Literature, when I hear the word I automatically think writing, although I believe that literature is much more than just writing. Literature offers an escape in my life, when I sit down and read something I forget about all of the things that are weighing on my mind, and am fully induldged in what I am reading. Alot of the times I feel I can connect with the characters in whatever it is I am reading, and when I can do this I feel like I am more connected to the book itself, and it makes me want to read more and more. Relating things from books to my own life makes me feel better with certain situations in my life, like I am not the only one going through certain trails. Literature is the base of so much in the world, wiathout it I would not know nearly as much as I do today, there would be no tv entertainment, and I would be a very bored young woman. This is why it is important to me, it has had such an influence in my life and without it our society would deffinetly not be what it is today.

I greatly enjoy reading, although I agree with the literature textbook in that when I go to read a textbook it is like my brain tells me that I will not enjoy what I am about o read and that it will be of no interest to me simply because it is something I hankve to do, not want to. I had never thought about it before, but it is true. Now that it has been pointed out I realize that I do think this most of the time when doing school work. I am going to try and change that, because a lot of things that we read in textbooks, especially literature books are very interesting and make one think about a lot of diverse things and situations.

Literature changes me everytime I read it, it puts ideas in my ldhead and inspires me to do things within my life that I probably would not have thought of doing if I hadn't read about it somewhere. It changes my views of things as well, I may see a homeless man as a drunk, but if I were to read a story about a man who sold everything he had to get his daughter through cancer I would no longer see him in this way. Not that when I see homeless people I think they are drunks, but just as an example as to how it can open someones eyes up to something.

I believe that all books are informing, even if they are not telling facts. When reading I can get an idea about how the writer thinks, and how they view the world. The way a writer describes things is important and will let me know if the book will be a good read or not. I like to be able to feel like I am in the book, like a character of it. So when reading I like great detail, if the writer is vague I will probably not be interested in reading that particular book as much as I would one with vivid descriptions.

While writing this I realized how much literature is used in the world, and how my life would be so much different without it. It made me realize that a lot of the things we have today would not be if it had not been for literature. So many things are based on literature and yet everyday it goes overlooked. Just this one assignment has informed and changed me.