Life of Pi Secion 1

I tend to judge a book by it's cover and the cover of this book looked pretty interesting but I wasnt really expecing what I read. It's okay I guess. There are just a bunch of random things going on and it got kind of boring in some parts. I learned about the three toed sloth. I always thought sloth's would have really good hearing or something but I guess they're just as worthless as they appear. Well I guess its a good thing that his uncle is teaching him to swim since obviously at one point in the book he's going to be stuck on a boat with a tiger in the middle of the ocean. I'm intersted to know where all this background information is going to come into play. I'm hoping I didn't read it for nothing, because it was a bit dull. Personally, I liked the Color of Water better than this book so far.

The Color of Water 9 through end

I'm glad we had to read this book. I think it has a lot of good life lessons. It defininetely taught me to appreciate what I have. I really liked Mr. Hunter and I hated it when he had a stroke. Just when the family thought believed he would be there for them he lost most of the function in his body. I don't know how Ruth keeps it together I probably would've stoped trying a long time ago but I think she does most of the things she does to keep her children happy. She's selfless. I admire her for still keeping faith when God had taken so many people away from her but she knows everything happens for a reason. I'm glad she finally ran away from home. If it were me, I would've been out of that place a long time ago.
I felt so bad for Ruth, the only picture she has of her mother is a passport but i guess it's better than nothing. I couldn't imagine a family actually kicking one of the children out that just doesn't make sense to me. This book definately shows me how spoiled I am. I love that song about the bird that Ruth and her mom sang. It gave her something to remember her mom by and pass on to her children. The big picture in this book was the concept of everyone being the same. Everyone being the color of water so that no one was looked down upon. Even though this would be great it's not realistic in the community they lived in and not even today so somehow everyone had to find a way to deal with it whether that be to form organizations against it or just ignore it and stay neutral to the whole subject.

The color of water 1-8

I like the way the story changes each chapter. It's like reading two different stories but in some ways they connect. I like Ruth but some of her views and parenting methods are a little too strict but I guess she has to be strict with twelve kids. Usually racial stories like this have to do with a black person in a white community but its the other way around and I think it's interesting because you see a community during the civil rights movement that doesn't accept a white person. If I were Ruth I probably would've run away from home. To say the least, I dislike her dad. It seems like Ruth spends more time with James than the rest of her children. Although her bike riding and the color of her skin are humiliating to James, he is very protective of her. He punches the child of the Black Panther member in the face out of rage and fear of his mother's safety. I love Ruth's response when James asks her what color God is. I was always curious when I was little too and I'm sure a lot of children are. She answered, "The color of water", which I think is the perfect title for the book.

The hearth and the salamander/ the sieve and the sand/ burning bright

I enjoyed this book for the most part. It did take me a while to read because I would have to go back and reread a lot of parts just to make sure I got the full message. I was completely lost in the beginning until I discovered that the firemen produced the fires instead of putting them out. Weird. Montag treated Clarrise like she was the strangest person he'd ever met but i guess that's because the way her family lived was out of date and they were suspected of reading books which was illegal. But he was hiding books of his own? I really liked her. She opened Montag's eyes to a whole knew concept of living. The idea behind the book seems very common. The idea of too much freedom could lead to a crash in society and fear of free willed people may cause the transformation into a prison like community. It's fascinating how this book that was written over fifty years ago can have such a vivid description of the fear that some people today have of the future. Although not nearly as intense, the conservative lifestyle portrayed in this book is not unheard of. Many religious groups and small communities(colts) completely detach themselves and their people from the outside world including books, movies, and music. All they know is what they are told because they're leaders fear revolt and free thinking. I was not expecting what took place in the last section of the book. I did not expect Montag to actually take action. I guess he had no other choice if he wanted to live, but it was almost as if Beatty knew what was coming. Montag was probably much happier in the wilderness with all of those books. Freedom to think and freedom to learn.

On Writing Essay

Like any writer, King had his own thoughts on what makes a good writer and a unique writing style. He followed the belief that practice makes perfect. Every writer has to start at the bottom and make mistakes to gain experience and become successful. Stephen King started writing young, around the age of 6. At first, he just copied stories but his mother motivated him to get more creative with his writing. He started writing stories from scratch and sending them in to papers to be published. No matter how many times he was rejected, he kept writing, determined to succeed. Eventually, a paper returned his story about a boy who conterfeited stamps to get money and they attached a not telling Stephen to never staple his manuscripts. He never stapled another one. During his teen years, people in the school and in the community would always get upset about his crude writing style and try to force him to change. They all recognized his talent but wanted to lead him in another direction with his writing. Despite the fact that he had to clean up his diction in the school news paper, he never lost his original style of writing. In college he met his wife and she was a big influence on his writing. At first, he was stubborn to the idea of accepting help from his wife but she ended up being a big influence on the plot of his first famous novel Carrie. I think it's inevitable for an author of fiction books to completly seperate their life experiences with the book they're writing. After all, most of what they write is conjured from their thoughts and memories. King went through a heavy drug addiction and after he'd recovered and looked back at the books he had writed during that phase of his life, he realized that the characters he portayed in his stories were closely related to his life. For example, Kujo, represented his addiction. Whether it was a mistake he made or help from somebody else, everything King wrote in his life contributed to his success today.

C.V.

I was hesitant about reading this book because I've never read a Stephen King book and I thought reading about writing might be a little dull. Just reading the first part of it makes me want to read the rest of his books. He has a writing style that is easy for me to follow and I actually got some humor from it which i wasn't expecting to do. I respect his dedication to writing. He kept doing what he liked to do even though people discouraged him. Some of the details about the laundry from the hospitals made my stomach turn but he did a good job of making a clear picture in my head. He was pretty honest with his religious and moral views but I think he said it all in a respectable way. I was a little lost when i read the part with the poem that his wife wrote in college. I liked the point he was trying to make when he said "Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around.", because I kind of had a stereotypical view that most writers were just depressed addicts but he changed my views about that.