Think of a book you love and cherish.  Write a letter to a newspaper or magazine defend its existence and state why burning it would be an act of violence and negation. 

I'm writing you to tell you about my favorite book: The Great Gatsby, and why I think it should be preserved at all costs.

I deeply love this book and I think it contains one of best and truest definitions of love ever written in literature.

The words Gatsby uses to describe his undying love for Daisy and how he would do and give up everything for her no matter how far they are and the fact that she married someone else, the detailed descriptions of the memorable parties in Gatsby’s mansion and of New York in the 20’s with its sparkling lights, its wonderful chaos, and the glaring contrast between the shiny splendor of few people and the awful poverty of the majority. All of this makes this book great to me. Everytime I read a quote from this book even by chance while surfing online  it feels like the first time, and I’m showered with a deep sense of bliss.

While reading this book, you are plunged into the story as if you were there with Daisy and Tom and Gatsby, among all the music, the parties and the lights. You really feel what the characters feel, identify with them, laugh and cry as they do.

The feelings this books gives me are unique and burning it would be a brutal act. Something so beautiful should never be destroyed, we and the future generations should be free to read this novel which is a detailed description of a whole historical period with its social and economical dynamics, and among all a precious work of art that needs to be treasured.

Hoping you take my letter into consideration,

I hope you will read this letter and understand my ideas about this book. 

One of the book that I love most is “Il cacciatore di aquiloni”. The first time I read it, I cried. It was incredible how I felt. I identified myself with the characters. I felt myself part of the book. 

This novel spoke to me, it made me think of things that before I could have not even imagine. It made me reflect upon values such as love, friendship and family. 

I personally think that burning it would be an act of violence and of negation because without that book people would not have the possibility to compare between the story of the book and their personal life.

For example after having read it, I started asking myself if I had real friends. I started asking myself about love and its meaning. 

I believe that burn that book would be a sort of depravation of emotions that all of us could feel. 

Emotions are part of life; they make us live better or worse, so I do not think that someone else can decide what it is better for us. I have the right to decide whether I want to read a book or not. 

I hope you love reading and you have a specific book you would never ever destroy for any reason. 

With the belief that these words will make you reflect, I wish you to feel the same emotions I lived reading “Il cacciatore di aquiloni”.

 

Best wishes, Anna.

TASK 2
https://www.spreaker.com/user/10252501/podcast_1

Dear Literature Magazine,

I am writing to you a letter, which hopefully you will take into consideration. I would like to talk about my favorite book, which is entitled ''Trash'', by Andy Mulligan. ''Trash'' is the first book I read completely in English and I can say that book made me know and realize a few things I had been never aware of before. The book is about the story of a Brazilian boy, Raphael, who lives in Behala and works in a dumpsite. One day he finds a wallet full of money, with a map and a key and he later finds out policemen are looking for it. The book evolves and they find out thanks to the wallet that a senator stole 30 million dollars from an international aid fund. At the end, they find the stolen money and spread it among the dumpsite. This is a very special book for many reasons. It is well written and anybody can read it because the language is not too complicated: this is important, because everyone should have the possibility to read such a story that casts light on the conditions and the life of those less fortunate than us, the ones who have to work starting by childhood even 16 hours a day just to survive. A book like this is the perfect way to get to know other realities, different from ours, from which we can learn a lot: we take for granted what we have and what we can do, but we should not. As we live in the same world, we should help one another, therefore this book will hopefully tickle someone's will and tempt someone to act and help these people. Burning ''Trash'', such a denouncing book, would be convenient for the Brazilian government and all the other governments which ignore, or maybe support, this kind of atrocities und injustices. This shall not happen, because letting governments and criminal organizations go on abusing and enslaving these people would be a sign of indifference, that is what actually kills the world day by day.

Hoping that you will publish my letter supporting me in fighting against indifference and silence,

Best regards

Matteo Chivilò

TASK 2

https://www.spreaker.com/user/9161980/my-podcast-what-if-we-had-no-right-to-re

Dear editor,

I hope you will read this letter because I am about to show you the greatness of a book I read not long ago and found simply amazing: To Kill a Mockingbird. 

