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Tuesday, June 11, 2013
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
A Horror Review
Me being the typical teenage girl who is usually into the heart warming Nicholas Sparks novels such as The Notebook, The Lucky One, and Dear John decided to pick up a grusome murder book where I would be indulged with devil worship, blood, and bad intentions. From the first page the novel the killings began and I had to decipher a murder story instead of a love story. Though these aspects contain horrible aspects I would recommend the genre to a variety of audiences because of its character development and its way of targeting the internal thoughts of both the reader and protagonist.
My reading selection was "Dark Choices" by Gillian Flynn and I found it extremely engaging and mind boggling while traveling along with the main character Libby Day as she tries to relive her past and finally figure out who truly killed her family during a cold night in 1985. Yes, the plot was interesting however that is not my main purpose for recommending the horror genre. Each book can have different plots that can make or break the book. But, there are important aspects to look out for that I beleive will lead to a promising yet frightful reading experience:
-Firstly, though I believe most horror books already have this, I found reading a horror book with specifically a female protagonist made it much more terrifying and complex. Typically a female is portrayed to be more easily scared and a target for a crime since they are viewed to be vulnerable. A horror story with a character such a Libby Day pin points this trait and allows the reader to feel her terror and sadness among the dark events that she experiences. A male character would have a more tough outlook and give the audience reassurance that everything will turn out just how he wants it. A female protagonsist atleast gave me a more shaky storyline. In the end this allows the reader to make better predictions on their own and predict much more depending on cliffhangers and foreshadowing.
-Secondly, stories that are more of a "cold case" and are revisted from the past were appealing to me because of its ability to have much more data based off multiple decades. The characters themselves are almost overwhelmed, just as the reader can be, while trying to put evidence from multiple decades together and trace the suspect. It creates an atmosphere that can touch upon multiple friends or relatives through a period of time and allow their true identity or thoughts to be revealed. This time span allows the settings to change and people to grow which when revistied can spark the protagonists ideas and make the reader be stunned by the major changes. During the days after the murders of the Day's, Libby testified against her own brother, however, in the present (twenty-four years later) you are able to see the changes that Ben has made in jail and try to re-examine the crime from an adult point of view. "Dark Places" was able to tell the story from a childs point of view and then from an adults point of view years later I believe that this was a huge difference maker in the novel.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Touch screen or touch the page?
Touch a screen or touch a page?
The modern approach to reading may be "on the go" as the say. Readers are making a change from simply reading in their spare time to finishing books on the train, in the plane, or before the big game. It is no longer necessary to wait on your local library to aquire the newest best sellers. After having the oppurtunity to try using the nook inparticular I have definitely aquired a new perspective on the new electronic readers.
I think these devices such as the nook and kindle are extremely useful for people who read alot of books. It stores all your books in one place while even allowing you to share them to other devices sometimes. many of the books come at a lower price since you are not buying the actual printed book and allow more affordable choices. Its totally easy to bring to class, put in a carry on bag or even bring on car rides. However, in my personal opinion I still was lured to hold the actual book in my hand and "touch the page". For classwork I like the ability to quickly glance at a couple pages at once to recap, highlight, or put a couple of sticky notes. Though the electronic books do contain options to highlight the text and leave notes I found it very in convenient to have to stray from the actual text and go to a seperate sheet of notes on certain pages. This probably suits me only because I am a very tactile person and like to physically see the book in front of me and see how much reading I have accomplished. Nonetheless, I do believe that picking up an e-reader is great for any reading aimed towards more leisure activities where you many not need to analyze or remeber certain critera of your novels. The compactness of them and the ability to have thousands of pages in something as thin as a cell phone is a genius idea. So what will you decide to touch...the screen or the page?
Do students benefit more from picking their own books?
Do students truly benefit from picking their own books???
Many teachers are starting classes that give their student the ability to choose their own book instead of having assigned books for the class. While some object to this and believe it doesn't enforce the vital aspects of reading and gives the students to much freedom to stray from the true lessons of classic novels, I believe it is a rewarding process that intrigues more pupils. Being a student that was apart of this class I found it more interesting to find a novel that appealed to me. In the past I was never was a reading fanatic and never explored all the genres of books. However, after taking a course that allowed me to pick my own books it actually inspired me become interested in new best sellers, history novels, and mysteries. By completing the necesary classwork and homework analysis we were able to identify the major themes, character traits, and symbols individually and connected alll of the usual studies to our novels.
Many novels that others in our class read included Lord of the Rings, Sherlock Holmes, and Safe Haven. Clearly these are the typical Huck Finn or Shakespeare school books however I can adequetly say that the individual novels were able to expand our view of history and writing just as well as these famous texts. Personally I was able to identify the different aspects of crime, romance, and historical fiction themes and aplpy them to different period of writing in world history.
All in all, I feel that the majority of students do benefit from picking their own books because though some of it might not be completely relevant to historical eras, it is completely relavent to the present. It allows the student to immerse themselves in something that they are interested in and would otherwise never consider reading. To be completely honest I am not usually an avid reader but by exploring the many choices of books that are out there it allowed me to become a more itrigued reader who definitely enjoys reading alot more.
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