Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Book Blog #2

The Scarlet Letter
By
Nathaniel Hawthorne

I found this book to be very interesting. Even though I am not really into old time books, but I did have an interest in how people use to view each other. I also found that people have pretty wild and crazy imaginations back in the old days. While reading, the movie "Easy A" was released into theaters. The book wasn’t difficult to understand, however watching the movie helped me put the story into modern day and age. In the book some times it was hard to understand the old time writing that they tend to use in books like this. The story line was way off from that of the book, but it was a good example to show how people in this day and society would react too the same situation. This book was very interesting to me and every time I read, I wanted to know more. So you could say that I actually took a liking to this book as well as my other book, which really surprises me.
I would highly recommend this book to anyone in high school. It is a well written piece of challenging literature. Because it is a classic, most students will read it or at least hear of it through out their high school career. Now, don’t get the wrong impression of me saying "you need to read this book because its a classic and its really old" My point is, the book can be connected to very easily, especially to high school students today. With all of the drama that teenagers bring around today it and accusing others of being uncalled for names, that tend to really hurt people.
Most students are worried about their reputation. What I liked most about this book is just that. As a reader you get to see what every one thinks of Hester and the priest, her lover. Because she has a child after being away from her husband for nearly two years, Hester is accused of adultery. Because of this accusation, she is forced to wear a scarlet A on all of her wardrobe. Now, the community and everyone who sees will know exactly what she’s done. I find that is pretty unique. In today’s society, you don’t tend to see people walking around with “A’s” on their clothes to tell you that they committed adultery. Most people try to hide things like that to themselves because they are embarrassed enough by it or find it as a daring game to play. I just really like that I can see today’s point of view and then read way back when’s view. I find that is unique and enhances a story like this.
I find the characters real and believable. I’m not sure if people were actually as extreme as they were in the book, but I do believe that things like this happen all the time from what I have learned in AP World History. I can’t relate to the characters in the book, but it fascinates me that people actually commit adultery. I grew up going to St. Paul Lutheran School and Church, so I have grown up learning the ways of the Bible and how god wants us to act. So it kind of shocks me when I read stories like this. Yeah now that I’m older I understand that this goes on all the time, but this book really made me question why people commit adultery. I know when you “love” some one, you’ll do anything to be with them. But when one person is already committed to another, how can you not feel wrong when they cheat on the one they supposedly “loved”. Even though I can’t relate to the main characters in the book, I can relate to the person that is being cheated on, and well I know how bad it hurts. So what happened to treat other likes you would want to be treated?

Book Blog #1

The Lightning Thief
By
Rick Riordan
I would have to say that I really liked this book. I'm not one to really pick up a book and read, but this book kept me interested the whole entire time. There really wasn't ever a dull moment or a slow part in the book. Well maybe the beginning was a little slow, then again what book doesn't have a little bit of a slow start. This book is part of a 5 book series and I think I'm going to have to read them all. While reading this book there was a lot of factors that really liked. Like the fact that most of the book is based on Greek Mythology, there is a lot of attack, and I can relate a little to the main character. Considering that I thought this was a really good book and I didn’t want to put it down, I would have to say I recommend my piers and anyone that likes Greek Mythology and attack books as much as I do. It ever have a bit of a love interest in the book. But I’m not going to spoil it!
What I thought was pretty unique to the book was that everything is based on modern times. But there is a huge twist. The book might be told in the modern day, but everyone might not be who they seem. In this book there are teachers in regular hightails that are actually centaurs. Which are half human and half horse. Then you have peers that might just be srytr sent to protect you. Or there might be Mount Olympus on the top of the Empire State building. All those things seem to make the book unique to others. Plus things like demi-gods, Greek mythology creatures, magic like powers, and pretty much any other Greek magical thing you could think of. Since the book had all of these special elements, I would have to say that is why I was so interested in this book.
If this was a world where everyday people could be secretly demi-gods or Greek Mythology creatures, then yeah the creatures were extremely believable! But it’s not so the characters weren’t to believable. Makes me go back to when I was a kid having a wild imagination and always thinking my dog was really a lion. I was a mighty princess warrior that would protect my stuff animals from getting attacked by the lion. Maybe I’m not a super skilled fighter with a crazy awesome pen that turns into a sword, but I could sure act like I was one when I was little. I can really relate to the main character, Percy Jackson, because just like him I am dyslexic and I love Greek Mythology. While I was reading this book, I was really surprised to see that the main character was dyslexic just like me and it made it really easy to relate. It always made me feel special because there is a book where the hero has the same issues as I do. Not many people I know understand how I feel everyday when I read things backwards, it takes a lot of while power to make sure you aren’t reading a sentence backwards, trying to read letters backwards, or completely mistake numbers or letters as something completely else. This book actually made me feel pretty good about myself and my handicap.