Finally done with the project as of this post! So now I just gotta do recap...stuff.
So first, experiences with the project: It was boring pretty much all the way through. Only two of the books I read were good, the others failed to pique my interest really. It was easy for the most part with the posts; I just lacked enthusiasm since the start.
Second, my future with books: I really doubt I'm gonna read any more than I did before starting the project, as this didn't spark any far-forgotten love I had for cracking a book open. If anything, it draws me more to writing, since then I won't have to make a strive to find something I actually want on paper.
Third, my accomplishments: I really wouldn't call them accomplishments, moreover as....uh, feats of a low scale. Over the last weeks, I have read:
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins
Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins (the most disappointing book of the project)
Skinny - Ibi Kaslik
Magyk - Angie Sage
My time for this week: 1 hour (roughly, wasn't really counting. probably more than that) Total Time For Project: 41hrs, 22min
Okay so this week (almost done! YAY!) we're supposed to say how we stood with reading before the project.
I never liked to read. My taste for opening a book diminished around fifth grade or so when I took up writing. At that point, it became my English-based pasttime of which I still prefer to this day.
So...yeah. I didn't like reading before....don't like it much now. I think that explains it pretty well.
---- Time Read This Week: 1hr 30min Total Time Read: 40hrs, 22min Total Books Read: 4
...Good, because I'm throwing you into this post, you poor excuse for actors.
As you may assume, this week's post is to come up with an original cast for the book I'm reading. My book, Magyk, is very, very difficult, since lots of the characters look very similar.
But despite this, I'll try. Shouldn't be that hard to find a bunch of suitable blond actors.
Silas Heap - (Owen Wilson) The father of seven boys and a Wizard. Note: Owen deserves to be in movies. He's amazing on the silver screen.
Jenna Heap - (Mackenzie Foy) The Heap's adopted daughter. She has black hair in the book, but I chose her for her face.
Septimus Heap - (Dakota Goyo) The protagonist, the youngest son. Goyo pretty much is how I picture Septimus to look like. I like his hair. :)
Marcia Overstrand - (Jamie Lee Curtis) One of the main characters. Curtis's personality seems like a good choice to play Marcia, personality-wise. I see her being able to fit the role really well.
Simon Heap - (William Moseley) The oldest of the Heap children. I picked Moseley, 1) because his appearance is fitting, and 2) he needs an awesome role like Simon's.
---- And just for kicks, as I hate the Hunger Games' actor casting, instead Liam Hemsworth playing Gale Hawthorne (the biggest sin to ever come upon that movie), I have a deep belief that he should have been played by Skandar Keynes:
----- Time Read This Week: 30min Total Time Read: 35hrs, 52min Total Books Read: 4
Suprise to most, I did indeed read. Originally, I figured I was probably gonna read a chapter in Magyk and pretty much call it good enough, as it was pretty hard to stick my head into a book on the DC trip, since there was enough going on just being on the coach, but apparently that didn't happen.
The reason why: There was a Barnes And Noble in Baltimore. I BOUGHT a book. I READ the book.
...That is a feat in itself right there.
Anyway, the book I read is a NYT bestseller called Skinny by Ibi Kaslik. It was a very intense book about this college girl, Giselle, and her teenage track star sister, Holly, and their perspectives that alternate with each chapter.
Pretty much Giselle, despite being in medical school to be a doctor and is, like...super smart and knowledgable in the medical field, she's anorexic. She always has mental battles with herself that are highly self-destructing that were caused by her dead father, who pretty much hated her when she was a child because he didn't accept her for who she was, and the anorexia is her way of trying to seek acceptance.
Holly, on the other hand, despite being really close with their father, is going through mental turmoil as well. She's a very rebellious child that believes she can see their father's ghost as ways to cope wih her sister's mental and physical deterioration.
Simply put, after a ton of events, Giselle eventually goes to the hospital, getting to a point where she weighs seventy-eight pounds, she escapes from the hospital, Holly finds her and takes her back to the hospital, and Giselle dies anyway.
...Great story.
---- Time Read over Break: 4hrs, 52min Total Time Read: 35 hrs, 22min Total Books Read: 4
Allllrighty! Thank you Jesus that we're almost done with this project! Soon I'll be able to go back to my ways of pretending I'm well-educated in creative writing. Woot!
