Writingskills

the book i have read essay

6 Paragraphs on ‘A Book I Have Recently Read’

A Book I Have Recently Read: Books are the best resources of people. With which no earthly wealth can be compared. By reading books we can keep our mind healthy and happy. A good book opens the eyes of the human mind as well as expands and develops the knowledge and intellect and helps to light the mind. Many people like to read story books or other kinds of books. Reading books is a good habit. ‘A Book I Have Recently Read’ is an important paragraph for the students. In this post I have presented six paragraphs on ‘A Book I Have Recently Read’.

A Book I Have Recently Read

Reading books is my passion. I have recently read a book named “ Pather Panchali “. It was written by famous writer Bibhutibhusan Bandopadhyay. The novel is about a little village boy named Apu. The main characters of the book are Apu, Durga, Harihar and Sarbajaya. Harihar and Sarbajaya, a rustic couple, spent their days in miserable distress. But they dreamt of a rosy future. Apu and Durga are their children. Durga died a premature death. It was a great shock to the family. One cannot shed tears when one reads about the death of Apu’s dearest sister Durga. The novel gives us a very living picture of the beauty of a remote village in Bengal. The story reminds us of the hardship of the thousands of poor and helpless people of our country. Really it is an immortal creation of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay.

Also read :  Paragraph on Black Fungus or Mucormycosis

I have little time to read books other than school books. But l heard the story of “Ramer Sumati” written by Saratchandra Chattapadhyay from my grandpa. The story charmed me very much. Recently I managed to have a copy of the book which I finished in a single sitting. It is entirely the story of a joint family of rural Bengal. Here are a few principal characters – Ramlal, the hero, Shyamlal, his step-brother and Narayani, the wife of Shyamlal. Apart from them there are Shyamla’s son and Digambari, his mother-in-law. Ramlal lost his mother when he was only two and a half years old. Narayani, the sister-in-law brought him up with all motherly love and affection. Digambari could not tolerate the sweet relationship between the two. Ramlal was very wayward and that was at the root of all problems. The ancestral home was partitioned and Ramlal was separated much to the pain of Narayani. The author’s portrayal of the characters of Ramlal and Narayani is simply unique. Details of the book cannot be given in this short span. But everybody should go through the book whenever he gets a chance.

Also read : Paragraph on Corona Virus (Covid-19)

I am a genuine book lover. Reading books is my passion. Whenever I get spare time I read story books, novels etc. I am a big fan of cricket as well. My father recently gifted me the autobiography of Sachin Tendulkar “Sachin Tendulkar – Playing It My Way” on my birthday. The book is really very interesting. Sachin Tendulkar is not only a great player but also has become an icon. So a chance to peek into the life of such an icon is always sought after. The chapters describe all the important events of his life. The reader is bound to respect the legend more after going through the book. The book not only brings out Sachin’s passion for cricket but also reveals how caring a father and gentle son he is. I will cherish the experience of reading the book forever and this will be a guide force in my life. I wish to read it once again in future.

  A Book I Have Recently Read

Reading books is my passion. I have recently read William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”. It is the last play of the great playwright, which was written in 1611 at Stafford. Prospero was a learned man. He did not like to rule Milan as merely a Duke. His power was his wisdom. His brother, Antonio, took advantage of this craving for knowledge and conspired to drive him away from Milan with the help of the king of Naples, Alonoso.

Prospero and his daughter eventually took shelter in an alien island. It was a mystic land of which Prospero was little aware. Caliban was an evil spirit which was living in that island. Gradually, Prospero dominated Caliban and became a supreme power by way of his white magic. Dr. Faustus of Marlowe exercised necromancy, but Prospero used his magic for the welfare of the world. Hence his magic was a boon not a bane. His daughter, Miranda, was a lovable and beautiful young lady. Caliban wanted to seduce Miranda, but in vain. At last Ferdinand, the prince of Naples, came to the mysterious land. Miranda was very much appalled to see a beautiful young man for the first time. Seeing Ferdinand, she cried out, “O brave new world.” Later Miranda and Ferdinand fell in love. Prospero wanted to test Ferdinand’s devotion to his daughter. Ferdinand won the mind of Prospero. Using his white magic, Prospero taught everyone including his brother good lessons. Alonso, Antonio and Sebastian realized their misdeed. Gonzalo, who helped Prospero once to escape from his cruel brother, was rewarded.

Finally, everyone was reconciled. Prospero returned to Milan with his daughter and he freed Ariel, the spirit which helped Prospero in fulfilling his desires while living in the alien island. The happy reunion of the play implies the fact that Prospero is a major figure who by way of using his white magic helps everyone reconcile in spite of shortcomings. Honesty and goodness have been rewarded. I felt much aesthetic pleasure while reading the play. Shakespeare’s language, his style, above all, his blending of tragedy and comedy gave to my mind a soothing effect which I cannot forget ever.

Books are our best friends. Even in today’s world of internet and mobile, the importance of books cannot be ignored. I am a genuine book lover. Reading books is my passion. Whenever I get spare time I read story books, novels etc. Recently I have read Bibhutibhushan’s classic novel ‘Chander Pahar’. I loved the book so much that I have lost count of the number of times I flipped through the book even after I had finished reading it.

The book ‘Chander Pahar’ records the adventures of Shankar, the main character of the novel. Shankar, a young bengali boy, faces many adventures in Africa where he goes in connection with his job on the railways. He encounters many ferocious animals like lions, black mamba etc. But the real adventure begins when Shankar accompanies Diago Alverage, a European adventurer, to the Kilimanjaro mountain in search of diamonds. In the course of the events Diago gets killed by a terrible animal called ‘Buniyp’ and Shankar is left all alone in that unknown land of adversity and danger. But he braves it with extraordinary courage and valour.

After a great struggle, he is saved from the desert. Shankar is the embodiment of courage. I love the character very much. I am attracted by Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyay’s great narrative skill. He makes the description of African jungles and Shankar’s adventures alive with his narrative skill. Author’s creativity makes Shankar’s character one of the most popular characters of Bengali literature. Whenever I read the novel, I find myself engrossed in it. My mind also travels with Shankar in the land of Africa and feels the adventure. This is why ‘Chander Pahar’ holds such a special place in my mind.

Books are our best friends. Even in today’s world of internet and mobile, the importance of books cannot be ignored. I am a genuine book lover. Reading books is my passion. Whenever I get spare time I read story books, novels etc. Of all the books I have read, I like ‘The Story of My Life’ by Helen Keller the most. The episode centres round the hard struggle of life of Helen Keller. She writes with a natural ease and power, hardly equaled by any other writer of that category.  In this book we see that Helen Keller became blind and deaf after a serious illness in her childhood. However, the day when Miss Sullivan came to her as her teacher was the most memorable day in her life. After a long hard process Helen learnt to read, in raised letters in Braille method . She learnt to write also in a special type of typewriter. In the book ‘The Story of My Life’ an account of the first twenty two years of Helen Keller’s life has been given. During this time she came into contact with many noble and affectionate persons. In her autobiography Helen describes her experiences with so much ease and sincerity in such a lucid style that it cannot but arouse love and wonder for her. But the most striking feature of this book is her strong will and iron determination to cross all the hurdles of a handicapped person in her own life. And therefore, it has the universal appeal to all the readers throughout the world. Everybody should go through the book whenever he gets a chance.

Paragraph on ‘My Hobby”

Paragraph On ‘My Aim In Life’

Share this:

  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

8 thoughts on “6 Paragraphs on ‘A Book I Have Recently Read’”

I am very thankful to this passages… 💛💛💛

The essay is the most important part of a college application, so you need to focus and make a good essay to convince the university accept you. You even get help from essay writing expert to ensure you acceptance. Check out, please DigitalEssay.net

thank you very much

helpful page…..

Very useful site. Check also <a href=" https://www.suggestionpedia.com>suggestion and hs suggestion</a> for West Bengal student.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Mykidsway.com Logo

Essay on The Most Interesting book I read

the book i have read essay

Our school library is having books which I like very much. One of my friends showed me a certain book in the library and he said that is his favorite book. He also said that is was the second part of the most famous Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twain.

I borrowed the book from the librarian on the advice of my friend. When I went home that day, I had an immediate lunch, when to my room and started reading the book.

Home interesting was it! It was a wonderful book. The book was full of adventures. The main character was Huckleberry Finn who was a poor English boy whose father was a third class drunkard. This father wanted to get his son’s fortune which he get previously in yet another adventure with Tom Sawyer, his friend. So Finn runs away from the custody of his father and meet another boy. This boy was Jim who had been running away from master. He had been a slave boy.

The two friends go to the sea and get on to a ship. They become friendly with the seamen and go on fishing. They also go to various island in the sea and engage themselves in many adventures. At last they come home. Finn finds that his father had died and hi was no more in danger. Jim also get his freedom with Finn’s help.

This interesting children’s novel had been written by well-known English Author Mark Twain who had previously written the famous book Tom Sawyer. Both these books are popular even today. So many millions of children throughout the English speaking world must have read these books. Much more than Tom Sawyer, it was the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was the most interesting book I have ever read.

More Educational Resources

Explore similar educational resources that improve a variety of skills and cultivate a love for learning.

My Best Friend

My Best Friend

If I Could Fly

If I Could Fly

My Daily Routine

My Daily Routine

The Doctor

TED IELTS

  • A Beginner’s Guide to IELTS
  • Common Grammar Mistakes [for IELTS Writing Candidates]

Writing Correction Service

  • Free IELTS Resources
  • Practice Speaking Test

Select Page

Describe a Book You Have Read Recently

Posted by David S. Wills | Jan 6, 2018 | IELTS Tips , Speaking , YouTube | 0

Describe a Book You Have Read Recently

Today we’re going to look at a question from IELTS speaking part two, also known as the “long answer” question. In this part of the exam, as you probably know, you are expected to speak for about two minutes on a given topic . The topic will be presented to you on a “cue card” and you will then have a minute to make notes before you speak. Today, the topic is books and we will explore how to describe a book you have read recently .

There are lots of different ways that this question could be phrased, and so, as always, you can’t just memorise an answer. In fact, in IELTS it’s always a bad idea to memorize answers. You have questions like “describe your favourite book” or “describe a book that you read in your childhood,” but today I’m going to give you a more general question.

In this lesson, we will learn several things:

  • How to read the cue card
  • Note-making skills
  • Some useful vocabulary
  • How to answer this cue card fully

The Cue Card: Describe a book you have read recently

As I said, there are many IELTS cue cards about books. You could be asked about your favorite book or a book you really love, but in this case we will just look at a book you have read recently:

Describe a book you have read recently. You should say: what kind of book it is who wrote the book what the story of the book is and explain if it is a good book or not.

Once you have read the cue card, you must think about it quickly. Analyse the topic and ask yourself what exactly you should talk about. In this case, you may ask:

  • Can I talk about any book? – no, only one you’ve read recently
  • Could it be a book that I dislike? – yes, that is possible
  • Must it be a book that I enjoyed? – no, the final part of the question makes it clear that you don’t have to have liked it
  • Should I talk about the plot? – yes, that is fulfilling the third bullet point

You should quickly choose a book, think about how to explain it, and then try to talk about the ideas on the cue card.

describe a book you have read recently [ielts speaking]

Making Notes

So the first thing you should do is make a few notes on the topic. Of course, as we’ve discussed before, you really shouldn’t write too much. Remember – you just have one minute! Don’t write down sentences or else you’ll only have enough to speak for ten or twenty seconds. Instead, write the ideas you want to discuss or the vocabulary you may need.

In this case, of course we first have to think about the book itself. What was its name, and who was the author? It doesn’t have to be an English book, but you do need to be able to give the English title and – if it was written by an English-speaking author, you also must be able to say their name. Here in China, many famous foreigners have Chinese names, or at least their names are adapted to make it easier for Chinese speakers to pronounce, and so they sound weird to an English speaker. For example, my students always talk about “Jobs” when they mean “Steve Jobs.” So make sure you know the name.

Then you need to think about the tasks outlined in the cue card and make notes on them so that you don’t forget any part of it. This is where you need to make useful notes.

So the first thing we need to talk about, according to the cue card, is the “kind of” book. Another way of saying that is “ genre .” This means, is it a mystery novel or a romance? Is it a horror novel or a coming-of-age story? There are so many kinds of novels. Of course, you don’t need to know them all, but being able to talk about the ones that you actually like is important. Go beyond that and consider being able to discuss the book further in terms of adjectives – is it thrilling? Hilarious? Shocking? Provocative? These are some good vocabulary items to note down during your one minute.

When it comes to genre, you can borrow many words from your movie vocabulary . Here is a video about describing movies. Most of those words can be re-used for describing books:

Next you should really think about the plot of the novel. You don’t need to say everything. Instead, summarize it. Think about the main action and key scenes. Talk briefly about the beginning and ending, or any important moments.

When talking about the plot of a film or book, you can use the present simple or past simple. This is because these events exist outside of time as they are immortalized in a text. They are, in a sense, always happening.

For example, you could equally say:

Romeo kissed Juliet
Romeo kisses Juliet.

A great way of learning how to do this effectively is to go on Wikipedia or IMDB and then find descriptions of movies. Obviously, you should not try to memorize these, but you can definitely borrow some language or even structure.

Structuring your Answer

The important things about IELTS speaking part 2 are that you actually answer all parts of the question, and that you do it in between 1 and 2 minutes. The order in which you give the details is not important. Therefore, you can talk about any of the cue card suggestions first or last. However, be sensible and think of a logical order in your head. Make sure these are in your notes so that you don’t forget anything.

Sample Answer – Describe a Book

Here’s my answer to the above question.

Recently, I read a novel called Before the Fall by Noah Hawley, who is the writer of some popular TV shows. It’s hard to give the genre because it’s a quite unusual book; however, it is both a drama and a mystery to some degree. The story is about a plane crash. This happens at the beginning of the book, and after that we get the back story of the people who were on the plane. We don’t know why the plane crashed although it seems like an accident. However, the mystery element comes into the book as the story develops because we are shown too many coincidences. The book also details the relationship between a man and a boy who survive the crash, and this gives the story its heart. I really enjoyed this book. Normally I prefer to read non-fiction books but in this case I was attracted to Before the Fall because I really liked the writer’s TV work and I was curious about how he would handle a novel. Ultimately, I was not disappointed. His ability to tell a good story made him an excellent novelist.

Here’s my recording of the sample answer. Don’t forget to subscribe to the channel for more IELTS videos. I try to post about once every 1-2 weeks.

I answered the “who wrote it” and “what kind of book” parts very quickly at the beginning and spent more time on the plot and my reaction to the book. It’s important you take into consideration while planning that some parts of the question simply aren’t possible to talk about that much.

Note also the verb “detail” in that second paragraph. It’s a reporting verb used in slightly formal speech meaning roughly the same as “tells”.

About The Author

David S. Wills

David S. Wills

David S. Wills is the author of Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the 'Weird Cult' and the founder/editor of Beatdom literary journal. He lives and works in rural Cambodia and loves to travel. He has worked as an IELTS tutor since 2010, has completed both TEFL and CELTA courses, and has a certificate from Cambridge for Teaching Writing. David has worked in many different countries, and for several years designed a writing course for the University of Worcester. In 2018, he wrote the popular IELTS handbook, Grammar for IELTS Writing and he has since written two other books about IELTS. His other IELTS website is called IELTS Teaching.

Related Posts

Summary Completion [IELTS Reading]

Summary Completion [IELTS Reading]

May 12, 2018

7 Steps to Structuring an IELTS Task 2 Essay

7 Steps to Structuring an IELTS Task 2 Essay

April 6, 2020

IELTS – British or American English?

IELTS – British or American English?

June 5, 2019

Letter of Advice [IELTS Writing]

Letter of Advice [IELTS Writing]

March 1, 2021

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Download my IELTS Books

books about ielts writing

Recent Posts

  • Complex Sentences
  • How to Score Band 9 [Video Lesson]
  • Taxing Fast Food: Model IELTS Essay
  • Airport Vocabulary
  • How to Put Examples in an IELTS Essay

ielts writing correction service

Recent Comments

  • Daisey Lachut on IELTS Discussion Essays [Discuss Both Views/Sides]
  • David S. Wills on Describe a Historical Period
  • Siavash on Describe a Historical Period
  • fabliha on IELTS Speaking Partners
  • tufail khan on IELTS Discussion Essays [Discuss Both Views/Sides]
  • Lesson Plans
  • Model Essays
  • TED Video Lessons
  • Weekly Roundup

Essay on My Favourite Book for Students and Children

i need my monster Book

500+ Words Essay on My Favourite Book

Essay on My Favourite Book: Books are friends who never leave your side. I find this saying to be very true as books have always been there for me. I enjoy reading books . They have the power to help us travel through worlds without moving from our places. In addition, books also enhance our imagination. Growing up, my parents and teachers always encouraged me to read. They taught me the importance of reading. Subsequently, I have read several books. However, one boom that will always be my favourite is Harry Potter. It is one of the most intriguing reads of my life. I have read all the books of this series, yet I read them again as I never get bored of it.

essay on my favourite book

Harry Potter Series

Harry Potter was a series of books authored by one of the most eminent writers of our generation, J.K. Rowling. These books showcase the wizarding world and its workings. J.K. Rowling has been so successful at weaving a picture of this world, that it feels real. Although the series contains seven books, I have a particular favourite. My favourite book from the series is The Goblet of fire.

When I started reading the book, it caught my attention instantly. Even though I had read all the previous parts, none of the books caught my attention as this one did. It gave a larger perspective into the wizarding world. One of the things which excite me the most about this book is the introduction of the other wizard schools. The concept of the Tri-wizard tournament is one of the most brilliant pieces I have come across in the Harry Potter series.

In addition, this book also contains some of my favourite characters. The moment I read about Victor Krum’s entry, I was star struck. The aura and personality of that character described by Rowling are simply brilliant. Further, it made me become a greater fan of the series.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

What Harry Potter Series Taught Me?

Even though the books are about the world of wizards and magic, the Harry Potter series contains a lot of lessons for young people to learn. Firstly, it teaches us the importance of friendship. I have read many books but never come across a friendship like that of Harry, Hermoine, and Ron. These three musketeers stuck together throughout the books and never gave up. It taught me the value of a good friend.

Further, the series of Harry Potter taught me that no one is perfect. Everyone has good and evil inside them. We are the ones who choose what we wish to be. This helped me in making better choices and becoming a better human being. We see how the most flawed characters like Snape had goodness inside them. Similarly, how the nicest ones like Dumbledore had some bad traits. This changed my perspective towards people and made me more considerate.

the book i have read essay

Finally, these books gave me hope. They taught me the meaning of hope and how there is light at the end of the tunnel. It gave me the strength to cling on to hope in the most desperate times just like Harry did all his life. These are some of the most essential things I learned from Harry Potter.

In conclusion, while there were many movies made in the books. Nothing beats the essence and originality of the books. The details and inclusiveness of books cannot be replaced by any form of media. Therefore, the Goblet of Fire remains to be my favourite book.

{ “@context”: “https://schema.org”, “@type”: “FAQPage”, “mainEntity”: [{ “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “Why are books important?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”: “Books help with our imagination. They help us travel to far off place without moving. Most importantly, they are always there for us when we need them.” } }, { “@type”: “Question”, “name”: “What is Harry Potter about?”, “acceptedAnswer”: { “@type”: “Answer”, “text”:”Harry Potter follows the adventures of the wizard Harry Potter and his friends Ron and Hermoine. It gives us an insight into the wizarding world.”} }] }

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

tutor

  • Travelling Essay
  • Picnic Essay
  • Our Country Essay
  • My Parents Essay
  • Essay on Favourite Personality
  • Essay on Memorable Day of My Life
  • Essay on Knowledge is Power
  • Essay on Gurpurab
  • Essay on My Favourite Season
  • Essay on Types of Sports

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

Google Play

New Speech Topics | Persuasive Short Essay writing Topic IELTS | English Proverbs

Essay Writing about A BOOK I HAVE READ

A book i have read.

Of all the possessions in the world, books are the most valuable, especially to those who are the lovers of books. Books contain a priceless treasure which friends cannot match, brothers cannot give and time cannot destroy. A good book is a good friend. Many books written by great authors led to the downfall of many empires and rise of new nations. “The Social Contract” written by Rousseau brought about the French Revolution. Karl Marx’s “Das Kapital” gave birth to the communist movement and socialist governments.

Reading is my hobby and I have read many books. The book I read recently is the Malayalam version of the Ramayana. This great book has acted as a source of culture and civilization for more than two thousand years. It is written in a simple language which any one can understand. The story is simple, but enlightening. The book has many charms of its own. It has a philosophical value. It provides a moral code for the people to follow.

The story is centred round Rama, the legendary hero of the ancient India. Its starts in the kingdom of Ayodhya in the north part of India in the early period of the Aryan settlement. As directed by his father Dasaratha, Rama went into exile for fourteen years with his wife Sita and his stepbrother Lakshmana. Ravana, the cruel king of Lanka stole away Sita treacherously. Rama, with the help of a monkey army, invaded Lanka, defeated and killed Ravana and set Sita free. He came back victoriously after fourteen years and ascended the throne of Ayodhya and ruled for years in a just way.

The Ramayana teaches us a great moral lesson. It upholds the ideal of duty and sacrifice. Rama went into exile in order to obey his father as a dutiful son. Lakshmana sacrificed his comforts for his brother. The Ramayana sets a good example of womanhood in Sita. Besides these, the book gave me a deep understanding about the social and political conditions of ancient times. Thus the book has historical importance. The story unfolds the social and religious life of the people in the entire sub-continent. The great victory of good overall is a theme running through this great epic.

The book contains noble saying of great sages. The poetic beauty of the verse makes the book immortal. The Ramayana teaches us virtues and morals and thus it helps in building up one’s character. It advocates truth, love, sacrifice and bravery. It upholds justice and duty. The book has ever been a source of inspiration for the people of India.

1 thought on “Essay Writing about A BOOK I HAVE READ”

this website is very useful for school kids

Leave a Comment Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

NotesFinder

NotesFinder

Find your notes here

Latest Notes

  • A Book I Have Recently Read Essay
  • Paragraph Writing/Essay Writing
  • A Book I Have Recently Read

Since my childhood I am an avid reader. Whenever I get spare time I read books, novels, anthologies etc of all categories. Recently I have read “The Story of My Life” by Hellen Keller. It’s a touching story of the author’s growing up from childhood with multiple disabilities and how she challenged them and became an educated woman. It narrates the first twenty years of her life and her remarkable relationship with many noble and affectionate persons, especially her beloved teacher Miss Ann Sullivan. Hellen became blind and deaf at the age of two. But she triumphed all adversities and learnt to read and write. In her autobiography Helen describes her experiences with so much ease and sincerity in such a lucid style that it cannot but arouse love and wonder for her. But the most striking feature of this book is her strong will and iron determination to cross all the hurdles of a handicapped person in her own life. One can hardly forget such a touching book. I have also watched Black , a cinema inspired from her story. But reading the book is altogether an unforgettable experience.

  • Our School /Your School
  • Durga Puja / Durga Puja Festival
  • Importantance of Discipline in Student Life
  • Health is Wealth
  • Autobiography of A Bicycle
  • Science in Our Daily Lives
  • Festivals of Bengal /Festivals in Bengal
  • Unity in Diversity in India
  • Summer Season
  • Monsoon/ Rainy Season
  • Winter Season
  • Spring Season
  • National Flag of India
  • Prize Giving Ceremony of Your School
  • My Hobby /Your Hobby
  • My Favourite Game /Your Favourite Game
  • Importance of Reading Newspaper
  • Save Drive, Save Life
  • Holi- The Festival of Colours
  • Your Village /My Village
  • A Book Fair
  • A Village Fair
  • School Magazine
  • Green Revolution in India
  • Tree Plantation

Related Post

the book i have read essay

Environment Pollution paragraph | Environmental Pollution

the book i have read essay

Child Labour Paragraph | Child Labour in India

the book i have read essay

Students and Social Services

You cannot copy content of this page

  • Non-Fiction
  • Author’s Corner
  • Reader’s Corner
  • Writing Guide
  • Book Marketing Services
  • Write for us

Readers' Corner

How to Write an Essay On Books

To write a good essay about books on a free topic, you just need to understand what you want to get. And, based on this information, make a plan.

