Jounal 4 Reading English novels for pleasure

Reading difficult articles for a course work is a hassle that I want to avoid if possible, but reading for pleasure is the thing I am always pursuing and I really feel happy while reading interesting books. Among several short English novels I read, I especially like ‘The old man and the sea’ by Hemingway, ‘The pearl by John Steinbeck’, and ‘The catcher in the rye’ by J.K Shalinger. Each book has its own value for being one of my favorites.

The world famous novel ‘The old man and the sea’ was such an inspiring book that I always count this as number one favorite. The friendship between the boy and the old man, the struggle the old man was going through in his life, his patience and pain were all enough to deeply move my heart. However, the writer’s simple but sophisticated sentences really impressed me that I realize good writing are not necessarily made up of complicated structure of sentences, but simple, concise ones also can make a beautiful writing. It relieved the pressure that I have to use more complex sentences to look intelligent and taught me the essence of writing is the content, not the forms.

Unlike the overwhelming volume of ‘The grape of wrath’ which I tried but failed, ‘The pearl’ is kind of short novel; However, the message it conveys was so significant that I spent several days thinking about human nature and my own being. The impact the book gave on me was similar to that from the movie, ‘Apocalypse now’, based on the novel ‘The heat of darkness’. While reading ‘The pearl’, I get furious about people in the same way the main character, Kino, felt, and my heart shrank and beat so hard with the fear when Kino’s family chased by greedy whites and were put in the danger to be killed. It was first moment I felt frightened while reading an English novel.

Whenever I think of the character of this book, ‘The catcher in the rye’, I just smile by myself and feel sorry for him so much. I did not take serious all the struggles the main character was experiencing, and it is probably because I read this book with the perspective of a grown-up, not remembering my own youth. Otherwise, I could smile because I did not fully understand the significance of the content. Various factors, endless curse words, complaints, dissatisfactions, but nothing he could do as an independent personality, made this book attractive enough for me to long for reading it again.

Now I wish I had some time to read other interesting books that are just piled up on my book case. From the Leo Buscaglia’s book crying out that teaching is loving, to Toni Morris’s Be loved, there are so many books just the first a couple of pages of which have encountered the fresh air outside. It’s shame on myself. During coming summer break, I probably have to read several major-related books (I hope!), but still look forward to the time to enjoy and relax myself through reading books for absolute pleasure.

Hi inkab!

By chance I tuned in EBS radio program one night in which a woman was reading a classic and translating into korean. The program is 'Reading Classic of Celebrities(명사의 강독) that is hosted by a famous person each time. The host was Seo, jin-kyo, who had served in the US army and now goes to Harvard with her daughter.The book she was reading was the old man and the sea. It is well-known classic that are read all over the world and thus I just listened. Unexpectedly I got wonderfully relaxed by her reading. Her voice was not like TV announcer but closed to masculine voiced enough to attract me. She sounded like my mom used to read me a book as a child. Most of all, the story moved me a lot. That night I upgraded my list of must-dos and made it a rule to enjoy the show.

Oh, let's share that radio channel(?) Namsook~