Reading Report
周英健 200930561385
This is my last summer holiday in college. During this holiday, I really felt calm in the bottom of my heart, which enables me manage to read several books. In fact, this kind of situation has never happened before. I still remembered that I always failed to read more than three books before. And now, I did it and actually feel proud of myself. Something should be mentioned here that I spent most of my holiday staying in school, and I think this is the reason why I could stay clamed. Now let me share you all with my comments about the books I had read during this summer holiday.

Tess of D’Urbervilles
The first thought slipped through my mind after I finish Tess of D’Urbervilles is that it’s the book to ask for tears. First, it’s a tragic story about a pretty girl. Second, the focused figure Tess ends up her life in an unexpected way. It goes in a different way when compared with those Chinese novels. As far as I’m concerned, there are two turning points in the whole story about Tess’s life.
In the first place, that she was seduced by a so-called gentleman Alec turns her life into another way. She is a simple one with a good look, and she would have lived her life without serious setback. However, God joked with her, changing those simple into unforgettable. From then on, People looked down on her and respected her no more. Actually she did nothing wrong because before she was seduced she knew nothing of men. She was just a girl when she first met that terrible man. Who should be blamed? Maybe we can let the society to answer this question. To be or not to be, when it comes to Tess, she chose to leave away the place filled of misery.
Secondly, it’s really a great turning point that Tess told the truth to Clare before their marriage. Didn’t she value the relationship between her and Clare? Why did she still expose the truth when nobody knows if she doesn’t give away? Just because she really loved Clare. In her mind, love was grounded on unconditional honest. In this term, it cannot be easily understood with modern thinking. Even though Tess stayed with Clare all day and all night, she still felt like a fishbone getting stuck in her throat. To be or not to be, finally, Tess chose to be the royal one.
Without these turning points, Tess would not be the remarkable figure. Everything seems to be an accident. But behind all these, a string gets them together and then tricks them as a tragedy.  This is where the amazing happens.

The Catcher in the Rye
The main character of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. In these three days, he thinks more about the meaning of his life.
The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story. Perhaps the safest thing we can say about Holden is that he was born in the world not just strongly attracted to beauty but, almost, hopelessly impaled on it. There are many voices in this novel: children's voices, adult voices, underground voices, but Holden's voice is the most eloquent of all. Transcending his own words, yet remaining marvelously faithful to it, he issues a perfectly articulated cry of mixed pain and pleasure. However, like most lovers and clowns and poets of the higher orders, he keeps most of the pain to, and for, himself. The pleasure he gives away, or sets aside, with all his heart. It is there for the reader who can handle it to keep.
“I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all.” It is out of Holden's fantasy. In my opinion, the "rye" here is like the paradise, and the "cliff" is the critical line between paradise and defiled world. Preventing kids from falling off the cliff means preventing people from entering the phony secular world. In terms of this point, he shows us his kindness, though it’s just a boy’s pure wish. In his own world, he always gains the pleasure he wants. For most of us, maybe there are some similar cases. When being little kids, we often imagined the picture we become superman, flying in the sky freely and fighting with the monster for protecting people in our country. What an idealized picture. More or less, we could really gain some pleasure from the imagination, somewhat like what Holden has tried. On the other hand, that is because he could not find something practical to meet his own satisfaction in the real world which is also a phony secular one. When he is devoured by despair, he doesn’t hesitate to turn his desperation to the fictional world, to balance his mind. Like those ancient poets in our country, who fail to pursue the life they desire, they all turn themselves into a world seldom known.
In these three days, Holden is growing up. He thinks much about himself and others. Finally he comes back from his own world. It’s a new awareness that leads him back to reality. What he does gain for himself is the recognition that no man is an island. In a word, what he gains is a boat that could bear him to shuttle back and forth between his island and the mainland.

Hamlet
Generally speaking, Shakespeare has successfully shaped an impressive character Hamlet, a man with wisdom and courage. In order to revenge on his uncle who killed Hamlet’s father, he pretended to be mad and suffered a series of misery. As a result, he managed to kill his uncle but was poisoned to die. It’s a tragedy, which is not so much an appetite for Chinese as we always hope to see the happy ending. However, everything seems to be easily accepted, even killing someone, according to the old saying “Life claims life”.
As far as I’m concerned, Hamlet is a paradox. Just as “To be or not to be, it’s a question”, I think no matter how Hamlet makes his choice, he will suffer a lot.
On one hand, though it’s reasonable for Hamlet to revenge, he doesn’t think about the future of his country. He is a little rude and selfish. King is necessary for a country and Cluadius can be qualified for this position. Taking some emperors in ancient China into consideration, you can find that they were also involved in some kind of scandals after they ascended the throne. But the point is whether the king can offer a peaceful and happy life for his people. Therefore, Hamlet may make a mistake that can hurt other people.
On the other hand, if Hamlet does sacrifice himself for his country, which means he doesn’t revenge for his father, he will live in sorrow all the time. His father’s death and his mother’s hasty marriage to his uncle cannot be easily forgotten. But as he put the country in the first place, he should suffer all the sorrow. Therefore, it’s a choice to hurt himself.  
Choice is hard to make. So before making a choice, we should think it twice. But I hope “Hamlet” is not true in the real world.

In fact, during this holiday, I have read more than I’ve showed above. It’s not because I am lazy so that I didn’t show you, but I focus on the books which could really touch my heart and these books above meet my satisfaction. They help me to realize that I am one guy who really are interested in reading novels. It’s my best harvest in this holiday.