of the written word. If he applies his idea of hating all electronic media to the Ipad, then he would be saying the spread of knowledge and information around the world is not something he values as important. To give a community of poor people access to a large library of reading materials would be an expensive and challenging task. Hundreds or even thousands of books would have to be loaded onto airplanes or ships for transport which means that a lot of resources would be required. With the electronic book, this endeavor could become a common practice that involves much less time and effort.  Books cost less in their electronic form because fewer resources are put into the creation of the book. Maybe that could be viewed as a bad thing because royalties for authors would initially go down but I would argue that in the future the royalties would level out in response to an overall increase in readers.

All books, all sizes, ten dollars. Newspapers and magazines; one hundred percent free. Advertisements will employ adequately. No need to charge the one dollar per copy to cover the publishing costs because there would virtually be none.  The road by which the word travels is no longer one hundred miles long uphill. The words can just teleport to the end of the road in a split second. I wish my life could be that easy.

Autobiographical Wreading

by

Charlie Glowacki

My view of reading and writing throughout my academic career and my private life has changed almost on a yearly basis. At times I love reading and writing and can’t wait to do more of it but at other times I despise it with a passion because of the difficulties that it places upon me. Very few times have I enjoyed reading in my academic career but the times that it has been enjoyable have left me eager to read more intellectual books. When I read To Kill a Mockingbird in my eighth grade English class, I wanted more. I wanted much more. I felt like I had somehow become a smarter person after reading that book. Whenever I read a book now or write something, I try to gain something from it. Of course I read for pleasure and enjoyment, but what really keeps me coming back to books and poems year after year is how they can stimulate the brain to think in ways that television and video games cant and will never be able to.

When my father found out that his favorite series of books were being made into movies, he started reading them all over again so that he had the story fresh in his mind when he went to the movie theatre. It had been fifteen years since my father touched the Fellowship of the Ring and when I saw him reading that book for the first time I could feel that there was something special about it. He told me that I had to read The Hobbit before I could read the others so I did and I immediately fell in love with Middle Earth. Reading The Hobbit was the first time that I can remember being fully immersed into an alternate reality. It felt real in there. At the young age I was at, I was very impressionable and the words on the pages somewhat magically took control of my mind in a way that I cannot fully explain.

When I was in grade school, my peers and I were forced to read every day for about an hour before lunch in a class period that was called “Griffin Reading.” This class period turned me off from reading because I remember never being able to pay attention to my book. I couldn’t read when there were a bunch of kids around me. Most of the kids would sit and read quietly but the few that goofed off every day were enough to keep me from really getting into a groove. I was so used to reading in a quite environment that consisted only of myself. I would get in trouble for not being able to focus on my book and I blamed it on the books. I didn’t think it was my fault or anyone else’s fault; I thought it was the books fault. I wasn’t allowed to read The Lord of the Rings because my teachers knew that I had already read the books and for some reason that was a problem. Griffin reading was supposed to be a period when the student explored the literature world on his own and not with the direction of teachers, but I still could not read the books I wanted too. It was a good thing that they forced me to read other books because it broadened my horizons, but the books I chose to read were nothing compared to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. They were juvenile. They were the types of books that got the reader nowhere.

Poetry has played a big role in my life for the past two years. When my girlfriend moved away to Illinois for half a year, I was devastated and severely depressed. For a month or so I was miserable when alone and uncomfortable when around other people. I started to write poems about my feelings and I grew to love the poems as much as I had loved this girl. It was a daily routine to write a poem. Sometimes the poems had nothing to do with my girlfriend but at the start, most of the emotion that was in the poems came from the pain that I was feeling from my loss. My audience was my girlfriend. I sent all the poems to her by mail and she loved every one of them.

Sometimes when I write the poems it is strictly for my own enjoyment. It’s not all enjoyment actually. Most of the time it is quite the struggle because the poem has to be perfect. It has to be perfect for me! Why should it be perfect for me? It doesn’t have to be because nobody else is reading it but sometimes I actually feel that I could share some of the poems that I write. They could really help people understand who I am and where I have come from. Most of my friends have no idea who Charlie Glowacki really is because I have so many walls surrounding me at all times. When I write the poems, the walls come down and all the emotions that I hide from the world spill out onto the page. It is almost like a type of therapy for me. When I go into those rooms and sit in front of a therapist who I just met, there is no chance in hell that I could ever truly open up. I can’t trust random people like I can trust a blank sheet of paper. The blank sheet of paper will always be the greatest therapy for me because it helps me identify things in my life that I really struggle with.

