The Kite Runner (Marathon)

To make an incredibly long day sound very fun, is not an easy job. When I made the choice yesterday that I was going to do my Summer Reading Project with only about a week left until school started, I knew the odds were against me to get it done. The project was to read two books both over 300 pages and then write a 3-5 page essay on it. Although I have not completed the entire project, I took a huge step yesterday when I read "The Kite Runner" all in about 8 hours.

I will not give too much away about the book but I would be happy to give my review of it. "The Kite Runner" is a fantastic novel about a Afghan boy named Amir and his life long battle with redeeming himself to everyone he knows but always searching for a way to redeem himself to himself. The story takes place in Afghanistan starting in 1975 with Amir telling us his story. His best friend Hassan is Hazara Muslim and is also Amir's servant's son. Amir makes a choice and Hassan is betrayed and hurt very badly. Hassan and his father Ali quit being Amir's servants.
The story then takes a drastic turn as Amir tells the reader that he and his father Baba become refugees and move to America. There, Amir struggles with the demons of his past and has to confront them in ways that know one could have imagined.

The book was a very good book. Perhaps not the most family oriented book because it does deal with sexual themes (rape, molestation, etc.), it does however have a great storyline. To be honest, the book brought me to the brink of crying a few times. To be fair, I doubt the book was meant to be taken in, in one giant marathon.

I would give 3.5/4, the only real flaw being that it at times, lacked story line. Mainly, in the beginning.

Anyways, back to real life. I am exhausted. I mean, to read a 300 page book in a single day takes a lot of determination. It is hard to remain concentrated to one thing like that for hours upon hours at a time. And when the minutes seem to go by ten times faster than the pages, you start to feel nearly hopeless and feel like giving up. But I promised myself I would finish it. Not, that it wouldn't have been simple enough to finish the next day, but I would have felt a sense of accomplishment about it, that wouldn't have been the same. I read the book and then strangely after sitting there alone in my room for over 8 hours, came downstairs to tell Mom and then went staight to sleep. I still do not know why I felt so tired afterwards. But my eyes got what they deserved, a rest.

In a lot of ways, I don't even know why I did it. I did have all week and I am generally pretty fast reader. But at the same time, part of me really wanted to see if I could do it. A big part of me, wanted that challenge. I met it. I know I still have another book to read and a huge essay to write, but for some reason, after getting through that book yesterday, I read about all that Amir had to do just to redeem himself for one choice. My job doesn't even seem difficult anymore. I have never liked all those cliches that tell you that a book "changed my life" and for the most part my life will be unchanged by the reading of that book. I would be surprised that if in a year or so, I remember the plot. But it is sort of like one man changing the world. The world is too big to be changed by one person. What really matters in life, is if you left your mark on the world. That book definitely left it's mark on me, and there's only a few books that have ever done that.

Well, I have a lot of work to do today as well, I'm sure. So I leave you with the idea that nothing is impossible, if you think you can accomplish it.

Dylan Starks