Post 7: Book 4 review

Dear Hans Hubermann,

            Thank you for everything. I knew after about a week in your household that you were a special person. It’s not easy to be a foster kid or a foster parent. But, working with you made it very easy and enjoyable. When I arrived to your house in January of 1939 I had no idea how to read or write. At my brother’s funeral I found something that I thought was significant. It was a little book that the grave digger dropped that I stole. A few nights later I noticed it was gone from under my bed and that you had it. When you found this little book I had no idea how happy it would make me.  You taught me to read and write so I could read the grave digger’s book. Then, I finally wrote a letter to my mom whom I have not heard from in a while. You were there for me when she never wrote back because for all we knew, she disappeared. When I heard about that book burning to celebrate Hitler’s birthday it disgusted me. I found out what Hitler’s true goals were and why my family was targeted. You were a great role model advising me not to speak my true opinions about Hitler or I would have been killed immediately. This made me realize that you will always be there for me, and others as well. Without your helps the Nazi’s would have found Max and killed him immediately.  It wasn’t your fault that you had to let Max go, in fear of the house being searched. We would all have been beaten badly and killed. It was a way of watching out for us, which made me feel safe.

              I was very worried when you had to join the military after giving a starving Jewish man bread. When I heard you broke your leg I felt terrible but I was also happy because you got to come back home. There was a lot going on in my life when all of this was happening. It was around this time where I told myself I would give up books and all the stealing from Mrs. Herman’s library. Then she gave me a blank book, it was my time to write a book. I titled it The Book Thief and begun writing in the basement. Our street was bombed while I was writing in the basement. Everyone that I have ever loved, passed away. I had nowhere to go and nobody to be with. Nothing mattered to me anymore. I dropped my book immediately when I found out who all passed away and I didn’t care to pick it back up.

            I’m writing this letter to you today to show you how much you impacted my life and I wouldn’t be where I am now without you. I have a wonderful family and I have lived a wonderful life, but there is still a dark cloud over my head about what happened the day you passed and what happened to my book. It turns out somebody did in fact pick up my book. It was death itself. Although I am writing this letter in Heaven I want to inform you what happened during my last moments on earth. Death gave me my book moments before I passed away in exchange for my soul. This made me think, were you death? Did you pick up my book when you died in our home the day of the bombing? Was this a sign? You knew what was important to me in my life and that it’s only fitting that my last moments alive I had my first true love in my arms, my book. If you were death, did you read my book? If so how was it?

Sincerely,

Liesel

Post 10: Reading Wish List

1. Divergent
2. Maze Runner
3. Perks of Being a Wallflower
4. Bourne Identity
5. Boy in Striped Pajamas
6. Looking For Alaska
7. The Kite Runner
8. Moneyball

Post 9: Book 2 Trailer

Post 8: Book Talk Prezi

Book 3 Project

5 Reasons/Examples Why Louie Zamperini’s Behavior Always Got Him In Trouble

Louie Zamperini grew up a childhood thief. His actions in his childhood made him the man he is today. In order to be a thief you an attitude that reflects your true anger and frustration. Not Louie, he is a prankster and has no respect for anyone and it almost gets him killed.

1. Louie was a childhood thief

Ever since Louie was a kid he’s been running away from people trying to elude their presence as he escapes with their items. He would steal anything that either he needed or that his family needed. Examples of thing he took: cake, ice cream, candy, etc.

            2. Louie was stranded in the middle of the ocean alone

After a brutal plane crash that left his crew floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean for weeks, Louie was the only faithful one. Nobody had come searching for them, at least to their knowledge. Louie’s relentless work effort and strong will to live got him out of the Ocean safely, but, tangled up in Tokyo in a concentration camp. So, basically his strong will and very in shape body kept him alive but put him in a terrible situation in Tokyo.

 

            3. Showing no respect in the concentration camp

Louie has no respect for people he steals from and shows no respect to those who steal from him. In this, case they are stealing his life hoping he dies in the camp. But when Louie is called to do a task, he will never follow instruction. He gets struck for no reason and then gets told he’s not allowed to look at the guard. He immediately looks up and stares at him. Which of course led to more beating.