Reading and writing will always be a great friend of mine but since I have been here at college I have lost touch with this friend. I don’t write poems anymore and I don’t read in my spare time. I need to get back to the point I was at one year ago when every day I read something that stimulated my mind in some way. Once I get back to that point, my college life will be much less stressful. I gain so much from books and I always forget that. When push comes to shove, often times technology wins the fight for control over my mind.

Final Project Paper

Charlie Glowacki

Professor Meehan

Final Project!

Since the creation of the computer and the Internet, the world of information has crossed into a new frontier. The electronic revolution changed the way people are entertained and the way that people gather information. Books and newspapers have not been abandoned and changed into movies and news television but there has been a great shift in attention. Electronic devices such as the Amazon Kindle or the Ipad could soon have a large impact on the future of the paperback book because they allow more than one book stored in a much smaller space and with using fewer resources. This doesn’t mean that people will stop writing but the average bookstore could very well be non-existent. On the other hand, it does mean that all books no matter the size or how new will cost ten dollars. Newspapers and magazines could potentially be one hundred percent free. Books and other forms of literature cost less in their electronic form because fewer resources are put into the creation of the object. These developments could lead to a rise in new readers and the amount of reading being done, greatly benefiting the literary community. For example, the transport of one kindle could substitute as transport of hundreds and hundreds of books to remote places around the world.

Critics of the electronic revolution argue that we as a people are becoming less intelligent as we stray farther away from traditional writing and closer to electronic media as primary forms of education and entertainment. I agree with those critics who recognize a serious issue, but I also believe that condemning all electronic literature and entertainment is an act displaying ignorance to obvious benefits of electronics.

My view of reading and writing throughout my academic career and my private life has changed almost on a yearly basis. At times I love reading and writing and can’t wait to do more of it but at other times I despise it with a passion because of the difficulties that it places upon me. Very few times have I enjoyed reading in my academic career but the times that it has been enjoyable have left me eager to read more intellectual books. When I read To Kill a Mockingbird in my eighth grade English class, I wanted more. I wanted much more. I felt like I had somehow become a smarter person after reading that book. Whenever I read a book now or write something, I try to gain something from it. Of course I read for pleasure and enjoyment, but what really keeps me coming back to books and poems year after year is how they can stimulate the brain to think in ways that television and video games cant and will never be able to.  Reading The Hobbit was the first time that I can remember being fully immersed into an alternate reality. It felt real in there. At the young age I was at, I was very impressionable and the words on the pages somewhat magically took control of my mind in a way that I cannot fully explain. This feeling isn’t as strong as it was years ago in the sense that when I read a book now I realize that some things inside a novel are imaginary but still I sometimes let myself my imagination go beyond the limits of reality.

Reading and writing will always be a great friend of mine, but since I have been here at college I have lost touch with this friend. I don’t write poems anymore and I don’t read in my spare time. I need to get back to the point I was at one year ago when every day I read something that stimulated my mind in some way. Once I get back to that point, my college life will be much less stressful. I gain so much from books and I always forget that. When push comes to shove, often times technology wins the fight for control over my mind. Mindless drivel that stimulates the mind in pointless ways wins over intellectual material or novels. To blame is not Benjamin Franklin who created electricity but the constant exposure to television and videogames. Such things are not immoral or malicious in any way, but they can prove to be detrimental to the mind. Usually when I finish a book, I don’t have another one sitting on my desk that I can pick up right away. What I do have on that desk is an Xbox 360 that I can turn on and play no matter how many times I have played it. With the kindle, my passion for reading rarely fades away and is lost to oblivion because I can instantly download another book without leaving my room.

