Reading Response #5 - The Catcher in the Rye

Holden lives in Ossenburg Hall at Pencey Prep and has a roommate named Stradlater; fairly handsome man who is said to be “Good with the ladies.” On the other hand an annoying, pimply fellow by the name of Ackley lives down the hall and bothers Holden as he loves to read alone. Ackley bothers the crap out of Holden the entire third chapter after Holden repeatedly tells him to shut up. For some awkward and weird reason Holden keeps talking about this red hat he has on that has a beak on it. I’m wondering what the hat has to do with any part of this book, or if it’s a metaphor for something else in his life? Close to the end of the third chapter, Stradlater comes into the apartment talking about this girl he met at the football game; her name was Jane Gallagher. Holden apparently knows her from the past as he is eager to go say hello but also scared almost as if he has some secret crush on her. Stradlater is a man with broad shoulders and good hygiene so he doesn’t seem to have trouble with the ladies, this makes Holden very nervous as he gives girls “the time” quite often. “Up home we wear a hat like that to shoot deer in, for Chrissake,” Ackley said. “That’s a deer shooting hat.” “Like hell it is.” I took it off and looked at it. I sort of closed one eye, like I was taking aim at it. “This is a people shooting hat,” I said. “I shoot people in this hat.” Holden says this about this red hat with a beak on it, like I said before, this makes me think like what does the hat actually mean to him? Could  it be a symbol for something in his life that he can’t let go of?

Article Response #1: Is google making us stupid?

Reading about this article really just put me to sleep. I kept finding myself off topic in my mind and having to reread the section due to boredom. The article had some key points in it like when it talks about the patholigists from University of Michigan Medical School and how he states that “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.” I found this one of the most interesting parts of the article because I can really connect to this, just reading this article alone I found myself bored and off topic just within the first three or four paragraphs. Also from the article a study at George Mason Univerisity states that "Even the adult mind is very plastic, it  has the ability ro reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions." This is very true in my opinion, the human brain is becoming more and more like a computerized machine and in the future I predict seeing more and more ways to make things easier, for example "Siri."

Mindblown.

Readers Response #4 - Catcher in the Rye

I have started a new book called The Catcher in the Rye. The main character is Holden who tells the story from in a mental institute, which I am really confused about... He goes to Pencey Prep, in the book he talks about how he is failing 4 of his 5 classes and the only one he is passing in is English. Why that matters? I have no clue but I guess he likes English. Holden doesn't apply himself to school at all. He states that he is the fencing teams manager and how he loses all the equipment on a train ride to their match. The headmaster at Pencey Prep later in chapter two asks Holden to drop by his house so they can talk. So when Holden arrives his teacher is laying there in his bed lecturing to Holden about how he needs to play by the rules and how he wont be allowed to come back to this school after the fall term. The teacher tells him "Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to the rules." Holden is just basically tuning out everything the teacher is telling him and finally just gets fed up with it and walks out in the middle of the teachers lecture about school. Seems to me like this book I am really going to be able to relate to because we both are teenagers and the problems I foreshadow for him in the future are problems I could relate to.

This is a picture that I am imagining the teacher giving Holden a lecture looks like.

Readers Response #3 - Flash Burnout

The book begins by introducing the four people that live in the Hewson's house: Blake, a high school sophomore; Garrett, his older brother; mom, a hospital chaplain; and dad, a medical examiner. Blake and his brother Garrett go to West Park high school together. On the car ride to school, the brothers listen to the school radio and for some reason it seems weird because they are talking about a new DJ; almost like its awkward for some reason. Once they get to school, Blake's girlfriend, Shannon, is upset with him. As a typical woman always does, she overreacted because he had forgotten to call her after dinner. "I can hear her muttering, 'He will rue the day' as she disappears down the hall.” This quote just leaves me itching to know what the climax of this book will be, because already it is showing signs of almost scary incidents waiting to come. This book I feel like I’m going to enjoy more then my last one because it has a side of suspicion to it that leaves me wanting to know what it is about the book that gives it the vibe of almost a dark side to it.

Here is the car that Garrett and Blake drive to school, that Garrett and his dad fixed up.

Readers Response: Quiet Strength

Tony Dungy was a man raised by civil parents, with athletic backgrounds. He writes this book in chronological order through him growing up. He starts with his childhood, where he was a big player in high school playing basketball and football. This book was written to inspire young Christian athletes as it has many references to god and the bible. Tony Dungy is a man of character; a “family man” is what I would call it. During games he said if he faced adversity he would think back to what his father taught him and ask himself “Is raising my voice and overreacting going to be helpful in this situation?” I feel like this book is going to be a very good book for me because just in the start I am interested in how he becomes a not very successful quarterback in college to becoming a legend in NFL and what it takes to become the best. This book is going to inspire me to be the quiet but active player I need to be in college football.

Inspiration:

Something that gets me inspired to write is my past life. My past is the one thing I actually get excited to write about because there are so many stories I have to say and so many stories I can tell people but never have. So when I think of something to write about the first thing that pops into my head is my childhood life. The second thing that pops into my mind is my favorite person in the world; my girlfriend. We have had so many memories in the past year and a half that I'm pretty sure I could write a whole novel about how we have choose to live our lives together.

Reading Response: The Hunger Games

My book starts off with a girl whose name is Katniss Evergreen, and she lives in what is called “District 12.” I am not exactly sure how many Districts there are or why they are fenced in by electric wires. There is also this thing they call the “Reaping.” In the book Katniss says “Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch – this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy.” Based on that quote I assume the reaping is some kind of human sacrifice, but not too sure yet.

The narrator is Katniss; she has a mother who is what they call a “healer,” which is basically just a doctor in reality. She has  younger sister, Prim, who is a baker and loves to spend time with her mother. Katniss on the other hand is the hunter and gatherer. She  seems to know what she is doing because she was taught by her father, who died five years ago from coal mining. District 12 is a an area where you are not supposed to be let out of, they have electrical wiring around the whole area so no one can get out. But Katniss crawls underneath a portion of it to hunt and bring food home so they can survive, as their District is very poor. I have only read through the first 43 pages of this book already but I am very interested in learning what the “Reaping” is about and why they call the book a game!