Example essay...I think?

Knowledge is powerful, to get knowledge you either have to be taught or you read. Many great thinkers of past times were self-educated and they became this way by reading the works of the great thinkers of the period before theirs. If you put forth the effort to read then you are giving yourself a leg up in life. Reading can change how you view life as a whole, your view could become more pessimistic about people if you read a Tom Clancy novel such as Executive Orders or Catch 22 by Joseph Heller or you could view the world as a happy place if you read the Nicholas Sparks novel The Notebook. Books are the single most powerful and influential piece of literature to ever be written.

I prefer the classic literature that was written in time periods where serious learning was the whole purpose behind writing and the authors wanted to share their vast amounts of knowledge. For instance 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne or The Hunchback of Notre Dame. They were written for different reasons, but they still convey the fact that their authors were very well read and wanted to share this knowledge with the population. These books fascinate me beyond anything else in the world. I got lost for hours in the Nautilus with Captain Nemo and his crew of loners. Hugo for example shows all the personal relationships in medieval France from all parts of the spectrum; politically, religiously, and socially. There isn't much unnecessary fluff in their works which is the point, because their ideas that so inspire me were constantly flowing and they didn't require lengthy fillers.

In the modern era these new authors don't inspire me on the same intellectual level, but they inspire my imagination. For instance J.K. Rowling's Books that involve Harry Potter, such as The Prisoner of Azkaban, incited me to have day dreams imagining that the world was full of magic and then I understood that the struggle for good and evil in the novel is the actual struggle in today's world. Christopher Paolini in his book Eragon caused me to think in wonderment, what if I had a dragon? These new writings are so focused on piquing your imagination that they cause you to be in the story.

Reading a good book changes my life every time. If the book is sad or happy then this transfers to me and my mood then changes. Books are one of my favorite past times, not just reading the book, but understanding the authors intentions and his or her thought process. In Charles Dickens novel a Tale of Two Cities the quote "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" doesn't work for me because when I'm reading it is always the best of times.