Andrew Andrew

As we wrap up this semester, reflecting and looking back throughout what I have done in this course  seems pretty crazy to me. One of my new year resolutions was to read more books than the previous year  (which was 1) and this course helped me achieve that! As I signed the contract, I was a bit unsure about aiming for an A- as it required me to read 9 books out of 11, but it was far more enjoyable than what I had anticipated. I enrolled for this course as it sounded extremely enticing and I wanted a change of scenery from the stats and mathematics courses I have been taking. And let me tell you, it was the change I was looking for. One of the reasons why I enjoyed this course so much was the significant freedom and creativity it granted us when writing about the books we read. This gave me less stress and pressure and allowed me to focus more on expressing what I was genuinely interested in for each book. I will admit, there were a couple of books that I wanted to just breeze...

 "Mad Toy" by Roberto Alta takes place in the bustling streets of the early 20th century Buenos Aires, and tells the tale of Silvio, a young man trying to find his footing in life, marked by camaraderie, resilience and his quest of identity. Personally, I enjoyed reading "Mad Toy" far more than "Combray" as with some parts of the story, I could empathize with Silvio, it was more straightforward with the challenges the characters had to face such as the struggles of the working class, and adapting to their environment. Thus, that made it much easier to understand and analyze the novel. As a teenager, Silvio was up to no good, building cannons that he shot with his friends and running away from the police. Then, he started stealing with his friend, Enrique any loot that could be found in houses, such as wires and etc. This made him start the "Thieves Guild" where he decided to steal more expensive loot. From books to lightbulbs, he stole anything h...

Personally, I did not enjoy reading this novel. As I started reading this novel, I soon realized that every event was described in such fine detail that sometimes it got me a bit lost in what I was reading. It felt if my mind slightly wandered off, I would not be able to understand what the author was currently trying to describe and portray. In addition, the constant changing of the past and present perspectives made it extremely difficult to follow what was happening as it was hard to grasp the sequence of events that was transpiring. Thus, I could not comprehend the story in full detail. What struck me as interesting as I read this book was definitely how well he could articulate his childhood memories such as when he missed his mother's goodnight kisses, his father being so adamantly against this display of affection, or his family dynamics. The way his grandma used to purchase second-hand goods as gifts to show how these objects can give glimpses of other individual's live...