Post #6 Readicide

I do think Readicide is a problem in schools because personally having to sit through a lecture on why the writing wanted the curtains and walls a certain color in the room to create a feeling. The author just wanted the color to be that color, and by the actions of the character you can guess pretty close as to what the mood is. But if the teachers over teach the book it makes you not want to read the classics. Sitting in my honors English class the first trimester of school was dreadful because all the teacher did was ask what everything means and we over analyzed EVERYTHING. The fact that I really do not care for Romeo and Juliet anymore should say something; that is how much we went over it. I don’t feel that genre fiction is less worthy because no matter what we read it will in some way or another expand our mind and help us in our everyday life. Whether that is how to kill a dragon or what to do when you are a star crossed lover of two families that hate each other. We always take at least one thing away from everything book we read. More times than not, I take away almost everything you could from a book. I think that we still do need to teach the literary fiction because those are the classics, and you make references to them in everyday life without even noticing it almost. Song writers put them into their songs, take Taylor Swift for example.  In her song Love Story she made the whole song around Romeo and Juliet, anybody can see that, as she said the names, but if we stop teaching the books, then nobody will know the true meaning behind the reference in the song, it will just be weird lyrics that “make sense”. I think that we should add more genre fiction into the curriculum, but not too much that it over powers the classics, there needs to be a fine balance between the two. I don’t think that we should swap the classics with modern day popular books, even if some day they might have a chance of becoming the classic. I think that preserving what has been taught for so long is good, but the teachers are suffocating the fun in what the book really means.  They have a set plan and tests for the book, but you might think something entirely different of the book, but the teachers won’t care because that is what they are supposed to teach you, so what does it matter to them if you think differently? Most teachers, in my experience, only think what they have to teach is correct. I remember wanting to tell my teacher something about Romeo and Juliet and when I finally did, she laughed it off because it was not in the curriculum. I think that we should be able to read with a certain variety, that does not suffocate us with the ideas of others and then we be able to take what we want from the book and apply it to our own lives. That being said I think that a modern day book list should consist of different amounts of classics and present day popular books. As I said before, we can take things away from books, anything that we want, but then change it to apply to modern day life. So if we do keep literary fiction, and I think we should, students can apply whatever we want to their own lives, without the ideas, that may not be wrong,  to modern day life. Kids need to read books so that they don’t have to stare at a TV screen for two hours to know that Marley dies at the end. Kids should read the books to find that out. The books allow you to create your own version of everything. And people may differ you’re idea, but it’s yours and only yours. There is no one that can take the idea away from you no matter how hard they might try. The fact of the matter is that books allow us you reach into our mind and see the vivid details that the author writes. The movies give you a representation of what others think, they put that view into your mind and then you will never truly know what you think everything looks like. I think we need to read books to let our mind run free with imagination.

Adapting The Book Theif

I think a filmaker would have a hard time showing the concept of the time changes or the little exerts that the book has to inform you further. One place where an exert was helpful was when Rudy and Liesel werer waiting on the street for a soccer game and they saw Pfiffikus. The exert helped explain what he looks like in about three or four sentences rather than putting it into the story and taking a whole page to explain him.
One scene that would be crucial to the making the film version of this book was on the train.  I think it is so important for this scene to be present in the film because it shows Liesel's brother dieing. It shows how her view on things has been shaped because of the death of her mother and the "disappearance"of her mother. This scene does not show her leaving her mother, but it does explain how she gets scared from the night mares later on in the book.
Another scene that would be important to have is when Liesel steals her first book. The Gravediggers Handbook. I think this is imporaatant because it shows that Liesel has a book and she wants to learn how to read, but she does not know all of the words. The book helps her with that throughout the beginning of the book. Liesel and papa read the book in the mornings and afternoons so she can learn how to read. Each word she does not know, they work through together so that she may learn the words and how to read.
The last scene that i would like to include (up to where I have read) is the library scene. When the mayors wife invites Liesel to go into their library filled with hundreds of books. I thinkthis scene is so important because it shows how happy books can make Liesel. she had never seen so many books in her life, and yet there they all were.
If I were to make a cut, I would probably cut out all the times when Liesel is going to get the wash for her mum. I would include a short scene of her going through the town a couple of times, but it is not very important until you get to the Mayors house. Another scene I would cut is when Liesel rolls the cigerates for her father.

Fan Experience

The book of lost things

John Connolly

Do you want your very own book of lost things? Somewhere to put your very own items and stuff? Stuff that no one else should ever see? Or stuff that you’re afraid of? Everyone should buy this book, because “They say the king has a book, The Book of Lost things. It is his most prized possession.”   You can make your very own book! Get a blank book from us, leather bound and hand detailed, all you have to do is fill it with your very own stuff. For example, maybe you are afraid of Werewolves, just as the king in The Book of Lost Things was. You can draw a picture, or print one out and put it in there, and look at it every day until you realize there is nothing that scary about them. All you have to do is overcome that fear. And to do that, this book can help you. Just as it helped the King, “The book has value to me.” He says. Or it could help you memorize things; you can write down stuff that you need to know for school, work, or just life. You can put pictures of lost and loved ones, old places that mean a lot to you. This book, the book of lost things, is yours and only yours. It’s yours to keep and look at every day. This book could potentially contain your entire life.  Maybe your mother died when you were little, and you want to remember her forever, take a picture of when she was really really happy, or whichever picture best describes her, and put it in the book. You can remember her forever and always with a picture rather than a memory. Or maybe your mother is still alive, but you live far far away from her. You can take a recent picture of her and write a note to call her underneath it. You can talk to her every day because a book reminded you to do that. This book has the potential to start so many things in your life. Or if you choose not to do any of these things, you could put everything you hate, everything that has ever been wrong, anything that frightens you, and lock it away forever. You could burn it too, but the book is your life, every book in some way is alive, we just wake them up with the stories we put in them. So you can put your story in the book. You can fill it to the rim, all 200 pages, and set it free. It’s your book; it’s your life story. If you’re a parent with young children you could have them draw pictures in it, that way you can remember they will always be your baby. Or have a picture with them when they were a little baby, just born perhaps. You can do whatever you want with the book of lost things. It’s your book.

