Outside Reading: Reflective Essay #4

Reflective Essay: "Bookmarked"
By Susan Orlean
Published February 18, 2011

       Susan Orlean’s reflective essay, “Bookmarked,” discusses her change of view on independent bookstores versus large bookstore chains. The essay combines the use of details, imagery, and diction to create a guilty, apologetic, and respecting tone.
       

       Beginning with a clearly guilty tone, Orlean tells of her feelings of responsibility for closing of the large book chain, Borders. To show the impact she had on the bankruptcy, the writer gives details of the time she spent reading books for free, causing Borders to most likely have “made less than a penny an hour off of” her, and calling herself “living proof of a doomed business model” (1). She goes on with harsh diction and imagery to defend her previous negative opinion of large book chains like Borders as being “malevolent and anti-book,” visualizing them “plunging us into a scene from ‘Fahrenheit 451,’ their selling floors illuminated by the piles of smoldering paperbacks” (1). In the defense of Borders and other big bookstores, despite their negative effects on independents, Orlean gives them credit for providing the public with what they want and basically not doing anything wrong. With the bookstore war over and negative feelings aside, Orlean feels partly to blame for contributing to Borders’ “demise.”
      

      Although it is hard to tell what the author’s purpose of this piece was, whether to persuade the readers to not hate large bookstores or to not read the books for free, Orlean definitely accomplished her goal. By taking the readers along the pathway to her realizations and by using an inviting tone that doesn’t cause the audience to feel intimidated by a loud opinion, her persuasion is a success. While the tone changes throughout the piece, the audience is left with a clear understanding of the writer’s stance on the position at the end of the essay. This tone would definitely work for an AP essay because it’s persuasive and appropriate. The only weakness I can see in this piece is that it doesn’t seem to have much of a purpose. Not too many people probably have a strong opinion on independent and chain bookstores or care if she caused the Borders bankruptcy, so this does not appeal to a very large audience.