 

4. Stealing a Nazi flag

Louie was out celebrating during the Olympics in Germany which he was a part of. Hitler was in power during this time and the Nazi’s put their flags everywhere to make sure that all the tourists and Olympians knew who was running the show. A drunk Louie attempted to jump and snatch a Nazi flag that was just out of his reach. The only problem was that there was an armed guard with his back turned that saw Louie after several failed attempts. Luckily, they didn’t mind and found it hilarious and let him keep the flag. “But stealing a Nazi flag from the well-guarded Reich Chancellery was not the best idea.”

           

5.  Eating pig feces because of “The Bird”

The act of eating pig feces did not get him in trouble in any way while he was at the concentration camp. But, the memory of killing this animal and eating its insides are what gets to his head. All the violence that “The Bird” had inflicted on Louie really took a toll on him. That act did in fact keep him alive because it was a cure to his long hours of starvation. Even when he returned home he still had thoughts of “The Bird”, and it haunted him. Then one day it all just went away and he returned to thinking like that same old Louie. “He was not the worthless, broken, forsaken man that the Bird had striven to make of him.” Yes the Bird was a person. He ran the camp and put Louie out of his misery.

            Louie Zamperini is a one of a kind man. An Olympian, a War Veteran, a thief, and a survivor. Nobody else has ever done what this man has accomplished. From being the well-known thief of his home town to running in front of Adolf Hitler, he has come a long way that few can only dream of. His behavior was a key contributor to his success. By stealing things and running away, he learned very quickly that speed was crucial. With help from his family, they got him on the right path. But, by being himself he found a way out of every situation and now has one of the most amazing life stories anyone has ever heard of. 

Blog #5 Non-Fiction Thoughts

         I think that genres are good for readers to find things that interest them. So we need genres as interested readers. People want to know what kind of book they are going to be reading so they look up the genre. If people are about to read a non-fiction book then they have every right to believe they will read exactly what happened it, 100% facts. That’s not always the case though. Some non-fiction books are all factual and exactly what happened. Other times, they aren’t. Authors might use a story and bend it a little bit to make for a better story that readers will enjoy more. If they do this then it simply shouldn’t be labeled a non-fiction book. If the author changes very small details like the cat’s name in a random scene then I think that is alright. So, if the author changes things that impact the outcome of the book, it’s not non-fiction. If the things that are changed are unnoticeable and have no effect on the outcome then it’s still fine to be labeled a non-fiction book. I have a problem with this though. If we aren’t educated in the non-fiction book we are reading and it is not factual then we are placing lies in our brain. There is no way to know if what you are reading is a lie or not. I think the precise percentage to still be labeled a non-fiction book is 90-10 Facts-Lies. David is wrong because of my examples above. You never know when the smallest lie will impact somebody as a reader or a viewer to what is supposed to be a non-fiction movie. Label it Fiction if there is lie after lie. Or simply say based on a true story and have that settle everything.

Adapting Shoeless Joe

The type of adaptation I would choose that would make the most sense to an audience would be a live play. This would make the most sense to the viewer because you could see live, what is confusing all readers of this book. The scenes in Shoeless Joe that need to go are the ghost scenes. When Shoeless Joe arrives after he builds the field of dreams, he is a ghost because he passed away a while ago. I feel like a visual represent that shows Shoeless Joe as an actual person would make more sense. It's hard to talk to a ghost anyways so we could include some dialogue that was not found in the book between Ray and Joe. I would keep all of the main scenes as a director. The storyline is perfect there are just a few changes that needed to be fixed. I would cast shoeless Joe as a 6'4 baseball player and all of his teammates would be about 6'0 to show that Joe was the biggest and best ball player back then, which he was. The music selection that I would use is the Space Jam soundtrack. I believe I can fly starts playing the first time Joe emerges from the cornfield with his team as they walk out in slow-motion. The last major change I would make is a cut to Ray's wife in the story. If a single man, who is kind of old gets the vision to build a ball field from a random voice, was to meet Shoeless Joe, he would need someone to tell. Without the wife present, you can take the story anywhere with countless options of ending the story. I have not read the ending yet, so I will wait until I read that to see what I would do as a director with the ending. I would also change Ray's name to Fabio to change the story a little bit with an interesting name. Fabio would be played by a middle aged Puerto Rican who still lives in Iowa so that won't change. Besides that, the story directed by me will stay similar to the book which doesn't need anymore changes.

Book 1 Project

Sam Sprague

Bell 7

9/12/14

Book 1 Project: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Times

        What we are advertising is 2 books written by an autistic student named Christopher. These are no ordinary books. One book will contain the everyday struggles from the point of view of Christopher. The second book that Christopher is writing is not even a book, it is a math textbook that is deeply analyzed and annotated by Christopher. This textbook can be used universally used for any college math class you wish to study.

