During the first semester of my new school, my English teacher has introduced to us a new task called the “Wider Reading Challenge” where we have to read books in certain categories and at the end of the year we claim a prize (although looking at the class I don’t think this was enough), however looking back at my experience, I’d say I have read a decent amount.
Keeping in mind that we may or may not have been given about 5 assignments to complete, I’ve managed to read 5books this semester and to be honest, I only read during the classes he gave us for the last few weeks
The next few books I’ve read during Term 1 was the “Insurgent series: Insurgent, Divergent, Allegiant” written by Veronica Roth:
I was introduced to this book by my friend Kerry and after reading the first book I began to explore the trilogy. What I liked about the Trilogy was that Roth did not confuse the story plot through Insurgent and Divergent and then gives us more background information after we finish off with Allegiant.
Insurgent: I'm very happy that Kerry introduced to me this book as it falls under the fantasy and dystopian category with I am familiar and comfortable with. What I liked about the book was the portrayal of emotions through every action and love scene. Most books I read with intimate scenes become either awkward or cheesy but this book managed to pull it off. This novel falls under “A book recommended by a friend”.
Divergent: The sequel did not disappoint as well as this book leaned towards the darker side of the story. The portrayal of emotions was still great as the death scenes left a very deep mark inside of the story. However, I could only find one flaw and it usually happens in fantasy novels, the main character actions do not correlate to the result. Tris could run into a battle with nothing but a knife with the enemy having firearms and end up surviving and acting surprised that the plan failed but I let this go as to make the story interesting these things must happen. This falls under “ A book with more than 500 pages”.
Allegiant: This book was the end of the trilogy and ends the story perfectly. The scenes of conflict can be seen relating back to the first book and loopholes begin to connect to create an easier understanding of what was happening. Although in my opinion, this book was not necessary however I get that cramming this story into 2 books wouldn't be easy. This falls under “ A book made by a female author”.
The next book I read during semester 1 was “My family and other animals”, written by Gerald Durrell:
In year 7, I was given this book to read to do a book analysis, however back then I didn’t find myself enjoying the book as I started to skim pages and ended up searching on the internet for the summary of the book. During term 1 holidays, I was looking for a book for the wider reading challenge and found this. At first, I loved the book, it gave me a sense of if I was the Gerald, exploring the island of Corfu, meeting beautiful creatures with total strangers surrounding me. It gave me the key to escape my mundane life as growing up in an Asian household the could only do a certain amount of things: study, school, going out with friends (limited). What I found interesting about this story was how the book at sequenced, reading the book it felt like I was there with Gerald, his words began to create wonderous imagery inside my head. By reading this book I escaped my comfort zone as I tended to lean towards reading fantasy and sci-fi novels but I was glad I revisited this book as it piqued a new interest inside of me. This book falls under the category of “A book entirely based on its cover”
The last book that I have read in semester 1 was “The Shadow of Malabron”, written by Thomas Wharton.
I received this book late last year when my cousin was giving me second-hand books for Melbourne High. I did read a few chapters before eventually putting it off and when I was looking through the list for what to read, I found that this book fell under the “fantasy based novel” category. What I found interesting about this book as it is based around the creation of “stories” as many stories like “little red riding hood” appears and the main character knows that his adventures are a story. The story was a bit boring as most of the scenes were predictable and the end scene felt rushed as if the author had to cram it into a few pages
Next semester I plan on reading books I would not normally read such as a book I have with me now called “A Rose for the Anzac Boys” and I would like to revisit lord of the flies and I have not finished it yet.
