The Third Bestseller
The Third Bestseller
The article, "The Third Bestseller", followed the life of William Gray. He was a hiker on the PCT who, much like Cheryl Strayed, documented his journey through writing. Before the publishing of the book, Gray was an intern at National Geographic with the aspiration of becoming a writer. Gray's book describing his journey on the Pacific Crest Trail has since inspired many. Years after the book's initial publishing, Gray received many emotional phone calls and letters. One of the many emotional expressions of gratitude towards the book even included his resupplier, Doug Gosling. His book was, in fact, so successful that more than 320,000 copies were sold after its publishing by National Geographic.
I have learned many things from the article, including the fact that Cheryl Strayed was not the only author who had a bestselling book that describes what it was like to hike the PCT. Prior to this article, I believed that there had been books about the PCT, but not many were bestsellers like Strayed's memoir. I also learned that there are sugar pine trees with foot-long pine cones. Having never heard of this before, this was a surprising fact to me. The final thing I learned was that William Gray's hiking experience was much different than Strayed's. William enjoyed his hike more because he lacked the emotional baggage that Strayed had while hiking the trail.
My questions regarding the article are few, but intriguing. Why did William Gray decide to write about nature instead of being a fiction writer like most authors? He had described how he had a gift for writing since the second since the second grade, but why nature? My follow-up question is what had driven Gray to believing nonfiction writing was ideal for him? Nonfiction is a genre not too many usually decide to write, so I was interested in what was the indicator for Gray to write this genre. My final question regards the emotional response that readers had with Gray after reading. If William had no emotional reasoning or journey of self discovery, why did readers respond so emotionally?
The article, "The Third Bestseller", followed the life of William Gray. He was a hiker on the PCT who, much like Cheryl Strayed, documented his journey through writing. Before the publishing of the book, Gray was an intern at National Geographic with the aspiration of becoming a writer. Gray's book describing his journey on the Pacific Crest Trail has since inspired many. Years after the book's initial publishing, Gray received many emotional phone calls and letters. One of the many emotional expressions of gratitude towards the book even included his resupplier, Doug Gosling. His book was, in fact, so successful that more than 320,000 copies were sold after its publishing by National Geographic.
I have learned many things from the article, including the fact that Cheryl Strayed was not the only author who had a bestselling book that describes what it was like to hike the PCT. Prior to this article, I believed that there had been books about the PCT, but not many were bestsellers like Strayed's memoir. I also learned that there are sugar pine trees with foot-long pine cones. Having never heard of this before, this was a surprising fact to me. The final thing I learned was that William Gray's hiking experience was much different than Strayed's. William enjoyed his hike more because he lacked the emotional baggage that Strayed had while hiking the trail.
My questions regarding the article are few, but intriguing. Why did William Gray decide to write about nature instead of being a fiction writer like most authors? He had described how he had a gift for writing since the second since the second grade, but why nature? My follow-up question is what had driven Gray to believing nonfiction writing was ideal for him? Nonfiction is a genre not too many usually decide to write, so I was interested in what was the indicator for Gray to write this genre. My final question regards the emotional response that readers had with Gray after reading. If William had no emotional reasoning or journey of self discovery, why did readers respond so emotionally?
Great job!
ReplyDelete