Summer Assignment Entry #1 (6/29)

     For my summer reading assignment, I chose to read the book The Book Thief. There is a good variety of different level/importance characters. There's the main character, Liesel Meminger, who has just moved in with foster parents (in NAZI Germany) after her brother dies and her mom can't take care of her. She has integrated pretty well into her new life, and has made friends and helps out around the house. Her main problem right now in the story is that she wants to write to her mom but Hitler took her mom away (why she can't take care of Liesel). So that's Liesel so far in the book, next is the narrator.

     The narrator is Death, but not foreboding depressing death like you might find in some stories, but a sarcastic and humorous death with multiple side comments put in along the story to show you his perspective. An example is his description of Liesel's foster-mother:

   SOME FACTS ABOUT

ROSA HUBERMANN

She was five feet, one inch tall and wore her

browny gray strands of elastic hair in a bun.

To supplement the Hubermann income, she did

the washing and ironing for five of the wealthier

households in Molching.

Her cooking was atrocious.

She possessed the unique ability to aggravate

 almost anyone she ever met.

But she did love Liesel Meminger.

(35)

 

     Liesel's foster mother is described above, but her foster dad is about the opposite. He plays the accordion and annoys Rosa, and overall gets Liesel's adoration. Their family is very poor, because he's a painter and hardly gets work and Rosa has a little money from the laundry of the rich.

 

     I had already seen the movie before I decided to read the book, and to this point in the book I think that the movie portrays the story pretty well. The only noticeable difference is in the movie it portrays her forster parents as older than in the book and doesn't have Death's commentary on the story and characters.

 

     Right now in the story Liesel is at a NAZI book burning and I predict she will take a book from the things being burned because the title of the book is The Book Thief and Death referenced that she would "strike again" (taking a book) in this chapter so I'm guessing that'll happen here.

 

     I haven't gotten into the thick of the plot yet so everything up to this point is explained so I don't have any questions yet I'll be sure to include those when I get some.

 

Below is the most popular cover of the book.

 



Innocence #3

I'm still reading Innocence and they're still running around all over the place and Addison still has basically no idea what's going on but he's just going with the flow. I think that another emerging theme is that books are good to read and stuff, but doing the real thing is much, much better and a better experience. I think this is a theme in this book because it is constantly said in different ways in Addison's thoughts. I think this theme also applies to technology.

It applies to technology because yes, technology can be a good source of information. But the problem comes when we replace our lives with technology and consider it the same. I think everyone would agree, going to the Grand Canyon or Niagra Falls or some other place would be infinitely better than seeing a bunch of pictures of them.

So how do we change our lives so that we're living our life in the present and not technology? Well, the answer is pretty simple. Just turn off your phone or your computer, and go do something. Play a game of pickup basketball. Throw a ball in the backyard. Addison lived most of his life sheltered from society because he couldn't be seen by anyone. He had to try to replace his life with books, and what is he learning while he's being chased by people and chasing people with Gwyneth?

It's not the same as a book.

It's really not. Learning how to play baseball works better in a yard than on a book or phone. The same is true of your classes. You'd learn Spanish a lot faster if it was constantly spoken to you instead of learning it out of a textbook. So put down the phone and do the real thing for awhile every day.

Innocence Dean Koontz

I'm still reading Innocence  by Dean Koontz and nothing has really been cleared up that much. He's friends now with that Goth person he met in the library, and weird stuff is happening and he really doesn't have any control in his life anymore.

I think that Dean Koontz is having this chaotic plotline to show us that we have very little control in our own lives, and what we can decide wh should put at the top priority because that's what makes us different from the next person, because most of us have a similar lifestyle: Wake up, get ready, go to work/school, come home, maybe work some more, eat, maybe go out and do something, and go back to sleep. That's not really special. What makes us who we are is what we do during all of those times. So don't just go through the motions at school or work just to look forward to something else. Look forward to everything that you're going to do so you can be a happy person.

On the characterization part of the story, I think Dean Koontz is emphasizing the point I said above with the way the characters act and how they look. For example, Addison (the main guy) always wears a hood and a mask because people are repulsed by how he looks. This can relate to us because we all have weird fears or phobias that really don't make sense but it's there anyways. An example of this is if you're scared of spiders. Now, we all know that a regular spider in your house can't really hurt you or do anything, but lots of people freak out when they see one. Addison is taken to a house with people in it and he's only met like 5 people in his life so this really freaks him out so he just looks down all the time and doesn't look at anyone that he's "meeting".

Finished Salem's Lot

So I finished Salem's Lot, and I can't say too much about it because that would spoil the book if you read it. I thought it was pretty good, but had a good ending that wrapped everything up while still one of those endings that is like a new beginning.

