The Great Gatsby

    

The Price of Attention

This week in class we began reading the Great Gatsby, and it revealed something very significant about my reading. I cannot focus on a book. Throughout the last couple of years, I have read many books due to the request of my teachers or the demand of a course of book club gatherings. Specifically in the previous years of Honors English, we had focused on reading easier stories, such as graphic novels like Maus, and other books. When sent home with the task of reading the first chapter of the Great Gatsby, I thought nothing of it, but those first five pages hit me like a truck. I constantly found myself looking at the pages on the book rather than actually comprehending them, and having to restart entire pages because I was completely unaware of what I was reading. A simple 21 page chapter that I started before bed, extended all the way into me finishing the last pages just minutes before 3rd hour. Often when asked why I don't read, I attribute it to high school ruining reading, or being, forced to read uninteresting books. But as I got into the think of the Great Gatsby, I understood the rave I've heard about this book for years. Thinking back, the books didn't get more uninteresting, my interests became more expensive. In order to keep my attention, there needs to be a screen in front of me, a voice talking to me, or colors jumping at me. The simple black etches on a white page aren't cutting it anymore. My attention span is far too short for that. My attention is too expensive for a book.

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