In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher John Francis Boone has some trouble understanding his life. He lives in a single parent household. Being autistic, Christopher usually has trouble knowing right from wrong. The book is titled around the incident that happened in his neighbors back yard. He stumbled upon the neighbors’ dead and bloody dog. He didn’t know any better so he picked it up, not knowing that it looked like he was the one who killed the dog. In Christopher’s book, we could understand the text better and we could understand what was going through his mind in the initial moments of finding the poor dog. “I pulled the fork out of the dog and lifted him into my arms and hugged him [...] I like dogs.” If you purchase Christopher’s first book you can realize why he picked up the dog and things would actually make sense. The chapters of Christopher’s book are different. They go by prime numbers because he “knows every prime number up to 7,057 and all the countries in the world and their capitals.” As you can tell, his brain doesn’t work like a normal person’s. This makes his book so much more interesting to read. He remembers things vividly that are blurs in others peoples memory. When it comes to math he is a complete genius and it makes readers wonder how he does that. No matter where he is in the book, he always wants to find a way to do his A-Level courses. “Does this mean I can’t take my A-Level  anymore? My heart was beating as if it were going to come out of my chest.” This math means a lot to him because it is a challenge to him and he understands it. I want to know how he understands it at such a young age. That is when I want to read the textbook he is selling along with his book. Whatever goes through his mind, he processes it like it’s nothing. If you buy his textbook, he has notes in it and he shows visually how he understands everything. 

I think the idea of selling 2 forms of Christopher’s writing will work because he has such a different mind and he’s just brilliant and people want to know what it is like to have a brain like that and ways they can emulate his practices to become more like him in the classroom. This will help broaden the audience because readers like myself get side tracked very easily and I was constantly wondering what was going through this kid’s head. If I read Christopher’s book after I would understand why he acts the way he does and how that makes him different. This idea will get attention because it is almost like a follow-up book that basically makes the book into a series. If you enjoyed the initial book then Christopher’s book will be a must read. The ending of the original book made me want to have an explanation and the explanation could be found in Christopher’s book which could be a best seller. His textbook with his notes are more school related and it is a special edition kind of deal so we could broaden the audience even more.

What is a book

 In my opinion, a book is something that holds meaning and has a story to it. A book is that you can hold and feel that paper. An e-book is not considered a book because you can’t hold it and rip the pages and make annotations on it. I have a strong hatred for e-books because my e-book turned out to not have a place for annotations while I read my summer reading book. I took annotations on a piece of paper and my teacher didn’t accept them so I am never downloading a book again. The 0/15 on my grade right now is killing me all because of the title e-book, it’s not even a book. There is something magical about reading a book that is in the form of a paper back. The reading experience should never change. I have a different feeling about audio-books than e-books. I actually enjoy audio-books and I think that it portrays the same message as the book as long as you are following along. You can still picture what is going on in your head. The only part that I couldn’t stand is the audio-books that read at the slowest pace ever and there is no way to speed them up. They are still considered books in my opinion though.

Q: Is the electronic version of a book different than the hard copy?

SS: Completely different. The experience is nothing like the experience of having your own book that you got at Barnes and Nobles. Having to go there and smelling that familiar smell of the store. The same smell lingers in your book as you flip every page instead of just clicking an arrow to get to the next page as you stare at technology. The experiences are completely different and the smallest differences are what make reading worth it. P.S. I’ll never read an e-book again.

Why I Read

I don't read often. That is the reason that I am taking this course; I would like that to change. My parents are the ones who really influenced me to get into reading. Besides the summer reading and various book assignments for English, I wouldn't read a single book! My dad wants me to become a heavy reader because reading lasts a lifetime. You can be any age to read a book and if you ask any adult they will tell you that they read a book a week. My dad tells me to get into 2 things that will be hobbies that I will be able to do for a lifetime; Golf and Reading. Reading relaxed the brain he says, also, it helps him fall asleep at night and it also is occurring while a great story is developing. It's a win win situation. As a teenager my main priorities don't include reading. I believe I need to develop this good habit and read a book a week just like my parents. Another reason I would like to read a lot more is to become faster with my eyes. I takes me FOREVER to read a book as I always become impatient worrying about the page number and how long it's taken me rather than focusing just on the story itself.