This book is so touching and rich of themes that we can find in nowadays society even if it is from the 60's. For example racial injustice, abuse, rape, loss of innocence, the hardships of growing up, gender roles. The author did a marvellous job in making us understand them, because the book is told from the point of view of a six-year-old girl and so it is not easy to explain such complicated topics, but Lee Harper did it and I am so thankful. We see the protagonist and her brother growing up not only physically and discovering the injustices of life and the difficulties of conforming to society standards, going from thinking that Boo Radley is a myth haunting the neighbouhood to dicovering that he is just another victim of a close-minded world. Their father is a lawyer, who has to defend a black man form the accuses of rape in front of a court of white men of Alabama in the 30's. And I think that it explains itself.

I want to end my letter with a quote from the book: "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird and that is because they bring no harm, they only delight others with their singing. And in my opinion that is what a book does: brighten up our lives.

Gioia.

Task 2: podcast
https://www.spreaker.com/user/8546803/book-burning

I hope you will read my letter, it is very important. 

First of all i think that all books can not be burned because every text, every thought, every word, have the right to be read and deserve to be read by everyone. To kill words is a crime because in this way you kill the free thoughts of a writer who only wants people to know his view about something. But this is a little bit predictable. One book that I really loved also because of a personal motivation and because it made me think about real facts that happened to me is “If I stay” by Gayle Forman. The story in this book is about a girl who made an accident with her all family and after that she was the only survivor, but in coma. I do not want to explain my story, but this girl reminds me how i felt in my medically induced coma. In this book are described all her thoughts and what she saw and felt seeing other people crying for her. I’m emotionally tied to this book so it will be very painful to burn it. It is not only because of my story, but because it will be very halpful to all the sick person without hope in their mind. In fact in the end this girl will wake up, even if she wanted to die in a part of the story. Her friends, her boyfriend and her relatieves were her hope, she wanted to wake up only to stop their suffering. Please do not burn this book, do not make this injustice, it does not made anything to you. Please. 

Best wishes, Emma

TASK 2:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/8542157/what-if-you-had-no-right-to-read_4

I am here, writing to you about my favourite poetry book, about its greatness, about its massive collection of emotions, feelings. “Milk and Honey” by Rupi Kaur. Simple as it is. 

I would call it: “when honey meets milk”, because as sweet and warm as it would seems, it conceals the darkest type of feeling: brokenness. Everyone, at least once in their lifetimes, has suffered: suffered because of love, suffered because of traumatic events, suffered because of loss, suffered because they did not know how to cope with the situation, they had to go through. Rupi did too, Rupi suffered and suffered, until she healed. That is the focal point: the healing, which is one of the longest process in our life. Her words, her lovely verses, her incredible capability to let her deepest and darkest thoughts flow in book pages are what inspired me, what encourage me to keep writing poems and not to give up on everything. That is the power of her poems. Do not give up, keep fighting and do not let anything or anyone suppress your fire. As she wrote in one of her poems: 

Burning such precious words is burning her identity, all her fights, all her progresses. Burning her book means to not give anyone the opportunity to understand, to cope with their feelings, to try and fight for something worth fighting for. She does not deserve it, her work does not deserve it, what she really deserves is to be praised. Please do not let anyone go near it. Please, protect it.

Thank you for understanding,

Nicole.

Task 2: spreaker;
https://www.spreaker.com/user/doll.face/book-burning

With the great hope that the decision of burning books will be only an unachieved bad nightmare…
 
Asia Manzato.  

TASK 2: podcast 
https://www.spreaker.com/user/8544175/podcast

I am writing you this letter to talk about a book I really cherish and love and I hope you will take my request into consideration. This book is entitled Mrs Dalloway, written by Virginia Woolf in 1925.

I read it over this summer and I immediately appreciate it. 

The story takes place in London. What a beautiful city! 

The main characters is Clarissa Dalloway, a woman in her fifties. We, as a reader, are immediately plunged into the story. In fact, the story begins on a Saturday morning in June while Mrs Dalloway is walking around London. The nice day reminds her of her youth spent in the countryside in Bourton and her life is marked by the wrong choice of her husband she took thirty years before. She married the reliable Richard Dalloway instead of Peter Walsh who really loved her when they were young.

While Mrs Dalloway is admiring the flowers she will buy for her party, something strange happens. 

There is a violent explosion which made Mrs Dalloway jump and go to the window and apologise came from a motor card which had pulled up precisely opposite the shop.

At this very moment, appears Septimus Warren Smith.  He is a veteran of the war, whose story is told in tandem with Mrs Dalloway's. Septimus suffers from shell-shock and he blames himself Evan’s death, his friend during the War.

