I Read This (And You Should Too)

     Last year I was faced with the difficult decision of choosing my current class schedule. Due to insane over enthusiasm on my part, I was left with only one elective spot to fill. My favorite class at the time was English, because the teacher was great. So the logical choice was to sign up for Great Books, as he was the only teacher for that course. And I love reading. So it made sense.

     I was skeptical at the beginning of the year, I'll admit. It seemed hard to believe that this would be any different than any other English class (I don't have a very good track record in English. Something about it bores me soooo mucchhhh). But he promised no quizzes, no tests, and like 0 homework, so I kept on, and I'm so glad I did. He lets us choose our due dates, the entire class is a completely open discussion period, and the books we read are chosen by the class. It's not an easy class- what we read is very challenging, and he presents a lot of really hard topics to talk about, but it's for sure my favorite this year. We decided early on that first semester would be dedicated completely to books about, involving, or inspired by monkeys. First we read The Naked Ape, which was SO HARD OH MY GOD but definitely really great. Next we chose to read My Ishmael, by Daniel Quinn. We were given about a month to read it, and technically have another week or so, but it's just so great, I can't put it down.

     Very basically, this book is about a young girl's lesson with a telepathic ape after responding to an ad that read: "Teacher seeks pupil. Must have an earnest desire to save the world. Apply in person." I wasn't completely sure about it in the beginning, I'll admit, because I doubted a gorilla's ability to give a reasonable plan for saving anything. But I'm so so glad my teacher suggested this to us, because it has changed my thinking completely since I finished it. 

     Everything Ishmael (the gorilla) explains is so simply explained that there's absolutely no confusion to be found after they've been presented to you. The book really explains everything about why we live as a society as we do, and how we should try and make it better, if we can. I don't know if I can really do this book much justice in trying to explain it because it's just so well written, nothing I say can really show that. I cannot properly explain my love for this book, you should definitely read it too.