I Am Number 4

I was very hesitant to start the book I Am Number 4 because of two reasons. First, I saw the movie and I hate seeing the movie before the book. Second, the movie was horrible.  I was worried when someone suggested the book to me, except I gave it a try and fell in love.  Pittacus Lore wrote an amazing and catchy novel that begins a series.  He wrote with words that were easy to read so it helped to read fast and follow the story easier.  The story of the book is about aliens that are trying to save their planet but are being hunted by the Mogadorians.  In short, there was a lot of action, suspense, and some romance from a high school fling.

Over the past two weeks, I haven't made it to any benches.  However, I did take pictures of benches I saw during Spring Break that I thought would have been good benches if I had time.  There was even a bench six miles down the Grand Canyon that I snapped a picture of.  And my other goal of reading every night didn't happen either...I think I only read five times in the past two weeks. However, I did finish a 440 page book and read 50 pages of the next one so hopefully that redeems the other goal.

PRTW: 490
PRTQ: 925

Exercise #3

Reviews:
Cinder: Book One in the Lunar Chronicles
Try Not to Breathe
Black Boy White School

Elements:
1. Summarize the background of the novel and set-up the conflict so that the reader of the review wants to know more, but is left hanging.

2. A set aside quote on the left side.

3. The conclusion focuses on themes or moral lessons that the author writes about. 

Tuesdays with Morrie

Finishing up Tuesdays with Morrie came with many tears and realizations.  You only live life once, and Mitch Albom's classes with Morrie helped teach what life should be about.  Love is the biggest thing to consider.  Nothing matters without love and relationships.  People think that they are satisfying their time and having the best life by being busy and fighting for power and money; however, Morrie teaches us that enjoying each moment of the dull and exciting times makes one never regret anything in their lifetime.  He taught many moral lessons and new ways of thinking about death.  No one should fear death because the soul lives on.  Our body is like a shell and it wears out, but our soul will never die.

Tuesdays With Morrie was a really quick read and it helped me accomplish my goal of reading 150 pages a week.  Although I only read 3 nights this week, instead of my goal of reading 30 minutes each night.  Another goal was to read at 2 park benches, and unfortunately I only got to one park bench.  I realized that if I brought a pillow with me to the bench it would be a lot more comfortable!

The park bench I read at...

Any guesses where this is?
Clue: It is along the Aboite Trails and near Aboite Center Rd.
PRTW: 199
PRTQ: 435

Note #1: My Father's Diary

In the poem My Father's Diary, by Sharon Olds, the narrator reads the vague diary of her father and notices the quick changes from the young boy's perspective of everyday chores and activities to the perspective of playful and passionate feelings of love.  Though the poem gives the narrator a gift from her father, the narrator's language is full of simple yet delicate words that introduces the father's compassionate feelings of love.  The narrator is reading the diary, which shares a timeline of the young boy's, now her father's, events.  It starts off with plain, everyday activities that every boy does.  The boy "went to look at a car" as well as "went to try out some new tennis racquets".  The lack of emotion during the beginning of the passage suggests boredom with his innocent life.  However, the boy's life is boring and slow "until Lois" turned it around and the boy started to experience new emotions that transformed his life.  He started "worshipping her" as all he wanted to do was spend time with her.  The transforming sentences in the diary documents the first phases of his love for Lois.  First love can never be taken for granted; the young boy has fallen for Lois and doesn't know what he has "ever done to deserve such a girl."  The run on events of growing up happens so fast, and when it is written down in a diary, the pure and honest words reveal the unique and surprising emotions of one's first love.

My Father's Diary by Sharon Olds

My Father's Diary

My Father's Diary

By Sharon Olds b. 1942 Sharon Olds

I get into bed with it, and spring

the scarab legs of its locks. Inside,

the stacked, shy wealth of his print—

he could not write in script, so the pages

are sturdy with the beamwork of printedness,

WENT TO LOOK AT A CAR, DAD

IN A GOOD MOOD AT DINNER, WENT

TO TRY OUT SOME NEW TENNIS RACQUETS,

LUNCH WITH MOM, life of ease—

except when he spun his father's DeSoto on the

ice, and a young tree whirled up to the

hood, throwing up her arms—until

LOIS. PLAYED TENNIS, WITH LOIS,

LUNCH WITH MOM AND LOIS, LOIS

LIKED THE CAR, DRIVING WITH LOIS,

LONG DRIVE WITH LOIS. And then,

LOIS! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! SHE IS SO

GOOD, SO SWEET, SO GENEROUS, I HAVE

NEVER, WHAT HAVE I EVER DONE

TO DESERVE SUCH A GIRL? Between the dark

legs of the capitals, moonlight, soft

tines of the printed letter gentled

apart, nectar drawn from serif, the

self of the grown boy pouring

out, the heart's charge, the fresh

man kneeling in pine-needle weave,

worshipping her. It was my father

good, it was my father grateful,

it was my father dead, who had left me

these small structures of his young brain—

he wanted me to know him, he wanted

someone to know him.

Exercise 2: Analysis Scavenger Hunt

(2)"Grey and tall and stocky as the granite outcrop their town was built upon" are the inhabitants described in an unvarnished plain-dealing diction"

(6)"In her novel, Cruddy, Lynda Barry use of brusque, crude, and cacophonous language depicts and establishes the narrator’s dreary outlook on her gloomy life."

(1)Barry comes across as a bitter woman with the constant negative and degrading word diction saying "Roberta was writing the cruddy book of her cruddy life."

The blog that I really liked: Reading, Reflecting, and More Reading 

Exercise 1

In the opening paragraphs of Lynda Barry's Cruddy, words are filled with simplistic humor that suggests the authors young and rebelious personality.  The low diction and literal words make the passage easy to read.  The repeating use of the word 'cruddy' exaggerates the tone of the author and depicts her 'cruddy' life.  The character that writes a 'Cruddy' book is "the cruddy girl named Roberta."  Roberta's story is going to be about "the cruddy time on a cruddy street on the side of a cruddy hill in the cruddiest part of a crudded-out town in a cruddy state, country, world, solar system, universe."  The conflicting words with Roberta's sister suggest the natural state of bickering with siblings.  The frustration is implied through the cruddy words and poured out to "her little sister [who] will NOT shut up she will NOT shut up SHE WILL NOT SHUT UP."  Roberta's story, during the rest of her cruddy time grounded, uses personal language to depict the growth and maturity of a teenage girl. 

Reading Goals

I've never really read a book like Before I Fall; It was definately original and entertained me throughout the book.  There were many funny parts throughout the book, but the book also taught many lessons.  After reading it I really thought about how I could change the way I act towards people and if I were to die today if I would have any regrets.  Sam, the girl who died in the book, got a chance to relive her last day seven times.  It wasn't so that she could possibly get a chance to live again, but to help her deviate from her old, snobby personality.  She was able to enjoy a last day with no regrets and helped others before she fell to death. 

My reading goals for this 9 weeks:

1. Read at a random park bench two times a week.  I expect to find most of the park benches along the Aboite Trails or by neighborhood ponds.  I can never repeat a bench.   This will be really fun because I'll be exploring on my bike and finding peaceful places that I enjoy to relax and read.

2.  Read 30 min a night.

3. Read 125 pages a week.

PRTW:236
PRTQ:236