books, ponderings and musings.

Remember how I told you I was gonna read a bunch of books over the summer . . . (it's okay if you don't . . . even the best of us have 'old people' days . . . meaning no disrespect to those oldies, but goodies, reading this!) Anyway, I felt compelled to write up a list of the books I have read so far. Here goes . . .
The Last Lecture By Randy Pausch
A very good book . . . everyone should read it at some point in their lives. It's not terribly long but it is oh so inspiring and uplifting despite the fact that when he wrote the book Mr. Pausch knew he was dying and leaving behind a wife and three young kids. It is a must read!
Timeline By Michael Crichton
For those of you who attend Rice . . . yes this was a book we had to read freshman year but can you blame me for feeling nostalgic just having graduated and all. But all poking fun aside . . . it is a great book. Very well written and it is a gripping thriller. I stayed up many a night far past the time I should have been fast asleep just to finish the next page which turned out to be most of the book. Gripping plot line with magnificent writing to complement it.
The Dream of Scipio By Iain Pears
Again . . . yes nostalgic overcame me and I reread this book from my freshman year. I must say that with no big boring project (no offense to Mr. Matarazzo or Mrs. Conroy) looming over me this book was much more enjoyable although it was still a book I had to push myself to finish reading as not all of it's 396 pages are necessarily the page turners of Timeline. But I believe it was beneficial for me to read it again.
The Diary of Anne Frank
This was my second time reading this book and as the last time I read it I was much younger and less intellectually developed than my more modern self, this time that I read it much more of what she wrote struck me as extremely profound , especially since most of the diary was written when she was 14 years old. The book is timeless and communicates the humanity that manages to exist even in times of great trial. It has stood as a testament to the cruelties endured by the Jews during Hitler's 'purification' period. So much wisdom comes from the words of a young, simple Jewish girl and all who read her diary are indebted to her. Another must read.
Number the Stars By Lois Lowry
After reading The Diary of Anne Frank I wandered across this book in my closet (where I keep many books of mine) and decided to read it while my mind was still on the subject. Although this is a fictional book it is, non the less, based on true and tragic events. It is written in more of a simplistic fashion. A very easy read, I finished in a matter of hours, but still it is yet another testament to the fact that even in times when the fate of humanity seems bleak, a number of people find courage enough to stand up against the oppression and stand up for what they believe is right.
This brings me to the end of my current reading list although I know that by the end of the summer I will have added quite a number of other books.
But going back to the theme of the last two books I read. Often times when I read books of this sort, or really any book in general, I tend to put myself in the place of one character or another. Well, you can imagine just what occupied my mind for the three days in a row when I was reading those two books. During the time I read the books and sometimes when I wasn't I put myself in Anne's place and in the place of the Jews forced into hiding. I wondered if I would be able to endure such hardship but then again if I were truly in their place I would not have any choice but to endure it. Musing over that I began to wonder what I would have done had I been a non-Jew during this time. I know for certain that I would not have been able to stand by and watch such suffering being imposed on a people of a certain religion out of pure and evil hatred and a misguided wish, more of an all consuming passion that would stop short of nothing if to only accomplish its goal, for a 'pure race'. But then again, as much as I am convinced I would not be able to sleep at night if I did nothing, I am, at the same time certain of only one thing, I do not, and will not, know for sure how I would act under such conditions as I have never, as of the present, been in such circumstances. However, I would very much like to think that I would be courageous enough to stand up against what I believed to be a great injustice and moral wrong. The book Number the Stars was written more from the perspective of those helping the Jews rather than the Jews themselves. Those brave, and often young, people who stood up to the Nazis faced many perils and risked their lives and the lives of their families to do what they thought was right and I can only hope myself that I am a morally sound enough person that if faced, which hopefully I never am, with a situation anything alike the ones faced by the people in the 1940's, I would not allow myself to run covering my tail and hid and that I would be forced by my conscience to do something about the inherit evil I perceived.
But as this post is turning out to be much longer than I originally intended and as all the rest of my room is waiting on me to go to bed and as my mom asked me to keep it short so as not to keep them up too late, I will be leaving you for now. I am very grateful that I got to flex my writing muscle a little . . . and now that you've gotten a taste of what I do when I get going (ie write long posts) I'm sure you'll be looking forward to the next time I get writing again. Until then,
~emily