Assignment #2 - Megan Ewing - Reading? I Wish?

Over the past few years, I have let leisurely reading slip out of my top priorities. While I have read a few books in my free time, I haven’t learned much from these. I’ve learned a lot more about the world and myself from school-assigned books. Last spring, I read The Great Gatsby. This book helped me to learn more about the American social structure in the early 20th century. It explained to me the vast social difference between those from long lines of rich families and those who recently came into their wealth. It also helped me understand the dangers of being involved in rich society between all the gossip, backstabbing, and deaths in the novel. 

Over the summer, I read The Teenage Brain, which helped me learn a lot about how teenage brains work. The psychological explanation of why teenagers are more susceptible to taking too dangerous risks and becoming addicted to drugs helped me to understand the behavior of my classmates. The biological reasoning for why drugs and injuries affect teenagers more and the explanation behind the heightened aggressiveness of some teenagers also helped me to understand how adolescence in and of itself can have a detrimental effect on many people.