Sven Birkets would argue that the readers experience would change in a negative way with the switch to electronic texts. His arguments are valid as they do raise some serious questions but those questions have answers. I grew up learning to love the feel of a book; specifically the physical characteristics of the book itself. Birkets as well as myself have grown to become attached to that feeling. I myself love opening up a book that I have had a decade long relationship with. It’s traveled to different countries with me as if the book was my best friend. The next generation might lose that feeling but that doesn’t mean the feeling that they get from reading an electronic text would have a lesser impact on their life. I notice a significant change in feel when I switch from reading a book on my Kindle to a paperback but it’s not a bad change at all. It’s just a change in surfacing of the written word. If he applies his idea of hating all electronic media to the Ipad, then he would be saying the spread of knowledge and information around the world is not something he values as important. To give a community of poor people access to a large library of reading materials would be an expensive and challenging task. Hundreds or even thousands of books would have to be loaded onto airplanes or ships for transport which means that a lot of resources would be required. With the electronic book, this endeavor could become a common practice that involves much less time and effort.

Some others like Birkerts also say that it would be an abomination to see the reading community change from reading paper books to reading on the an electronic screen. There could be downsides to this change because it is believed by health specialists that watching an electronic screen for a prolonged period of time damages eyesight but despite the health risk, I would still have to disagree with anyone who believes the invention of the electronic book to be hindrance to the writing community. My reasoning behind this belief is that the Ipad can give the user access to a never-ending library of literary texts of all kinds that beforehand would be almost impossible to imagine. A massive restructuring of how information and literature travels has just recently occurred and it needs to be embraced by all that value the importance of the written word. This restructuring has allowed publishers of all types of texts spread their works at a much quicker pace. Recently published books or articles can be read instantaneously almost anywhere in the world with just the click of a button. If a volcano erupts halfway across the world, I would still hear about it the very day of its occurrence. Sooner or later, I would probably hear about the volcano within just an hour of the eruption. Information could potentially travel faster than the speed of light one day. That may be a bit of an exaggeration but the metaphor is important. The electronic world does not have to be looked upon as shameful by those that lived in less technologically advanced societies. It should be looked upon with the same exuberance as an event like the American Revolution. The electronic “revolution” is more of a blessing than a curse.

Why should the Ipad and the Kindle be viewed as crimes to the literary community? The user is reading the same books that have impacted history but only by different means than our ancestors. We don’t have to cut down trees for the purpose of making paper! If only the same idea could apply to wood being used as a means for warmth or shelter. Publishing companies no longer have to pay companies around the world to cut down trees in the wilderness. Isn’t that such a great idea? It would be a sin to not take this opportunity to stop the destruction of trees because of the facts that we now know of the benefits that trees have on our environment.

Ipad

Charlie Glowacki

Writing Project #4: Digital Wreading

Professor Meehan.

The Ipad

            Since the creation of the computer and the Internet, the world of information has crossed into a new frontier. The electronic revolution has changed the way people are entertained and the way that people gather information. Books and newspapers have not been abandoned and changed into movies and news television but there has been a great shift in attention. Electronic devices such as the Amazon Kindle or the Ipad could soon have a large impact on the future of the paperback book because they allow more than one book stored in a much smaller space and with using fewer resources. This doesn’t mean that people will stop writing but the average bookstore could very well be non-existent in our near future. Some would say that something such as this could never happen or that it would be an abomination to see the reading community change from reading paper books to reading on the an electronic screen. There could be downsides to this change because it is believed by health specialists that watching an electronic screen for a prolonged period of time damages eyesight. Despite the health risk, I would still have to disagree with anyone who believes the invention of the electronic book is a bad thing.

       My reasoning behind this belief is that the Ipad can give the user access to a never ending library of literary texts of all kinds that beforehand would be almost impossible to imagine. A massive restructuring of how information and literature travels has just recently occurred and it needs to be embraced by all that value the importance of the written word. This restructuring has allowed publishers of all types of texts spread their works at a much quicker pace. Recently published books or articles can be read instantaneously almost anywhere in the world with just the click of a button. If a volcano erupts halfway across the world, I would still hear about it the very day of its occurrence. Sooner or later, I would probably hear about the volcano within just an hour of the eruption. Information could potentially travel faster than the speed of light one day. That may be a bit of an exaggeration but the metaphor is important. The electronic world does not have to be looked upon as shameful by those that lived in less technologically advanced societies. It should be looked upon with the same exuberance as an event like the American Revolution. The electronic “revolution” is more of a blessing than a curse. 

         Why should the Ipad be viewed as crime to the literary community? The user is reading the same books that have impacted history but only by different means than our ancestors. We don’t have to cut down trees for the purpose of making paper! If only the same idea could apply to wood being used as a means for warmth or shelter. Publishing companies no longer have to pay companies around the world to cut down trees in the wilderness. Isn’t that such a great idea? It would be a sin to not take this opportunity to stop the destruction of trees because of the facts that we now know of the benefits that trees have on our environment.      

