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| the habit of reading a book a week
as soon as possible. After you have been reading books for some years you might write something like the following: Title: Tom Sawyer Author: Mark Twain Publisher Longman I first read this novel in the form of a simplified text specially prepared for beginners studying English as a second language. I have now read the original novel, as Mark Twain wrote it. I noticed that the book is much longer than the simplified version, which told me that a lot had been left out of the simplified text. I also noticed it was a lot harder to understand, mainly because Twain uses a lot of colloquial expressions found in rural America but not used in my country. I noticed certain incidents which were either not included at all in the simplified version, or were only included in shortened form. These made the story more interesting. I suppose they had been left out of the simplified version in order to make it easier for the beginner to read. However the plot is more complicated and one can admire the author's skill more in the original. The novel is written from the point of view of a child of about primary school age - perhaps about eleven or twelve years old. We all know, as we grow up, that the world seems different the older we get. A child sees adults as large, as nuisances to be outwitted, and sometimes feared. To a child the world is much larger than it is to an adult. What an adult sees as small incidents may to a child seem very important. In this novel everything is given the importance that Tom Sawyer and his friends give to it. Children also indulge in fantasy much more than adults. A lot of the book is about Tom's fantasies. He dreams a lot about such things asplaying pirates - but he does not really know what pirates are (they are robbers with a ship). To him what |
he likes about pirates is that they don't have
to obey anyone and can do what they like. When he goes off with
the bad boy of the village he finds the reality of living without
his family is not as nice as he dreamed it. But he enjoys the
fuss everyone makes of him when he turns up at his own funeral. Nowadays children dream in much the same way about cowboys, kung fu fighters, and policemen and criminals. An adult should see that these dreams are just as unreal as Tom Sawyer's fantasies about pirates. Mark Twain's skill as a writer is in writing the story from the point of view of a child but at the same time allowing the adult reader to see that there is a real world outside the fantasies of Tom and his friends. Comment: If you can write this kind of review, you have begun to understand how to read books. As you gain experience in reading books you will see more in a book than you saw when you had only just begun to read. Like other school subjects the study of literature is an introduction to knowledge about the world. It is an exploration of the world of books. It is also an attempt to become familiar with the sort of things that authors can do with books. General reading is as important as studying the set books. The main purpose of studying literature for secondary examinations is to introduce you to the world of books, to give you an idea of what books and writers are like. Use your general reading to explore this world. Don't go again and again only to books by one author. Instead try lots of different authors. Don't read just one kind of book (see the section on Genres# ) but try many kinds. Exploration is looking for new places where you haven't been before. The well-read person is like the well-travelled person. When one begins to travel it is always difficult, and even frightening, coming to a new city. Finding a place to stay and somewhere to eat are |
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