To begin with, you need to understand the difference between these concepts:

  • Are you writing a personal opinion about a book? You can tell whether you liked it or not, what in it caught you or repulsed you.
  • Or is it an overview of the story lines? A full description of what is written in the book, your thoughts on the main points of the book.
  • Or is it a description of the book? Then highlight points of interest. This kind of text usually encourages you to read it.

If you are writing an essay on books for school, you probably need to write a book review.

Preparing for the essay

The experts at StudyCrumb Educational Agency assure you that by following a simple procedure, you will be able to write the essay you need quickly and easily.

  • Choose the book you want to write an essay about. It is better if it is one that you have memorized well. Some teachers recommend writing an essay on your favorite books.
  • Make a short outline that includes an introduction, the main part, and a conclusion.
  • Recall what your book is about. Write out a couple of main thoughts that are memorable and seem close to your heart.
  • Write a review of the book, the kind you’d like to write for your friend. In simple, uncomplicated words.

Essay Writing

Having prepared your drafts and outline for your essay, you’ve already done a tremendous job, and it’s just a matter of doing a little bit more. Be sure to remember that the essay about the book you read is your thoughts, feelings, and emotions about the work itself.

In the water part, write about the plot of the book, about the essence, but don’t reveal the intrigue completely, so that your classmates can read the book too. You can quote a few curious places, but don’t forget to justify why you chose them.

In the main part you should write your personal opinion of what you have read. If the teacher did not mention that the book must necessarily be a favorite, you can also write about the book, which, on the contrary, left a negative residue in your soul.

It is better to make the ending short and concise. Write what you like to read, why you like to read, and recommend the chosen work to read all. Check out  http://cheapessaysonline.com/  for quality essay examples for your own inspiration.

Examples of essay on books

An essay about a book leaves the imagination free, especially when you’re a big fan of the book world. But sometimes reading is much easier than writing. So here are a few examples of essays.

Introduction:

“I love to read. Reading helps you immerse yourself in that completely different world. Makes you forget that you are a mere student. You can become a great traveler, fly around the globe, or you can find yourself in a school of magic and learn complex magical sciences. My choice was the Harry Potter book, because that’s the world where I spent my childhood.

“My favorite book is Roald Dahl ‘s Matilda. I think this work is suitable for children as well as adults. Matilda is a little girl with strange parents and a very mean principal. And then, one day, a good teacher shows up at school who treats all the students, including Matilda, with awe. When I was little, I was sure it was just a fairy tale. But now, after rereading this book to refresh my memory, I realize that the book has adult overtones. Matilda is the personification of all the children of the world who face the hostility of adults who should not have been parents or educators.”

The final part:

“I would like to finish my essay about the book “Three Comrades” with the advice: read, look for a moral in any work, and you can become a good person.

These are just examples of how you can write essay on books. Choose your favorite book and write whatever you want to say.

Recent Articles

Don’t judge a book by its cover easier said than done a design deep-dive, unveiling the 10 best horror and mystery books you can’t miss, whispers on the shelf: when your bookshelf comes alive, 10 book-themed online slots you should try out, harry potter and the therapist’s couch: what if hogwarts had mental health support, related posts:, writing tips from stephen king, best essay checkers for 2024: free and paid options, how to market an audiobook, how to find audiobook narrators, how to make an audiobook | the ultimate guide to turning your book into an audiobook, leave a reply cancel reply.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

Stay on Top - Get the daily news in your inbox

Subscribe to our newsletter.

To be updated with all the latest news, offers and special announcements.

Recent Posts

On writing – a memoir of the craft by stephen king, risky business in rising china by mark atkeson, 1942: when british rule in india was threatened by krishna kumar, extreme ownership by jocko willink and leif babin, popular category.

  • Book Review 624
  • Reader's Corner 402
  • Author's Corner 178
  • Author Interview 172
  • Book List 111
  • Mystery Thriller 95
  • Historical Fiction 80

The Bookish Elf is your single, trusted, daily source for all the news, ideas and richness of literary life. The Bookish Elf is a site you can rely on for book reviews, author interviews, book recommendations, and all things books.

Contact us: [email protected]

The Best Book I've Ever Read

And yes, you should definitely take my word for it.

the book i have read essay

In my many years as a journalist, scholar and thinker, I have read nearly all the great works of literature, including Milton, Shakespeare and the first third of The Brothers Karamazov. But no book has ever spoken to me as profoundly or directly as Joel Stein's Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity.

Haven't we all, on some level, been a Jewish boy in 1970s New Jersey with only female friends, an Easy-Bake oven and a strong predilection for show tunes? Haven't we all had a panic attack when learning we're going to have a son, since that means we're going to have to figure out how to throw footballs, watch other people throw footballs and decide whether to be happy or sad about the results of said football throwing? Haven't we all then tried to rectify our lack of masculinity by becoming a Boy Scout, fighting fires with firefighters, driving a Lamborghini Superleggera, doing three days of Army boot camp, firing a tank and going one round with UFC champion Randy Couture? I know I have.

Although Man Made won't be published until May 15, I have already reread it more than 30 times, and to the shock of my lovely wife Cassandra, who overheard me, I still laughed at all the jokes on the 30th read. The quality of the writing is so consistently great that to find my favorite section, all I need to do is turn to a random page and read it. Like this one: Isn't the entire point of being seen in a Lamborghini to get two women for a threesome? But--and here is the car's one major design flaw--there are only two seats. So I'd have to meet two women at a club, take one home, drive back to the club, and take the second one home. By then, the effect of the Lamborghini would have worn off on the first one, so I'd have to take her for a quick drive somewhere, thus de-Lamborghini-sexing the second one. The math just doesn't work out.

The only parts I didn't fully enjoy were those in which the author suffered horribly. Like when after just three hours of boot camp--which admittedly was in Kentucky in the summer and he'd slept only three hours and wasn't told not to lock his knees--he fainted daintily into the arms of a soldier. Or when UFC president Dana White insisted that Stein get choked out so he'd know what it feels like, and Stein faked nodding off, which caused White to get his psycho jujitsu-training friend to choke him out yet again, causing Stein to not be able to swallow his own spit that night. I really felt for him there.

It is clear from the book that Stein deeply loves his son, his wife, his combative father, his self-reliant father-in-law, his editor, his agent and every one of the people he meets in the course of his quest. Even that jujitsu guy who choked him out. I'm sure all those people will enjoy all the jokes that celebrate and do not mock them and will thank Stein for writing about them. Possibly with gifts of 2009 grand cru Bordeaux.

I admit I feared this book would be just a longer version of Stein's column in Time, which wouldn't be a bad thing given the awesomeness of that artistic endeavor. But it is much more. It's got occasional cursing. And bigger type. I also admit I was wary of reading yet another book that traffics in the differences between men and women. But Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is to Man Made what Fifty Shades of Grey is to having sex with Venus. Just to make that completely clear: Time magazine says reading Man Made is better than having sex with the Roman goddess Venus. Also, to be clear, TIME magazine is fine with that sentence appearing in any promotional materials for the book.

Are there books with deeper insights, better reporting, more important ideas and a better theme song? No, there are not. In Man Made, Stein does that amazing thing great writers do when they take all these ideas that were already in your head, put them on paper and then charge you $27 for that paper. Or put them on e-readers and charge you $13 to download. Either way, it counts equally toward the author's sales figures.

The film rights to Man Made have already been sold to Fox, and I hope it gets turned into a movie with George Clooney playing the Stein role, since they remind me so much of each other.

Though this is only Stein's first book, I would already put him on par with David Sedaris, Dave Barry, James Thurber, Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln. I have recommended Man Made not just to all my friends and family but also to strangers on Twitter, over and over and over again. My one fear is that after this great achievement, Stein will succumb to the soul-depleting self-promotion of book marketing and lose his ability to be a ruthless critic of our shallow times. Which is why, in case this is his only great book, I suggest buying one for yourself and one for your dad for Father's Day.

Mr Greg's English Cloud

Short Essay: My Favourite Book

A couple of short essay examples on my favourite book.

Table of Contents

My Favourite Book Essay Example 1

Books have a unique way of transporting the reader to a different world, and for me, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is one such book. This novel has been my favourite book for many years now. It explores various themes, including racial injustice, morality, and the loss of innocence. The characters in the novel are complex and well-developed, making it a must-read for anyone who loves literature. In this essay, I will discuss why “To Kill a Mockingbird” is my favourite book, and how it has impacted my life.

One of the most significant themes explored in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is racial injustice. The novel is set in the deep south of the United States during the 1930s, a time when racial segregation was rampant. The story follows the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. The way the trial is conducted and the verdict that is reached highlights the injustice that was prevalent during that time. Through the character of Atticus Finch, the novel shows the importance of standing up for what is right, even if it means going against societal norms. The theme of racial injustice is still relevant in today’s world, and “To Kill a Mockingbird” serves as a reminder of the need to fight against discrimination and prejudice.

Another theme explored in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is morality. The novel teaches valuable lessons about right and wrong, and the importance of empathy and understanding. Through the character of Atticus Finch, the novel shows the importance of treating everyone with respect and dignity, regardless of their race or social status. The novel also highlights the need for courage and integrity, even in the face of adversity. The moral lessons taught in the novel are essential for everyone, and they have impacted my life greatly.

One of the things that make “To Kill a Mockingbird” such an intriguing read is the complex characters that are well-developed. The character of Scout Finch, the narrator of the story, grows and matures throughout the novel, and her perspectives on life change as she gains more understanding of the world around her. Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, is a complex character who is respected in the community for his honesty and integrity. The novel also explores the character of Boo Radley, who is misunderstood by the community but is ultimately shown to be kind-hearted. The characters in the novel are relatable, and their stories stay with the reader long after the novel has ended.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is a timeless classic that has impacted many readers around the world. The novel explores themes of racial injustice, morality, and the loss of innocence, and the characters are complex and well-developed. The story teaches valuable lessons about right and wrong, and the importance of empathy and understanding. For me, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is more than just a book; it is a reminder of the need to stand up for what is right, and to treat everyone with respect and dignity.

My Favourite Book Essay Example 2

Reading has always been one of my favorite pastimes, and throughout the years, I have read countless books that have captured my heart and imagination. However, out of all the books I have read, one stands out as my absolute favorite – and that is “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. This book is a timeless classic that has touched the hearts of many, including myself. In this essay, I will be discussing the plot, the characters, and the themes explored in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

The plot of “To Kill a Mockingbird” is centered around the life of a young girl named Scout Finch and her family, who live in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930s. The main conflict of the story arises when Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer, is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white woman. Throughout the book, we see how Atticus, Scout, and her brother Jem navigate the racial tensions in their town, and how they fight against the prejudices of their neighbors. The resolution of the story is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching, as we see the consequences of the trial and the impact it has on the Finch family.

The characters in “To Kill a Mockingbird” are some of the most memorable and well-developed characters in all of literature. Scout, the protagonist, is a young girl who is both curious and innocent, and her growth throughout the story is both inspiring and relatable. Jem, her older brother, is a caring and protective sibling who is forced to confront the harsh realities of the world around him. And of course, Atticus Finch, the wise and compassionate lawyer who serves as a moral compass for the entire town. Each character in the book is unique and multi-dimensional, and their interactions with each other create a rich and complex narrative.

The themes explored in “To Kill a Mockingbird” are numerous and thought-provoking. One of the main themes is the exploration of racial inequality and prejudice in the American South during the 1930s. Through the lens of Scout and her family, we see the devastating effects of racism on both the black and white communities in Maycomb. Another important theme is the idea of personal growth and empathy. Throughout the story, we see how Scout and Jem learn to understand and appreciate the perspectives of others, and how their experiences shape their understanding of the world.

In conclusion, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a book that has stood the test of time and continues to be relevant today. Its powerful themes and memorable characters have captured the hearts and minds of readers for generations, and it remains one of the most influential books in American literature. For me, it is not just a favorite book, but a book that has shaped my understanding of the world and inspired me to be a better person.

My Favourite Book Essay Example 3

Books have always been an integral part of my life. They are a source of knowledge, entertainment, and inspiration. Among the numerous books that I have read, one stands out as my favorite, and that is “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Published in 1960, this novel has become a classic of modern American literature. It explores themes of racism, justice, and morality through the eyes of a young girl named Scout. In this essay, I will explain why this book is my favorite and why I recommend it to others.

“To Kill a Mockingbird” is my favorite book because of its powerful message against racism. The novel is set in the deep south of America in the 1930s, a time when racial discrimination was rampant. The story follows the life of Scout, a young girl growing up in a small town. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. The trial is a symbol of the deep-rooted racism in society and highlights the injustice that African Americans faced at the time. Through Scout’s innocent eyes, we see the reality of racism and its damaging effects on individuals and society as a whole.

Another reason why “To Kill a Mockingbird” is my favorite book is the well-developed characters. Each character is unique and has their own story to tell. Scout, the protagonist, is a feisty young girl who questions the world around her. Her brother Jem is a caring and protective sibling, while Atticus is a wise and compassionate father. The novel also features Boo Radley, a recluse who is misunderstood by the townspeople, and Tom Robinson, the black man who is wrongly accused of a crime he did not commit. The characters are so well-written that they come to life on the pages of the book, making the story both engaging and memorable.

Lastly, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is my favorite book because of its thought-provoking themes of morality and justice. The novel raises important questions about what is right and wrong, and how we should treat others. Atticus Finch’s character embodies the ideals of justice and fairness, and his words of wisdom have inspired many readers. The book also challenges the reader’s beliefs and values, making us reflect on our own attitudes towards race, prejudice, and discrimination.

In conclusion, “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a timeless classic that has touched the hearts of many readers. Its themes of racism, justice, and morality are still relevant today, and the characters are unforgettable. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the complexities of the human experience and the importance of empathy and compassion. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves literature and wants to be inspired by a great story.

About Mr. Greg

Mr. Greg is an English teacher from Edinburgh, Scotland, currently based in Hong Kong. He has over 5 years teaching experience and recently completed his PGCE at the University of Essex Online. In 2013, he graduated from Edinburgh Napier University with a BEng(Hons) in Computing, with a focus on social media.

Mr. Greg’s English Cloud was created in 2020 during the pandemic, aiming to provide students and parents with resources to help facilitate their learning at home.

Whatsapp: +85259609792

[email protected]

the book i have read essay

PrepScholar

Choose Your Test

Sat / act prep online guides and tips, how to write the perfect harvard essay: 3 expert tips.

author image

College Info , College Essays

feature_harvard_campus

Aiming for the world-renowned Harvard University? As part of the application to this prestigious Ivy League school , you'll have the option to submit a supplemental essay. But what should you write about for your Harvard essay? What are the different Harvard essay prompts to choose from, and how should you answer one so you can give yourself your best shot at getting in?

In this guide, we give you advice for each Harvard essay prompt as well as tips on whether you should choose a particular prompt. But before we look at the prompts, let's go over what Harvard actually requires in terms of essays.

Feature Image: Gregor Smith /Flickr

What Essays Do You Need to Submit to Harvard?

Those applying for admission to Harvard must submit an application through either the Common Application , the Coalition Application , or the Universal College Application (UCA) . For your Harvard application, you'll need to write a personal essay in response to one of the prompts provided by the Common App, Coalition App, or UCA (depending on the system you're applying through).

This essay is required for all applicants and should typically be about 500-550 words long (and must be less than 650 words). To learn more about this essay, check out the current prompts for the Common App , Coalition App , and UCA on their official websites.

In addition to this required essay, you have the option of submitting another essay as part of the Harvard supplement. The Harvard supplement essay, as it's known, is completely optional—you may, but do not need to, write this essay and submit it with your application.

Also, this essay also has no word limit, though if you do write it, it's best to stick to a typical college essay length (i.e., somewhere around 500 words).

Harvard advises applicants to submit this supplemental essay "if [they] feel that the college application forms do not provide sufficient opportunity to convey important information about [themselves] or [their] accomplishments."

Options for essay topics are very open ended, and you have a total of 10 topics from which you can choose (11 if you include the fact that you may also "write on a topic of your choice").

Here are the 2022-2023 Harvard supplement essay prompts :

You may write on a topic of your choice, or you may choose from one of the following topics:

Unusual circumstances in your life

Travel, living, or working experiences in your own or other communities

What you would want your future college roommate to know about you

  • An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you

How you hope to use your college education

A list of books you have read during the past twelve months

The Harvard College Honor code declares that we "hold honesty as the foundation of our community." As you consider entering this community that is committed to honesty, please reflect on a time when you or someone you observed had to make a choice about whether to act with integrity and honesty.

The mission of Harvard College is to educate our students to be citizens and citizen-leaders for society. What would you do to contribute to the lives of your classmates in advancing this mission?

Each year a substantial number of students admitted to Harvard defer their admission for one year or take time off during college. If you decided in the future to choose either option, what would you like to do?

Harvard has long recognized the importance of student body diversity of all kinds. We welcome you to write about distinctive aspects of your background, personal development or the intellectual interests you might bring to your Harvard classmates.

As you can see, some of these topics are more specific and focused, while others are more broad and open ended. When it comes down to it, though, should you write the Harvard supplement essay, or should you skip it altogether?

body_choice_choice

Should You Do the Harvard Supplement Essay?

You're already required to submit a personal essay for your Harvard application—so do you really need to submit an extra essay? In reality, opinions are mixed on whether you should write the Harvard supplement essay or not.

While some people are under the impression that this essay is basically mandatory and that your chances of getting into Harvard without it are slim. Others believe that submitting it (especially if you don't have anything particularly impressive or interesting to write about) is simply a waste of time.

So which is it? In general, if you have the opportunity to submit something that you think will only strengthen your college application, definitely do it. By doing this essay, you'll add more flavor to your application and showcase a different side of your personality.

Indeed, in his review of his successful Harvard application , PrepScholar co-founder and Harvard alum Allen Cheng strongly recommends writing this extra essay. He also notes that it's likely that most Harvard applicants do , in fact, submit the supplemental essay (as he himself did).

But it's worth stating again: this essay is not required for admission to Harvard. Whether you submit a Harvard supplement essay is entirely up to you—though I highly recommend doing it!

If you're really struggling to decide whether to do the extra Harvard essay or not, ask yourself the following questions:

  • Do you consider yourself a strong writer? Are there people you trust who could edit and proofread your essay for you?
  • Are you worried about other parts of your Harvard application that could negatively affect your chance of admission , such as below-average SAT/ACT scores, a low GPA, etc.?
  • Do you feel that you didn't get to write about something you really wanted to for the required essay?
  • Is there something you believe the admissions committee should know about you that you haven't gotten a chance to write about yet?
  • Do you have enough time to dedicate to writing and polishing another essay?
  • Do you think your overall Harvard application is too one-sided or too focused on one aspect of your personality and/or interests? Could your application benefit from more diversity and balance?

Hopefully, by answering these questions, you'll start to have a clearer idea as to whether you will write the Harvard supplement essay or not.

body_type_typewriter

How to Write the Harvard Essay: Every Prompt Analyzed

In this section, we go through the 10 possible Harvard supplement essay prompts and offer you tips on how to write an effective, powerful essay, regardless of which prompt you choose.

Prompt 1: Unusual Circumstances

This essay prompt is all about highlighting an unusual situation or event in your life and what kind of impact it ultimately had on you. Harvard asks for this in case applicants want to discuss anything significant that has happened to them and has had a major influence on their academic accomplishments, future goals, perspectives, etc.

This is also an opportunity for applicants to discuss any major struggles they have had (that most students their age haven't had) and the way these experiences have personally affected their lives. 

Should You Choose This Prompt?

If you grew up with an uncommon lifestyle or had an uncommon experience that you believe had a strong effect on you, this is a good prompt to choose for your essay. For example, perhaps you grew up speaking four languages fluently, or you were the youngest of fourteen children.

This is also an ideal prompt to choose if you want to provide more background information for a weak point in your application. For instance, say you contracted a serious illness during your sophomore year, and your many absences caused your GPA to drop. You could then write about how you approached this problem head-on, and how working with a tutor every day after school to raise your GPA ultimately revealed to you an inner strength you never knew you had.

Tips for Answering This Prompt

  • Choose an experience or situation that is actually uncommon. This doesn't mean that no one else in the world could have it, but try to focus on something that's unique and has had a big impact on your personal growth. As an example, although many teenagers were raised by a single parent, only you grew up with your parent, so concentrate on how this person as well as the overall situation helped to shape your personality and goals.
  • If you're writing about something that was challenging for you, don't just conclude that the experience was difficult. What specifically have you learned or taken away from it? Why is it important for the Harvard admissions committee to know this? For instance, say you had to move six times in just two years. You could write that although it was difficult adjusting to a new school each time you moved, you eventually started to enjoy meeting people and getting to explore new places. As a result of these experiences, you now have a lot more confidence when it comes to adapting to unfamiliar situations.

body_travel_luggage

Prompt 2: Travel, Living, or Work Experiences

This prompt is asking you to discuss experiences you've had that involved traveling, living, and/or working in a specific community (either your own or another) and what kind of effect that experience has had on you.

Here are examples of experiences you could talk about for this essay:

  • Living or traveling abroad
  • Moving to a new place or living in multiple places
  • Working a part-time job
  • Working a temporary job or internship somewhere outside your own community

If you've had an experience that fits or mostly fits one of the examples above and it's had a big impact on how you see and define yourself as a person, this is a solid prompt for you.

On the other hand, do not choose this prompt if you've never had a significant experience while traveling or working/living somewhere.

  • Choose a truly significant experience to talk about. Although your experience doesn't need to be life-changing, it should have had a noteworthy impact on you and who you've become. If, for example, you traveled to Mexico with your family but didn't really enjoy or learn much from the trip, it's better to avoid writing about this experience (and might be better to choose a different prompt altogether!).
  • Make sure to talk about how this travel/living/work experience has affected you. For example, say you spent a couple of summers in high school visiting relatives in South Africa. You could write about how these trips helped you develop a stronger sense of independence and self-sufficiency—traits which have made you more assertive, especially when it comes to leading group projects and giving speeches.
  • Don't be afraid to get creative with this essay. For instance, if you lived in a country where you at first didn't understand the local language, you could open your Harvard essay with an anecdote, such as a conversation you overheard or a funny miscommunication.

body_college_roommates

Prompt 3: Your Future College Roommate

Unlike some of the other more traditional Harvard essay prompts on this list, this prompt is a little more casual and really lends itself to a creative approach.

For this prompt, you're writing an essay that's more of a letter to your future college roommate (remember, however, that it's actually being read by the Harvard admissions committee!). You'll introduce who you are by going over the key traits and characteristics that make you you —in other words, personality traits, eccentricities, flaws, or strengths that you believe are critical for someone (i.e., Harvard) to know about you.

This Harvard essay prompt is all about creativity and describing yourself—not a specific event or circumstance—so it's well suited for those who are skilled at clearly and creatively expressing themselves through writing.

  • Focus on your unique attributes. Since you're describing yourself in this essay, you'll need to concentrate on introducing the most unique and interesting aspects about yourself (that you also think a roommate would want or need to know). What's your daily routine? Do you have any funny or strange habits or quirks? How did you develop these characteristics?
  • Be true to your voice and don't pretend to be someone you're not. Don't say that you're always telling jokes if you're normally a very serious person. Describe yourself honestly, but don't feel as though you must tell every little detail about yourself, either.
  • Strike a balance: don't focus only on the positives or negatives. You want to come across as a strong applicant, but you also want to be realistic and authentic (you're human, after all!). Therefore, try to find balance by writing about not only your strengths and positive attributes but also your quirks and flaws. For instance, you could mention how you always used to run late when meeting up with friends, but how you've recently started working on getting better at this by setting an alarm on your iPhone.

body_student_reading_book-1

Prompt 4: An Intellectual Experience

An intellectual experience (course, project, book, discussion, paper, poetry, or research topic in engineering, mathematics, science or other modes of inquiry) that has meant the most to you.

With this prompt, Harvard wants you to focus on an intellectual or learning experience that's had a big impact on you in terms of your personal growth, your academic/intellectual interests and passions, the field of study you want to pursue, etc.

This intellectual experience could be anything that's intellectually stimulating, such as an essay or book you read, a poem you analyzed, or a research project you conducted.

Note that this experience does not need to be limited to something you did for school —if you've done anything in your spare time or for an extracurricular activity that you think fits this prompt, feel free to write about that.

Should You Choose This Topic?

This is a good prompt to choose if a certain intellectual experience motivated you or triggered an interest in something you really want to study at Harvard.

For example, you could write about how you found an old copy of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species at a garage sale, and how reading this prompted you to develop an interest in biology, which you now intend to major in and eventually make a career out of.