         Sven Birkets would argue that the readers experience would change in a negative way with the switch to electronic texts. His arguments are valid as they do raise some serious questions but those questions have answers. I grew up learning to love the feel of a book; specifically the physical characteristics of the book itself. Birkets as well as myself have grown to become attached to that feeling. I myself love opening up a book that I have had a decade long relationship with. The Fellowship of the Ring can brighten my mood anytime anywhere because I have so many fond memories of being absorbed into those same pages. It’s traveled to different countries with me as if the book was my best friend. The next generation might lose that feeling but that doesn’t mean the feeling that they get from reading an electronic text would have a lesser impact on their life. I notice a significant change in feel when I switch from reading a book on my Kindle to a paperback but it’s not a bad change at all. It’s just a change in surfacing of the written word. If he applies his idea of hating all electronic media to the Ipad, then he would be saying the spread of knowledge and information around the world is not something he values as important. To give a community of poor people access to a large library of reading materials would be an expensive and challenging task. Hundreds or even thousands of books would have to be loaded onto airplanes or ships for transport which means that a lot of resources would be required. With the electronic book, this endeavor could become a common practice that involves much less time and effort.  Books cost less in their electronic form because fewer resources are put into the creation of the book. Maybe that could be viewed as a bad thing because royalties for authors would initially go down but I would argue that in the future the royalties would level out in response to an overall increase in readers.

      All books, all sizes, ten dollars. Newspapers and magazines; one hundred percent free. Advertisements will employ adequately. No need to charge the one dollar per copy to cover the publishing costs because there would virtually be none.  The road by which the word travels is no longer one hundred miles long uphill. The words can just teleport to the end of the road in a split second. I wish my life could be that easy.

The Modern Prometheus

         Mary Shelley intended for her first novel Frankenstein to have a subtitle; “The Modern Prometheus.” Contrary to her intensions, most publishers of the novel don’t put the subtitle on the front page. They think of it as unimportant to the story, but why would she deliberately put this phrase on the front page of her first novel if it was just nonsense? She had intended this allusion to be prevalent in the reader’s mind throughout their adventure into this dark world.  The phrase “Modern Prometheus” was not created by Mary Shelly, but in fact was coined by a man who died before the book Frankenstein was even started. This man, Immanuel Kant, directed this term at the famous Benjamin Franklin. Kant was referring to Franklin’s experiments with electricity that were drastically changing the world during his time. Victor Frankenstein relates to both Benjamin Franklin and Prometheus in many ways, and I think this relation was very prevalent in the mind of Mary Shelly while writing this novel. Having this relation present in the novel challenges the mind of the reader to think beyond the words on the page.

            The story of Prometheus has many variations. In most variations, Prometheus is the Titan who crafted mankind out of the earth. After creating man, Prometheus thought that his creation was worthy of some godly devices. He thought fire fit for his new pets. When Zeus found out what had happened, Prometheus had to face the consequences. The character of Prometheus relates specifically to Victor Frankenstein in the novel. Victor creates a creature out of the earth just like Prometheus and the being is somewhat of a curse to Frankenstein’s life. Although he had done something great and very challenging, there was no reward. Only pain came from his work. Also, the presence of the curse is clear even before the creature takes its first breath. We see that in the state of mind that Victor is in during the initial stages of his experimenting.

            Mary Shelley had a certain view of Prometheus that influenced her in using the phrase as a subtitle. She thought that Prometheus was a curse to mankind. More specifically she thought that fire was the curse for it allowed humans to eat the flesh of other beings. In Chapter 17 of Frankenstein, we see clearly where this fact of her own beliefs leaks onto the page through a quote by the monster, ”My food is not that of man; I do not destroy the lamb and the kid to glut my appetite; acorns and berries afford me sufficient nourishment.” This quote caught my attention because it helped me narrow down my understanding of the reasoning behind the allusion to the Greek god. Shelley gives no breathing room to those who destroy any form of living beings on our planet. She adamantly believed that eating meat was wrong. At first I thought that she believed the same thing about science as well because there is an obvious relation of fire and science in the stories of Frankenstein and Prometheus. This relation became confusing to me as I realized that there is good in the monster. If there is good in the monster then she can’t believe that science is bad too.