With an interior perspective, the reader can fluctuate in the mind of the two characters, being aware of all their thoughts and ideas. I find it very enigmatic technique. Do not you?

More than the plot, what are really considerable in this novel are its themes. 

The book deals with the importance of memory. The past affects each character in a different way in the novel. 

For Clarissa certain memories are very joyful, such as the kiss with Sally Seton. Mrs Dalloway cherishes this moment as the best of her life. 

But for Septimus, the memory is something terrible, really painful which wear out his mind and his life, too. Every place he is, he continues to remember the terrible death of the friend Evan. 

Making us enter into the minds of the characters, the novel shows us how memory can sometimes be a weapon because it reminds you of errors, terrible events of the past or, conversely, good moments of youth.

History plays an important role in the book which shows us the condition of British society after World War II. From the attitudes of people, we can immediately understand from which social standing they are from. 

Now I'm here to ask you, or even, to beg you because this book cannot be destroyed.
 What is the purpose to burn books? 

Why do you want to make it just a stockpile of ash?

Please, listen to me. 

Books must remain only a stockpile of pages, words.

They represents our knowledge, our source of ideas and thoughts which make our mind alive.

I hope you will bear in mind what I have just told you.

 

Giorgia


TASK 2
https://www.spreaker.com/user/9239956/spreakerbookburning

I write to you hoping you have a few minutes to spare me. 

Do you like Christmas stories? My favorite book of all time is “A Christmas Carol”, Charles Dickens just has a way of charming me into devouring page after page that is entirely unique. 

I'm sure everyone has heard of it, there are countless movie adaptations of his novel, even some tv series! 
When I think about Christmas, I think of this marvellous story. No character can compare with an icon like Ebenezer Scrooge, who “no warmth could warm” and “no wind that blew was bitterer than”. He's the epitome of the cynic, tight-fisted, self-made man and the protagonist of the ultimate redemption story. 

Charles Dickens has a very peculiar style. He describes the settings with particular attention to little details that overall give the readers the opportunity of completely losing themselves in the narration and the continuous repetition of specific words or sentences allows the tale to have a rapid and riveting pace. I think it is safe to say, that “A Christmas Carol” is the most captivating story I've ever had the pleasure of reading. Furthermore, it's a very short read, nothing too complicated, the perfect story for a snowy or cold morning or- even better- a cozy afternoon. I find myself punctually every December leafing through it, and though I know all the words by heart, everytime I can't help shedding a few tears. It's heartwarming seeing Scrooge lose step by step his animosity towards Christmas and it always breaks my heart when I realize that behind such an antagonistic person there is actually a miserable kid and a lonely man.

There is obviously a profound meaning to this story and this is why I think it should be cherished. Not only is it a classic that everyone knows, but it also carries a message that we shouldn't forget and that is to love our fellow human beings and to never, ever extinguish the flame of hope and kindness we carry in our hearts because of material things like money. Life is short and should be spent with our loved ones. 

Burning this book, dear editor, would mean denying every virtue we believe in so please, don't let them destroy this invaluable novel.

Respectfully,

Erika

Task 2:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/carpe-noctem/food-for-thought-book-burning

I am writing you to tell you about one of the books that I cherish most.

When I was twelve years old my father gave me a book and he said ‘You must read it, this book will open your mind, and it will make you reflect upon several things’. So, I started reading I Malavoglia by Giovanni Verga. Now, it is one of my favorite books and I have read it three times, even though the first one I was obliged. 

I believe that all books should be preserved, none should burn a book, a novel or also a piece of sheet where someone express thoughts and beliefs. We can learn from books, even though they are the most terrible ones.

I consider I Malavoglia a masterpiece, I think that everyone should read this book because I really believe that it opens your mind and make you reflect about the condition of people and their beliefs. It deals with the story of a Sicilian family, who struggles to improve their conditions of life.

This book has a bad end, in fact the family do not better their condition of live but also make it worse.

I believe that this book is something precious and none should destroy or burn it, because without it we will not know how the society in the post unitarian time worked.

It deals with the lowest class of the society, Verga wanted to make us understand how every single effort to climb the social ladder is useless, obviously the author gives a negative perspective, but I appreciate this novel also for this ‘strange’ particular. 