This is also an ideal prompt to pick if you want to highlight a particular interest or passion you have that differs from the academic field you want to study in college.

For instance, perhaps you're applying for admission as a computer science major, but you're also a huge fan of poetry and often take part in local poetry readings. Writing about a poem you recently read and analyzed could illuminate to the admissions committees a different, less prominent side of your personality and intellectual interests, ultimately showing that you're open minded and invested in gaining both new skills and experiences.

  • Choose an experience that had a significant impact on you. Don't talk about how reading Romeo and Juliet in eighth grade made you realize how much you enjoyed writing plays if you were already writing plays way before then! If you can't think of any memorable intellectual experience to write about, then it's best to opt for a different prompt.
  • Be specific about the intellectual experience you had and clearly relate it back to your strengths and interests. In other words, what kind of impact did this experience have on you? Your academic goals? Your future plans? For example, instead of writing about how a scientific paper on climate change made you think more deeply about the environment, you could talk about how this paper prompted you to form a recycling program at your school, take a class on marine biology, and so forth.

body_live_your_dream

Prompt 5: Your Future Goals

This Harvard essay prompt is pretty self-explanatory: it wants you to discuss how you intend to use your education at Harvard after you graduate —so in a future job or career, in grad school, in a particular research field, etc.

Basically, how will your college education help you achieve your future goals (whatever those may be)?

If you have a pretty clear vision for your future goals during and after college, this is a perfect prompt to choose for your Harvard essay.

If, on the other hand, you're still undecided about the field(s) you want to study or how you intend to use your major, you might want to choose a different prompt that's less focused on your future and more concentrated on how past events and experiences have shaped you as a person.

  • Be careful when talking about your future goals. You don't want to come off too idealistic, but you also don't want to sound too broad or you'll come across unfocused and ambivalent. Try to strike a balance in how you discuss your future dreams so that they're both attainable and specific.
  • Clearly connect your goals back to your current self and what you've accomplished up until this point. You want to make it clear that your goals are actually attainable, specifically with a Harvard education. If you say you hope to start your own interior design business after graduation but are planning to major in biology, you're only going to confuse the admissions committee!
  • Emphasize any ways Harvard specifically will help you attain your academic goals. For example, is there a club you hope to join that could connect you with other students? Or is there a particular professor you want to work with? Don't just throw in names of clubs and people but specifically explain how these resources will help you reach your goals. In short, show Harvard that what they can offer you is exactly what you need to succeed.

body_student_pile_of_books-1

Prompt 6: List of Books

Of all Harvard essay prompts, this one is by far the most unique.

Here, you're asked to simply list the books you've read in the past year. This essay is more than just a list, though—it's a brief overview of where your intellectual interests lie. These books may include works of fiction or nonfiction, essays, collections of poetry, etc.

Have you read a lot of diverse and interesting books in the past year? Are you an avid reader who loves dissecting books and essays? Do you enjoy a creative approach to college essays? If you answered yes to these questions, then this prompt is a perfect fit for you.

Even if you haven't read a ton of books this past year, if you were especially intrigued by some or all of what you did read, you could certainly use this prompt for your essay.

  • Instead of just listing the titles of books you've read, you might want to include a short sentence or two commenting on your reaction to the book, your analysis of it, why you enjoyed or didn't enjoy it, etc., after each title. Be sure to vary up your comments so that you're highlighting different aspects of your personality. Also, don't just regurgitate analyses you've read online or that your teacher has said—try to come up with your own thoughts and interpretations.
  • Don't feel the need to stick to only the most "impressive" books you read. The Harvard admissions committee wants to see your personality, not that of a pretentious applicant who claims to have only read Jane Austen and Ernest Hemingway. Be honest: if you read Twilight in a day, why not make a short joke about how addictive it was?
  • Go beyond a chronological list of books. It'll be far more interesting if you list the books you read in a more unique way. For example, you could organize titles by theme or in the order of how much you enjoyed them.

body_right_wrong

Prompt 7: Honesty

As you can see with this quotation, Harvard strongly values honesty and integrity. Therefore, if you go with this prompt, you're essentially telling Harvard that you, too, embody a powerful sense of morality and honesty.

  • Was there a specific time in your life when you had to make a difficult choice to be honest about something with someone?
  • Could this incident be considered morally ambiguous? In other words, was the "right thing to do" somewhat of a gray area?
  • If you didn't make the "right" choice at the time, how did you come to terms with or learn from this decision? What were the consequences, and what did this experience teach you about your own morals and how you value honesty?
  • Be wary of the topic you choose to write about. Don't discuss a situation in which you did something obviously unethical or, worse, illegal. These types of situations are very black and white and therefore don't pose much of a moral dilemma. Additionally, talking about such an experience might make you seem dishonest and immoral, which you absolutely do not want Harvard to think about you!
  • Try to find a topic that isn't black and white. Choosing "gray" incidents will help emphasize why the choice was so difficult for you and also why it's affected you in this way. For example, say your friend calls you crying right before you have to leave to take the SAT. Do you skip the test to comfort your friend, or do you hang up and leave? This kind of situation does not have an evident "right" answer, making it an ideal one to use for this essay.
  • You could also discuss a time when you did not make the "right" choice—and what you learned from that mistake. As long as you look closely at why you made the "wrong" choice and what this incident taught you about integrity, your essay will be interesting and relevant.

body_chess_queen_knight

Prompt 8: Citizens and Citizen-Leaders

This prompt might sound a little vague, but all it wants to know is how you'll have a positive impact on both your classmates and on other people after graduation. Put simply, what kind of leader/citizen will you be at Harvard? After you graduate from college and enter the real world?

This prompt is similar to Prompt 5 in that it wants to know what kind of person you'll become after you leave college and how you'll positively influence society.

If you're a natural-born leader and have had at least a few significant experiences with leading or facilitating things such as club activities, field trips, volunteer efforts, and so on, then this Harvard essay prompt would be a great fit for you.

  • Focus on a time when you led others and it resulted in a positive outcome. For instance, you could write about your position as team captain on your school's soccer team and how you would gather your teammates before each game to offer words of encouragement and advice on how to improve. You could then describe how your team began to perform better in games due to clearer communication and a stronger sense of sportsmanship. Make sure to answer the critical question: how did you lead and what ultimately made your leadership style successful?
  • Discuss what kind of role your leadership skills will have at both Harvard and after you graduate. The prompt is asking about your classmates, so you must specifically address how your leadership skills will contribute to the lives of your peers. How will your past experiences with leading help you approach group projects, for example? Or clubs you join?
  • Make sure to mention how you'll be a good citizen, too. By "citizen," Harvard essentially means a productive member of both the school and society in general. Basically, how have you contributed to the betterment of society? This is a good place to talk about experiences in which you played a crucial supporting role; for instance, maybe you helped out with a local volunteer initiative to feed the homeless, or maybe you joined a community project to build a new park in your town.

body_road_travel

Prompt 9: Taking Time Off

Here, you're being asked what you plan to do with your time if you decide to defer your admission to Harvard or take time off during college. For example, will you travel the world? Work a full-time job? Do an internship? Take care of a sick relative?

Obviously, Harvard doesn't want to read that all you're going to do is relax and play video games all day, so make sure to think carefully about what your actual plans are and, more importantly, how these plans will benefit you as a person and as a student.

Only choose this Harvard essay prompt if you're pretty certain you'll be taking time off from college at some point (either before or during) and you have a relatively concrete idea of what you want to do during that time.

  • Be specific and honest about your plans. While many students like to take time off to travel the world, you don't just want to write, "I plan to backpack Europe and learn about cultures." Think critically about your desires: why do you want to do this and how will this experience help you grow as a person? Don't just reiterate what you think Harvard wants to hear—be transparent about why you feel you need this time off from school to accomplish this goal.
  • Be clear about why you must do this at this particular time. In other words, why do you think this (i.e., before or during college) is the right time to do whatever it is you plan to do? Is it something you can (or must) do at this exact time, such as a one-time internship that won't be offered again?

body_yellow_umbrella

Prompt 10: Diversity

This final Harvard essay prompt is all about what you can bring to campus that will positively contribute to student diversity. Though we tend to think of race/ethnicity when using the word "diversity," you can actually interpret this word in a number of ways.

As a large and prestigious institution, Harvard strongly values students who have different and unique backgrounds and experiences, so it's important for them to admit students who embody these values as well.

This prompt is essentially a version of the diversity essay , which we talk about in more detail in our guide.

The main question to ask yourself before choosing this prompt is this: do you have a unique background or interest you can write about?

Here are some key types of diversity you can discuss (note that this is not an exhaustive list!):

  • Your ethnicity or race
  • A unique interest, passion, hobby, or skill you have
  • Your family or socioeconomic background
  • Your religion
  • Your cultural group
  • Your sex or gender/gender identity
  • Your opinions or values
  • Your sexual orientation

If any of these topics stand out to you and you can easily come up with a specific characteristic or experience to discuss for your essay, then this is a solid prompt to consider answering.

  • Choose a personal characteristic that's had a large impact on your identity. Don't talk about your family's religion if it's had little or no impact on how you see and define yourself. Instead, concentrate on the most significant experiences or skills in your life. If you play the theremin every day and have a passion for music because of it, this would be a great skill to write about in your essay.
  • Be clear about how your unique characteristic has affected your life and growth. You don't just want to introduce the experience/skill and leave it at that. How has it molded you into the person you are today? How has it influenced your ambitions and goals?
  • Be sure to tie this characteristic back to the diversity at Harvard. Basically, how will your experience/skill/trait positively influence the Harvard student body? For example, if you come from a specific cultural group, how do you believe this will positively impact other students?

the book i have read essay

Want to get into Harvard or your personal top choice college?

We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world's best admissions consulting service. We combine world-class admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies . We've overseen thousands of students get into their top choice schools , from state colleges to the Ivy League.

Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your chance of getting in.

Get Into Your Top Choice School

A Real Harvard Essay Example

Our resident full SAT / ACT scorer and co-founder of PrepScholar, Allen Cheng , applied to, got into, and attended Harvard—and he's posted his own Harvard supplement essay for you to look at. You can read all about Allen's essay in his analysis of his successful Harvard application .

Allen describes his essay as "probably neutral to [his Harvard] application, not a strong net positive or net negative," so it's important to note that this Harvard essay example is not representative of exactly what you should do in your own Harvard supplement essay. Rather, we're showing it to you to give you a taste of how you could approach the Harvard essay and to demonstrate the kinds of simple mistakes you should avoid.

body_typing_computer_essay

Writing a Memorable Harvard Essay: 3 Tips

To wrap up, here are three tips to keep in mind as you write your Harvard supplement essay.

#1: Use an Authentic Voice

Having a clear, unique, and authentic voice is the key to making yourself stand apart from other applicants in your Harvard application—and to ensuring you're leaving a long-lasting impression on the admissions committee.

Therefore, write your essay in the way that comes most naturally to you, and talk about the things that actually matter to you. For example, if you love puns, throwing one or two puns into your essay will emphasize your goofier, non-academic side.

Using your voice here is important because it humanizes your application. The essay is the only chance you get to show the admissions committee who you are and what you actually sound like, so don't pretend to be someone you're not!

The only thing to look out for is using too much slang or sounding too casual. In the end, this is still a college essay, so you don't want to come off sounding rude, disrespectful, or immature.

In addition, don't exaggerate any experiences or emotions. The Harvard admissions committee is pretty good at their job—they read thousands of applications each year!—so they'll definitely be able to tell if you're making a bigger deal out of something than you should be. Skip the hyperbole and stick to what you know.

Ultimately, your goal should be to strike a balance so that you're being true to yourself while also showcasing your intelligence and talents.

#2: Get Creative

Harvard is one of the most difficult schools to get into (it only has about a 4% acceptance rate! ), so you'll need to make sure your essay is really, really attention-grabbing. In short, get creative with it!

As you write your personal essay, recall the classic saying: show, don't tell. This means that you should rely more on description and imagery than on explanation.

For example, instead of writing, "I became more confident after participating in the debate club," you might write, "The next time I went onstage for a debate, my shoulders didn't shake as much; my lips didn't quiver; and my heart only beat 100 times instead of 120 times per minute."

Remember that your essay is a story about yourself, so make sure it's interesting to read and will ultimately be memorable to your readers.

#3: Edit and Proofread a Lot

My final tip is to polish your essay by editing and proofreading it a lot. This means you should look it over not once, not twice, but several times.

Here's the trick to editing it: once you've got a rough draft of your essay finished, put it away for a few days or a week or two. Don't look at it all during this time —you want to give yourself some distance so that you can look at your essay later with a fresh perspective.

After you've waited, read over your essay again, noting any mistakes in spelling, grammar, and/or punctuation. Take care to also note any awkward wording, unclear areas, or irrelevant ideas. Ask yourself: is there anything you should add? Delete? Expand?

Once you've done this step several times and have a (nearly) final draft ready to turn in, give your essay to someone you can trust, such as a teacher, parent, or mentor. Have them look it over and offer feedback on tone, voice, theme, style, etc. In addition, make sure that they check for any glaring grammatical or technical errors.

Once all of this is done, you'll have a well-written, polished Harvard essay ready to go— one that'll hopefully get you accepted!

body-whats-next-big-thing-sign

What's Next?

If you've got questions about other parts of the Harvard application, check out our top guide to learn what you'll need to submit to get into the prestigious Ivy League school .

How tough is it to get into Harvard? To other selective universities ? For answers, read our expert guide on how to get into Harvard and the Ivy League , written by an actual Harvard alum!

What's the average SAT score of admitted Harvard applicants? The average ACT score? The average GPA? Learn all this and more by visiting our Harvard admissions requirements page .

the book i have read essay

Want to write the perfect college application essay? Get professional help from PrepScholar.

Your dedicated PrepScholar Admissions counselor will craft your perfect college essay, from the ground up. We'll learn your background and interests, brainstorm essay topics, and walk you through the essay drafting process, step-by-step. At the end, you'll have a unique essay that you'll proudly submit to your top choice colleges.

Don't leave your college application to chance. Find out more about PrepScholar Admissions now :

Craft Your Perfect College Essay

Hannah received her MA in Japanese Studies from the University of Michigan and holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Southern California. From 2013 to 2015, she taught English in Japan via the JET Program. She is passionate about education, writing, and travel.

Student and Parent Forum

Our new student and parent forum, at ExpertHub.PrepScholar.com , allow you to interact with your peers and the PrepScholar staff. See how other students and parents are navigating high school, college, and the college admissions process. Ask questions; get answers.

Join the Conversation

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Improve With Our Famous Guides

  • For All Students

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 160+ SAT Points

How to Get a Perfect 1600, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 800 on Each SAT Section:

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading

Score 800 on SAT Writing

Series: How to Get to 600 on Each SAT Section:

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading

Score 600 on SAT Writing

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

What SAT Target Score Should You Be Aiming For?

15 Strategies to Improve Your SAT Essay

The 5 Strategies You Must Be Using to Improve 4+ ACT Points

How to Get a Perfect 36 ACT, by a Perfect Scorer

Series: How to Get 36 on Each ACT Section:

36 on ACT English

36 on ACT Math

36 on ACT Reading

36 on ACT Science

Series: How to Get to 24 on Each ACT Section:

24 on ACT English

24 on ACT Math

24 on ACT Reading

24 on ACT Science

What ACT target score should you be aiming for?

ACT Vocabulary You Must Know

ACT Writing: 15 Tips to Raise Your Essay Score

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

Is the ACT easier than the SAT? A Comprehensive Guide

Should you retake your SAT or ACT?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Stay Informed

the book i have read essay

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Looking for Graduate School Test Prep?

Check out our top-rated graduate blogs here:

GRE Online Prep Blog

GMAT Online Prep Blog

TOEFL Online Prep Blog

Holly R. "I am absolutely overjoyed and cannot thank you enough for helping me!”

Welcome Guest!

  • IELTS Listening
  • IELTS Reading
  • IELTS Writing
  • IELTS Writing Task 1
  • IELTS Writing Task 2
  • IELTS Speaking
  • IELTS Speaking Part 1
  • IELTS Speaking Part 2
  • IELTS Speaking Part 3
  • IELTS Practice Tests
  • IELTS Listening Practice Tests
  • IELTS Reading Practice Tests
  • IELTS Writing Practice Tests
  • IELTS Speaking Practice Tests
  • All Courses
  • IELTS Online Classes
  • OET Online Classes
  • PTE Online Classes
  • CELPIP Online Classes
  • Free Live Classes
  • Australia PR
  • Germany Job Seeker Visa
  • Austria Job Seeker Visa
  • Sweden Job Seeker Visa
  • Study Abroad
  • Student Testimonials
  • Our Trainers
  • IELTS Webinar
  • Immigration Webinar

ielts-material

Describe a book you have recently read – IELTS Cue Card Sample Answers

Janet

Updated On Sep 18, 2023

the book i have read essay

Share on Whatsapp

Share on Email

Share on Linkedin

Describe a book you have recently read – IELTS Cue Card Sample Answers

Limited-Time Offer : Access a FREE 10-Day IELTS Study Plan!

This article contains the Describe a book you have recently read Cue Card Sample Answers.

During Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test, you will have exactly one minute to prepare and speak on a specific topic. This is the IELTS cue card task. You can learn how to communicate clearly and successfully by reviewing sample answers.

This IELTS cue card gives you an opportunity to share one of your opinions about a book you have recently read.

Practise IELTS Speaking Part 2 by referencing the Cue Card Sample Answers below.

Before you start, take a look at the introduction to Speaking Part 2 below!

Learn How to Prepare a Cue Card now!

Describe a book you read

You should say:

  • Who wrote this book?
  • What it is about?
  • When you read it?
  • And explain why you liked it.

Sample Answer 1

Being a bibliophile, I try my best to complete at least one book a week. Earlier, I used to read 4-5 books a month. However, gradually, the numbers declined as I got held up in other important tasks. So, with the new year, I have taken a resolution to finish a minimum of 2 books a month. Having said that, I spent the last week reading A Bend in the Road by Nicholas Sparks.

The main protagonists of this book are Miles Ryan and Sarah Andrews. The former loses his wife to a hit-and-run accident. After going through a tough time in his life and spending two years trying to find the person behind this accident, Miles begins dating his son – Jonah’s – teacher, Sarah Andrews.

With time, their relationship turns stronger, and they fall deeply in love with each other. However, Miles comes across new evidence pertaining to the death of his wife. And, this person is somehow related to Sarah.

This is a romantic novel that showcases the attributes of love, sacrifice, and letting go. I like the way the author described diverse emotions keenly and precisely. Also, I liked the way of writing that the author put forth in this book.

Sample Answer 2

On a Saturday evening, I was lying down with this book called “ Tell me your dreams” by Sidney Sheldon. Thanks to the maid, who served hot tea.

The book had an irresistible start. Initially, it describes three women, their love life and the mysterious ways in which their lovers are killed. After some time, the plot becomes gripping. It is revealed that they are three personalities of the same woman, Ashley, who suffered from multiple personality disorder and had murdered the men mercilessly.

Later, it is revealed that Ashley had a traumatic childhood which caused her to create these identities. Ashley is represented by a lawyer friend of her father. The court finally accepts that it was Ashley’s condition that made her kill and orders psychiatric treatment. She gets treated in the hospital and regains sanity.

The book has revealed an episode in the life of a psychiatrically affected person. It gave me an insight into the lives of women experiencing wounding disturbances in their childhood. Infact, when I come across news about murders, especially when the charges are against a lady, I suspect whether the woman is really guilty. The book cast such an effect on me.

  • Grant: agree to give or allow (something requested) to.  Eg: He was granted permission to take leave
  • Curious: interested in learning about people or things around you Eg: Rose was curious about her results. 
  • Impulsively: without forethought; on impulse; suddenly.  Eg: Rose impulsively decided to buy the diamond necklace. 
  • Found out: discover something or come to know about something.  Eg: The treasure box hidden in the backyard was found out. 
  • Novelty: the quality of being new, original, or unusual Eg: The tourists are still a novelty on this remote island
  • In hindsight: the ability to understand an event or situation only after it has happened Eg: In hindsight, I should have taken the job offer. 

Related Cue Cards:

  • An educational trip
  • Describe something interesting you learned from the internet
  • Interesting Conversation
  • Describe a piece of good news that you heard or received

Explore More Interesting Cue cards >>

ielts img

Start Preparing for IELTS: Get Your 10-Day Study Plan Today!

Janet

Janet had been an IELTS Trainer before she dived into the field of Content Writing. During her days of being a Trainer, Janet had written essays and sample answers which got her students an 8+ band in the IELTS Test. Her contributions to our articles have been engaging and simple to help the students understand and grasp the information with ease. Janet, born and brought up in California, had no idea about the IELTS until she moved to study in Canada. Her peers leaned to her for help as her first language was English.

Explore other Cue Cards

Describe Something You Liked Very Much  Which You Bought For Your Home – IELTS Cue Card

Raajdeep Saha

What Do you Like to Wear on Special Occasions – IELTS Cue Card

Kasturika Samanta

Describe a Small Business That you Would Like to Open – IELTS Cue Card

Janice Thompson

A time when someone apologized to you – IELTS Cue Card Sample Answers

Post your Comments

the book i have read essay

Posted on May 1, 2021

If you are going for finest contents like myself, only pay a quick visit this site daily because it presents feature contents, thanks

Recent Articles

Describe a time when you were very afraid – IELTS Cue Card

Ruben Smith

Our Offices

Gurgaon city scape, gurgaon bptp.

Step 1 of 3

Great going .

Get a free session from trainer

Have you taken test before?

Please select any option

Get free eBook to excel in test

Please enter Email ID

Get support from an Band 9 trainer

Please enter phone number

Already Registered?

Select a date

Please select a date

Select a time (IST Time Zone)

Please select a time

Mark Your Calendar: Free Session with Expert on

Which exam are you preparing?

Great Going!

English Compositions

Short Essay on the Book I Like the Most [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF 

Our today’s session is going to be focused on writing short essays on the topic of ‘The Book I Like The Most.’ There will be three sets of short essays on the same topic covering different word limits. 

Feature image of Short Essay on the Book I Like the Most

Short Essay on the Book I Like the Most in 100 Words

Out of all the books that I have read, the one I like the most is Ramayana. Ramayana is a Hindu epic that tells the story of Lord Rama. The story starts with Rama’s father, Dasharatha, who was the King of Ayodhya and his three wives. Later Lord Rama is born and the story follows him as he grows up, gets married, is exiled and has to fight various demons and evil creatures.

The main part of the story is where Lord Rama fights the Demon King, Ravana and defeats him. He then returns to his kingdom and rules over the people as a moral and just ruler. This sacred epic written in ancient times teaches us a lot about life. 

Short Essay on the Book I Like the Most in 200 Words

Books have the power to fuel our imagination, provide us with knowledge about the outside world and improve our intellect. I love to read books. Reading books also boosts our memory and improves our reading, writing and speaking skills. I have read many fictional and non-fictional books, but the book I like the most is our former president, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam’s autobiography, ‘Wings of fire’. The book covers his life story before he became the president of India.

In the book, Dr Kalam talks about his childhood, his early life, his family and the struggles they had to go through to make ends meet. He talks about his journey from being a small village boy in Tamil Nadu to becoming a leading scientist in Indian space research, nuclear and missile development programs.

His story is indeed inspiring and proves that one can achieve all their dreams if one is sincere and are determined to work hard and persevere. The book also highlights the importance of family in the life of a person and how their support can help one realize even their seemingly impossible dreams. 

I have read the book multiple times and it has always left me feeling motivated and filled with determination to chase my dreams. It is indeed an amazing book. 

Short Essay on the Book I Like the Most in 400 Words

Books are often referred to as a man’s best friend. They are loyal companions capable of uplifting our moods and providing us with a safe space. Books contain a vast amount of knowledge and information and have helped us evolve in many ways.

Books have the power to fuel our imagination, provide us with knowledge about almost everything and improve our intellect. Reading books also boosts our memory and improves our reading, writing and speaking skills. That is why children are always encouraged to read from a young age. 

I love to read books and I grew up reading a variety of books, some fiction and others non-fictional. Fairy tales were my favourite. Reading about the different types of fairies, fairy godmothers, kind princesses, evil queens, witches and wizards was magical in itself. I also liked to read mythological books and found the tales from Greek and Roman mythologies pretty interesting.

As I grew up, my interest shifted to non-fictional books like biographies and autobiographies of famous people as well as memoirs and scientific journals. However, throughout the years, there is one series of books that has remained my favourite and that is the Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling. 