            The Modern Prometheus needs to take into consideration the consequences of certain actions. If everybody used fire in ways that harmed the earth, then the fire-bearer would be scorned. The same thing goes with science. There can be good produced from both as fire and science produce warmth as well as cold.

Completely New Frankenstein

I have never read a book like this in my life. The structure of the book is just so complicated that sometimes while reading the book I have to stop and go back to remember who I am listening to. Sometimes I find that this style makes it very hard for me to focus on the book and at times I end up putting the book down and not going back to it until the next day. What keeps me going back to the book is not what a teacher would think. Of course I should keep opening up the book day after day until I am finished reading it but I have never worked that way. I dont open the book because I am told to do so by the teacher. I go back to it because I am actually very interested in the story. I love Frankenstein now. I feel like I need to help him and how he is so lost in the world he is in makes me feel sympathy for him. I didnt think I could feel that for Frankenstein. I thought he was supposed to be a monster that kills people. I mean in the play that I saw last semester, he kills his companion after searching for one for so long. I need to know if he does that in the book or not. I cant believe that he would do something like that. If he does do it then it must be an accident unlike how it happened in the show.

Frankenstein!!!!! Rawwrrrr

First of all, I’d like to mention how my view of the story has changed drastically since starting to read the book. I saw the play last semester here at school and I didnt really like it. I thought Victor was disgusting because I thought that he had married his blood related sister. I also just didnt like the production in general. It was too long and the acting was poor. The book is great though!! Ive actually been quite excited while reading the book because I havent read a real novel in what feels like a long time. I mean we have read parts of some books but they have been more informational books then books I would read for pleasure. What Ive been missing a lot is having a relationship with characters in a book. I have already started to feel the connection with Victor. I love reading about somebody living and dealing with a different time in history. Religion is definetly very prevalent in this novel. I love how Mary Shelley can see into the future. She is forshadowing how Science will change the world in ways that will blow peoples minds. At first it looked as if Mary Shelly hated science; that its future in this world is evil. When you see how the creature has real human emotions of love and other good feelings, you can tell that Shelly knows that there are some very good things that can come from science. In her mind, I think she knows how science can be used for evil and how science can be used for good.

Writing project #1

Autobiographical Wreading

by

Charlie Glowacki

                My view of reading and writing throughout my academic career and my private life has changed almost on a yearly basis. At times I love reading and writing and can’t wait to do more of it but at other times I despise it with a passion because of the difficulties that it places upon me. Very few times have I enjoyed reading in my academic career but the times that it has been enjoyable have left me eager to read more intellectual books. When I read To Kill a Mockingbird in my eighth grade English class, I wanted more. I wanted much more. I felt like I had somehow become a smarter person after reading that book. Whenever I read a book now or write something, I try to gain something from it. Of course I read for pleasure and enjoyment, but what really keeps me coming back to books and poems year after year is how they can stimulate the brain to think in ways that television and video games cant and will never be able to.  

         When my father found out that his favorite series of books were being made into movies, he started reading them all over again so that he had the story fresh in his mind when he went to the movie theatre. It had been fifteen years since my father touched the Fellowship of the Ring and when I saw him reading that book for the first time I could feel that there was something special about it. He told me that I had to read The Hobbit before I could read the others so I did and I immediately fell in love with Middle Earth. Reading The Hobbit was the first time that I can remember being fully immersed into an alternate reality. It felt real in there. At the young age I was at, I was very impressionable and the words on the pages somewhat magically took control of my mind in a way that I cannot fully explain.

            When I was in grade school, my peers and I were forced to read every day for about an hour before lunch in a class period that was called “Griffin Reading.” This class period turned me off from reading because I remember never being able to pay attention to my book. I couldn’t read when there were a bunch of kids around me. Most of the kids would sit and read quietly but the few that goofed off every day were enough to keep me from really getting into a groove. I was so used to reading in a quite environment that consisted only of myself. I would get in trouble for not being able to focus on my book and I blamed it on the books. I didn’t think it was my fault or anyone else’s fault; I thought it was the books fault. I wasn’t allowed to read The Lord of the Rings because my teachers knew that I had already read the books and for some reason that was a problem. Griffin reading was supposed to be a period when the student explored the literature world on his own and not with the direction of teachers, but I still could not read the books I wanted too. It was a good thing that they forced me to read other books because it broadened my horizons, but the books I chose to read were nothing compared to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. They were juvenile. They were the types of books that got the reader nowhere.

