TPO Practice Question 1-1

Talk about a book you have read that was important to you for some reason. Explain why the book was important to you. Give specific details and examples to explain your answer.

Of course my first effort wasn’t the best.  It went way over the 45 second mark, so it had to be trimmed down.

I read James Clavell’s Shogun when I was in high school during summer vacation before my senior year.  I thought it would be a challenge to read because of it length, but found myself unable to put it down and read it faster than any other book I had read before.

The story was full of interesting characters and about a place that I had only dreamed about.  Even though the story was written by a foreigner to Japan, he seemed to have many insights to the Samurai way of life.  I was fascinated by the way an Englishman could grasp the complex lifestyle and in the end finding it to be a better way of living than the one he had known all of his life.  It made me think that anyone could change themselves in better ways.

The story weaved action and sexuality into the plot enough to make the story engaging.  I had never known of a place that lived with both so close to the surface. Both found so freely and openly.  I began to wonder if my own lifestyle was too repressed and worth living.  I began from that day to live in a way that could help me feel more alive.  I found things that helped me express this to others.  The car I drove and the clothes I wore may not have been Japanese, but showed that I was not as inhibited as before the summer vacation.

They may not have been foundation shaking changes, but this is how the book Shogun changed my life.

Here’s my forth effort.  I wasn’t ready to post all these here so you missed some editing:

I read the book Shogun during my senior year.  The book helped me come out of my shell and be more open because the author was able to show me a more open lifestyle.

I was impressed that the main character could raise his station from grubby seaman to samurai.  He learned to speak, fight and even bathe like them.  I knew it would take more than a good bath to change myself, but I thought I could become a better person.

So I started to make myself better educated, and learned about faraway places that I might travel to someday.  I used my current interests to act as a guidepost so I wouldn’t grow bored with things I didn’t like.  This is why the book Shogun was important to me.