A Long Way Gone

For this quarter’s outside reading project, I read A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah. The main thing that came to my mind was how horrific the sights must have been for him. I would read a bit and when I was done, retrace what happened in my head and imagine if I was Ishmael. It is non-fiction, and it is an autobiography about how he got out of Sierra Leone during the war there during the 90’s. The imagery is so powerful, and to know that this is all true makes you feel even weirder. We all live in a place that is safe from all of those horrors, and it is really hard but necessary to realize what other people, in other parts of the world, have gone through. Most people seeing a dead body in America would be scarred and never be the same for most of their life, and Ishmael is traveling his way through cities with dead bodies all over the place, and severed heads rolling around at his feet. This book really changed my views on foreign places and has taught me some powerful lessons.

Reading

One day when I decided to read my outside reading book, I thought to myself, I really am having a hard time being interested in books these days. I thought of how often I read and I couldn’t really think of many times. But I think I forgot one major detail; reading doesn’t really mean how many novels you have read, it is much more. I noticed this when I was on aol.com one day and saw a news story about a 6 year old driving his parents car to school. I read the whole thing, not even really knowing I was reading the whole time. I scrolled up afterwards, and there was a lot of text. I wondered why I unconsciously decided to read this much and realized that if I’m not pressured to read and do it willingly, I can be a great reader. I just need to work on being more focused on the plot of the novel/story/magazine and not on the actual act of reading. After this I realized how often I look at those news stories and read them. I wasn’t thinking about getting done with the reading, I was just hooked in the story.