solved Reading Experience Reflect on your reading and writing experiences this

Reading Experience
Reflect on your reading and writing experiences this semester. Describe at least two pieces of literature that we have read this semester that you found to be the most memorable or interesting or challenging.
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I enjoyed most of the reading experiences this semester. Except for when we read the Great Gatsby over 1 week, I did not find many of the readings to be time-consuming as we never had to read more than a dozen pages a week, or a couple of poems altogether. While some of the readings, especially the poems, may have been challenging to interpret, all of the time that I saved from the readings being short helped me better understand and prepare for the exams. This was a huge beneficial difference for me compared to my other class experiences where I had to read more than 100 pages a week (not to mention, the readings in this class were enjoyable)! My favorite readings were the Great Gatsby and the World War I poems by Sassoon and Owen.
Aside from the Great Gatsby not being a long novel, I simply enjoyed it. It was not difficult for me to get engaged when I started reading it. What stood out to me is that the novel was not only one main adventure of Gatsby pursuing Daisy but two adventures – we had to embark on a “separate first adventure” to find out who Gatsby was in the first place. Amid Gatsby’s slow emergence and even before we found out about his past, I already felt enthusiastic about continuing to read the novel to the end. While this was the longest reading for this class and even though I am not somebody who likes long readings at all, this was my favorite story.
The World War I poems by Sassoon and Owen were very memorable to me because I felt that both of them were emotionally powerful. They strongly contrasted to the romantic era poems that preceded them. In my opinion, it was easy to read a romantic era poem (particularly the ones that romanticized going to war and dying for your country), then forget it and move on, whereas Owen’s poem criticizing them made me “stop and think twice.” Further evaluating Owen’s poem made me feel a powerful connection to it that served as learning a lesson from the past.