Sooo this week the topic is to explain whether or not your current story lived up to original expectation before beginning it.
And actually I'd have to say, "Si, si!" I read Magyk several years ago, but I didn't remember much about it, so it's fair game from my perspective, and honestly, I remember it sucking more than it does this time around.
I think it's because I've gained an appreciation for the type of writing that Angie Sage uses. She has a real talent of getting into the characters' perspectives, sometimes in ways that are kinda humorous, but when the times occur, can still present seriousness that is necessary.
The characters are very well-balanced and they complete each other very nicely. Sage is very good with animating the characters, and their personalities and dialogue are highly believeable in the presented situations.
And plus, it's obviously gotta be good because apparently movies are gonna be made for the series. Those should be interesting. :3
------ Time Read This Week: 2hrs, 30min Total Time Read: 30hrs, 20min Total Books Read: 3 (still)
Okay, this week is to describe your antagonist in your story. I'm at a point in Magyk that I'm sorta in between antagonists, where there's kinda a flat part for the next bit. So I'll describe The Hunter, who isn't dead yet, but just temporary out of the picture. Not much can really be said about him, however, so this post, too, will be short.
He seems like a very intimidating dude, not someone you'd wanna meet in a dark alleyway. No background or anything is given about him, but he's obviously insanely unmerciful and willing to kill anyone without hesitation.
...And he probably doesn't have too many friends.
----- Time Read This Week: 1hr, 15min Total Time Read: 27hrs, 50min Total Books Read: 3
Another week, another theme. I'm still reading Magyk, as I've been caught up reading stories on different websites and such, so I haven't read much from my current story.
Anyway, the theme for this week is to write about a plot twist that would have made your book more interesting. I don't know how long my explanation will be, but....yeaaaah...
So I think if the Hunter wouldn't have beem mislead by the illusion Marcia created, the book would've ended a lot quicker. They would've caught up to the Heap's boat, shot Jenna, either shot or kidnapped the rest of the people with her, and that sorta would've ended the story, making it about 400 pages shorter and a lot suckier....And it would've been more interesting because I would've sat there wondering '...what did I just read?'
....Can you say short and to the point?
---- Time Read This Week: 2hrs, 10min Total Time Read: 26hrs, 35min Total Books Read: 3
Okay, so the book I'm reading now is the first book of the Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage, entitled Magyk. Not a bad book so far, I'm about a third of the way through it, and am going to read the second book, Flyte, after finishing it.
Now, this weeks theme is to write an article-type summary of what I read. This.... should be fun... -_-
On The Run
Silas Heap finds a baby in the snow after his newborn son is declared dead by the midwife. He takes her home and they raise her like their own child.
The baby was a girl with black hair and violet eyes, contrasting to everyone in his family that has blonde hair and green eyes. Ten years passed, and on the girl's, who they named Jenna, tenth birthday, the Heaps have to leave home under the order of Marcia Overstrand. She told them of where Jenna came from; she turns out to be the daughter of the Queen who had been assassinated on the night she was found, and because of that, the assassin was coming for her.
Marcia takes Jenna to the Wizard Tower, where she lives, but before arriving, they find a member of the Young Army, called Boy 412, and save him from freezing to death, taking him up into the tower. From there, Silas and one of Jenna's brothers, Nicko, join them, and again have to flee.
From there they had to go through the Rubbish Chute to escape The Castle, the town that they live, and get a boat from their friend Sally Mullin to get to their Aunt Zelda's house hidden in the swamp. Along the way, they are chased by The Hunter, who leads his Pack in a Hunt to kill Jenna, but Marcia leads them off by creating a mirage of the boat they were lent and leading The Hunter away from them.
As of now, they haven't reached their destination and are still wandering the marsh.
------ Time Read This Week: 3hrs, 50min Total Time Read: 24hrs, 25min Total Books Read: 3
Okay, so this week's topic is if I'd be friends with the main character of the story, and give 5 reasons why or why not. Even though I've finished Mockingjay (FINALLY! It. Sucked.), I have yet to begin my next book, so I shall make my focus on if a friendship between Katniss Everdeen and I could ever be formed.