When I was eight years old, I received the first book of the Harry Potter series, ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s stone’, as a birthday present from my aunt. I was delighted. That book introduced me to a whole new world – a world full of magical beings. As I read the book, my mind conjured up images of what that world might look like and my imagination exploded.

The book made me feel a range of emotions. I cried reading about Harry’s suffering. I smiled when Hagrid saved Harry. I felt so happy when Harry, Ron and Hermione became friends and I sat there holding my breath as the end approached. 

After I finished the first book, I couldn’t wait to buy the following ones. However, even to this day, the first book holds a special place in my heart. Harry Potter books introduced us to the wizarding world and its workings. They taught us about friendship, about having fun as well as working hard. They also taught us that no matter how strong the evil force is, the good always wins in the end. 

I also have many other books that I like. Some of them are ‘Wings of fire’ and ‘Ignited minds’ by Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, ‘Gitanjali’ by Rabindranath Tagore, “To kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee and ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Bronte.

 I have adopted a very simplistic approach to writing these essays for a better understanding of all kinds of students. If you still have any doubts regarding this session, post them in the comment section below. Join our Telegram channel to get the latest updates on our upcoming sessions. Thank you for being with us, 

More from English Compositions

  • 100, 200, 400 Words Paragraph and Short Essay [With PDF]
  • Short Essay on Ram Navami [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF
  • Short Essay on Books Are Our Best Companions [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF
  • Madhyamik English Writing Suggestion 2022 [With PDF]
  • Write a Letter of Complaint to a Book Dealer for the Delay in the Delivery of Books
  • [FREE PDF] Two Stories about Flying MCQs | CBSE Class 10 English Chapter 3 [TERM 1]
  • Write a Letter to Your Friend to Share about a Book Which You Have Read Recently
  • Write a Letter to the Editor on the Topic Books are the Best Companions
  • Short Essay on Pleasure of Reading [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF
  • Short Essay on Diwali [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF
  • [FREE PDF] From The Diary Of Anne Frank MCQs | CBSE Class 10 English Chapter 4 [TERM 1]
  • Write a Letter to Your Father Asking for Money to Buy Books in English [With PDF]

ieltsxpress logo

Talk About a Book You Read Recently IELTS Cue Card

Talk about a book you read recently ielts cue card topic.

Talk about a book that you have read recently. Please say

What was its title? Who is the author? What did you learn from it?

And explain why you liked or disliked it.

You should say:

  • what the book is
  • who wrote the book
  • what the book is about

and explain how much you enjoyed reading this book.

Note:  You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you are going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.

Practice with Expert IELTS Tutors Online

Apply Code "IELTSXPRESS20" To Get 20% off on IELTS Mock Test

Sample Answer 1:

Describe a book you have read recently – The Fortunate Pilgrim

The book I have recently finished and enjoyed so much is called “The Fortunate Pilgrim”, and I would like to talk about it for this topic.

It is a novel by Mario Puzo which was first published in the year 1965. The writer Mario Puzo is well-known for his famous mafia book “The Godfather”. He, nevertheless, received numerous positive reviews for his book “The Fortunate Pilgrim”. The writer had developed the story of this novel based on his mother’s immigration struggling for respectability in the United States. Mario Puzo himself considered this novel to be his finest though Godfather earned him much more fame and earning.

The novel tells the story of an immigrant family living in New York City. The mother of the family, Lucia Santa is the protagonist of it. It is her formidable will that steers the family members through the Great Depression and early years of World War II. The story, events, and the characters become so real that the readers can’t stop wondering about them even when they are not reading. The writer had been able to tell an ordinary story extraordinarily. It makes us feel and relate the characters, their happiness, sorrows and sufferings in our lives, and that’s why the characters and stories got the power to keep readers awake the whole night. Mario Puzo has shown literacy excellence in this story and it will keep on surprising readers in the coming decades.

I liked the book very much and finished it within 3 days. I have always been a great admirer of Puzo’s writing style, and “The Fortunate Pilgrim” was a bit different from his famous mafia books. It touches the reader’s mind, keeps them wondering and tells them an amazing story. So, I had every valid reason to enjoy this book to a great extent.

Sample Answer 2:

Describe a book you have read recently – The Wings of Fire

It is a well-known fact that books are best friends. Some people get motivated while reading books, and others read to drain the stress and anxiety. I am an avid reader, and out of all the books I’ve read, the one which I loved was ‘The Wings of Fire’ by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

My sister gifted me the book on my birthday as she knew that I was fond of reading autobiographies. And this book by Dr. Kalam had a great influence on me and still inspires me, and I began devouring it on the same day. The book explains how Kalam started his career and became the best rocket Engineer.

The book is about his journey, accomplishments, and about he managed to overcome his obstacles. He describes his presidential post as a piece of luck, and his achievement as a rocket Engineer was because of sheer hard work. Throughout the book, one thing that stands out is Kalam’s positive thinking and his secret to success hidden in his ability to ignore negative things. That is why he had contributed and accomplished a lot in his life.

Kalam’s journey in the book inspires us to achieve our dreams by beating all the odds. A fable in the book emphasizes the importance of family, relatives, and friends in helping accomplish each other’s goals and turning dreams into realities.

Also Check:  Describe a situation when you were bored – IELTS Cue Card

Sample Answer 3:

A Book You Have Recently Read IELTS Cue Card –  Rich Dad Poor Dad

I am not fond of reading many books apart from my textbooks. but during this pandemic time, I was free at home so I decided to read a book which my friend gifted me, and I read it all.

I found this book very exciting and motivating and would like to read it again. The book’s name is ‘Rich dad poor dad’. • Rich Dad Poor Dad is about Robert Kiyosaki and his two dads story, and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about money and investing • It was first published in 1997 and quickly became a must-read book for people who want to become rich with smart work. The book has been translated into dozens of languages, sold around the world, and has become the number 1 Personal Finance book of all time. Robert Kiyosaki tells the story of his two dads in his childhood. His own father and the father of his best friend. While he loved both, they were very different when it came to dealing with finances. starts with the idea that many of us are too afraid of being branded as a weirdo, 90% of people still stick to the outdated mantra “Go to school, go to college, get a job, play it safe.” when in reality no job is safe anymore. when your greed takes over, you might then spend the extra money on an improved lifestyle, like buying a car, and the payments eat up the money – this way you’re guaranteed to lose 100% But if you educate yourself financially, you can multiply it but take the right decisions I found it very useful for me.

I learned from this book how to use money as a tool for wealth development. if you are born poor it is not your fault but if you die poor it is totally your fault. Hard work is important, but with smart work, you can enhance the productivity of quality of life. If you take a risk you can win but if you do not take risks you definitely lose. This book I found useful, it guided me in my finance management and I recommend any of my friends to read this book

Sample Answer 4:

Describe a Book You Have Recently Read – Harry Potter

Well, the first book I can think of is definitely Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is the seventh book, also the final novel, of the Harry Potter series. I became a fan of this fantasy story when I was still a child. So by the release of the final, I’d been obsessed with the series for almost ten years. You can imagine how thrilled I was when I could finally read the ending of this story.

Anyway, I read it as soon as it was published. Even though this was about twelve years ago, I remember the release like it was yesterday. I waited for hours in front of a bookstore in a hundred-meter line full of excited Hany Potter fans like me, mostly teens, of course, just to get the book on the day of its release. And once I started reading it, I literally couldn’t put it down.

The final Harry Potter book really blew my mind. I mean, it has a happy ending as I expected. Like Hany has to die once and comes back to life so he can defeat the villain, Voldemort. I finished the book with an overwhelmed feeling that was a mix of excitement, happiness and some loss.

Honestly, I’ve reread this novel ton of times. I’ve even written some glowing reviews of the book on social media, which I’ve never done for other books. It’s a really exciting book that left a mark on me.

Sample Answer 5:

IELTS Cue Card Talk About a Book You Read Recently – The Secret

I like to read books not just from my prescribed course, but also additional ones according to my own interest. I personally gain a lot from reading books, as they improve my intellect and make me learn about new concepts. The book that I’m going to talk about is ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Bryne.

I read this book almost a year ago for the first time. I knew about it before but I really never got the chance to read it. I finally looked for it online and bought it.

‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Bryne is a self-help motivational book that shows readers positive aspects of life, and also encourages them to strive for success. The book discusses the law of attraction and how to use it in almost every aspect of life.

The book beautifully explains how thoughts influence your actions and in turn, the experiences that you have in your life. It focuses on setting a goal in the mind and then believing in yourself to achieve that goal. The law of attraction is linked to every walk of life like possessions, dreams, goals, success, and even health. The logic is quite simple, that if ambition is clearly visualized in the mind, then the motivation will attract everything you want.

The Secret is a powerful yet simple book that encouraged my visualization and boosted my motivation. It made me realize that we are the creators of our own reality in a very practical manner. It gave me immense positivity, and the confidence to succeed in work and relationships. It basically gave me the key to being happy.

Sample Answer 6:

Book IELTS Cue Card –  How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Last year due to Corona Pandemic, my country was in a state of lockdown. Since I did not have much to do while sitting at home, I went into depression.

I tried many things to come out of it, but all my efforts went in vain. During that time, one of my friends gifted a book to me, written by a renowned self-improvement writer Mr. Dale Carnegie. The name of the book was “How to stop worrying and start living“.

It is a self-improvement book that teaches you the perfect ways to get rid of stress in your life.

This book is about handling depression in our lives. According to the writer of this book, when we have stress regarding something, we find it difficult to focus on work. And due to that, our productivity at work goes for a toss. So just worrying about anything doesn’t do any good to us rather it leads us towards a wrong trajectory.

Moreover, according to him, there is no point in having worries concerning the past or future. We should live our lives in the present. Our past is good for us if we use it as a medium to learn from it. However, if we keep on thinking about our past, we would ultimately become depressed.

As far as the future is concerned, there is no harm in having plans for it. But, one shouldn’t service the present for having a worthwhile life in the future.

I find this book exciting because excitement in our lives thrives primarily on having fewer worries and more enjoyment. This book adds to our joys by bringing a paradigm shift in our thinking process.

It helped me to come out of boredom and depression. Due to its valuable inputs, I have started enjoying my life to the full extent. Whenever I have conflicts in my life, I handle them adroitly.

It is a must-read book for people from all walks of life.

Sample Answer 7:

A Book You Read IELTS Cue Card – Atomic Habits

Being a voracious reader, I love to read books. Although I have read many exciting books in my life, there is one book that has caught my attention.

Last month I had to go for a job interview in the capital city. Since the journey was too long, I decided to utilize my time productively by reading a book.

Before boarding the train, I purchased a book by the name of “Atomic Habits“.

This book is so exciting and addictive. During the journey, most of the time, I remained involved in reading this masterpiece.

This book is a self-improvement book.

The central focus of this book is on the habits of people. It says that we can bring a paradigm shift in our lives by replacing our bad habits with good habits.

Whether we have to improve our skills by working on this. By making a tiny improvement of one percent every day, we can improve our performance by thirty-seven percent at the end of the year.

This book is exciting because, after reading it, you can handle all the conflicts in your life adroitly.

There is no denying this conviction that most people work tremendously hard to gain success in their lives.

This book has explained the process of attaining success in a consummate manner.

It adds excitement to your life by giving you hope.

Such was the impact of this book that, I achieved my most awaited goals, in just six months after reading this book.

In nutshell, this book can add fun and excitement to your life by leading you towards an impressive growth trajectory.

Sample Answer 8:

IELTS Cue Card Topic A Book You Read – Wonder

Today I am going to talk about “Wonder”, the book that left me with lots of thoughts and emotions after I finished it.

I don’t remember exactly when but there was one time my favorite Youtuber said that “Wonder” was the most engaging book she had ever read. Not long after that, I decided to purchase the book online. And she was right, when I finished “Wonder”, I could not stop thinking about how it inspired and refreshed me.

“Wonder” tells an incredibly moving and inspiring story of a little boy named August, who was born with an extreme facial deformity. When August turned 10, he decided to attend school for the first time. During his school days, though August was harassed and mocked for his “alien” look, he was still lucky enough to have some nice friends as companions. Things got worse when August and his schoolmates went camping for three days. On the second night, August encountered a group of older kids who tried to bully him. Luckily, he was rescued by three boys who were usually mean to him at school. After this incident, August and his friends won a special award for their courage and kindness.

“Wonder” is truly a fast-moving and gripping book that I could hardly put it down. All I could feel after reading this story was the sense of love and goodness. I was also infused with inspiration and appreciation for good things and kind people. I think I would always remember this saying: “When given the choice between being right or being kind, choose kind”.

Sample Answer 9:

Describe a Book You Recently Read Cue Card Topic – Wings of Fire

I have not read many books apart from my textbooks. Here, I would like to talk about a book, which my friend gifted me, and I read it all. I found this book very exciting and motivating and would like to read it again.

This book is ‘The Wings of Fire’ by Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. My friend got this book as a prize when she participated in a declamation contest. It is Dr.Kalam’s autobiography. It was first published in 1999. This book became popular only after Dr. Kalam became the President of India. He was sworn in as the president of India on 25th July 2002. Mr. Arun Tiwari helped Dr. Kalam in writing the book. In this book, Dr. Kalam says why he wrote his autobiography. This book is very motivating.

From this book, I came to know all about the life and achievements of Dr. A.P.J.Abdul Kalam. Dr. Kalam was born in a very poor family in the southern parts of India at Rameshwaram. The reason why I admire him is that his life shows how & ordinary boy from a deprived class (poor family) could reach the highest level of the nation. He became not only the best rocket engineer but also the first citizen of the nation. It is true that he described his post as the President as a piece of luck, but his achievement as a rocket engineer was because of sheer hard work. He is a role model for one and all.

The success of Dr. Kalam depended on the fact that he was willing to grow daily. He learned everything that come to him and was always looking for things to learn. The real success of Dr.Kalam is in his application of the discipline, what he learned, in other fields also. That is why he could contribute to the making of artificial limbs of lesser weight. In him, we find a person with an insatiable quest for knowledge & great love for suffering fellow beings.

Unfortunately, we don’t have Dr. Kalam with us today, but he will live in the hearts of all Indians. I would like to read this book again, because it is a very motivating book.

Sample Answer 10:

Describe a Book that You Enjoyed Reading Cue Card Topic – Filipino Cuisine

I’d like to talk about a cookbook that was given to me by my best friend several years ago. The title of the book is ”Filipino Cuisine” and what’s inside is a compilation of the Philippines’s mouth-watering dishes such as the Adobo and Kare-Kare. Adobo’s main ingredient is pork or chicken stewed in vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, bay leaves, and peppercorns while Kare-Kare is an oxtail stew and is always best to eat with steamed rice and shrimp paste. They’re actually a perfect pair.

Cookbooks or recipe books belong to non-fiction category since it consists of factual information and a step-by-step guide in cooking. It also includes the name of the author and a short introduction about its content.

Actually, I’m not so fond of non-fiction type of books, however, once in my life, I got interested in cooking and I have always told my best friend about it. We both know that I’m a terrible cook at that time and so that must be the reason why she bought me that book.

When I started reading it, I realized that cooking is not really that complicated as it seemed to me before. Through it, I’ve learned to prepare different Filipino dishes from the main course to desserts. Each time I was able to cook a recipe perfectly, I always felt a sense of achievement. This recipe book is very useful for me because firstly, it taught me the do’s and dont’s in the kitchen. Another one is, it helped me develop another essential life skill which is cooking and now finally, I can prepare scrumptious and healthy meals for my family. I probably would like to read it over and over again because I haven’t memorized yet some of the recipes and reading it again will refresh my memory once more.

Sample Answer 11:

Book IELTS Cue Card – The life of loneliness

Thanks for giving me such an interesting topic. Well, books are a prominent source of information, feelings, and inspiration. There are lots of books available nowadays related to emotions, history, poetry, inspiration. I read many books. But now, I have to ask to talk about a that I recently read. I am feeling glad to share that recently I read the book named “The life of loneliness ” written by Dr. Narinder Singh Kapoor.

I heard about this from my friend. He said this book is full of inspiration. Then, I wanted to buy that. But I didn’t find this book in the market. So, my friend gave it to me for some time. When I read this book, I really felt awesome because this book was full of thoughts that described a persons’ thinking, views over different things. After reading this book, I felt that this book did not even contain any poetry, story but contained single-single line thoughts with a number of stories. As the name of the book describes, The life of loneliness means a single sentence containing a particular story about a person.

This book was 330 pages and approximately contained 1071 sentences or we can say 1071 stories about human beings. All the thoughts described a child, younger, older, women, and men’s thinking and views. I must say, this book helps you to understand a person’s thoughts that you meet daily.

I am happy after reading that book and always grateful to my friend who had suggested me to read this book. And I also want to read this book again and again.

IELTS Speaking Part 3 :

Describe a Book You Recently Read – Follow up Questions

Here are some examples of follow-up questions that you may get during your speaking part 3 by the examiner related to cue card “Describe a Book You Recently Read”.

1. Do people in your country like to read books? Yes, people in my country like to read books. There are bookshops in most towns and cities, which are all doing good business.

2. What kinds of books are most popular in your country? All types of books are very popular. India is a diverse country. People have diverse tastes in everything, including reading.

3. Do you think reading is important? Yes, reading is very important. It develops imagination and also develops language skills.

4. Do you think electronic books will eventually replace paper books? Not completely, but to a large extent yes. E-books have a lot of advantages

Benefits of e-books over traditional books Easy to carry while traveling – eBooks allow you to bring a whole library with you wherever you go. You can switch between titles with ease and the weight is lighter than a standard ieltsxpress paperback.

Need less storage space – Those who own a lot of books know how much space they can take up, but with a reader, your bookshelf is located on a small handheld device, your computer, or on both.

Less costly – eBooks are often cheaper in the long run because there are no printing fees associated with them. In fact, you can often find free eBooks online, whereas physical books almost always cost you something. However, you have to spend one time on a reader, such as a kindle or any other tablet.

Immediate purchase – When you buy an eBook, your reward is instantaneous.Whereas if you order a book online you have to wait for it to arrive before the fun begins. You can do font adjustments. With an eBook, you can instantly change the darkness of the lettering or the size of your font. You can do night reading. If you read in bed, an eBook may be a good option as many readers come with built-in reading lights.ieltsxpress

5. Some people like to collect books. Why do you think they do this? They do so because they love books. They treat books as collectibles and are proud of their collection.

6. Is compulsory reading (in school) is a good idea? Yes, definitely. In order for students to achieve in math, science, English, history, geography, and other subjects, reading skills must be developed to the point that most of them are automatic. Students cannot struggle with word recognition when they should be reading quickly for comprehension of a text. But the ability to read and write develops with careful planning and instruction. Children need regular and active interactions with print.

7. What books do children read and what do adults read? Children read fantasy, fiction, and books on supernatural characters like Barbie, Superman, and Shaktiman. Adults read biographies, fiction, and religious and spiritual books.ieltsxpress

8. Why do men and women prefer different books? This is because they have different tastes.

9. Why did some books become internationally popular? This is perhaps because these receive a lot of publicity.

10. What type of books do children read nowadays? What type of books did children like reading in the past and what do you think they will read in the future? Nowadays, generally speaking, the reading habit of children is on the decline. Whatever books they read are based on fantasy, fiction and supernatural characters like Barbie, superman, and Shaktiman.

50 years ago – Children read a lot. They read moral and spiritual books. They read animal stories.

After 50 years – I do not think they will do any reading. All the time will be spent in front of computers.

11. Do you think children have lost their interest in stories? No, I don’t think that children have lost their interest in stories. However, the stories they read today are very different from those in the past.

12. Can storybooks be an ideal gift for children? Yes, definitely! Storybooks can be an ideal gift for children. They can help the child imagine the characters in the mind, which is the first step to creativity. Another important benefit is that we can impart the knowledge of culture, tradition, moral values, and religion in the mind of the child. This forms the basis of the child’s personality. Finally, storybooks enhance the curiosity of the child and enhance their mental growth.ieltsxpress

13. What can be done to encourage the habit of reading among children? A lot can be done to encourage the habit of reading among children. The first and foremost step would be to make books available. There should be good libraries in the schools as well as in neighborhoods. Storytelling competitions could be organized. If children have to take part in these competitions, then naturally, they would be encouraged to read books. Finally, books could be made more interesting by adding graphics.

14. How does reading help a child? Reading helps to improve concentration. It also helps to improve general knowledge. It also improves language skills and satisfies the curiosity of children on various things.

15. What sort of books can be suggested to children to read? Children should be encouraged to read religious and historical books. They should also read biographies and autobiographies of famous people so that they get motivation from them. They should also be encouraged to read books on science and technology. However, these books should be made very interesting by adding pictures.

16. How much should a child read every day? A child should read half to one hour daily.I think that would be enough considering that they have to go to school and do their homework as well.

17. What is the difference between the books sold in the past and the books sold nowadays? In the past, books related to culture, tradition, religion, and history were sold. Nowadays, books are mostly based on fiction and fantasy. E-books have become very popular nowadays as compared to printed books.

Why do You think Reading is Important? Reading is important because it helps in developing creativity and imagination. It will enable the reader to develop a better vocabulary and get a hold of the language. It will eventually lead to better speaking and listening skills as well since it will instill (meaning- firmly establish) confidence in the reader. Reading is a great way to learn and explore, and it surely improves the intellect of a person.

Can Storybooks be Ideal Gifts for Children? Storybooks can definitely be very good gifts for children. They enable children to visualize characters in their minds, which is really helpful in developing creativity. Also, storybooks can impart the knowledge of moral values, culture, tradition, and religion in the mind of children. Also, children who read storybooks are curious and their mental growth is enhanced when they ask questions and get answers.

Which do you prefer paper books or e-books?

I prefer the latter as it is way more convenient than the former. Electronic books like Kindle from Amazon are really handy. I can take it anywhere and anytime. Also, I can purchase and download more digital books online if I want to without going to a bookstore. Yes, I cannot deny the fact that there are some downsides of using electronic books but since my priority is convenience, I cannot trade e-books for paper books.

Do you think people these days still read books? Yes definitely! Even though we are now in the internet era, there are still many people who enjoy reading books since it provides plenty of benefits to them, such as, being able to exercise their mind through learning a new set of vocabulary or enhancing their comprehension skills. Also, through reading, people become well-informed and more creative since it does stir their imagination. In addition, according to science people whose first love is reading are less likely to get dementia because their brain becomes more alert.

With these great benefits, I am confident to say that reading is still a popular hobby among people amid this frontier technology generation. Reading is one of those activities that people can never be taken for granted.   How can we encourage children to read books? Well, frankly speaking, it is more than a challenge these days to motivate children to read because of the existing entertainment distractions, such as playing computer games, socializing on social media platforms, and the like. However, I suppose we can make them love reading or influence them to read through modeling. If we adults show them that we enjoy reading, then it is highly likely that they will imitate us.

In reality, the love of reading starts at a very early age. When parents spend time reading bedtime stories to their children before going to sleep, their children will surely get used to reading and it will become a habit to them. However, if parents never practice that with their children, then it is just hard to make them love reading and as a result, they will surely have difficulty encouraging their children to read.

Do children need to learn how to read while they are still young? In my opinion, children have to learn how to read as early as three to six years of age. (Explain) In the first six years, a child’s brain is like a sponge that can easily absorb information and make them easier to teach. (Example) For example, I have been teaching reading classes to graders and after talking to the parents, I figured out that the students who can effortlessly remember what I teach are those who started reading at a very young age.

Do you think there is a difference between reading habits in the past and in the present day? Yes. There is a huge difference in the way people read before and now. (Explain) In the past, people tend to read paper books to gather information or to kill time. However, these days, people prefer reading articles, books, and other written material using electronic devices such as smartphones, computers, and tablets. They say that it’s more convenient to read using these gadgets since it is handy and pocket-friendly. (Example) For instance, if I want to read before sleeping, I don’t have to switch on the light in the bedroom to be able to read. All I have to do is adjust the brightness of my smartphone screen to read well.

What is the impact of e-books on reading habits? In my opinion, the most significant impact of digital books in our reading habit is that it makes our every reading experience hassle-free. (Explain) As we all know, e-books can be accessed conveniently. We can actually read whenever and wherever we please. Therefore, more and more people have the opportunity to gather information and learn. (Example) For example, in the past, people need to buy books or borrow from the library in order to do their homework or to study but now, they can study without bothering to go to other places because all they need is their smartphone or tablet.

