Weekly Blog Post 1

"A bad book is as much of a labour to write as a good one; it comes as sincerely from the author's soul." --Aldous Huxley

We have all read good books that we fall back to over and over again and we have all read really bad ones that we toss aside, maybe even before we finish. But have we ever really thought about what caused the author to create the book? What was the author thinking as they typed this horrible novel where every main character was killed off in a horrific submarine accident three pages from the end? Every book or article or any written piece has a meaning-- whether it is for the author or for the audience. A lot of time and effort goes into the composition of a book on multiple levels, through the creation of the book and the editing by the publishing company. A sense of purpose drove the author to write the book, whether it was to impact the future of our society or just one individual’s outlook on life. Even if the story itself cannot be appreciated, the contributing factors and purpose behind the composition can.

I agree with Huxley that every word of a book is a piece of the writer's soul. So much time and effort is put into creating a book that even if the piece started out as nothing special, just the sheer amount of time spent with it would cause the writer to grow a personal attachment. This can even happen to the most inexperienced of writers.

I appreciated this quote on a personal level because of the relevance to my life. Last semester I gained an appreciation for my writing in a way I never have before, after the conclusion of my online portfolio for English 150. Upon completion, I felt as if I was sending my “child” into the virtual world. It was fascinating for me to see the attachment that my classmates and I had grown for our writing projects over the course of the semester. It seems than now, every piece of writing that I contribute in a classroom, or where ever, becomes a small piece of my soul. This eye-opening experience is still fresh for me, making this particular quote to stand out.