End of Maps to Anywhere

     Upon finishing reading Maps to Anywhere I had a new appreciation for non fiction essays. Bernard Cooper really made it enjoyable to read his essays. He gave you a real glimpse into his life without over doing it. You got enough detail about him and his friends, but he didn't focus in on the little things that don't really matter. His stories got right to the point and didn't add un needed detail. At the same time they were long enough though so you felt like you were really there and you knew what was going on in his life. The way he writes really makes you interested in what he has to say. One of the main things I liked about this book was its connection. This book was made up of many short little essays, but once you got to the end I almost felt as if all the stories connected and you felt like you really got to know his life.
      One of the essays I enjoyed reading was titled Spontaneous Combustion. This story starts off a fire fighter talking at a class assembly about how to be safe with fire safety. I feel like anyone can relate to this and be brought back to their childhood when reading it. It then goes on to talk about how for weeks after the children check there home and count the number of doorways in the home. As the story continues I believe it has less and less to do with fire safety and has started to become more about children escaping their small towns and branching out to follow their dreams. I felt this way because there is a line in the essay that states, so burning their desire for a world beyond the walls. The essay's also ends with the line.. The wise children leap from ledges, disappear into another life, into cool cerulean blue.
     Another essay that I enjoyed from the end of our readings was Gravitation Attraction. This essay the sexual pull you have to someone, a gravitational attraction. I really enjoyed this essay because a lot of them you read were about his childhood. This one you could tell was about him being an adult. It was nice to read something that was a story about later in his life, but still connected with the other stories. The flow of the writing and the words he chose while writing also made it fun for me to read.