Oh hi there! It’s nice to meet you.

Sign up to receive awesome content in your inbox, every week.

We promise not to spam you or share your Data. 🙂

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Talk About a Book You Read Recently IELTS Cue Card

Oh Hi there! It’s nice to meet you.

We promise not to Spam or Share your Data. 🙂

Related Posts

Describe a Software that You Often Use ielts speaking cue card

Describe a Software that You Often Use IELTS Speaking Cue Card

Latest Makkar Speaking September to December 2022 PDF ieltsxpress

Makkar IELTS Speaking September to December 2022

Describe A Time When You Were Stuck In A Traffic Jam

Describe A Time When You Were Stuck In A Traffic Jam

Leave a comment cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

 Yes, add me to your mailing list

Start typing and press enter to search

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

  • Knowledge Base
  • Example of a great essay | Explanations, tips & tricks

Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks

Published on February 9, 2015 by Shane Bryson . Revised on July 23, 2023 by Shona McCombes.

This example guides you through the structure of an essay. It shows how to build an effective introduction , focused paragraphs , clear transitions between ideas, and a strong conclusion .

Each paragraph addresses a single central point, introduced by a topic sentence , and each point is directly related to the thesis statement .

As you read, hover over the highlighted parts to learn what they do and why they work.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

upload-your-document-ai-proofreader

Table of contents

Other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about writing an essay, an appeal to the senses: the development of the braille system in nineteenth-century france.

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

In France, debates about how to deal with disability led to the adoption of different strategies over time. While people with temporary difficulties were able to access public welfare, the most common response to people with long-term disabilities, such as hearing or vision loss, was to group them together in institutions (Tombs, 1996). At first, a joint institute for the blind and deaf was created, and although the partnership was motivated more by financial considerations than by the well-being of the residents, the institute aimed to help people develop skills valuable to society (Weygand, 2009). Eventually blind institutions were separated from deaf institutions, and the focus shifted towards education of the blind, as was the case for the Royal Institute for Blind Youth, which Louis Braille attended (Jimenez et al, 2009). The growing acknowledgement of the uniqueness of different disabilities led to more targeted education strategies, fostering an environment in which the benefits of a specifically blind education could be more widely recognized.

Several different systems of tactile reading can be seen as forerunners to the method Louis Braille developed, but these systems were all developed based on the sighted system. The Royal Institute for Blind Youth in Paris taught the students to read embossed roman letters, a method created by the school’s founder, Valentin Hauy (Jimenez et al., 2009). Reading this way proved to be a rather arduous task, as the letters were difficult to distinguish by touch. The embossed letter method was based on the reading system of sighted people, with minimal adaptation for those with vision loss. As a result, this method did not gain significant success among blind students.

Louis Braille was bound to be influenced by his school’s founder, but the most influential pre-Braille tactile reading system was Charles Barbier’s night writing. A soldier in Napoleon’s army, Barbier developed a system in 1819 that used 12 dots with a five line musical staff (Kersten, 1997). His intention was to develop a system that would allow the military to communicate at night without the need for light (Herron, 2009). The code developed by Barbier was phonetic (Jimenez et al., 2009); in other words, the code was designed for sighted people and was based on the sounds of words, not on an actual alphabet. Barbier discovered that variants of raised dots within a square were the easiest method of reading by touch (Jimenez et al., 2009). This system proved effective for the transmission of short messages between military personnel, but the symbols were too large for the fingertip, greatly reducing the speed at which a message could be read (Herron, 2009). For this reason, it was unsuitable for daily use and was not widely adopted in the blind community.

Nevertheless, Barbier’s military dot system was more efficient than Hauy’s embossed letters, and it provided the framework within which Louis Braille developed his method. Barbier’s system, with its dashes and dots, could form over 4000 combinations (Jimenez et al., 2009). Compared to the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, this was an absurdly high number. Braille kept the raised dot form, but developed a more manageable system that would reflect the sighted alphabet. He replaced Barbier’s dashes and dots with just six dots in a rectangular configuration (Jimenez et al., 2009). The result was that the blind population in France had a tactile reading system using dots (like Barbier’s) that was based on the structure of the sighted alphabet (like Hauy’s); crucially, this system was the first developed specifically for the purposes of the blind.

While the Braille system gained immediate popularity with the blind students at the Institute in Paris, it had to gain acceptance among the sighted before its adoption throughout France. This support was necessary because sighted teachers and leaders had ultimate control over the propagation of Braille resources. Many of the teachers at the Royal Institute for Blind Youth resisted learning Braille’s system because they found the tactile method of reading difficult to learn (Bullock & Galst, 2009). This resistance was symptomatic of the prevalent attitude that the blind population had to adapt to the sighted world rather than develop their own tools and methods. Over time, however, with the increasing impetus to make social contribution possible for all, teachers began to appreciate the usefulness of Braille’s system (Bullock & Galst, 2009), realizing that access to reading could help improve the productivity and integration of people with vision loss. It took approximately 30 years, but the French government eventually approved the Braille system, and it was established throughout the country (Bullock & Galst, 2009).

Although Blind people remained marginalized throughout the nineteenth century, the Braille system granted them growing opportunities for social participation. Most obviously, Braille allowed people with vision loss to read the same alphabet used by sighted people (Bullock & Galst, 2009), allowing them to participate in certain cultural experiences previously unavailable to them. Written works, such as books and poetry, had previously been inaccessible to the blind population without the aid of a reader, limiting their autonomy. As books began to be distributed in Braille, this barrier was reduced, enabling people with vision loss to access information autonomously. The closing of the gap between the abilities of blind and the sighted contributed to a gradual shift in blind people’s status, lessening the cultural perception of the blind as essentially different and facilitating greater social integration.

The Braille system also had important cultural effects beyond the sphere of written culture. Its invention later led to the development of a music notation system for the blind, although Louis Braille did not develop this system himself (Jimenez, et al., 2009). This development helped remove a cultural obstacle that had been introduced by the popularization of written musical notation in the early 1500s. While music had previously been an arena in which the blind could participate on equal footing, the transition from memory-based performance to notation-based performance meant that blind musicians were no longer able to compete with sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997). As a result, a tactile musical notation system became necessary for professional equality between blind and sighted musicians (Kersten, 1997).

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Bullock, J. D., & Galst, J. M. (2009). The Story of Louis Braille. Archives of Ophthalmology , 127(11), 1532. https://​doi.org/10.1001/​archophthalmol.2009.286.

Herron, M. (2009, May 6). Blind visionary. Retrieved from https://​eandt.theiet.org/​content/​articles/2009/05/​blind-visionary/.

Jiménez, J., Olea, J., Torres, J., Alonso, I., Harder, D., & Fischer, K. (2009). Biography of Louis Braille and Invention of the Braille Alphabet. Survey of Ophthalmology , 54(1), 142–149. https://​doi.org/10.1016/​j.survophthal.2008.10.006.

Kersten, F.G. (1997). The history and development of Braille music methodology. The Bulletin of Historical Research in Music Education , 18(2). Retrieved from https://​www.jstor.org/​stable/40214926.

Mellor, C.M. (2006). Louis Braille: A touch of genius . Boston: National Braille Press.

Tombs, R. (1996). France: 1814-1914 . London: Pearson Education Ltd.

Weygand, Z. (2009). The blind in French society from the Middle Ages to the century of Louis Braille . Stanford: Stanford University Press.

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

  • Ad hominem fallacy
  • Post hoc fallacy
  • Appeal to authority fallacy
  • False cause fallacy
  • Sunk cost fallacy

College essays

  • Choosing Essay Topic
  • Write a College Essay
  • Write a Diversity Essay
  • College Essay Format & Structure
  • Comparing and Contrasting in an Essay

 (AI) Tools

  • Grammar Checker
  • Paraphrasing Tool
  • Text Summarizer
  • AI Detector
  • Plagiarism Checker
  • Citation Generator

Here's why students love Scribbr's proofreading services

Discover proofreading & editing

An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

  • An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
  • Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
  • A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

Bryson, S. (2023, July 23). Example of a Great Essay | Explanations, Tips & Tricks. Scribbr. Retrieved March 12, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/example-essay-structure/

Is this article helpful?

Shane Bryson

Shane Bryson

Shane finished his master's degree in English literature in 2013 and has been working as a writing tutor and editor since 2009. He began proofreading and editing essays with Scribbr in early summer, 2014.

Other students also liked

How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples, academic paragraph structure | step-by-step guide & examples, how to write topic sentences | 4 steps, examples & purpose, what is your plagiarism score.

How Should One Read a Book?

Read as if one were writing it.

A painting of a woman reading at a table.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Young Girl Reading , c. 1868. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

At this late hour of the world’s history, books are to be found in almost every room of the house—in the nursery, in the drawing room, in the dining room, in the kitchen. But in some houses they have become such a company that they have to be accommodated with a room of their own—a reading room, a library, a study. Let us imagine that we are now in such a room; that it is a sunny room, with windows opening on a garden, so that we can hear the trees rustling, the gardener talking, the donkey braying, the old women gossiping at the pump—and all the ordinary processes of life pursuing the casual irregular way which they have pursued these many hundreds of years. As casually, as persistently, books have been coming together on the shelves. Novels, poems, histories, memoirs, dictionaries, maps, directories; black letter books and brand new books; books in French and Greek and Latin; of all shapes and sizes and values, bought for purposes of research, bought to amuse a railway journey, bought by miscellaneous beings, of one temperament and another, serious and frivolous, men of action and men of letters.

Now, one may well ask oneself, strolling into such a room as this, how am I to read these books? What is the right way to set about it? They are so many and so various. My appetite is so fitful and so capricious. What am I to do to get the utmost possible pleasure out of them? And is it pleasure, or profit, or what is it that I should seek? I will lay before you some of the thoughts that have come to me on such an occasion as this. But you will notice the note of interrogation at the end of my title. One may think about reading as much as one chooses, but no one is going to lay down laws about it. Here in this room, if nowhere else, we breathe the air of freedom. Here simple and learned, man and woman are alike. For though reading seems so simple—a mere matter of knowing the alphabet—it is indeed so difficult that it is doubtful whether anybody knows anything about it. Paris is the capital of France; King John signed the Magna Charta; those are facts; those can be taught; but how are we to teach people so to read “Paradise Lost” as to see that it is a great poem, or “Tess of the D’Urbervilles” so as to see that it is a good novel? How are we to learn the art of reading for ourselves? Without attempting to lay down laws upon a subject that has not been legalized, I will make a few suggestions, which may serve to show you how not to read, or to stimulate you to think out better methods of your own.

And directly we begin to ask how should one read a book we are faced by the fact that books differ; there are poems, novels, biographies on the book shelf there; each differs from the other as a tiger differs from a tortoise, a tortoise from an elephant. Our attitude must always be changing, it is clear. From different books we must ask different qualities. Simple as this sounds, people are always behaving as if all books were of the same species—as if there were only tortoises or nothing but tigers. It makes them furious to find a novelist bringing Queen Victoria to the throne six months before her time; they will praise a poet enthusiastically for teaching them that a violet has four petals and a daisy almost invariably ten. You will save a great deal of time and temper better kept for worthier objects if you will try to make out before you begin to read what qualities you expect of a novelist, what of a poet, what of a biographer. The tortoise is bald and shiny; the tiger has a thick coat of yellow fur. So books too differ: one has its fur, the other has its baldness.

To be able to read books without reading them, to skip and saunter, to suspend judgment, to lounge and loaf down the alleys and bye-streets of letters is the best way of rejuvenating one’s own creative power.

Yes; but for all that the problem is not so simple in a library as at the Zoölogical Gardens. Books have a great deal in common; they are always overflowing their boundaries; they are always breeding new species from unexpected matches among themselves. It is difficult to know how to approach them, to which species each belongs. But if we remember, as we turn to the bookcase, that each of these books was written by a pen which, consciously or unconsciously, tried to trace out a design, avoiding this, accepting that, adventuring the other; if we try to follow the writer in his experiment from the first word to the last, without imposing our design upon him, then we shall have a good chance of getting hold of the right end of the string.

To read a book well, one should read it as if one were writing it. Begin not by sitting on the bench among the judges but by standing in the dock with the criminal. Be his fellow worker, become his accomplice. Even, if you wish merely to read books, begin by writing them. For this certainly is true—one cannot write the most ordinary little story, attempt to describe the simplest event—meeting a beggar, shall we say, in the street, without coming up against difficulties that the greatest of novelists have had to face. In order that we may realize, however briefly and crudely, the main divisions into which novelists group themselves, let us imagine how differently Defoe, Jane Austen, and Thomas Hardy would describe the same incident—this meeting a beggar in the street. Defoe is a master of narrative. His prime effort will be to reduce the beggar’s story to perfect order and simplicity. This happened first, that next, the other thing third. He will put in nothing, however attractive, that will tire the reader unnecessarily, or divert his attention from what he wishes him to know. He will also make us believe, since he is a master, not of romance or of comedy, but of narrative, that everything that happened is true. He will be extremely precise therefore. This happened, as he tells us on the first pages of” Robinson Crusoe,” on the first of September. More subtly and artfully, he will hypnotize us into a state of belief by dropping out casually some little unnecessary fact—for instance, “my father called me one morning into his chamber, where he was confined by the gout.” His father’s gout is not necessary to the story, but it is necessary to the truth of the story, for it is thus that anybody who is speaking the truth adds some small irrelevant detail without thinking. Further, he will choose a type of sentence which is flowing but not too full, exact but not epigrammatic. His aim will be to present the thing itself without distortion from his own angle of vision. He will meet the subject face to face, four-square, without turning aside for a moment to point out that this was tragic, or that beautiful; and his aim is perfectly achieved.

But let us not for a moment confuse it with Jane Austen’s aim. Had she met a beggar woman, no doubt she would have been interested in the beggar’s story. But she would have seen at once that for her purposes the whole incident must be transformed. Streets and the open air and adventures mean nothing to her, artistically. It is character that interests her. She would at once make the beggar into a comfortable elderly man of the upper middle classes, seated by his fireside at his ease. Then, instead of plunging into the story vigorously and veraciously, she will write a few paragraphs of accurate and artfully seasoned introduction, summing up the circumstances and sketching the character of the gentleman she wishes us to know. “Matrimony as the origin of change was always disagreeable” to Mr. Woodhouse, she says. Almost immediately, she thinks it well to let us see that her words are corroborated by Mr. Woodhouse himself. We hear him talking. “Poor Miss Taylor!—I wish she were here again. What a pity it is that Mr. Weston ever thought of her.” And when Mr. Woodhouse has talked enough to reveal himself from the inside, she then thinks it time to let us see him through his daughter’s eyes. “You got Hannah that good place. Nobody thought of Hannah till you mentioned her.” Thus she shows us Emma flattering him and humoring him. Finally then, we have Mr. Woodhouse’s character seen from three different points of view at once; as he sees himself; as his daughter sees him; and as he is seen by the marvellous eye of that invisible lady Jane Austen herself. All three meet in one, and thus we can pass round her characters free, apparently, from any guidance but our own.

Now let Thomas Hardy choose the same theme—a beggar met in the street—and at once two great changes will be visible. The street will be transformed into a vast and sombre heath; the man or woman will take on some of the size and indistinctness of a statue. Further, the relations of this human being will not be towards other people, but towards the heath, towards man as law-giver, towards those powers which are in control of man’s destiny. Once more our perspective will be completely changed. All the qualities which were admirable in “Robinson Crusoe,” admirable in “Emma,” will be neglected or absent. The direct literal statement of Defoe is gone. There is none of the clear, exact brilliance of Jane Austen. Indeed, if we come to Hardy from one of these great writers we shall exclaim at first that he is “melodramatic” or “unreal” compared with them. But we should bethink us that there are at least two sides to the human soul; the light side and the dark side. In company, the light side of the mind is exposed; in solitude, the dark. Both are equally real, equally important. But a novelist will always tend to expose one rather than the other; and Hardy, who is a novelist of the dark side, will contrive that no clear, steady light falls upon his people’s faces, that they are not closely observed in drawing rooms, that they come in contact with moors, sheep, the sky and the stars, and in their solitude are directly at the mercy of the gods. If Jane Austen’s characters are real in the drawing room, they would not exist at all upon the top of Stonehenge. Feeble and clumsy in drawing rooms, Hardy’s people are large-limbed and vigorous out of doors. To achieve his purpose Hardy is neither literal and four-square like Defoe, nor deft and pointed like Jane Austen. He is cumbrous, involved, metaphorical. Where Jane Austen describes manners, he describes nature. Where she is matter of fact, he is romantic and poetical. As both are great artists, each is careful to observe the laws of his own perspective, and will not be found confusing us (as so many lesser writers do) by introducing two different kinds of reality into the same book.

Yet it is very difficult not to wish them less scrupulous. Frequent are the complaints that Jane Austen is too prosaic, Thomas Hardy too melodramatic. And we have to remind ourselves that it is necessary to approach every writer differently in order to get from him all he can give us. We have to remember that it is one of the qualities of greatness that it brings heaven and earth and human nature into conformity with its own vision. It is by reason of this masterliness of theirs, this uncompromising idiosyncrasy, that great writers often require us to make heroic efforts in order to read them rightly. They bend us and break us. To go from Jane Austen to Hardy, from Peacock to Trollope, from Scott to Meredith, from Richardson to Kipling, is to be wrenched and distorted, thrown this way and then that. Besides, everyone is born with a natural bias of his own in one direction rather than in another. He instinctively accepts Hardy’s vision rather than Jane Austen’s, and, reading with the current and not against it, is carried on easily and swiftly by the impetus of his own bent to the heart of his author’s genius. But then Jane Austen is repulsive to him. He can scarcely stagger through the desert of her novels.

Sometimes this natural antagonism is too great to be overcome, but trial is always worth making. For these difficult and inaccessible books, with all their preliminary harshness, often yield the richest fruits in the end, and so curiously is the brain compounded that while tracts of literature repel at one season, they are appetizing and essential at another.

If, then, this is true—that books are of very different types, and that to read them rightly we have to bend our imaginations powerfully, first one way, then another—it is clear that reading is one of the most arduous and exhausting of occupations. Often the pages fly before us and we seem, so keen is our interest, to be living and not even holding the volume in our hands. But the more exciting the book, the more danger we run of over-reading. The symptoms are familiar. Suddenly the book becomes dull as ditchwater and heavy as lead. We yawn and stretch and cannot attend. The highest flights of Shakespeare and Milton become intolerable. And we say to ourselves—is Keats a fool or am I?—a painful question, a question, moreover, that need not be asked if we realized how great a part the art of not reading plays in the art of reading. To be able to read books without reading them, to skip and saunter, to suspend judgment, to lounge and loaf down the alleys and bye-streets of letters is the best way of rejuvenating one’s own creative power. All biographies and memoirs, all the hybrid books which are largely made up of facts, serve to restore to us the power of reading real books—that is to say, works of pure imagination. That they serve also to impart knowledge and to improve the mind is true and important, but if we are considering how to read books for pleasure, not how to provide an adequate pension for one’s widow, this other property of theirs is even more valuable and important. But here again one should know what one is after. One is after rest, and fun, and oddity, and some stimulus to one’s own jaded creative power. One has left one’s bare and angular tower and is strolling along the street looking in at the open windows. After solitude and concentration, the open air, the sight of other people absorbed in innumerable activities, comes upon us with an indescribable fascination.

The windows of the houses are open; the blinds are drawn up. One can see the whole household without their knowing that they are being seen. One can see them sitting round the dinner table, talking, reading, playing games. Sometimes they seem to be quarrelling—but what about? Or they are laughing—but what is the joke? Down in the basement the cook is reading a newspaper aloud, while the housemaid is making a piece of toast; in comes the kitchen maid and they all start talking at the same moment—but what are they saying? Upstairs a girl is dressing to go to a party. But where is she going? There is an old lady sitting at her bedroom window with some kind of wool work in her hand and a fine green parrot in a cage beside her. And what is she thinking? All this life has somehow come together; there is a reason for it; a coherency in it, could one but seize it. The biographer answers the innumerable questions which we ask as we stand outside on the pavement looking in at the open window. Indeed there is nothing more interesting than to pick one’s way about among these vast depositories of facts, to make up the lives of men and women, to create their complex minds and households from the extraordinary abundance and litter and confusion of matter which lies strewn about. A thimble, a skull, a pair of scissors, a sheaf of sonnets, are given us, and we have to create, to combine, to put these incongruous things together. There is, too, a quality in facts, an emotion which comes from knowing that men and women actually did and suffered these things, which only the greatest novelists can surpass. Captain Scott, starving and freezing to death in the snow, affects us as deeply as any made-up story of adventure by Conrad or Defoe; but it affects us differently. The biography differs from the novel. To ask a biographer to give us the same kind of pleasure that we get from a novelist is to misuse and misread him. Directly he says “John Jones was born at five-thirty in the morning of August 13, I 862,” he has committed himself, focussed his lens upon fact, and if he then begins to romance, the perspective becomes blurred, we grow suspicious, and our faith in his integrity as a writer is destroyed. In the same way fact destroys fiction. If Thackeray, for example, had quoted an actual newspaper account of the Battle of Waterloo in “Vanity Fair,” the whole fabric of his story would have been destroyed, as a stone destroys a bubble.

But it is undoubted that these hybrid books, these warehouses and depositories of facts, play a great part in resting the brain and restoring its zest of imagination. The work of building up a life for oneself from skulls, thimbles, scissors, and sonnets stimulates our interest in creation and rouses our wish to see the work beautifully and powerfully done by a Flaubert or a Tolstoi. Moreover, however interesting facts may be, they are an inferior form of fiction, and gradually we become impatient of their weakness and diffuseness, of their compromises and evasions, of the slovenly sentences which they make for themselves, and are eager to revive ourselves with the greater intensity and truth of fiction.

It is necessary to have in hand an immense reserve of imaginative energy in order to attack the steeps of poetry. Here are none of those gradual introductions, those resemblances to the familiar world of daily life with which the novelist entices us into his world of imagination. All is violent, opposite, unrelated. But various causes, such as bad books, the worry of carrying on life efficiently, the intermittent but powerful shocks dealt us by beauty, and the incalculable impulses of our own minds and bodies frequently put us into that state of mind in which poetry is a necessity. The sight of a crocus in a garden will suddenly bring to mind all the spring days that have ever been. One then desires the general, not the particular; the whole, not the detail; to turn uppermost the dark side of the mind; to be in contact with silence, solitude, and all men and women and not this particular Richard, or that particular Anne. Metaphors are then more expressive than plain statements.

Thus in order to read poetry rightly, one must be in a rash, an extreme, a generous state of mind in which many of the supports and comforts of literature are done without. Its power of make-believe, its representative power, is dispensed with in favor of its extremities and extravagances. The representation is often at a very far remove from the thing represented, so that we have to use all our energies of mind to grasp the relation between, for example, the song of a nightingale and the image and ideas which that song stirs in the mind. Thus reading poetry often seems a state of rhapsody in which rhyme and metre and sound stir the mind as wine and dance stir the body, and we read on, understanding with the senses, not with the intellect, in a state of intoxication. Yet all this intoxication and intensity of delight depend upon the exactitude and truth of the image, on its being the counterpart of the reality within. Remote and extravagant as some of Shakespeare’s images seem, far-fetched and ethereal as some of Keats’s, at the moment of reading they seem the cap and culmination of the thought; its final expression. But it is useless to labor the matter in cold blood. Anyone who has read a poem with pleasure will remember the sudden conviction, the sudden recollection (for it seems sometimes as if we were about to say, or had in some previous existence already said, what Shakespeare is actually now saying), which accompany the reading of poetry, and give it its exaltation and intensity. But such reading is attended, whether consciously or unconsciously, with the utmost stretch and vigilance of the faculties, of the reason no less than of the imagination. We are always verifying the poet’s statements, making a flying comparison, to the best of our powers, between the beauty he makes outside and the beauty we are aware of within. For the humblest among us is endowed with the power of comparison. The simplest (provided he loves reading) has that already within him to which he makes what is given him—by poet or novelist—correspond.