This Book would sell because it provides a state of mind for the people, it helps them to remember, it helps them to do whatever they want it to help them with. The audience this Book sells to would be the ones who have read The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. This would help bring the book alive even more; you could do whatever you want with it, just like the king did. “He remembered the old king, and the loving way in which he had touched The Book.” The king put his everything in the book, everything he was before he became king, and all the things he never wanted to forget. The people could do this just the same and have the same effect that the king has.  The Book has the power to help change your life forever.

Post 2: What is a book?

What is a book?

A book is a book. A book is different to everyone, what it means and what it is. There is no one set thing for what a book is. A book is anything you want it to be, an adventure, an escape, or just a plain old story. In my opinion, you should be reading real book, not e-books. A real book is better than an electronic book, because of the weight in your hands, the feel of the rough paper, the smell of a brand new book, the history of a book passed down. A book is anything you want it to be. You can write in it, change anything you want to with your imagination and a pencil. A book can be everything you want it to be. The cover of the book can influence your opinion, sure, but the book itself makes you feel anticipation as you flip to the next page hurriedly and get a paper cut from the page. I’m not saying that e-books are bad because they don’t give you paper cuts; I’m just trying to say there is nothing like the experience of reading a hard book. You know how much you have left to read by the thickness of the book. The thrill of knowing what you have left to read until you get to the very last thing the book tells you, is beyond amazing. Books are alive; they can speak to you in unimaginable ways. Books are not alive unless you choose to make them alive.  A pair of wide eyes with a flashlight reading the books at night, sitting in the library, or even in the chair under the blanket your grandma made for you. You can make the book alive. If you use an e-book, you don’t get the experience of sitting under a blanket with the flashlight and book, you can sit anywhere and read it. The thrill of reading a book under a blanket is more so the thrill of knowing you should be in bed, and your parents think you are, but really you’re watching a movie, in your head. The book is an essence to make your life more creative, and fun. The fact that you make up what the characters look like and what you think is everything that matters. A real book is one made with paper, one that the author slaved over for years at a time.

Why I read

Why do I read? I read because I can make a movie from the book in my head. I like to make my own movies because I can make my own characters and think by myself what they look like. In my opinion when you watch a movie that was based on a book, it ruins the book because you're image of what each character looks like is ruined, or portrayed differently. When I pick up a book, it is actually very hard for me to put it down. For me, its like stopping a movie just before the good part, but every part is the good part. I also read to just take up time, whenever I am bored, I pick up a book and read. Sometimes I can manage to get 2 books or so done in one day. I wouldn't say that I am a fast reader, I just don't take the time to do anything other than read. When I am reading a book, I see no other purpose for that day. I will pretty much only drink water, I will eat a little bit of food, but I like to stay in my bed and finish that book. I read because it stimulates my brain, not like watching a movie. When I read a book I can come up with solutions, even with not reading on. Sometimes its like a little game, if I guess what happens next correctly or not. So thats why I read, why do you read?

Book Recommendations

Some books i would like to suggest reading are: 13 Reasons Why, by Jay Asher; Chomp, By Carl Hiaasen(or any of his others, Flush, Scat, or Hoot); or Swindle, by Gordon Korman. All of these books are very good, but i would like to specifically talk about chomp. First i would like to say I give it a 20 out of 10. I read the entire book in about five hours. The book was amazing, it perfectly portrayed life in Florida for an animal training family in modern times. The main family in this book, the Cray's, is having a hard time getting money lately because the father was put in the hospital when a frozen iguana fell on his head from a tree. The family has many animals in their backyards, including a large 14 foot alligator. The alligator plays a big part in this book because a TV survivalist comes to the Cray's looking for some Florida animals. The man wants to wrestle with the alligator, what do you think? Will the Cray's let him wrestle their most prized possession? Click here to read the first two chapters online. I do highly recommend to read, i feel like the first two chapters explain the book I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did!

Theme and summary

I read a poem the other day, I have been thinking a lot about it lately. Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. This poem is about leaving behind a bad place, and going into the unknown. 

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.

Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.

Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

I think my favorite part of this poem is where it says "let us leave this place where the smoke  blows black" I think that is saying that you have to let the past be in the past and not worry about it, you have to move on and forget about it. The real life issue illustrated in this poem is showing how it may be hard to leave the past, but you have to keep moving forward and keep your head held high. I think it is also saying that we follow the path that is marked out for us, because we don't know any different. We are taught to go where we are told, so that is what we do. The poem has an underlying meaning that is saying "don't go with the forsaken path." Or in other words, it is ok to go where ever you want in life, and make your own future. But in real life, people are afraid to make their own choices, so they follow the ones that are already set for them.