            Poetry has played a big role in my life for the past two years. When my girlfriend moved away to Illinois for half a year, I was devastated and severely depressed. For a month or so I was miserable when alone and uncomfortable when around other people. I started to write poems about my feelings and I grew to love the poems as much as I had loved this girl. It was a daily routine to write a poem. Sometimes the poems had nothing to do with my girlfriend but at the start, most of the emotion that was in the poems came from the pain that I was feeling from my loss. My audience was my girlfriend. I sent all the poems to her by mail and she loved every one of them.

               Sometimes when I write the poems it is strictly for my own enjoyment. It’s not all enjoyment actually. Most of the time it is quite the struggle because the poem has to be perfect. It has to be perfect for me! Why should it be perfect for me? It doesn’t have to be because nobody else is reading it but sometimes I actually feel that I could share some of the poems that I write. They could really help people understand who I am and where I have come from. Most of my friends have no idea who Charlie Glowacki really is because I have so many walls surrounding me at all times. When I write the poems, the walls come down and all the emotions that I hide from the world spill out onto the page. It is almost like a type of therapy for me. When I go into those rooms and sit in front of a therapist who I just met, there is no chance in hell that I could ever truly open up. I can’t trust random people like I can trust a blank sheet of paper. The blank sheet of paper will always be the greatest therapy for me because it helps me identify things in my life that I really struggle with.

             Reading and writing will always be a great friend of mine but since I have been here at college I have lost touch with this friend. I don’t write poems anymore and I don’t read in my spare time. I need to get back to the point I was at one year ago when every day I read something that stimulated my mind in some way. Once I get back to that point, my college life will be much less stressful. I gain so much from books and I always forget that. When push comes to shove, often times technology wins the fight for control over my mind.

Chapter Two Berkets, Personal Life

Sven Birkets had it rough growing up. It seems like his father had a serious grudge against the act of reading for pleasure. The man thought that his son was wasting all of his time with books when he should be outside playing with other kids under the sun. I know what he must have felt like. If my father tried to take something that I love to do away from me then I would fight to keep it. I had the same sort of thing growing up that Birkets had except that my parents were trying to keep me away from the computer instead of a book. They would have been thrilled to see me reading a book because both of them are avid readers. I defied my parents wishes. No way would I have given in to my parents will because I knew what I wanted. Same did Sven Birkets. He felt connected to the books and I felt connected to the games I played. Some things I dont remember much about my childhood but for some reason I remember the video games I played and the books I read. The memories of those things are the most vivid and real. Sometimes I have cravings to jump back into the world of Middle Earth because I feel like I have such a strong connection to it. Its like another home to me because part of my childhood was spent in it. I bet I wont have that strong of a feeling about a book ever again. Birkets says the same thing in this chapter. He says how his enthusiasm for his childhood books was so strong and ever since then its been waning away in strength. The first taste of something is always the best.

Intro/Chapter 1 of Sven Birkets “Fate of Reading”

Once I finally managed to finish chapter 1, I came to realize that I severely needed to read this book with a dictionary at my side or maybe just in my pocket. I like those little pocket dictionarys. Always easily handled and used but the problem with such a small dictionary is I have a tendency to lose things on a regular basis so maybe a huge dictionary would work better for me. Okay well….hmm Im not ragging on the language that he uses but I am just stating that a lot of the words that he chooses to use are foreign to me even though they are english words. I dont think that I would be to bold stating that I have a large vocabulary. I have recieved a very good education in my years in school but all those years of vocabulary being taught to me hasnt helped too much.

One particular section of the first chapter grabbed my attention and made me think. When Sven Birkets is talking about the English class that he had taught, I felt like he was talking to me. The authors that he was naming were names that I am familiar with like Hawthorne and Poe and I have had the oppurtunity to read a few novels from each. I came to the conclusion that Sven was missing something about his class of students. He was appauled at the lack of enthusiasm from his students. He couldnt believe that they werent eating up the books and loving the literature as much as he does. What he didnt think of was that maybe the kids werent reading the books at all. Thats what I concluded. They musnt have been reading the books because anybody with a literary education would enjoy a short story by Poe or something by Hawthorn. Its just that simple…