With that saying, of course, the cat is out of the bag. For this admission that we can compare, discriminate, brings us to this further point. Reading is not merely sympathizing and understanding; it is also criticizing and judging. Hitherto our endeavor has been to read books as a writer writes them. We have been trying to understand, to appreciate, to interpret, to sympathize. But now, when the book is finished, the reader must leave the dock and mount the bench. He must cease to be the friend; he must become the judge. And this is no mere figure of speech. The mind seems (“seems,” for all is obscure that takes place in the mind) to go through two processes in reading. One might be called the actual reading; the other the after reading. During the actual reading, when we hold the book in our hands, there are incessant distractions and interruptions. New impressions are always completing or cancelling the old. One’s judgment is suspended, for one does not know what is coming next. Surprise, admiration, boredom, interest, succeed each other in such quick succession that when, at last, the end is reached, one is for the most part in a state of complete bewilderment. Is it good? or bad? What kind of book is it? How good a book is it? The friction of reading and the emotion of reading beat up too much dust to let us find clear answers to these questions. If we are asked our opinion, we cannot give it. Parts of the book seem to have sunk away, others to be starting out in undue prominence. Then perhaps it is better to take up some different pursuit—to walk, to talk, to dig, to listen to music. The book upon which we have spent so much time and thought fades entirely out of sight. But suddenly, as one is picking a snail from a rose, tying a shoe, perhaps, doing something distant and different, the whole book floats to the top of the mind complete. Some process seems to have been finished without one’s being aware of it. The different details which have accumulated in reading assemble themselves in their proper places. The book takes on a definite shape; it becomes a castle, a cowshed, a gothic ruin, as the case may be. Now one can think of the book as a whole, and the book as a whole is different, and gives one a different emotion, from the book received currently in several different parts. Its symmetry and proportion, its confusion and distortion can cause great delight or great disgust apart from the pleasure given by each detail as it is separately realized. Holding this complete shape in mind it now becomes necessary to arrive at some opinion of the book’s merits, for though it is possible to receive the greatest pleasure and excitement from the first process, the actual reading, though this is of the utmost importance, it is not so profound or so lasting as the pleasure we get when the second process—the after reading—is finished, and we hold the book clear, secure, and (to the best of our powers) complete in our minds.

But how, we may ask, are we to decide any of these questions—is it good, or is it bad?—how good is it, how bad is it? Not much help can be looked for from outside. Critics abound; criticisms pullulate; but minds differ too much to admit of close correspondence in matters of detail, and nothing is more disastrous than to crush one’s own foot into another person’s shoe. When we want to decide a particular case, we can best help ourselves, not by reading criticism, but by realizing our own impression as acutely as possible and referring this to the judgments which we have gradually formulated in the past. There they hang in the wardrobe of our mind—the shapes of the books we have read, as we hung them up and put them away when we had done with them. If we have just read “Clarissa Harlowe,” for example, let us see how it shows up against the shape of “Anna Karenina.” At once the outlines of the two books are cut out against each other as a house with its chimneys bristling and its gables sloping is cut out against a harvest moon. At once Richardson’s qualities—his verbosity, his obliqueness—are contrasted with Tolstoi’s brevity and directness. And what is the reason of this difference in their approach? And how does our emotion at different crises of the two books compare? And what must we attribute to the eighteenth century, and what to Russia and the translator? But the questions which suggest themselves are innumerable. They ramify infinitely, and many of them are apparently irrelevant. Yet it is by asking them and pursuing the answers as far as we can go that we arrive at our standard of values, and decide in the end that the book we have just read is of this kind or of that, has merit in that degree or in this. And it is now, when we have kept closely to our own impression, formulated independently our own judgment, that we can most profitably help ourselves to the judgments of the great critics—Dryden, Johnson, and the rest. It is when we can best defend our own opinions that we get most from theirs.

So, then—to sum up the different points we have reached in this essay—have we found any answer to our question, how should we read a book? Clearly, no answer that will do for everyone; but perhaps a few suggestions. In the first place, a good reader will give the writer the benefit of every doubt; the help of all his imagination; will follow as closely, interpret as intelligently as he can. In the next place, he will judge with the utmost severity. Every book, he will remember, has the right to be judged by the best of its kind. He will be adventurous, broad in his choice, true to his own instincts, yet ready to consider those of other people. This is an outline which can be filled, in at taste and at leisure, but to read something after this fashion is to be a reader whom writers respect. It is by the means of such readers that masterpieces are helped into the world.

If the moralists ask us how we can justify our love of reading, we can make use of some such excuse as this. But if we are honest, we know that no such excuse is needed. It is true that we get nothing whatsoever except pleasure from reading; it is true that the wisest of us is unable to say what that pleasure may be. But that pleasure—mysterious, unknown, useless as it is—is enough. That pleasure is so curious, so complex, so immensely fertilizing to the mind of anyone who enjoys it, and so wide in its effects, that it would not be in the least surprising to discover, on the day of judgment when secrets are revealed and the obscure is made plain, that the reason why we have grown from pigs to men and women, and come out from our caves, and dropped our bows and arrows, and sat round the fire and talked and drunk and made merry and given to the poor and helped the sick and made pavements and houses and erected some sort of shelter and society on the waste of the world, is nothing but this: we have loved reading.

Rachel Cusk

Renaissance women, fady joudah, you might also like, september twilight, the tolstoyans, thirty clocks strike the hour, join a conversation 200 years in the making..

Support our commitment to print culture with a subscription to The Yale Review. Four issues per year for just $49.

  • Craft and Criticism
  • Fiction and Poetry
  • News and Culture
  • Lit Hub Radio
  • Reading Lists

the book i have read essay

  • Literary Criticism
  • Craft and Advice
  • In Conversation
  • On Translation
  • Short Story
  • From the Novel
  • Bookstores and Libraries
  • Film and TV
  • Art and Photography
  • Freeman’s
  • The Virtual Book Channel
  • Behind the Mic
  • Beyond the Page
  • The Cosmic Library
  • The Critic and Her Publics
  • Emergence Magazine
  • Fiction/Non/Fiction
  • First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing
  • Future Fables
  • The History of Literature
  • I’m a Writer But
  • Just the Right Book
  • Lit Century
  • The Literary Life with Mitchell Kaplan
  • New Books Network
  • Tor Presents: Voyage Into Genre
  • Windham-Campbell Prizes Podcast
  • Write-minded
  • The Best of the Decade
  • Best Reviewed Books
  • BookMarks Daily Giveaway
  • The Daily Thrill
  • CrimeReads Daily Giveaway

the book i have read essay

The Best Reviewed Essay Collections of 2021

Featuring joan didion, rachel kushner, hanif abdurraqib, ann patchett, jenny diski, and more.

Book Marks logo

Well, friends, another grim and grueling plague year is drawing to a close, and that can mean only one thing: it’s time to put on our Book Marks stats hats and tabulate the best reviewed books of the past twelve months.

Yes, using reviews drawn from more than 150 publications, over the next two weeks we’ll be revealing the most critically-acclaimed books of 2021, in the categories of (deep breath): Memoir and Biography ; Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror ; Short Story Collections ; Essay Collections; Poetry; Mystery and Crime; Graphic Literature; Literature in Translation; General Fiction; and General Nonfiction.

Today’s installment: Essay Collections .

Brought to you by Book Marks , Lit Hub’s “Rotten Tomatoes for books.”

These Precious Days

1. These Precious Days by Ann Patchett (Harper)

21 Rave • 3 Positive • 1 Mixed Read Ann Patchett on creating the work space you need, here

“… excellent … Patchett has a talent for friendship and celebrates many of those friends here. She writes with pure love for her mother, and with humor and some good-natured exasperation at Karl, who is such a great character he warrants a book of his own. Patchett’s account of his feigned offer to buy a woman’s newly adopted baby when she expresses unwarranted doubts is priceless … The days that Patchett refers to are precious indeed, but her writing is anything but. She describes deftly, with a line or a look, and I considered the absence of paragraphs freighted with adjectives to be a mercy. I don’t care about the hue of the sky or the shade of the couch. That’s not writing; it’s decorating. Or hiding. Patchett’s heart, smarts and 40 years of craft create an economy that delivers her perfectly understated stories emotionally whole. Her writing style is most gloriously her own.”

–Alex Witchel ( The New York Times Book Review )

2. Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion (Knopf)

14 Rave • 12 Positive • 6 Mixed Read an excerpt from Let Me Tell You What I Mean here

“In five decades’ worth of essays, reportage and criticism, Didion has documented the charade implicit in how things are, in a first-person, observational style that is not sacrosanct but common-sensical. Seeing as a way of extrapolating hypocrisy, disingenuousness and doubt, she’ll notice the hydrangeas are plastic and mention it once, in passing, sorting the scene. Her gaze, like a sentry on the page, permanently trained on what is being disguised … The essays in Let Me Tell You What I Mean are at once funny and touching, roving and no-nonsense. They are about humiliation and about notions of rightness … Didion’s pen is like a periscope onto the creative mind—and, as this collection demonstrates, it always has been. These essays offer a direct line to what’s in the offing.”

–Durga Chew-Bose ( The New York Times Book Review )

3. Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solnit (Viking)

12 Rave • 13 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Orwell’s Roses here

“… on its simplest level, a tribute by one fine essayist of the political left to another of an earlier generation. But as with any of Solnit’s books, such a description would be reductive: the great pleasure of reading her is spending time with her mind, its digressions and juxtapositions, its unexpected connections. Only a few contemporary writers have the ability to start almost anywhere and lead the reader on paths that, while apparently meandering, compel unfailingly and feel, by the end, cosmically connected … Somehow, Solnit’s references to Ross Gay, Michael Pollan, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Peter Coyote (to name but a few) feel perfectly at home in the narrative; just as later chapters about an eighteenth-century portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds and a visit to the heart of the Colombian rose-growing industry seem inevitable and indispensable … The book provides a captivating account of Orwell as gardener, lover, parent, and endlessly curious thinker … And, movingly, she takes the time to find the traces of Orwell the gardener and lover of beauty in his political novels, and in his insistence on the value and pleasure of things .”

–Claire Messud ( Harper’s )

4. Girlhood by Melissa Febos (Bloomsbury)

16 Rave • 5 Positive • 1 Mixed Read an excerpt from Girlhood here

“Every once in a while, a book comes along that feels so definitive, so necessary, that not only do you want to tell everyone to read it now, but you also find yourself wanting to go back in time and tell your younger self that you will one day get to read something that will make your life make sense. Melissa Febos’s fierce nonfiction collection, Girlhood , might just be that book. Febos is one of our most passionate and profound essayists … Girlhood …offers us exquisite, ferocious language for embracing self-pleasure and self-love. It’s a book that women will wish they had when they were younger, and that they’ll rejoice in having now … Febos is a balletic memoirist whose capacious gaze can take in so many seemingly disparate things and unfurl them in a graceful, cohesive way … Intellectual and erotic, engaging and empowering[.]”

–Michelle Hart ( Oprah Daily )

Why Didn't You Just Do What You Were Told?

5. Why Didn’t You Just Do What You Were Told by Jenny Diski (Bloomsbury)

14 Rave • 7 Positive

“[Diski’s] reputation as an original, witty and cant-free thinker on the way we live now should be given a significant boost. Her prose is elegant and amused, as if to counter her native melancholia and includes frequent dips into memorable images … Like the ideal artist Henry James conjured up, on whom nothing is lost, Diski notices everything that comes her way … She is discerning about serious topics (madness and death) as well as less fraught material, such as fashion … in truth Diski’s first-person voice is like no other, selectively intimate but not overbearingly egotistic, like, say, Norman Mailer’s. It bears some resemblance to Joan Didion’s, if Didion were less skittish and insistently stylish and generated more warmth. What they have in common is their innate skepticism and the way they ask questions that wouldn’t occur to anyone else … Suffice it to say that our culture, enmeshed as it is in carefully arranged snapshots of real life, needs Jenny Diski, who, by her own admission, ‘never owned a camera, never taken one on holiday.’” It is all but impossible not to warm up to a writer who observes herself so keenly … I, in turn, wish there were more people around who thought like Diski. The world would be a more generous, less shallow and infinitely more intriguing place.”

–Daphne Merkin ( The New York Times Book Review )

6. The Hard Crowd: Essays 2000-2020 by Rachel Kushner (Scribner)

12 Rave • 7 Positive Listen to an interview with Rachel Kushner here

“Whether she’s writing about Jeff Koons, prison abolition or a Palestinian refugee camp in Jerusalem, [Kushner’s] interested in appearances, and in the deeper currents a surface detail might betray … Her writing is magnetised by outlaw sensibility, hard lives lived at a slant, art made in conditions of ferment and unrest, though she rarely serves a platter that isn’t style-mag ready … She makes a pretty convincing case for a political dimension to Jeff Koons’s vacuities and mirrored surfaces, engages repeatedly with the Italian avant garde and writes best of all about an artist friend whose death undoes a spell of nihilism … It’s not just that Kushner is looking back on the distant city of youth; more that she’s the sole survivor of a wild crowd done down by prison, drugs, untimely death … What she remembers is a whole world, but does the act of immortalising it in language also drain it of its power,’neon, in pink, red, and warm white, bleeding into the fog’? She’s mining a rich seam of specificity, her writing charged by the dangers she ran up against. And then there’s the frank pleasure of her sentences, often shorn of definite articles or odd words, so they rev and bucket along … That New Journalism style, live hard and keep your eyes open, has long since given way to the millennial cult of the personal essay, with its performance of pain, its earnest display of wounds received and lessons learned. But Kushner brings it all flooding back. Even if I’m skeptical of its dazzle, I’m glad to taste something this sharp, this smart.”

–Olivia Laing ( The Guardian )

7. The Right to Sex: Feminism in the Twenty-First Century by Amia Srinivasan (FSG)

12 Rave • 7 Positive • 5 Mixed • 1 Pan

“[A] quietly dazzling new essay collection … This is, needless to say, fraught terrain, and Srinivasan treads it with determination and skill … These essays are works of both criticism and imagination. Srinivasan refuses to resort to straw men; she will lay out even the most specious argument clearly and carefully, demonstrating its emotional power, even if her ultimate intention is to dismantle it … This, then, is a book that explicitly addresses intersectionality, even if Srinivasan is dissatisfied with the common—and reductive—understanding of the term … Srinivasan has written a compassionate book. She has also written a challenging one … Srinivasan proposes the kind of education enacted in this brilliant, rigorous book. She coaxes our imaginations out of the well-worn grooves of the existing order.”

–Jennifer Szalai ( The New York Times )

8. A Little Devil in America by Hanif Abdurraqib (Random House)

13 Rave • 4 Positive Listen to an interview with Hanif Abdurraqib here

“[A] wide, deep, and discerning inquest into the Beauty of Blackness as enacted on stages and screens, in unanimity and discord, on public airwaves and in intimate spaces … has brought to pop criticism and cultural history not just a poet’s lyricism and imagery but also a scholar’s rigor, a novelist’s sense of character and place, and a punk-rocker’s impulse to dislodge conventional wisdom from its moorings until something shakes loose and is exposed to audiences too lethargic to think or even react differently … Abdurraqib cherishes this power to enlarge oneself within or beyond real or imagined restrictions … Abdurraqib reminds readers of the massive viewing audience’s shock and awe over seeing one of the world’s biggest pop icons appearing midfield at this least radical of American rituals … Something about the seemingly insatiable hunger Abdurraqib shows for cultural transaction, paradoxical mischief, and Beauty in Blackness tells me he’ll get to such matters soon enough.”

–Gene Seymour ( Bookforum )

9. On Animals by Susan Orlean (Avid Reader Press)

11 Rave • 6 Positive • 1 Mixed Listen to an interview with Susan Orlean here

“I very much enjoyed Orlean’s perspective in these original, perceptive, and clever essays showcasing the sometimes strange, sometimes sick, sometimes tender relationships between people and animals … whether Orlean is writing about one couple’s quest to find their lost dog, the lives of working donkeys of the Fez medina in Morocco, or a man who rescues lions (and happily allows even full grown males to gently chew his head), her pages are crammed with quirky characters, telling details, and flabbergasting facts … Readers will find these pages full of astonishments … Orlean excels as a reporter…Such thorough reporting made me long for updates on some of these stories … But even this criticism only testifies to the delight of each of the urbane and vivid stories in this collection. Even though Orlean claims the animals she writes about remain enigmas, she makes us care about their fates. Readers will continue to think about these dogs and donkeys, tigers and lions, chickens and pigeons long after we close the book’s covers. I hope most of them are still well.”

–Sy Montgomery ( The Boston Globe )

10. Graceland, at Last: Notes on Hope and Heartache from the American South  by Margaret Renkl (Milkweed Editions)

9 Rave • 5 Positive Read Margaret Renkl on finding ideas everywhere, here

“Renkl’s sense of joyful belonging to the South, a region too often dismissed on both coasts in crude stereotypes and bad jokes, co-exists with her intense desire for Southerners who face prejudice or poverty finally to be embraced and supported … Renkl at her most tender and most fierce … Renkl’s gift, just as it was in her first book Late Migrations , is to make fascinating for others what is closest to her heart … Any initial sense of emotional whiplash faded as as I proceeded across the six sections and realized that the book is largely organized around one concept, that of fair and loving treatment for all—regardless of race, class, sex, gender or species … What rises in me after reading her essays is Lewis’ famous urging to get in good trouble to make the world fairer and better. Many people in the South are doing just that—and through her beautiful writing, Renkl is among them.”

–Barbara J. King ( NPR )

Our System:

RAVE = 5 points • POSITIVE = 3 points • MIXED = 1 point • PAN = -5 points

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)

Book Marks

Previous Article

Next article, support lit hub..

Support Lit Hub

Join our community of readers.

to the Lithub Daily

Popular posts.

the book i have read essay

Follow us on Twitter

the book i have read essay

Prayers for the Stolen: How Two Artists Portray the Violence of Human Trafficking in Mexico

  • RSS - Posts

Literary Hub

Created by Grove Atlantic and Electric Literature

Sign Up For Our Newsletters

How to Pitch Lit Hub

Advertisers: Contact Us

Privacy Policy

Support Lit Hub - Become A Member

Become a Lit Hub Supporting Member : Because Books Matter

For the past decade, Literary Hub has brought you the best of the book world for free—no paywall. But our future relies on you. In return for a donation, you’ll get an ad-free reading experience , exclusive editors’ picks, book giveaways, and our coveted Joan Didion Lit Hub tote bag . Most importantly, you’ll keep independent book coverage alive and thriving on the internet.

the book i have read essay

Become a member for as low as $5/month

Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Poetry — William Staffords Burning A Book

test_template

William Staffords Burning a Book

  • Categories: Poetry

About this sample

close

Words: 486 |

Published: Mar 14, 2024

Words: 486 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Image of Dr. Charlotte Jacobson

Cite this Essay

Let us write you an essay from scratch

  • 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
  • Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

author

Dr. Karlyna PhD

Verified writer

  • Expert in: Literature

writer

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

2 pages / 1000 words

3 pages / 1484 words

3 pages / 1564 words

3 pages / 1304 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on Poetry

Aisenberg, Katy, Ravishing Images: Ekphrasis in the Poetry and Prose of William Wordsworth, W.H. Auden, and Philip Larkin (New York: American University Studies Series 4: English Language and Literature, date).Auden, Wystan [...]

In the contemporary society, many people undergo challenges depending on the nature of their environment, or sometimes due to uncertain circumstances for which they have no control. Yet amidst the challenges, they often hold [...]

Hilda Morley’s ‘Winter Solstice’ is an overt poem primarily aimed at describing a winter solstice. Correspondingly, the author has dotted the poem with descriptive words meant to create a mental picture of a solstice in a [...]

In the poem "One Boy Told Me" by Naomi Nye, the poet exudes sensitivity, compassion and great heart. Nye touches on her diverse personal experiences that form the backbone of the poem. It is very interesting the way she brings [...]

Dialectical structure is probably one of the major characteristics of all Metaphysical poetry. Donne was the pioneer of this type of poetry, which was marked by erudite scholarship, and difficulty of thought. It is said that a [...]

In the poem “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” Walt Whitman writes of a speaker who is exposed to the knowledge of the stars in the sky and the Milky Way galaxies, but is restricted from fathoming a deeper understanding in [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

  • Instructions Followed To The Letter
  • Deadlines Met At Every Stage
  • Unique And Plagiarism Free

the book i have read essay

  • Newsletters
  • Account Activating this button will toggle the display of additional content Account Sign out

The Loss of Things I Took for Granted

Ten years into my college teaching career, students stopped being able to read effectively..

Recent years have seen successive waves of book bans in Republican-controlled states, aimed at pulling any text with “woke” themes from classrooms and library shelves. Though the results sometimes seem farcical, as with the banning of Art Spiegelman’s Maus due to its inclusion of “cuss words” and explicit rodent nudity, the book-banning agenda is no laughing matter. Motivated by bigotry, it has already done demonstrable harm and promises to do more. But at the same time, the appropriate response is, in principle, simple. Named individuals have advanced explicit policies with clear goals and outcomes, and we can replace those individuals with people who want to reverse those policies. That is already beginning to happen in many places, and I hope those successes will continue until every banned book is restored.

If and when that happens, however, we will not be able to declare victory quite yet. Defeating the open conspiracy to deprive students of physical access to books will do little to counteract the more diffuse confluence of forces that are depriving students of the skills needed to meaningfully engage with those books in the first place. As a college educator, I am confronted daily with the results of that conspiracy-without-conspirators. I have been teaching in small liberal arts colleges for over 15 years now, and in the past five years, it’s as though someone flipped a switch. For most of my career, I assigned around 30 pages of reading per class meeting as a baseline expectation—sometimes scaling up for purely expository readings or pulling back for more difficult texts. (No human being can read 30 pages of Hegel in one sitting, for example.) Now students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from readings of as little as 20 pages with no real understanding. Even smart and motivated students struggle to do more with written texts than extract decontextualized take-aways. Considerable class time is taken up simply establishing what happened in a story or the basic steps of an argument—skills I used to be able to take for granted.

Since this development very directly affects my ability to do my job as I understand it, I talk about it a lot. And when I talk about it with nonacademics, certain predictable responses inevitably arise, all questioning the reality of the trend I describe. Hasn’t every generation felt that the younger cohort is going to hell in a handbasket? Haven’t professors always complained that educators at earlier levels are not adequately equipping their students? And haven’t students from time immemorial skipped the readings?

The response of my fellow academics, however, reassures me that I’m not simply indulging in intergenerational grousing. Anecdotally, I have literally never met a professor who did not share my experience. Professors are also discussing the issue in academic trade publications , from a variety of perspectives. What we almost all seem to agree on is that we are facing new obstacles in structuring and delivering our courses, requiring us to ratchet down expectations in the face of a ratcheting down of preparation. Yes, there were always students who skipped the readings, but we are in new territory when even highly motivated honors students struggle to grasp the basic argument of a 20-page article. Yes, professors never feel satisfied that high school teachers have done enough, but not every generation of professors has had to deal with the fallout of No Child Left Behind and Common Core. Finally, yes, every generation thinks the younger generation is failing to make the grade— except for the current cohort of professors, who are by and large more invested in their students’ success and mental health and more responsive to student needs than any group of educators in human history. We are not complaining about our students. We are complaining about what has been taken from them.

If we ask what has caused this change, there are some obvious culprits. The first is the same thing that has taken away almost everyone’s ability to focus—the ubiquitous smartphone. Even as a career academic who studies the Quran in Arabic for fun, I have noticed my reading endurance flagging. I once found myself boasting at a faculty meeting that I had read through my entire hourlong train ride without looking at my phone. My colleagues agreed this was a major feat, one they had not achieved recently. Even if I rarely attain that high level of focus, though, I am able to “turn it on” when demanded, for instance to plow through a big novel during a holiday break. That’s because I was able to develop and practice those skills of extended concentration and attentive reading before the intervention of the smartphone. For children who were raised with smartphones, by contrast, that foundation is missing. It is probably no coincidence that the iPhone itself, originally released in 2007, is approaching college age, meaning that professors are increasingly dealing with students who would have become addicted to the dopamine hit of the omnipresent screen long before they were introduced to the more subtle pleasures of the page.

The second go-to explanation is the massive disruption of school closures during COVID-19. There is still some debate about the necessity of those measures, but what is not up for debate any longer is the very real learning loss that students suffered at every level. The impact will inevitably continue to be felt for the next decade or more, until the last cohort affected by the mass “pivot to online” finally graduates. I doubt that the pandemic closures were the decisive factor in themselves, however. Not only did the marked decline in reading resilience start before the pandemic, but the students I am seeing would have already been in high school during the school closures. Hence they would be better equipped to get something out of the online format and, more importantly, their basic reading competence would have already been established.

