Journal 10 by Gunnar Flavell

         My reading and active habits have improved from our first reading material tremendously and I have noticed a whole lot of change in my direction in the class because of it.  Some things I find very interesting about the book is the material itself.

         Learning about peoples lives like we are is very interesting and very intriguing to hear there life stories, and some of the things we have read are things we wouldn't of known without reading this book. I believe that is one strength of the book because it exposes the reader to new material and expands their knowledge of reading and history.  One weakness I have found while reading this book is the pace of the stories and whole book.  Some of the stories in Holding On are very short and brief and we don't get to learn a lot of the details of their lives, where as other stories are well rounded and have a little more detail than others.

          I picked Tommie Bass as my reading response from Holding On and I will tell you why.  As I began reading this story of this Folk Doctor from Leesburg, Alabama, I began to realize how dependent other people are of Tommie and his skill as a Herbist.  I really enjoyed the reading because it was new material to me, and I had never read any type of profile on someone with this specific trade and heart to help others out along with it.  At the end of the profile Tommie says " I been into it for around seventy-two years, and if a fella don't learn something in that time, he might as well just quit."   This shows a real sense of Tommie's attitude and personality in a way that lets him be straight forward.  This allows the reader to experience how serious and how much of a believer he was in his work.

       I found it very interesting that he is very passionate about what he does to help people and how real this sort of Folk Doctor is to him or the people around him.