Friday, November 11, 2011

Finally, maybe

During this semester, I didn’t read much of a book selection. I tend to read romantic, love stories with a little kick to it. I like reading about girls my age who fall in love with a boy, and then somehow the relationship comes back to haunt them. It makes me realize that getting caught up in the moment is an easy thing to do , and that I should always keep my guard up. Although I always somehow hope the good girl gets back with the – what everybody else thinks – bad boy. Turns out, all girls like the bad boys. Well most of the time. Fortunately it is pretty easy to find books like these on my own that interested me. Many authors like to write about this stuff for young adults. I like all of the Nicholas sparks books, because he always has a main conflict that interferes with the two characters. I just recently got the book called Chain Reaction by Simone Elkeles. It is a sequel to her earlier book, Perfect Chemistry. Wanna know what I’ve been thinking about lately being a junior taking chemistry and all? I don’t understand why authors and movie makers love to make the chemistry lab partners fall in love with each other. Chemistry has to do with electrons and the periodic table, not potions to make you fall in in love. I have found chemistry rather annoying, and I know my previous lab partner were nothing even close to connecting. We didn’t even get along half the time! I did have an easy time looking for something I could stick with. The only book I had to drop was Modelland by Tyra Banks, and that book was just crazy. It was so creative and imaginative; there was no way I could keep up.
                The only problem with this reading assignment was me being able to keep up with the reading assignment. With my busy schedule:
Monday:  work and homework
Tuesday: read and homework
Wednesday: Dad’s house and homework
Thursday: work and homework
Friday: work
Saturday: read
Sunday: work and homework
                School has really been taking over my life lately, I have so many projects going on like the English research paper, Chemistry presentation, this anthology, and work. But when I do have time reading, I really enjoyed it. (:

True Love!

I finally finished True Believer by Nicholas Sparks (:
It was a great book, and I will definately be reading the sequel sometime soon. Although what I expected to happen didn't, there was a very different outcome than I had thought. The lights are not ghosts, and everything was messed up. Lexie ran away from Jeremy, and Jeremy had to come chasing after her. The lights, Jeremy figured out, was not from any type of supernatural phenomenon or from the car lights passing by. The lights occurence happened when a train was passing by and, since the cemetery has been sinking, the fog became extra dense in the low, sunk ground, and the light from the train made it look as if ghosts came dancing in.
When Jeremy was in the library, he looked through the mayor's father's journal of the town. He knew everything about the town, and in it said the reasoning for the occurence of the lights. When Jeremy found out that everyone knew all along about the lights, he thought everythign was a scam and left the town. He called the mayor, and decided that the mayor had to take every word out of the town pamphlet that had to do with the "haunted" cemetery, and he would not tell the national press the actual reasoning behind the lights.
Although, when Jeremy leaves, he missed Lexie a lot. One day, he decides to take a trip to Boone Creek, and there decided he will move there to be with Lexie (: ! <3

Monday, November 7, 2011

Love is in the air!

Now that I'm finally starting to have more time with myself, I cannot put this book down. My last post was about how Jeremy and Lexie spent the night in the cemetery to see the lights. Well now that Jeremy is back at the lodge where he is staying, he has come up with the reason the lights appear, although he hasn't said what it is. Nicholas Sparks just lets me know that Jeremy has come up with the reason the lights appear. Jeremy spends basically the whole night coming up with the conclusion, and gets two hours of sleep when his "agent" calls him and tells him he has a huge show coming up with GMA about diet pills. After the phone call with Nate, he goes over to the library to do some more research, and hoping to see Lexie. When he gets to the library, he sees a note from Lexie that goes: 
"I'm taking care of some personal things. Feel free to use the VCR."
Lexie
When Jeremy sees this, I'm sure you can guess he pretty much goes crazy inside. He looks around for her around town, he goes to Doris to see if she left any hint to where she was going - and Doris answers she can't tell - and finally Jeremy decides he will track her down. I'm at the part in the story where he has somehow thought of a location he might think she be at, which is about four hours away, and Nate will be coming in town to see the lights within 10 hours, so he doesn't have much time. The last part I read - which I'm super excited about - is Lexie looking up to see Jeremy walking towards her, and she feels happy about that!!
AHH, I'm so excited (:

Currently

Wow, still insanely behind. I'm pretty sure I forgot to do a currently, because there is no way I am still underneath 1000. Also, my last currently didn't even have the book I'm currently reading. So I know I have read at least 191 pages since my last currently, so now we're up to date.