Less discussed than these broader cultural trends over which educators have little control are the major changes in reading pedagogy that have occurred in recent decades—some motivated by the ever-increasing demand to “teach to the test” and some by fads coming out of schools of education. In the latter category is the widely discussed decline in phonics education in favor of the “balanced literacy” approach advocated by education expert Lucy Calkins (who has more recently come to accept the need for more phonics instruction). I started to see the results of this ill-advised change several years ago, when students abruptly stopped attempting to sound out unfamiliar words and instead paused until they recognized the whole word as a unit. (In a recent class session, a smart, capable student was caught short by the word circumstances when reading a text out loud.) The result of this vibes-based literacy is that students never attain genuine fluency in reading. Even aside from the impact of smartphones, their experience of reading is constantly interrupted by their intentionally cultivated inability to process unfamiliar words.

For all the flaws of the balanced literacy method, it was presumably implemented by people who thought it would help. It is hard to see a similar motivation in the growing trend toward assigning students only the kind of short passages that can be included in a standardized test. Due in part to changes driven by the infamous Common Core standards , teachers now have to fight to assign their students longer readings, much less entire books, because those activities won’t feed directly into students getting higher test scores, which leads to schools getting more funding. The emphasis on standardized tests was always a distraction at best, but we have reached the point where it is actively cannibalizing students’ educational experience—an outcome no one intended or planned, and for which there is no possible justification.

We can’t go back in time and do the pandemic differently at this point, nor is there any realistic path to putting the smartphone genie back in the bottle. (Though I will note that we as a society do at least attempt to keep other addictive products out of the hands of children.) But I have to think that we can, at the very least, stop actively preventing young people from developing the ability to follow extended narratives and arguments in the classroom. Regardless of their profession or ultimate educational level, they will need those skills. The world is a complicated place. People—their histories and identities, their institutions and work processes, their fears and desires—are simply too complex to be captured in a worksheet with a paragraph and some reading comprehension questions. Large-scale prose writing is the best medium we have for capturing that complexity, and the education system should not be in the business of keeping students from learning how to engage effectively with it.

This is a matter not of snobbery, but of basic justice. I recognize that not everyone centers their lives on books as much as a humanities professor does. I think they’re missing out, but they’re adults and they can choose how to spend their time. What’s happening with the current generation is not that they are simply choosing TikTok over Jane Austen. They are being deprived of the ability to choose—for no real reason or benefit. We can and must stop perpetrating this crime on our young people.

comscore beacon

The Cowardice of Guernica

The literary magazine Guernica ’s decision to retract an essay about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reveals much about how the war is hardening human sentiment.

People looking at Guernica

Listen to this article

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

In the days after October 7, the writer and translator Joanna Chen spoke with a neighbor in Israel whose children were frightened by the constant sound of warplanes. “I tell them these are good booms,” the neighbor said to Chen with a grimace. “I understood the subtext,” Chen wrote later in an essay published in Guernica magazine on March 4, titled “From the Edges of a Broken World.” The booms were, of course, the Israeli army bombing Gaza, part of a campaign that has left at least 30,000 civilians and combatants dead so far.

The moment is just one observation in a much longer meditative piece of writing in which Chen weighs her principles—she refused service in the Israeli military, for years has volunteered at a charity providing transportation for Palestinian children needing medical care, and works on Arabic and Hebrew translations to bridge cultural divides—against the more turbulent feelings of fear, inadequacy, and split allegiances that have cropped up for her after October 7, when 1,200 people were killed and 250 taken hostage in Hamas’s assault on Israel. But the conversation with the neighbor is a sharp, novelistic, and telling moment. The mother, aware of the perversity of recasting bombs killing children mere miles away as “good booms,” does so anyway because she is a mother, and her children are frightened. The act, at once callous and caring, will stay with me.

Not with the readers of Guernica , though. The magazine , once a prominent publication for fiction, poetry, and literary nonfiction, with a focus on global art and politics, quickly found itself imploding as its all-volunteer staff revolted over the essay. One of the magazine’s nonfiction editors posted on social media that she was leaving over Chen’s publication. “Parts of the essay felt particularly harmful and disorienting to read, such as the line where a person is quoted saying ‘I tell them these are good booms.’” Soon a poetry editor resigned as well, calling Chen’s essay a “horrific settler normalization essay”— settler here seeming to refer to all Israelis, because Chen does not live in the occupied territories. More staff members followed, including the senior nonfiction editor and one of the co-publishers (who criticized the essay as “a hand-wringing apologia for Zionism”). Amid this flurry of cascading outrage, on March 10 Guernica pulled the essay from its website, with the note: “ Guernica regrets having published this piece, and has retracted it. A more fulsome explanation will follow.” As of today, this explanation is still pending, and my request for comment from the editor in chief, Jina Moore Ngarambe, has gone unanswered.

Read: Beware the language that erases reality

Blowups at literary journals are not the most pressing news of the day, but the incident at Guernica reveals the extent to which elite American literary outlets may now be beholden to the narrowest polemical and moralistic approaches to literature. After the publication of Chen’s essay, a parade of mutual incomprehension occurred across social media, with pro-Palestine writers announcing what they declared to be the self-evident awfulness of the essay (publishing the essay made Guernica “a pillar of eugenicist white colonialism masquerading as goodness,” wrote one of the now-former editors), while reader after reader who came to it because of the controversy—an archived version can still be accessed—commented that they didn’t understand what was objectionable. One reader seemed to have mistakenly assumed that Guernica had pulled the essay in response to pressure from pro-Israel critics. “Oh buddy you can’t have your civilian population empathizing with the people you’re ethnically cleansing,” he wrote, with obvious sarcasm. When another reader pointed out that he had it backwards, he responded, “This chain of events is bizarre.”

Some people saw anti-Semitism in the decision. James Palmer, a deputy editor of Foreign Policy , noted how absurd it was to suggest that the author approved of the “good bombs” sentiment, and wrote that the outcry was “one step toward trying to exclude Jews from discourse altogether.” And it is hard not to see some anti-Semitism at play. One of the resigning editors claimed that the essay “includes random untrue fantasies about Hamas and centers the suffering of oppressors” (Chen briefly mentions the well-documented atrocities of October 7; caring for an Israeli family that lost a daughter, son-in-law, and nephew; and her worries about the fate of Palestinians she knows who have links to Israel).

Madhuri Sastry, one of the co-publishers, notes in her resignation post that she’d earlier successfully insisted on barring a previous essay of Chen’s from the magazine’s Voices on Palestine compilation. In that same compilation, Guernica chose to include an interview with Alice Walker, the author of a poem that asks “Are Goyim (us) meant to be slaves of Jews,” and who once recommended to readers of The New York Times a book that claims that “a small Jewish clique” helped plan the Russian Revolution, World Wars I and II, and “coldly calculated” the Holocaust. No one at Guernica publicly resigned over the magazine’s association with Walker.

However, to merely dismiss all of the critics out of hand as insane or intolerant or anti-Semitic would ironically run counter to the spirit of Chen’s essay itself. She writes of her desire to reach out to those on the other side of the conflict, people she’s worked with or known and who would be angered or horrified by some of the other experiences she relates in the essay, such as the conversation about the “good booms.” Given the realities of the conflict, she knows this attempt to connect is just a first step, and an often-frustrating one. Writing to a Palestinian she’d once worked with as a reporter, she laments her failure to come up with something meaningful to say: “I also felt stupid—this was war, and whether I liked it or not, Nuha and I were standing at opposite ends of the very bridge I hoped to cross. I had been naive … I was inadequate.” In another scene, she notes how even before October 7, when groups of Palestinians and Israelis joined together to share their stories, their goodwill failed “to straddle the chasm that divided us.”

Read: Why activism leads to so much bad writing

After the publication of Chen’s essay, one writer after another pulled their work from the magazine. One wrote, “I will not allow my work to be curated alongside settler angst,” while another, the Texas-based Palestinian American poet Fady Joudah, wrote that Chen’s essay “is humiliating to Palestinians in any time let alone during a genocide. An essay as if a dispatch from a colonial century ago. Oh how good you are to the natives.” I find it hard to read the essay that way, but it would be a mistake, as Chen herself suggests, to ignore such sentiments. For those who more naturally sympathize with the Israeli mother than the Gazan hiding from the bombs, these responses exist across that chasm Chen describes, one that empathy alone is incapable of bridging.

That doesn’t mean empathy isn’t a start, though. Which is why the retraction of the article is more than an act of cowardice and a betrayal of a writer whose work the magazine shepherded to publication. It’s a betrayal of the task of literature, which cannot end wars but can help us see why people wage them, oppose them, or become complicit in them.

Empathy here does not justify or condemn. Empathy is just a tool. The writer needs it to accurately depict their subject; the peacemaker needs it to be able to trace the possibilities for negotiation; even the soldier needs it to understand his adversary. Before we act, we must see war’s human terrain in all its complexity, no matter how disorienting and painful that might be. Which means seeing Israelis as well as Palestinians—and not simply the mother comforting her children as the bombs fall and the essayist reaching out across the divide, but far harsher and more unsettling perspectives. Peace is not made between angels and demons but between human beings, and the real hell of life, as Jean Renoir once noted, is that everybody has their reasons. If your journal can’t publish work that deals with such messy realities, then your editors might as well resign, because you’ve turned your back on literature.

  • School Guide
  • English Grammar Free Course
  • English Grammar Tutorial
  • Parts of Speech
  • Figure of Speech
  • Tenses Chart
  • Essay Writing
  • Email Writing
  • NCERT English Solutions
  • English Difference Between
  • SSC CGL English Syllabus
  • SBI PO English Syllabus
  • SBI Clerk English Syllabus
  • IBPS PO English Syllabus
  • IBPS CLERK English Syllabus
  • Lightening vs Lightning | Difference Between Lightening and Lightning
  • Difference Between Which and That
  • Lady vs Girl | Difference Between Lady and Girl
  • Difference Between Concrete and Abstract Nouns
  • Difference Between Although and Even though
  • Toward vs Towards | Difference Between Toward and Towards
  • Difference Between Article and Essay
  • Quite vs Quiet | Difference Between Quite and Quiet
  • Check vs. Cheque : Difference with Example
  • Difference between Still and Till
  • Apart vs A Part | Difference between Apart and A part
  • Difference Between Was and Had
  • Difference Between Adjective and Verb
  • Principal Vs. Principle : What's the difference?
  • Shall vs Will - Difference Between Shall and Will
  • Difference Between Everyone and Everybody
  • Get vs Got | Difference Between Get and Got
  • Who vs Whom - Difference Between Who and Whom
  • Difference Between These and Those

Essay on My Favourite Book For Students

Books are not just fun, they’re super beneficial too! Want to know about dinosaurs? There’s a book for that. Curious about how the world was made? Yep, there’s a book for that too. Books teach you about history, science, art, and whatever else you’re into. What’s cool is that there are so many different kinds of books. Some are big, some are small, some are thick, and some are thin. Some have lots of words, and some have more pictures. You can find books with shiny covers or soft ones.

And get this – you don’t even have to buy books to enjoy them! You can borrow them from a library. Libraries are like a goldmine of books just waiting for someone to pick them up and go on an adventure. So, whether you’re reading under your blanket with a flashlight or chilling by the fire, books are your key to fun and learning. In this article, we will be providing an essay on my favourite book.

500 Word Essay on My Favourite Book

One of the most mind-bending yet fascinating books I’ve ever read is A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. This groundbreaking work by one of the world’s most brilliant theoretical physicists explores the fundamental questions about the origins and nature of our universe. What makes this book so captivating is how Hawking takes enormously complex concepts from physics and cosmology and translates them into relatively understandable language for the average reader. He has an exceptional talent for using clever analogies and thought experiments to shed light on counterintuitive realities about space, time, and the evolution of the cosmos.

A central focus of the book is Hawking’s quest, along with many other physicists, to develop a unified theory that reconciles the principles of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, which describes the laws of gravity that govern the motion of large objects like planets and galaxies, with the very different rules of quantum mechanics, which regulate the behavior of subatomic particles. Marrying these two disparate understandings into one all-encompassing model is one of the biggest unsolved challenges in modern physics.

Hawking does a masterful job explaining mind-bending phenomena like gravitational singularities at the core of black holes, the possibility that time itself may have had a beginning with the initial fireball of the Big Bang, and the counterintuitive quantum effects like fields of negative energy. He explores cutting-edge theories like supergravity, supersymmetry, and string theory that strive to incorporate quantum mechanics into a broader fabric with gravitation. While the farthest depths of theoretical physics can cross into realms that seem completely detached from human experience, Hawking always finds a way to ground the concepts through illustrative examples and connections to observable phenomena. His famous image of a pool table as an analogy for describing the curvature of space-time in the presence of matter is just one example of his knack for elucidation.

A Brief History of Time such an engaging read is Hawking’s ability to translate the abstract mathematical laws that govern the universe into a captivating philosophical exploration. By taking readers on a journey through the evolution of celestial mechanics and cosmology, he simultaneously highlights how little we truly understand about the origins and behavior of our universe while celebrating how much we’ve been able to unravel through science. It’s a delicate balance of illuminating the known and acknowledging the limits of human knowledge that makes this book a modern classic.

800 Word Essay on My Favourite Book

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is one of those rare books that becomes an instant classic the moment you read it. It’s a philosophical novel disguised as a simple journey, following an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago as he travels from Spain to the Egyptian pyramids in pursuit of a treasure buried near the Pyramids. But the beauty of The Alchemist lies in the timeless lessons and wisdom it imparts along the way. On one level, it is a thrilling adventure story full of omens, mythical encounters, and narrow escapes as Santiago leaves his homeland in search of his “Personal Legend” or life’s purpose. Coelho manages to infuse the simple plot with profound insights into following your dreams, listening to your heart, recognizing and pursuing your destiny, and being open to the obscure forces that can guide you along the way if you remain aware and present.

One of the core themes is the idea that we are all capable of achieving our most desired goals and destinies by being attuned to the “beginners’ mind” and seeing the simple wonders and lessons present all around us. As Santiago journeys, he has his spiritual eyes opened by chance meetings with a mysterious old man, a departed soul in the desert, and finally an enlightened alchemist who becomes his mentor. The alchemist schools Santiago on understanding “The Soul of the World” and embracing what the old man calls “the principle that governs all things.” Coelho masterfully takes the concepts of alchemy, omens, the language of the universe, and the transformative wisdom of listening to one’s heart, and makes them accessible to modern readers through Santiago’s fable-like travels and awakenings.

Much of the book’s beauty and wisdom comes through the simple conversations and parables voiced by the spiritual figures Santiago encounters on his travels. The alchemist teaches Santiago that pursuing your Personal Legend is not an easy path but is the only way to be truly fulfilled. He says, “There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.”

The book has a way of gently ushering you through barriers and fears, leaving you with a calm confidence and peace about following your heart’s calling. Sometimes it hits you over the head with powerful affirmations like: “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Other times it sneaks up on you through simple interactions or metaphors, such as the alchemist’s explanation of transforming lead into gold representing the process of pursuing your legend and becoming your authentic self. Throughout the journey, Coelho’s writing is clear and simple yet stunningly profound. It has the magical quality of a timeless parable yet feels modern and unfailingly relevant. His descriptions of nature, the desert, and cities like Tangier have the tone of fabled odysseys but are fresh and vibrant.

In the end, The Alchemist is a story of self-discovery, a celebration of intuition and overcoming one’s fears, and a call to live life in a state of sublime awareness and openness to the omens that can lead you toward your own Personal Legend. It’s a short book that can be devoured in one sitting yet deserves to be read and re-read many times, as layers of wisdom and truth reveal themselves with each new reading at different stages of your life’s journey.

With deceptive simplicity and poeticism, Coelho inspires you to view the world, your heart’s desires, and life’s symbolic omens through fresh eyes. He leaves you awakened and empowered to pursue your dreams in a deep and transcendent way. It’s a novel that becomes a personal milestone, a guide to living life with sacred awareness and courage. For these reasons and many more, it is a book that has profoundly impacted me and will always remain one of my absolute favorites.

Similar Reads Essay on My House in English: Check 300, 500 & 800 Words Essay Essay on Science in English: Check 200, 300 & 500 Words Essay Essay on Dog For Kids and Children: Check 200, 300 & 500 Words Essay

Essay on My Favourite Book- FAQs

Why are books important.

Books are important because they provide knowledge, entertainment, and a means of escape from reality. They offer valuable insights into different cultures, ideas, and perspectives, helping us broaden our understanding of the world.

Why are books beneficial for students?

Books are beneficial for students because they enhance literacy skills, improve vocabulary, and stimulate critical thinking. They also foster creativity, imagination, and empathy, which are crucial for personal and academic development.
Why should students read? Students should read because it expands their horizons, enhances their academic performance, and prepares them for success in life. Reading exposes them to new ideas, improves comprehension and communication skills, and instills a lifelong love for learning.

What are the benefits of reading for students?

Reading offers numerous benefits for students, including improved concentration, better academic performance, and enhanced cognitive abilities. It also promotes empathy, reduces stress, and provides a healthy form of entertainment.

Which is the bestselling book series?

The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling is one of the bestselling book series of all time. With its captivating storyline, memorable characters, and imaginative world-building, the series has captured the hearts of millions of readers worldwide.

Can books help students in their academic studies?

Absolutely! Books are invaluable resources for students in their academic studies. They provide in-depth explanations, examples, and exercises related to various subjects, aiding comprehension and mastery of concepts. Textbooks, reference books, and study guides offer structured content aligned with curriculum standards, facilitating effective learning and academic success.

Please Login to comment...

  • English Blogs
  • School English
  • What Is Trunk-Or-Treat?
  • 10 Best AI Tools for Lawyers (Free + Paid)
  • Fireflies AI vs Gong: Which AI Tool is best in 2024?
  • Top 10 Alternatives to Snapseed in 2024 [Free + Paid]
  • 30 OOPs Interview Questions and Answers (2024)

Improve your Coding Skills with Practice

 alt=

What kind of Experience do you want to share?

  • lol Badge Feed
  • win Badge Feed
  • trending Badge Feed

Browse links

  • © 2024 BuzzFeed, Inc
  • Consent Preferences
  • Accessibility Statement

"I Actually Had To Stop For A While To Compose Myself": People Are Sharing The Books That Emotionally Devastated Them

"I was just reading it for some extra credit during our unit on WWI in high school. It left me in tears and completely changed my outlook on war."

Kristen Harris

BuzzFeed Staff

A great book can make you feel a wide range of emotions in only a few hundred pages. Sometimes, you stumble across a rare book that leaves such an emotional impact on you, it stays with you for years to come.

Recently, i asked the buzzfeed community which books had the biggest emotional impact on them., here are 19 of their top responses:, 1. " sweetgrass basket by marlene carvell. it’s a young reader's prose based on two mohawk sisters during the era when indigenous children were sent to boarding schools. i read it first in sixth grade, and it has stuck with me for the last ten years.".

Two girls embracing, overlooking a house, on the cover of &quot;Sweetgrass Basket&quot; by Marlene Carvell

"I finally bought my own copy. Cried harder than I remember when reading it before."

— peachytaurus

Get your copy here !

2. " Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. Her writing is so vibrant that I pictured everything happening in my head as I read the book. It left me with a really uneasy feeling, almost like I was trying to forget an ugly memory, but I kind of liked that."

Book cover of &#x27;Sharp Objects&#x27; by Gillian Flynn

"I had never really had that type of impact from reading a book before. It definitely made me want more. I enjoyed  Gone Girl  and  Dark Places , but  Sharp Objects  reigns supreme."

— bovineeyes

3. " The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Something about it really just kind of gut-punched me. It was the first book that made me cry."

Cover of &quot;The Outsiders&quot; by S.E. Hinton, featuring a person in a leather jacket

"It’s just so well-written and interesting. I recommend it to everyone who hasn’t already read it!"

4. " All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven. It handles grief and mental health, and life and death so beautifully, and the characters are so rich and easy to connect to. I read All the Bright Places once or twice every single year, and I end up sobbing for HOURS every time I finish it even though I already know how it ends."

Book cover of &quot;All the Bright Places&quot; by Jennifer Niven with sticky notes, a bird drawing

"Finch is probably my favorite character of all time, in any book. And the way Niven portrays him? As someone who has struggled with mental illness my whole life, his character is so spectacularly, perfectly done. I love Finch, I love Violet, and I love their story. (Even though it makes me cry.)"

— wendyhaddon

5. " Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. It was the only book I’ve read that truly made me sob."

Cover of &quot;The Song of Achilles&quot; by Madeline Miller featuring a golden helmet

"Though it is a romance type book, I absolutely loved it, and the ending rips my heart to shreds every time!"

— hannahcipollina

6. " All Quiet on the Western Fron t by Erich Maria Remarque. I was just reading it for some extra credit during our unit on WWI in high school. It left me in tears and completely changed my outlook on war."

Cover of &quot;All Quiet on the Western Front&quot; by Remarque with battlefield image

"It should be required reading for everyone, so they can all see how horrendously cruel and useless wars are."

— hailcthulhu

7. " The No-Show by Beth O'Leary. It's essentially a rom-com , but the big plot twist in it knocked me down. I remember reading and bawling. I actually had to stop for a while to compose myself."

Three illustrated characters on a book cover titled &quot;The No-Show&quot; by Beth O&#x27;Leary

"I even sent a DM to the author on Instagram (which she very kindly replied to) because I was so moved by that book. It's so amazing."

— melinaarangel

8. " One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez. It’s the only book that ever made me cry for ten minutes straight after a character died."

Cover of &quot;One Hundred Years of Solitude&quot; by Gabriel García Márquez, Nobel Prize winner note, with abstract green art

"I literally had to move to a different room because I couldn’t handle it. And despite all the magical realism the novel contains, it’s one of the realest piece of literature I’ve read."

9. " The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo. I was teaching fourth grade at the time and was reading ahead obviously to prepare for the lessons, but I got caught up in this book. I decided to wait and read the chapters to the students so we both had a first read. Once I read the ending, I literally threw the book (sorry Kate) because I was so moved by the ending."

Book cover of &#x27;The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane&#x27; by Kate DiCamillo with an illustration of a toy rabbit

"The kids went wild over it, and I’m really glad we got to experience that together."

10. " Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. It made me laugh and cry, and have multiple existential crises."

Book cover of &quot;Tuck Everlasting&quot; by Natalie Babbitt with overlaid text asking &quot;What if you could live forever?&quot; and a person holding a dragonfly

 "Never did I think such a tiny book could pack such a powerful story."

— andrewfirriolo

11. "I read And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts at 18. It is an investigative journalist’s exposé of the AIDS crisis covering the first known case all the way through the 1980s told in a narrative style. You meet real characters and fall in love with them, only to slowly watch them die, and it’s heart wrenching."

20th anniversary book cover of &quot;And the Band Played On&quot; by Randy Shilts about the AIDS epidemic

"You also meet doctors desperately trying to find treatments for terminally ill patients under a culture of relentless anti-gay mindsets that see the disease as divine punishment. You meet the children of IV drug users who never get to leave the hospital in their short lives. You meet partners watching their loved one die, unable to have any rights to decide their burial or funeral because gay marriage was illegal. 

It takes something often portrayed like an after-school special and makes it very real in all its ugliness. I think I cried every chapter, but it made me understand the horrific traumas suffered by older members of the LGBTQ community and how far we’ve come."

— omgitsaclaire

12. " The Speed of Dark by Elizabeth Moon is probably the most life-changing book I’ve ever read. The first-person main character is high-functioning autistic, and their thought processes eerily echoed my own in a way no other fictional character had before."

Cover of &quot;The Speed of Dark&quot; by Elizabeth Moon, Tenth Anniversary Edition, with a facial close-up

"Six months and an evaluation later, I had an official diagnosis of Asperger’s Syndrome."

— toothlessfeline

13. " The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine. It’s my favorite book of all time (even though it’s middle grade) because I'm a sucker for historical fiction. It’s such a beautiful story about friendship during segregation and racial uncertainty, and every time you read it, it feels like the first time all over again."

Book cover of &quot;The Lions of Little Rock&quot; by Kristin Levine, featuring two clasped hands and a title emblem

"This book is criminally underrated. One detail that I love the most is that the ending is hopeful, not happy, because it’s set during 1958. It wouldn’t make sense for everyone to love each other and for the white girl and the Black girl to be friends with sunshine and rainbows. Instead, the ending is hopeful. Marlee is hopeful for change. All in all, RUN, don’t walk to buy this book."

