Edgar Allan Poe - Disturbia

I had not read the Raven before taking this class, I had heard of it but never read it, this bird was menacing, no? Edgar Allan Poe had such dark writings that I have to wonder what was going on in his mind to produce such stories. The story starts out fine, he's curious about the Raven and almost happy to see him, then you progressively get that paranoid, manic feeling. You get this sad loneliness from his stories, I loved the Raven and Annabel Lee, but they are both so sad because he is missing someone who has died, and is driven close to madness.
Though his stories are slightly disturbing and makes you wonder where he is drawing from, what happened in his life that he wrote such menacing, chaotic poems and stories, he did write so well that it does draw you in and he makes you feel the doom and danger that the character is feeling, while reading the Raven I started to feel the panic that the character was feeling, and I wanted the Raven to just go away.

The Transcendentalists

I went into this reading thinking I would enjoy Ralph Waldo Emerson the most, maybe just because his name was who I recognized the most from the list. I started reading Nature, and I was not one with Nature at all, I couldn't get into the story, and it took everything I had to turn the page and keep reading. I'm sure that at the time this was written people of that era might have gotten more out of this story than people do today, and that could be partly our fault because we are in too much of a hurry to stop and appreciate the leisurely pace this story takes you on. I myself want a little more excitement and if I'm not intrigued by a book within the first few pages, I'm off to something else.  We live in a world of instant gratification I guess, and that for me includes my reading material. I know the transcendentalist era was a philosophical era, so we should be able to take something educational away from these stories.

Of his stories, self reliance was most meaningful to me, because it's something I try to teach my daughter and what I assume all parents goals are, to teach their children to be self reliant and be yourself, not to conform to other peoples ideas and ways.

My First Blog EVER

This is my first time blogging ever, so I hope that this turns out OK!! 
Since it's my first blog, I want to take a minute to talk about the first real novel I have ever read, and my most favorite book and movie of all time, Gone with the Wind. 
I know it was written a little passed our time frame, but I have read this book at least 5 times, and I watch the movie every single time it is on television. I think that this book is so well written it takes you to a place and time of the old south.

Scarlett O'Hara, the rich southern belle who didn't have a care in the world to having everything and almost everyone taken away from her. You walk with her through the time of the Civil War, and the desperation she felt to get back to her family. Once she is there and realizes her mother is gone you feel the agonizing pain she must be feeling. The things that she does to take care of her family and to get back to the status she was accustomed to. 

I think Margaret Mitchell wrote this book so well, she transports you back and the way she writes you feel everything that Scarlett is feeling. This book really did take me to another place and really is the reason that I love to read. My next blogs will be about different authors and books but I wanted to start out with the book that is my all time favorite.