True Believer by Nicholas Sparks

Pages this week: 91

Pages last week: 100
Pages this semester: 1132


Sentences of the week:
1. Nothing about this entire scenario made sense. But who cared?
2. Love could be set in motion quickly, but true love needed time to grow into something strong and enduring.
3. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that without Lexie, the room may as well be completely empty.


My favorite sentence is probably number three, because I think its really cute how Jeremy feels about Lexie, even though they haven't known each other a week yet. Its young love (:

Friday, November 4, 2011

Reading

Wow, I haven't posted in such a long time. I've been so busy with work, and a whole bunch of projects that are just taking over my life.
I've still been reading though, although this week I haven't met the required reading this wek :(. oh well. I'll catch up sometime soon.
A lot has happened in True Believer, Jeremy Marsh is still in Boone Creek, where the mayor continues to welcome Jeremy and do special things for him, like a town party, buying his food, giving the best hotel room, in hopes of making his town famous with the ghost legends in the cemetry. While Jeremy goes to the library everyday to get more research information about the town, the landscape, the history, anything that might be able to explain the ghostly lights that appear in the fog around midnight or so. It just so happens that the librarian, Lexie Darnell, who is granddaughter of the town's psychic,Doris - the one who wrote Jeremy the letter, who is the town's attractive bachelorette. She continues to spend time with Jeremy, teaching him about the town and taking him around to show him all he needs to know about the lights.
As he and Lexie become to be closer friends, the mayor invites him to a town party, in which Jeremy is given a key to the city, showing how important he is. Jeremy is uneasy about going to the party alone, and the mayor suggests that he take Lexie. As Jeremy asks Lexie to company him at the party, she tells him that there will be fog tonight - which means lights will be there!
After the party, Jeremy is on his way taking Lexie back home and asks her if she would like to join him in the night at the cemetery. Now most people, especially me, would say no to that. Lexie reluctantly agrees, and Jeremy waits for her to change in her house and they go on their way to the cemetery.
When they get to the cemetry, Jeremy looks around and notices there are no connections between the surrounding buildings and landscapes to the lights. He does notice however that the cemetery is at a low poing in the landscape, so when the fog rolls in, it will be thick. Lexie and Jeremy go on to set up all the things they need to get proof of the light, with three different camcorders, night vision goggles, tape recorders, flashlights, etc. Jeremy says that if he acts like he's a ghost hunter with all the electronic equiptment, people will respect his story more and know he is doing the correct and accurate research materials.
Right now in the book I am at the part where they have everything set up and are waiting for the lights to come. I'm really excited to read about how the lights look and how Jeremy reacts to it. I'm also excited to see what happens when Jeremy and Lexie spend the night together in the cemetery, and I hope they are meant for eachother (;
What can I say, I'm a hopeless romantic.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Weakness

1. The towering volumes of “marble and glass” and brushed “brushed steel side-panels” of the escalator create an elegant and ornate atmosphere.http://contemplationsxjones.blogspot.com/

This person repeated the word "brushed."

2. That is a strong case that shows even though Salinger may be straight forward on some things, the verbal irony can create an interesting diction.
http://bradey.blogspot.com/
This person talks from past to present tense.

3. The language used in the excerpt, “Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger, parades a blatant malicious cordialness.
http://wowfaktor.blogspot.com/
I think that the last three words are too adjective-y. I don't understand what they mean.

4. This suggests that Holden Caulfield is somewhat uneducated, rouge, and ignorant of the facts of life.
http://bookwormsfiresidereading.blogspot.com/2011/10/close-reading.html
"This suggests that..."

Practice Diction Analysis

In the story of The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, he portrays the story as a dull, harsh language. He presents words like "if you really want to know" and "if I have to" that explains his boring life as the average teenager. His diction affects the reader as a young boy who doesn't have a story to tell, and is boring and dull. His negative connotation is straightforward and precise.