The good stuff that I thought was in the book was it had a pretty unpredictable plot, unlike some books or movies that I've read, and it has a lot of aspects and stories that all basically come together in the story. Another good thing Stephen King does in the book is making the characters actual people, not just heroes that can't do anything wrong, they make mistakes and mess up quite often, so I thought that was real and good.

Some bad stuff is that certain scenes were pretty predictable and one character that he didn't really make you understand was the main bad guy, which I think would have added to the story. Those are really the only things that I thought would have improved the story, but like I said, a pretty good book overall.



I started another newer book by Dean Koontz, called Innocence. It is about this guy who looks weird for some reason and makes people hate him when they see him. I know, kind of weird but we'll see what happens. He has this underground place where he lives that's attached to the sewer system so he can sneak around the city, which hasn't been named yet.

I think that Dean Koontz has done a good job so far of characterizing the main character by having it narrated from his point of view and I think this book will have very few characters due to how reclusive the main character is.

I think that having few characters will allow the author to really get the chance to show the reader what each of the characters' point of views are and what they think about other characters and will do this to help you infer what each character's reactions will be to whatever happens throughout the story.

Still Reading Salem's Lot

I originally didn't think that this book would turn out to be that interesting. Well, I was wrong and this book is actually turning into a page turner and the plot has gotten really weird. Even for Stephen King, weird.

So the main weird part is that the problems that have been going on in Salem's lot is the guy, Straker, isn't a satanist (Which is good). He just worships this vampire dude (Which is not). His name is Barlow, and he got Ben's girlfriend and most of the town and they try to stop him, which is going to be the climax of the story, from getting the rest of the town and moving on from there.

One main issue that Stephen King has been focusing on is Fear. He constantly goes back to the idea that when we're kids we all are terribly afraid of that closet or the lamp that looks like a person when the lights go out and you can't tell your parents about it because only other kids understand. Then he tells his own definition of adulthood. "The essential and defining characteristic of childhood is not the effortless merging of dream and reality, but only alienation. There are no words for childhood's dark turns and exhalations. A wise child recognizes it and submits to the necessary consequences. A child who counts the cost is a child no longer." I think that this is true, and we all remember our own personal boogeyman when we were little and now we rationalize and think, "Oh there's a creaking. Well, I locked the doors, and the windows are shut, so it must be just regular house creaking".

Another factor of Fear that Stephen King considers is the effect it has on some people. Some of us are good under pressure and perform better than normal. Others are very skilled at something until someone is watching and analyzing them. I think that you are kind of stuck with which you are but you can change it based on the environment you grow up in. For example, if you grow up doing a lot of sports or live in a high stress environment, you'll probably be better under pressure or with fear. If you live in a sheltered environment where you have time to do everything really thoroughly, but have few deadlines, you might be less productive under stress. In our society, there are jobs that match each of these personalities. A surgeon literally has someone's life in their hands, so they can't have nervous shaking in their hand, while an engineer that designs bridges is in a less personal environment and has less stress to deal with. We need engineers and we need surgeons. I think every job is split up like that, with more jobs that have low stress compared to jobs with high stress.

I found this article about fear, and it seems pretty interesting. View it Here

Salem's Lot

So I've been reading some more of my book, and some new things have happened. The older brother of the kid that was taken just died from some anemia stuff that noone knew was there, and after the funeral the guy that was burying the coffin got possessed or something and redug out the coffin to shut the eyes and then he didn't remember any of it and he got REALLY sick and slept through the next few days and then this guy (Matt, Ben's friend) takes him home to sleep and get better and then later that day Matt hears the guy open the window and say, "Yes, come in," That's where I stopped reading because that's when the reading time in class ended so that's a pretty big cliffhanger so I'll tell you what happened if it's not a big spoiler next time. The guy calls Ben to come right away and I thought that was kind of funny. Who you gonna call? Ghost Busters! That's what that reminded me of and I just thought that was funny

HW Post Column

The column that I read for the homework assignment was called "Living the new adoption law" and was about this law in Ohio that will become effective in one year that will allow adopted people to see information about their birth parents. view column here

The line that I think was best written was "She still doesn’t understand why Ohio made it hard for a segment of its adoptees to find answers to those questions." I think that it is the best line because it shows the frustration before the law was passed and then the author includes quotes of how this will help the person understand things better.

I think that Ramsey's writing style is to take a serious or real story and make it more personal so that everyone can kind of relate to it. She does this by adding some meaningful quotes or by adding humor to her writing. Quotes from the columns that prove this are:

"active time outdoors isn't just good for young peoples' waistlines and social skills,"

"Probably half the population sees this as a problem and the other half, a blessing. The problem is both halves show up at the same events"

“I’ve always been one of those people who thought I had to wait until I was really ready to do this, but I don’t want to wait until it’s too late. I need to do it now – we need to do it now. Now is as good a time as any.”

Questions:
How do you find people to quote in your stories?
What is the biggest challenge in your job?
What made you want to go into that type of job?