The Girl with the Pearl Earring

This is the question I have always been dreading. To ask me to pick one book that changed me is like asking the impossible. I read constantly and every year I find dozens of new books that could easily make this blog. However, I will choose the one book that changed my literary life when I was thirteen. I read The Girl with the Pearl Earring summer of eighth grade. Before this novel, I was reading the classic teenage-puppy-love-while-battling-with-peer-pressure young adult books. I found The Girl with the Pearl Earring in my basement on the bookshelves that had been there since we moved in covered in dust. I was bored and feeling adventurous. Why not, I thought. I read that book in one sitting. I devoured every word, every sentence like I had recently ended a five year hunger strike. The Girl with the Pearl Earring may not be of “great literary merit” like the ones listed on the AP. But it opened my literary world to books outside of my comfort zone. This book revolutionized the way I read books. I still read for the overall plot but I realized that there was so much more to the book than the story. I went to the library after I finished and picked up more books like the Catcher in Rye and Wuthering Heights (these two books are another story one that would take far too long to write out here). Happy Last Day of School! I’ll miss this place.