— supersinger14

14. "The only thing I can thank my tenth-grade English teacher for is expanding my literary tastes from light fantasy to thought-provoking hard science fiction by recommending I read Robert A. Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land . That book was a real eye-opener for a teenager in the late ‘80s."

Cover of &quot;Stranger in a Strange Land&quot; by Robert Heinlein, featuring silhouetted figure and celestial bodies

"While I have since outgrown many of Heinlein’s philosophies, his books were my gateway to a much broader and richer world of ideas."

15. " Unsouled by Will Wight. The Cradle series is incredible. It pulled out some of the most painful, and some of the most beautiful, pieces of my heart and showed me a fundamentally different way to be with them."

Book cover of &quot;Unsouled&quot; by Will Wight, featuring a wooden token with symbols, part of the Cradle series

"If you’ve ever willingly walked away from the world you knew to become who you are supposed to be, Lindon will walk with you."

— chaoticemmes

16. "Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale . It was assigned either junior or senior year (so 1990ish for me). There was something about the frankness of Offred's voice, coupled with the most relatable dystopian world-building I'd ever read, that truly had me recognizing myself and the world I was living in."

Book cover of &quot;The Handmaid&#x27;s Tale&quot; by Margaret Atwood, featuring a minimalist illustration

"I'm not saying the novel made me a feminist, but it was the beginning of my journey towards the realization that my body is inviolable and that my thoughts and body are owned by me and me alone."

— filmteach

17. " Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls still makes me emotional even though I haven't actually read it since I was ten. I was looking for something to read, and it was on a bookshelf. I had no idea what I was getting into. It was like a punch in the gut."

Cover of &#x27;Where the Red Fern Grows&#x27; showing a boy and his dogs under a moonlit sky

"I've tried reading it again over the years but never manage to finish it. I still think it's a good book. I'm glad I read it, but it seems clear that it'll probably be a book I only ever read all the way through once.

Strangely, I didn't have that kind of visceral reaction to other books about childhood, growing up, and/or losing pets."

— torbielillies

18. " Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut made a big impact on me before I really ever connected to it emotionally. I wrote a term paper on it in high school and started a love for his books because of how witty and goofy he was in his stories. Like, how someone could relate WWII PTSD to being abducted by aliens and traveling through space and time was wild to me and he managed to make light of a really serious subject."

Book cover of &quot;Slaughterhouse-Five&quot; by Kurt Vonnegut with a skull and crossbones emblem

"What I didn’t know until much later is that Kurt Vonnegut used writing as a way of expressing difficult emotions and thoughts he experienced during his bouts with PTSD. Not just about the war he fought in, but about other traumatic things that happened to him throughout his life. His books are also connected in one universe  — you’ll see mentions of Kilgore Trout throughout his books, and Elliott Rosewater and Billy Pilgrim as well. The man had a knack for writing the most bizarre stories and somehow managing to connect them all in a logical timeline/universe."

— goldenlion71

19. And finally: "IDGAF if people find this a cliche or try hard answer, but The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It stopped me cold when I first read it that NOBODY wins, nobody’s a good guy, this world is so beautiful and unreal, and that was the point of the book."

Cover of &quot;The Great Gatsby&quot; by F. Scott Fitzgerald with a stylized face over a cityscape

"That’s the gut punch for me every time, and I love the book for it."

— siobhans4c1ab44c7

Out of all the books you've read, which one had the biggest emotional impact on you? Share your answers in the comments!

Note: Some responses have been edited for length/clarity.

Share This Article

After Kavanaugh: Christine Blasey Ford tells the rest of her story

In her memoir, ‘one way back,’ blasey ford details the chaos that ensued after she accused brett kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her.

the book i have read essay

Reading Christine Blasey Ford’s new memoir, I kept thinking of a tweet I read back in the spring of 2018, two months before President Donald Trump nominated Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court. “Can you name all 59 women who came forward against Cosby?” a user named Feminist Next Door posted. “Cool so we agree that women don’t make rape accusations to become famous.”

Ford, of course, did become famous after accusing Kavanaugh of attempting to sexually assault her while both were in high school (Kavanaugh has always denied this happened). She came to Washington, delivered a memorable testimony — “ indelible in the hippocampus ” — and then descended into the kind of fame that, as she describes in the book, “ One Way Back ,” nobody would ever wish upon themselves. Death threats forced her family into a hotel room for months. Bodyguards accompanied her children to school. A decades-old fear of enclosed spaces (a fear that first started, she says, after Kavanaugh’s alleged attack) was now paired with a fear of open spaces as strangers wrote to her: “We know where you live. We know where you work. We know where you eat. … Your life is over.”

Before coming forward, Ford describes a charmed existence. She had long ago traded the stuffy Beltway of her teenage years for laid-back California. She was a weekday psychology professor and a weekend surfer. When she saw Kavanaugh’s name on Trump’s shortlist, she prayed for the nomination to go to anyone else so that she could go back to packing up snacks and wet suits for her family at their beach house. Why did she risk all of this to go public? In Ford’s telling, she never imagined that her story would become so polarizing or so huge, and once it did, it was too late to change her mind. It felt like a surfing metaphor: Paddling out, she writes, “is the hardest part. And you never, ever paddle back in once you’re out there. You catch the wave. You wipe out if you have to.”

Readers looking to “One Way Back” for a magic bullet to prove Kavanaugh’s guilt or innocence are out of luck. Ford doesn’t remember anything more than she’s already publicly recalled; there are no new witnesses or unearthed diary entries. What she gives instead is a thoughtful exploration of what it feels like to become a main character in a major American reckoning — a woman tossed out to sea and learning that the water is shark-infested, or at the very least blooming with red tide.

At times, she comes across as either deeply optimistic or unfortunately naive. Prehearing, Ford’s legal team suggested that she sit through a “murder board” — a mock interrogation designed to stress-test her story. She decided that her truth should be protection enough, not comprehending that she was declining a fairly standard form of preparation.

She was told she could bring a handful of guests to act as a supportive presence while she testified, and she chose friends and colleagues over relatives — she and her husband decided he should stay home with their sons so that they didn’t have to miss school; she worried that the long hearing would be physically uncomfortable for her elderly parents. But when she saw Kavanaugh flanked by his wife and daughters at his own testimony, she realized she’d misunderstood a fundamental rule in the game of optics.

“I didn’t know my integrity was on the stand as much as Brett’s,” she writes. Kavanaugh looked like a wholesome family man. She looked like a renegade. She woke up to a headline in The Washington Post that read: “Christine Blasey Ford’s family has been nearly silent amid outpouring of support.”

Of course, it turned out that things were more complicated with her family than even she had realized. After Kavanaugh was confirmed, Ford’s legal team approached her with a delicate question: Is it possible that her dad sent a letter to Kavanaugh’s father — they belonged to the same golf club — saying that he was glad Kavanaugh had been confirmed? Ford couldn’t believe this was true, and when she asked her dad, he assured her no letter was written. It’s not until a later conversation that he backtracked: He didn’t write a letter, but he did send an email. “Just gentleman to gentleman,” he explained awkwardly. “I should have just said, ‘I’m glad this is over.’ That’s what I meant.”

Oddly, Ford did know what he meant, and in the context of her father’s Washington, it makes sense: He was an old-school Republican for whom manners and decorum supersede everything — a trade-school graduate who was proud to propel his family into a country club lifestyle and who wanted to make sure they would still be welcomed in that lifestyle even after all this tricky business with his daughter. But her father’s actions were utterly devastating in the new political climate, in which every word could be weaponized and every text or email was a gotcha. The pair’s relationship hasn’t fully recovered by the end of the book, and it’s hard to imagine it ever will.

Returning to California after the confirmation hearings, Ford was catapulted into a new reality. On the one hand, she was invited to dinner at the homes of Oprah Winfrey and Laurene Powell Jobs. On the other hand, these dinners were the only times she felt safe leaving her house, figuring that Oprah must have even more security than she did. On the one hand, backstage invitations at a Metallica concert. On the other, an anxiety so deep and pervasive that she spent days on end wrapped in a gray Ugg-brand blanket. From time to time, she writes, people still asked her whether she thought she ruined Kavanaugh’s life, and she reacted with incredulity: “Despite the fact that Brett ultimately got the job. Despite the fact that he sits on the Supreme Court while I still receive death threats.”

There are inspirational moments, too: for every death threat, a dozen well-wishers; for every moment of self-doubt, another moment of reminding herself that she’s coming from a place of privilege — supportive family, steady income — and that putting herself through the wringer might make it easier on the next victim, the next time.

Did it? Will it? “One Way Back” is a blisteringly personal memoir of a singular experience. But it was most piercing to me as a memoir of the past half-decade, when long-buried wounds were tried in the court of public opinion as much as in the court of law, and when sexual assault allegations were treated as though they were about scoring political points more than settling psychic trauma.

If you believed Ford in 2018, “One Way Back” will give you a deeper appreciation for the woman behind the headlines. If you didn’t — well, I don’t know if the book will change your mind. But it might wiggle your mind a little bit. Because it’s impossible to picture why someone would lie to achieve the kind of fame that has been bestowed upon Ford. It’s hard enough to picture why someone would put themself through that nightmare to tell the truth.

One Way Back

By Christine Blasey Ford

St. Martin’s. 320 pp. $29

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

  • After Kavanaugh: Christine Blasey Ford tells the rest of her story March 13, 2024 After Kavanaugh: Christine Blasey Ford tells the rest of her story March 13, 2024
  • A lot of moms can’t see themselves in Katie Britt’s kitchen March 8, 2024 A lot of moms can’t see themselves in Katie Britt’s kitchen March 8, 2024
  • Kyrsten Sinema’s mystique was a dead end March 7, 2024 Kyrsten Sinema’s mystique was a dead end March 7, 2024

the book i have read essay

  • Skip to main content
  • Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

The Americas

Gabriel garcía márquez's last novel is published against his wishes.

Carrie Kahn headshot

Carrie Kahn

the book i have read essay

Gabriel García Márquez greets journalists and neighbors on his birthday outside his house in Mexico City on March 6, 2014. Edgard Garrido/Reuters hide caption

Gabriel García Márquez greets journalists and neighbors on his birthday outside his house in Mexico City on March 6, 2014.

Before his death almost 10 years ago, Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez had nearly completed his final book. Struggling with the ravages of dementia, he told his sons to rip it up and never publish it.

But they decided to go against his wishes and on Wednesday, on what would have been García Márquez's 97 birthday, they are releasing the novel in Spanish. (The English version will be out on March 12.)

Rodrigo García says his father told him and his younger brother, Gonzalo García, that the novel, titled En Agosto Nos Vemos in Spanish, or Until August in English, just did not work and that it made no sense.

An unpublished novel by Gabriel García Márquez is set for release next year

An unpublished novel by Gabriel García Márquez is set for release next year

"We concluded that the book, though unfinished, made a lot of sense and was very moving," said Rodrigo García from his home in Mexico City. The screenwriter says he and his brother hadn't thought about publishing it; they recently reread it and really liked it.

"When he said it doesn't make sense he didn't realize it didn't make sense to him anymore," García said.

García Márquez spent much of the last decade of his life with debilitating dementia — an ironic cruelty for a master of chronicling memories, said his eldest son.

the book i have read essay

Book cover for Until August Penguin Random House hide caption

Book cover for Until August

"Often he would sit down to read one of his own books and couldn't make a sense of it and it wasn't until he reached the last page and saw his picture on the back cover that he realized that this is one of my books and he'd start to read it again," García said.

In Until August , a middle-aged woman, Ana Magdalena Bach, pays annual visits to an unnamed island to lay flowers on her mother's grave. It's an exploration of love, fidelity, sexuality and aging.

The book's editor, Cristóbal Pera, said it was a departure from the magic realism genre García Márquez mastered. It was to be the second in a series of short novels the author planned to write exploring love in the time of the elderly.

Book News: Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Collection Gets A Texas Welcome

The Two-Way

Book news: gabriel garcia marquez's collection gets a texas welcome.

"In this one there are some hints that he was also exploring and — maybe, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong — the romance novel. Of course it's not a trashy romance novel, it is an amazing work of art," Pera said.

Pera had worked with García Márquez on his memoirs and the two had become friends. On one visit to the family home in Mexico City, where the Colombian-born author lived for years, Pera read three of the chapters aloud. On another visit, García Márquez surprised him with the final scene.

"And he laughed and said, 'Yes, I have an ending' and he read it to me very proud and it is exactly the same ending that readers are going to find," he added.

the book i have read essay

Gabriel García Márquez's son Gonzalo García Barcha speaks during a news conference for the book launch of En Agosto Nos Vemos on Tuesday in Madrid. Isabel Infantes/Getty Images hide caption

Gabriel García Márquez's son Gonzalo García Barcha speaks during a news conference for the book launch of En Agosto Nos Vemos on Tuesday in Madrid.

Pera was given access to five drafts of the book that are part of the large collection of García Márquez's work housed at the University of Texas at Austin . He also worked with a separate draft that the writer's longtime secretary had saved.

"He had many notes on the margins, but the novel was complete. All the characters, everything. ... I didn't of course, and I would never dare to add anything of my own," Pera says with a laugh.

And Pera agrees with García Márquez's sons' decision to publish the work posthumously. He says that Until August , with its strong woman protagonist, adds to the writer's cannon.

Remembering The Short Fiction Of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Remembering The Short Fiction Of Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In García's previous book, Memories of My Melancholy Whores , ostensibly the first in the elderly series, a 90-year-old man pines for a 14-year old virgin. Even in the early 2000s, way before the #MeToo era, the book drew criticism.

Fellow Nobel laureate Salman Rushdie, who befriended García Márquez later in life, says the author's works need no new additions.

Listen to audio of UNTIL AUGUST - excerpt read by Catalina Sandino Moreno. courtesy Penguin Random House Audio

"I really worry that something has been authorized which should not be authorized," he told an audience at a book event last year in Spain . Rushdie made it clear he doesn't want any of his own unpublished manuscripts released. He's concerned that Until August could damage García Márquez's reputation. "It may not do him justice," Rushdie said.

the book i have read essay

Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez strolls in Rome's piazza Navona with his wife Mercedes and sons Gonzalo and Rodrigo on Sept. 6, 1969. Vittoriano Rastelli/Getty Images hide caption

Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez strolls in Rome's piazza Navona with his wife Mercedes and sons Gonzalo and Rodrigo on Sept. 6, 1969.

Rodrigo García appreciates such allegiance to his father but says Rushdie still has the intellectual power to judge which of his books should be published.

"Our father lost that, he did not have that, so we decided for him," he said.

In the end he says both of his parents often told him and his brother that after they were dead the siblings could do "whatever the hell they wanted to."

"We are speaking for our father because he gave us permission to speak for him. Is there some betrayal? Yes, of course. This is not the last wish of an aging writer," García said.

But García says he is willing to let the readers judge. And as he and his brother wrote in the preface to Until August , if the audience is delighted then hopefully their father will forgive them.

  • Latin America
  • Gabriel Garcia Marquez

IMAGES

  1. An Interesting Book I Have Read Paragraph

    the book i have read essay

  2. The Importance Of Reading Books Free Essay Example

    the book i have read essay

  3. My Story Book Essay : Essay About My Favourite Story Book For Kids

    the book i have read essay

  4. Essay on Book Reading

    the book i have read essay

  5. Marvelous How To Write An Essay About A Book ~ Thatsnotus

    the book i have read essay

  6. 💋 The most interesting book i have read essay. Essay on The Most

    the book i have read essay

VIDEO

  1. the 11 books I read in february from worst to best (the best reading month I've EVER had)

  2. writing my book is in itself it’s own genre😂#writing

  3. I May Have Read my Favorite Book Of The Year

  4. wanting to write all your books at once be like… ☺️ #writer #writing #author

  5. my favourite book essay #shortvideo #viralvideo #shorts

  6. Why You Should Read Books || Books || Journey With Naureen || Canada Latest Vlog

COMMENTS

  1. 6 Paragraphs on 'A Book I Have Recently Read'

    6 Paragraphs on 'A Book I Have Recently Read'. August 20, 2020 by A Hore. A Book I Have Recently Read: Books are the best resources of people. With which no earthly wealth can be compared. By reading books we can keep our mind healthy and happy. A good book opens the eyes of the human mind as well as expands and develops the knowledge and ...

  2. Essay on The Most Interesting book I read

    Essay/Speech on The Most Interesting book I read and learn write an Eassy about the Most Interesting book you read. Quizzes; Everyday Science. Science Questions; ... So many millions of children throughout the English speaking world must have read these books. Much more than Tom Sawyer, it was the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which was the ...

  3. An Interesting Book I Read

    1. Disease Can Benefit Life: Survival of the Sickest Book. Words • 1088. Pages • 4. Survival of the Sickest was an interesting book to read. I say this because Dr. Sharon Moalem discusses how sometimes a certain disease can actually benefit someone's life.

  4. Free Essay: Book I have read

    A book I have read. I read a lot, so it was hard to choose my favourite book. I really liked Harry Potter, which has 7 parts. It was written by J.K Rowling and it is one of the greatest fantasy books in the 21st Century. The story is sets a magical place called Hogwarts, where witches and wizards learn. The story is about a young wizard called ...

  5. Describe a Book You Have Read Recently

    In fact, in IELTS it's always a bad idea to memorize answers. You have questions like "describe your favourite book" or "describe a book that you read in your childhood," but today I'm going to give you a more general question. In this lesson, we will learn several things: How to read the cue card. Note-making skills.

  6. Essay on My Favourite Book for Students and Children

    In addition, books also enhance our imagination. Growing up, my parents and teachers always encouraged me to read. They taught me the importance of reading. Subsequently, I have read several books. However, one boom that will always be my favourite is Harry Potter. It is one of the most intriguing reads of my life.

  7. Essay Writing about A BOOK I HAVE READ

    The book I read recently is the Malayalam version of the Ramayana. This great book has acted as a source of culture and civilization for more than two thousand years. It is written in a simple language which any one can understand. The story is simple, but enlightening. The book has many charms of its own. It has a philosophical value.

  8. A Book I Have Recently Read Essay

    Spread the love. On October 16, 2022. A Book I Have Recently Read Since my childhood I am an avid reader. Whenever I get spare time I read books, novels, anthologies etc of all categories. Recently I have read "The Story of My Life" by Hellen Keller. It's a touching story of the author's growing up from childhood with multiple disabilities and.

  9. How to Write an Essay On Books

    Some teachers recommend writing an essay on your favorite books. Make a short outline that includes an introduction, the main part, and a conclusion. Recall what your book is about. Write out a couple of main thoughts that are memorable and seem close to your heart. Write a review of the book, the kind you'd like to write for your friend.

  10. The Best Book I've Ever Read

    Follow @TIME. In my many years as a journalist, scholar and thinker, I have read nearly all the great works of literature, including Milton, Shakespeare and the first third of The Brothers Karamazov. But no book has ever spoken to me as profoundly or directly as Joel Stein's Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity.

  11. How to Write a Literary Analysis Essay

    Table of contents. Step 1: Reading the text and identifying literary devices. Step 2: Coming up with a thesis. Step 3: Writing a title and introduction. Step 4: Writing the body of the essay. Step 5: Writing a conclusion. Other interesting articles.

  12. Short Essay: My Favourite Book

    This novel has been my favourite book for many years now. It explores various themes, including racial injustice, morality, and the loss of innocence. The characters in the novel are complex and well-developed, making it a must-read for anyone who loves literature. In this essay, I will discuss why "To Kill a Mockingbird" is my favourite ...

  13. How to Write the Perfect Harvard Essay: 3 Expert Tips

    Prompt 6: List of Books. A list of books you have read during the past twelve months. Of all Harvard essay prompts, this one is by far the most unique. Here, you're asked to simply list the books you've read in the past year. This essay is more than just a list, though—it's a brief overview of where your intellectual interests lie.

  14. A Book I Have Read

    It is helpful for gaining lots of knowledge and information but reading a good book is healthier for our brain and…. A Book I Have Read Books And Reading Critical Thinking Mental Health. 7. Essay On Joy Of Reading Books. Words • 805. Pages • 3. Paper Type: 750 Word Essay Examples.

  15. Describe a book you have recently read

    Download Study Plan. This article contains the Describe a book you have recently read Cue Card Sample Answers. During Part 2 of the IELTS Speaking test, you will have exactly one minute to prepare and speak on a specific topic. This is the IELTS cue card task. You can learn how to communicate clearly and successfully by reviewing sample answers.

  16. Short Essay on the Book I Like the Most [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

    Short Essay on the Book I Like the Most in 100 Words. Out of all the books that I have read, the one I like the most is Ramayana. Ramayana is a Hindu epic that tells the story of Lord Rama. The story starts with Rama's father, Dasharatha, who was the King of Ayodhya and his three wives. Later Lord Rama is born and the story follows him as he ...

  17. The 10 Best Essay Collections of the Decade ‹ Literary Hub

    Hilton Als, White Girls (2013) In a world where we are so often reduced to one essential self, Hilton Als' breathtaking book of critical essays, White Girls, which meditates on the ways he and other subjects read, project and absorb parts of white femininity, is a radically liberating book.

  18. Talk About a Book You Read Recently IELTS Cue Card

    Describe a book you have read recently - The Fortunate Pilgrim. The book I have recently finished and enjoyed so much is called "The Fortunate Pilgrim", and I would like to talk about it for this topic. It is a novel by Mario Puzo which was first published in the year 1965. The writer Mario Puzo is well-known for his famous mafia book ...

  19. Example of a Great Essay

    This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people's social and cultural lives.

  20. Virginia Woolf: "How Should One Read a Book?"

    Captain Scott, starving and freezing to death in the snow, affects us as deeply as any made-up story of adventure by Conrad or Defoe; but it affects us differently. The biography differs from the novel. To ask a biographer to give us the same kind of pleasure that we get from a novelist is to misuse and misread him.

  21. The Best Reviewed Essay Collections of 2021 ‹ Literary Hub

    -Alex Witchel (The New York Times Book Review). 2. Let Me Tell You What I Mean by Joan Didion (Knopf) 14 Rave • 12 Positive • 6 Mixed Read an excerpt from Let Me Tell You What I Mean here "In five decades' worth of essays, reportage and criticism, Didion has documented the charade implicit in how things are, in a first-person, observational style that is not sacrosanct but common ...

  22. A book you have recently read paragraph writing in english

    A book you have recently read paragraph writing in english || Hello Friends, In this video we will learn how to write an essay on a book I have recently read...

  23. Essay on a Story which you have read and Enjoyed recently

    The story I read: In that book I read all the stories. But one of them impressed me very much. I was an epic story. It was the story of the sage Dadhichi. The stroy goes like this. In the far old days, there were demons on the earth. The Gods were living in the heaven. The demons aspired for heaven, because in heaven there were paradise and ...

  24. William Staffords Burning A Book: [Essay Example], 486 words

    In William Stafford's poem "Burning a Book," the act of destroying written words is presented as a symbolic gesture with profound implications. The poet explores the tension between preserving knowledge and letting go of the past, prompting readers to reflect on the complexities of censorship, freedom of expression, and the lasting impact of ...

  25. Literacy crisis in college students: Essay from a professor on students

    Ten years into my college teaching career, students stopped being able to read effectively. Recent years have seen successive waves of book bans in Republican-controlled states, aimed at pulling ...

  26. The Cowardice of Guernica

    Guernica. The literary magazine Guernica's decision to retract an essay about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reveals much about how the war is hardening human sentiment. In the days after ...

  27. Essay on My Favourite Book For Students

    500 Word Essay on My Favourite Book. One of the most mind-bending yet fascinating books I've ever read is A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. This groundbreaking work by one of the world's most brilliant theoretical physicists explores the fundamental questions about the origins and nature of our universe.

  28. 19 Books That Had Big Emotional Impacts On Readers

    Here are 19 of their top responses: 1. "Sweetgrass Basket by Marlene Carvell. It's a young reader's prose based on two Mohawk sisters during the era when Indigenous children were sent to ...

  29. After Kavanaugh: Christine Blasey Ford tells the rest of her story

    Reading Christine Blasey Ford's new memoir, I kept thinking of a tweet I read back in the spring of 2018, two months before President Donald Trump nominated Brett M. Kavanaugh to the U.S ...

  30. Gabriel García Márquez's last novel is published against his wishes

    Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Colombia. Flipboard. Until August is the last novel of the Nobel Prize-winning author, a work he asked his sons to destroy. But, nearly 10 years after his death, they have ...