The Scarlet Letter

For anyone who doesn't know (I guess that would just be the 2nd blockers) I chose to read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne for my choice novel. The strange part of this occurrence is that I'm not entirely sure why I picked that book. It seems that on Saturday, a week ago, I told my mom I needed a book for AP Comp and we headed to Barnes and Noble. For whatever reason, I decided I wanted to read a classic (maybe inspired by The Great Gatsby?) In any event, I ended up buying The Scarlet letter, possibly because I thought it sounded interesting. Although the back was very vague, so I'm not sure why I thought that (if I thought that at all). On the other hand, it could have been the title that intrigued me. I had heard the phrase several times, especially in music, but I never really understood it. I still don't, actually, but I'm hoping I will. One thing I do know, it was not the cover that garnered my interest. It is a nasty shade of brown accompanied with a big section of black with a dark red letter on it (how creative). Not that I'm saying they should have put anything else on there besides the letter, but I would like to at least be able to read what the letter is. An 'A' maybe? But it could also be an 'H'. There's even a part of the illustration that resembles an 'S.' So I guess my point is, after much rambling, that I am still unsure how exactly I ended up with this book, but I'm 100 pages in and there's no turning back now.

That is not to say, however, that I am not enjoying the book, because I really am. That said, I'm not sure why that is either. I figured I might have trouble staying interested and focused, but that hasn't happened yet. The plot, so far is interesting enough, I suppose. There hasn't been a whole lot that has happened, but there have been many things that the author has started talking about, but has left the reader hanging. I like that, though, because it makes me want to keep reading. I could also be enjoying the book because of the descriptions. Hawthorne has a different descriptive style from Fitzgerald, but I like them both for their separate reasons. Hawthorne uses decidedly less color, but he does use some. The predominant color, I've noticed, is red, the same color as (obviously) the scarlet letter. He's very visual in his explanations and he makes a lot of comparisons, which is really helpful in gaining a mental image.

So far, this book would definitely be something I would recommend. I hope all of you have been having good experiences with your choice novels as well!