I love this book and it represent one of the most fascinated ones, because the way it is written is very involving and thrilling. I know that maybe for a lot of people words, just like ‘’thrilling and fascinating’’, that I have used to describe this novel, could seem very strange and also not so credible, but I deeply believe that this book should be preserved and read from lots of people. 

This novel is just a must, one of those classic books that never lose its charm. I particularly liked it because even though it was written in the late 19^th century it is still actual and contemporary, in fact it deals with inequalities, the right for a better life’s conditions and social redemption. Also, nowadays we see on the television or read in the newspaper all efforts of people that try to better their life and social status, unfortunately several of them fail.

So, even though this book was written in the 19^th century it is still actual because of the themes that Verga uses in his novel, maybe not all the readers will appreciate this book just the way I do it, but I truly believe that this book should not be forgotten or put aside, because it is a must that never loses its charm.

Federica

Task 2
https://www.spreaker.com/user/9267493/podcast

I’m writing to you because I think we do not learn from the biggest mistakes of humanity: burning books and, more superficially, censorship. Nowadays more and more books are written in the “black list” of books which are not possibly be bought and read. Why I am writing to you with words full of anxiety and disappointment? Because, in my opinion, we as humans have already made a blunder in burning books and I'm worried about a possibility of it to come back again. Unfortunately the process has began with censorship and with banned books. Is it the world we want to leave in? Without books there will be no independent thoughts and without them there will be no humans.

In particular, one book that i really want to preserve because i loved it, when i read it, is “One, No One and One Hundred Thousand” by Luigi Pirandello. Even while reading, I immediately enjoyed the atmosphere the author creates around the protagonist. Why I want to preserve it? I think it is a rhetorical question, because a masterpiece like this must be read by everybody! Every human being can see himself in the protagonist, because all of us wants to find out who we really are and feel free from whatever. Reading it is very worth and when I see quotes or paragraph taken from this novel, they remind me at the moment of complete involvement when i have read it: something special. I want to make possible to other people to feel in the same way of mine and I think it is not something impossible. It must be possible, because it must not even exist the idea of proibite some books!

I would be very glad if this letter will be published.

With love, Matteo Basso

TASK 2
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/13489669https://www.spreaker.com/episode/13489669

Dear Bookworm,

I hope to have caught your attention by quoting one of my favourite novels, “The late Mattia Pascal” by Luigi Pirandello.

I really appreciate the fact that the literary column this week has been dedicated to censorship, which is an extremely contemporary issue, and not just in those country where dictators are in power and it can be spot more easily.

I started wondering what makes a novel so “less worthy” than others as to be cancelled, wiped out, censored. I though what it would have meant to me if “The late Mattia Pascal” had not existed, or, for better saying, if I had been denied the possibility of approaching it.

Even though I read it quite a long time ago, I still remember the impact it had on me. It is an eye-opener, a page-turner. I mean, really. I know it may seem somehow odd to have an adolescent talking this way about a classic, but I swear that even though some passages of the novel were rather hard to follow due to all the philosophical reflections they contain, this book managed to involve me deeply and to prompt challenging thinking processes in my mind, making me reflect upon things I would not have had the occasion of questioning otherwise. Reaching therefore the purpose why literature is written: get to people’s hearts and minds, awakening them, not leaving them passive.

Its plot is extremely entangling itself since it depicts a situation everyone of us has imagined at least once in life: that of starting a brand-new life in a place where nobody knows you, leaving all the troubles of your “former-life” behind. It seems so exciting, doesn’t it? At first, it was so for Mattia Pascal too.

But then, delving into the chapters, the reader faces something that goes far beyond the bare storyline. He finds himself plunged into the head of the main character, gets to know his complex musings upon the very existence of man and his meaning on this planet (as we can easily grasp through the words I have quoted before, just to provide an example). Humanity is drastically scaled down to what it really is (but often its innate self-centeredness prevents it to be fully aware of): a species among the others, nothing more. A group of similar-looking individuals, whose daily problems acquire actually little importance if compared to the magnificence of the universe we live in.

Moreover, this novel develops in an interesting way the issues of identity and that dear to the author of masks too. The reader is spurred into feeling empathy towards Mattia, torn between his being a somebody and contemporary a nobody, since after his “first death” to the authorities he does not exist any longer, thus cannot live a “real life”, marrying the girl he is in love with or denouncing a crime he is victim of.

