I knew without a doubt that my mother would be chosen as the second person I interview (the one with the love of literature). However, I wasn't so quick to decide who the first person would be. Not many adults are outright and blunt about their hatred for reading. So using my very own prejudiceness (however, only for good), I chose to ask my uncle Kelly what he thought about books.
(uncle Kelly ^ )
Not all too shockingly, he confirmed to me that books were not his area of expertise. He prefers riding his motorcycle shirtless, as you can see in the picture above.
THE INTERVIEWS:
My Mother:
My mother, Delores Washburn, has always been genuinely excited about reading. She chooses to always take a book with her no matter where she goes. When I told my mom about the summer reading assignment, she was ecstatic, mostly because she has been recommending books to me my entire life (although I rarely read the ones she chooses). She told me she wanted me to read a book called Best Friends Forever. She had read it only months ago. She said that this book completely changed her view on relationships between people. When I asked her why it was life impacting, she responded by explaining how it shows what true friends are like. She told me that it will make you realize who your real friends are in life compared to your fake ones. I thought that was a kind of interesting response coming from my mother, considering I have not seen her have very many friends outside of the "co-workers" realm. The next question I asked her was what the genre of the book was. She replied that it was a murder/mystery with a hint of comedy. I typically am not a big fan of mystery books because I get lost very quickly when it comes to evidence and such. However, she recommended it, and therefore I had to give it a shot.
My Uncle:
Uncle Kelly lives in Virginia, however, every year in June he flies out to California to cause some craziness. Its the only time in the year where I can see my parents vomit from alcohol poisoning. Unfortunately, I started the summer reading assignment only a few weeks after he left, so I had to conduct the interview over the phone. I began by asking him a little bit about how he did in school. He replied with laughter. He was never the type to sit down and study. Then I asked him if he was big on reading. He said that he wasn't opposed to reading, but he rarely found time to sit down with a book. He also mentioned that reading bored him most of the time. I asked him approximately how many books he had pick up in his lifetime. After a little bit of thought he said probably over 20. But because I know my uncle too well, I asked how many of those twenty he finished. He said less than ten. After my initial questioning, I told him a little bit about the summer reading assignment. I explained what we were supposed to get out of it as students and that I wanted him to choose a good book for me to read. He picked a book for me rather quickly: The Hunger Games. He explained that he chose this book because it is a fun interesting read, but mainly because it was the first book he read that he actually truly enjoyed. He said that although it didn't necessarily change his outlook on life, it did change his outlook on reading. He told me that he read the book with his new girlfriend Robin a little over a year ago. It was the first book he had picked up in over a decade, but she was set on them reading it together. To his surprise, it was a total page-turner.
