I bought this book to enter an essay contest for a college scholarship. I managed to get through "book 2" (which is actually chapter 2). This book is so poorly written it made my head spin. It wasn't "offensive", as "xian mom" seems to think it was, it was just a bunch of babble. I saw absolutely no thread or story line through the material. And the writing was so hard to follow I just couldn't go any farther. The first "book" was complete nonsense. The rest, as far as I could tell, were just "days in the life of". I have no idea what other people are talking about when they say they had to "solve the mystery". Maybe this is "literature", and if it is, I am SO glad I'm not studying literature in college! I can't say how glad I am that I bought this book used. I'd hate to think the author got a single penny from my purchase.