“The late Mattia Pascal” provides really plenty of food for thought. And so does any other book ever written that, by being a product of someone’s mind, can therefore tickle, arouse in other thinking heads, thoughts that otherwise would probably have never been awakened.

So why censoring? Why denying to somebody the possibility of questioning, investigating, therefore thinking and knowing?

In the hope you will continue to spur readers into reflecting upon issues like that of censorship, making people aware of what they would be unjustly deprived of if books did not exist, gratefully,

Giulia

TASK 2:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/8544642/book-burning

I am writing to you this letter because I want to let you know what my favorite book is.

Starting from the fact that I had some difficulties choosing the one that involved me the most, and considering that no book should be burned, so that we (as human beings) can preserve knowledge, so that the future generation understand what happened before their birth, I chose “ Se questo è un uomo” by Primo Levi. 

I chose this book, even though his story is not that happy, because when I started reading it I immediately plunged myself into it; it is breathtaking!

Why saving it from being burned? Well, the answer is easy. Everybody should read a book like this because I think the author gave all himself to involve the reader, bringing him in an abstract situation where, unfortunately all the things told by him existed.

This book is not only a set of pages, it is a life pill because if there wouldn’t be this type of books, evil people (for ex. Nazis) would deny everything about the millions of death of innocent people, cause by a man (even though I think that somebody that behaves like that shouldn’t be called a MAN anymore) that a day woke up with the idea of DELETING all the people that were different from him, from his RACE.

This is why I think that no book should be burned! Every single one tells a different story, but, unfortunately, humanity seems not understanding this.

TASK 2
( I sent to you an e-mail)

I know you receive thousand of letters every day, but i hope you will have a little time to read mine.

I want to start my letter with a name: Book Burning.

I'm sure you know what I am talking about and I also know that you may be wondering: "Why did you mentioned that?"...so that's the point. 

During these last weeks at school I dealt with the Nazi book burning: I studied and analyzed its historical and cultural context, I looked for photos and videos and I read texts about this event. 

I immediately understood it was something tragic,but I realized its brutality when I came back home.

I was reading one of my favorite books "A thousand splendid suns" by Khaled Hosseini when I started to bombard myself with questions: what if another Book Burning would happen again? What if my book would have been burnt? 

If all of this would be repeated, I would also loose this beautiful book I am reading at this very moment and I don't want it to disappear.

"A thousand of splendid suns" is one of the best books I've ever read: it could be considered food for thought, but also a slap in the face and I actually think it is extremely inspiring too.

The story takes place in Kabul and its background is characterized by the Arab wars and the war between the USA and Afghanistan: in the narration, we follow the stories of two women, whose lives will meet in an unexpected way. 

The author is a genius,but also a fool: through symbols, metaphors and analogies he gives us important messages and faces issues like the relationship between man-woman,the role of the woman in the society and sets out the cultural and social aspects of the life in Afghanistan. He also accuses the violence against women, he casts light on the denial of the human rights (mainly the women's one) and the violence procured by the war and the terrorism. Hosseini wants to spread his novel in order to reach the largest number of readers : he wants to share what he saw with his own eyes, he wants to make people conscious of what is still happening in countries like Afghanistan. 

But in the book we don't find only tragedies and pain ( both physical and pshychological ) but we are also direct witnesses of the strength of the protagonists in order to face the obstacles, we take part to moment of hope and desire of freedom.

This book opens your eyes and discloses new horizons, makes you reflect upon your own existence and makes you reassess the reality of things. Thanks to the great capability of the writer, we easily identify with the characters, we learn new life lessons and we learn how to face the problems and the difficulties we have in our daily life.

It could be considered an emblem or an example of the struggle against the indifference, silence and the hidden truth.

If there weren't people like Hosseini lots of us wouldn't even know about the "slavery" and the abuse of women, the bloodshed caused by the terrorists and the wars, poverty, the life conditions of the population's majority in Afghanistan.

 This reflection made me think about what would happen if "A thousand of splendid suns" would be burnt...all the attempts to make everyone aware of what occurs away from their eyes would be something useless and would vanish forever. 

This book should be preserved as an inestimable treasure so that not only nowadays,but also the future generations would have the opportunity to benefit from this fantastic novel.

I hope you will take into consideration my letter so that you might judge my points of view as something interesting and something to reflect upon.

Best regards,

Anna 

TASK 2