Comparing Mitnick and Levy

Compare the writing styles of Levy with Mitnick. Which do you find more engaging? Which is easier to read? Which informs you more quickly? If you were to master one style, which would it be like and why?

While both authors do much/all of their writing in a mode of story-telling, they differ most greatly in the fact that Mitnick writes several short stories from different people including himself, while Levy writes in the style of a novel.

Mitnick's book teaches us about many ways of deception on and off the internet through short stories and examples that are individually different, but join together to give the reader a clear idea of the concept being taught. I like the way he organized the book in that it is divided into chapters, but then divided several more times into subcategories. This format is similar to a text book, but more specifically an interesting text book. It has an interesting look  and readability to it that reminds me of some of the textbooks from elementary and middle school because of it's short sections which aren't overwhelming to read as well as the captions, notes, and vocabulary words that pop up throughout the text. The dialogue also keeps things interesting. I enjoyed reading this book more-so than Levy's because of this fun, easy-to-read format.

Levy's book teaches us about cryptography and the part it has played in our privacy and lack thereof. Rather than short stories and examples, Levy tells the story in the form of a novel. I do like reading novels usually, but I had a hard time getting into this one after the first few chapters. At first, I really liked the story, but as it continued, some of the vocabulary became more difficult for me to follow smoothly and it became more boring for me to read rather than interesting.

In my own writing, I think I am more likely a novel-type writer. I have always enjoyed writing long stories from a single perspective. Even as a child I spent a lot of my spare time writing my own stories and books (of course when I say books, I mean pages of paper staple together to make a "book" back in those days). Although I have found that to be my writing preference, I do prefer Mitnick's style in these two examples for reading, and Mitnicks book actually inspired me to try writing in this style some time. I think his style would be much better accepted from students in an elementary school classroom should I ever make my own instructional books for something I may be teaching.