Responses to Literature

I believe that no matter what you are reading, no matter if you want to or not, if it is an assignment or for personal pleasure, that you gain something from it. Responses to literature do not have to be in the form of an easy, in a summary or analysis, or in an assignment period. A persons personal response to literature can happen in many different forms. I believe that literature has a tremendous power over peoples lives, not even just in recent history, but dating all the way back to the first books in the history of the world, how about even farther than that? Ancient writings on walls or scripts chiselled into stone. Think about all the great things that have come from literature throughout the ages. It is insane to think that our whole vocabulary, our government, our everything has come from some sort of literature. It is true that literature can change lives, the basis of our world, of our very living stems from literature.
When I read a good book I become so involved in that book that I literally cannot put it down, I ache to find out what is going to happen next or how the story is going to end. Is everyone going to live happily ever after or is the story horribly tragic? All of the parts of a book pull a response from me in one way or another, just as I believe that it is the same for everyone else. Whether you are enjoying reading a book or loathing it, you are responding to it somehow. In one of the other blogs that I read the person said that what we read or do not read, what we do or do not do, and what we think or do not think, all frames the person that we are today.
When I was in first grade I was not the best reader, in fact I almost got held back because of it, looking at that now I cannot believe that that was me. I love to read so much that it is ridiculous, I get tremendous pleasure from reading and even writing. How could it be possible that anyone does not react the something they read? Most responses to literature are internal, sadness, pleasure, pain, happiness. It all just depends on the tone of whatever you are reading.