Jack Hoelzer, final blog post-Lone Survivor

I did enjoy reading the book, Lone survivor, by Marcus Luttrell.  Normally I don’t enjoy books too thoroughly and sometimes I even look at reading as more of a chore than a peaceful pastime but while reading Lone Survivor I felt otherwise.  This book was extremely exciting and it almost made me look forward to doing my homework.  It was hard for me to put the book down sometimes because I was too anxious to find out what would happen next or how Marcus and the rest of the heroic team would get out of their current problem.  Because of the creative and descriptive writing, I felt as though I was there alongside the heroes that were so greatly depicted in the book.  This made it extremely enjoyable to read.  Furthermore, reading for pleasure is a completely different experience that reading an assigned book.  While reading an assigned book I feel completely constrained.  Assigned books take away the freedom of choosing a book and how often or when to read it.  However, with a free reading book I could read it whenever I wanted and I had the freedom to chose the book that I wanted most.  Also, despite this book being a free reading book, I did very well while reading it and I let my mind loose when it came to theme and connections.  I realized that the book was going to be a war heroic of Marcus Luttrell and his team, but as I continued to read, I connected his experience with the stories that my grandfather would always tell me.  The both of them were loved war veterans and they both told a similar story, not in the events but in the theme.  I found that on of the themes of Lone Survivor is to really embrace and cherish brotherhood while it lasts and this is similar to the plenty of stories that my grand father had told me.  I was able to connect Luttrell’s story and those of my grandfather which helped me feel closer to the book than I would have before.  I also did well in terms of identifying literary elements and really appreciating Luttrell’s writing and description of the tiniest details.  Although I did well while reading this book, there were a few things that I need to work on.  The main problem that I had was time management.  I did a good job in the beginning of the project of pacing myself while also reading a good amount each night.  However, when football and homework grew even more vigorous and time consuming, I grew lazy and would skip nights of reading.  This caused me to have to cram in reading toward the end of the project.  I ended up reading for more than three and a half hours over the weekend to finish the book.  This wasn’t such a big deal considering that I enjoy the book, but next time I wish to plan out my reading in a more productive and safe way to prevent cramming at the end.  Overall, I enjoyed the book and this project was somewhat refreshing in terms of having more freedom than usual and picking a good book that I would enjoy.  Lone Survivor is a tremendous book and is incredibly well written.  I would recommend this book to almost all readers because the writing is so descriptive and exciting, however it does get a little gruesome at times and is written mainly for those who enjoy war heroics and patriotic writing.