Thoughts on Great Expectations

I was not thrilled by the end of the book!  It was boring, inconclusive, and overall just an unsatisfying close to a very long story.  I am sure that everyone hopes that Pip and Estella will fall in love at the end, just as I do.  Despite my disappointment, I enjoyed reading Great Expectations, and I feel like it helped me grow and evolve as a student.  While reading certain sections, I had trouble putting it down.  Other times, however, I had to force myself to sit down and read.  The storyline was a great one, one that we can all relate to.  As small children, we take things day by day and enjoy every minute of life.  As we grow older, we look forward to things in the future and expect more.  We are less easily satisfied with our lives.  It is a sad but true fact, one that Dickens captures perfectly in Pip.  Pip's life story was one with many turns!  I have to admit, I didn't guess the answers to any of the mysteries before they were revealed.  I was surprised by every outcome!

Reading Great Expectations wasn't a chore, but it wasn't always enjoyable.  I usually ended up reading late at night after I had finished my homework, so I didn't absorb as much as I would have reading with an alert mind.  Each time I sat down, I would force my eyes along the page so that I could finish and go to sleep.  Only when I reached an exciting part did I get lost in the story.  I wish that we could have read less each night.  It would have made the reading easier and less tedious.  It was all very achievable unless I didn't understand something.  I tried looking on Sparknotes, but the site  doesn't add details and is sometimes wrong.  I would end up forgetting what I didn't understand, which would lead to further confusion later on.  Another thing that slowed me down was annotating.  I strongly dislike having to stop reading every 45 seconds, get out my pencil, and shove a little sticky note into the book.  It required so much hassle that I would usually lose my place and have to start at the beginning of the page again.  I began simply writing in the book with pencil--I am not looking forward to erasing it all!  I understand that it is important to mark important events in our books for later reference, but it reduces what I absorb during my reading sessions!    I wish there were another way to keep track of certain places in the story without distracting myself and making it impossible to get lost in the Pip's world.