As of now, having read how everything all unfolds within the three books, I would quickly and thoughtlessly say absolutely not. Here is my reasoning:
1. She's too homicidal. Yes, I know that she didn't voluntarily kill all of those people; it was for reasoning, but by the end of Mockingjay, she had come to a point where unless she was extremely close to someone, she didn't much of a problem with taking their life. I don't think I could stand someone that was calloused to the idea that killing was just the best way to put silence upon someone that differed with ideas and that's pretty much where she stood at the end of it all. There were very few people who died that she mourned for, even her closest friends and companions, so she turned out to be much to cold and uncaring.
2. She's extremely introverted. Here we sort of stand upon a similar ground, as we have a similar mindset in this area. But she seems overly closed off, to a point where even the most important things she kept inside and made the whole rebellion suffer, and the part that gets to me the most is that she didn't really even calculate beforehand what the secrets would do gone unsaid, so when things went wrong, she went into a guilt trip because she should have said something.
3. She. Didn't. Choose. Gale. This severely ticked me off (I mean, seriously! What the Finnick?!). When there was that whole epilogue about her and Peeta together, I was seriously tempted to rip the book in half. She herself knew that he was better for her (and better for the Gale fangirls), as they were pretty much inseparable and knew each other back and front. He knew that she'd pick the one that she couldn't survive without, and he was the one that showed her how to make proper snares and helped quite literally survive. She knew he loved her and that she loved him, and while I understand it when she's into two guys at one time (I won't go into those gruesome details), I really think she made the wrong choice. In the first book, she said these words: "In the woods waits the only person with whom I can be myself."
4. She pitied herself waaay too much. This kind of goes along with reason 2. She found some demeaning reason to blame herself for every little thing, and seemed to always try to drag everyone else down into pitying her for her shortcomings when really she should've known that she has flaws. And then on the flip-side, she thought she had to do everything herself and that she was the only one properly to equipped to do things for the rebellion. Sure, she was the symbol for the rebellion, but it wasn't because she had some hidden talent that made her important; it was merely because she happened to cause a tie in the Hunger Games in desperation to keep both herself and Peeta alive. Okay, so she was a little handy with the bow, but that was it; she wasn't some brainy genius, so no one really should've pitied her more than the next guy, especially them guys who got a lot shorter ends of the stick.
And finally, 5. If we were friends, the minute I saw Peeta, I probably would have sporked his eyes out. ...I think that kinda explains itself.
--- Time this week: 1hr, 55min Total time: 20hrs, 35min Total books read: 3
Okay, so this week's topic is to create a four-song soundtrack for your book and explain the reasoning for the choice. This is probably gonna be my favorite topic, so I'm actually gonna put some thought into this, which shouldn't be hard, since as I read, I get songs that correspond to the part in my head. It's kinda weird; maybe I should get that checked out...hmm.
Anyway, I'm still reading Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (it's a really slow-going book, sorta meh...), and here are the songs I've chosen:
1- Trying Not To Love You - Nickelback
Okay, so I chose this song because of the feelings that Katniss begins to develop for Peeta (as much as I don't like admitting it, as I honestly hate Peeta, it happens. grr.) and the fact that she's in constant denial. As it started as just a facade created by her team to get sponsors in the Hunger Games, but then she realized she couldn't kill him in the end, even if she needed to because of the countless things he did for her, and wanted to do whatever she could to protect him. When the Capitol had kidnapped him and twisted his memories and told him constant lies so that he had enough anger to kill Katniss, she made District 13 rescue him, despite that the old Peeta that loved her didn't exist. And when on the mission to take down the Capitol and assassinate President Snow, she became confused as to if her intentions were her own personal reasons, or to avenge what they had done to Peeta.
2- Just So You Know - Jesse McCartney
I picked this song because it describes the feelings Gale has towards Katniss. He knows that she and Peeta are in like, but he also is aware of the feelings she has for him as well. And it seems that he has really hard feelings for Peeta, as he says if it came down to it, he would kill him in a heartbeat. He knows he's better for Katniss than Peeta could ever be, he has more in common, and he had been her best friend and hunting partner since they were young. He sees himself as a better match for her, and will make sure both Katniss and Peeta knows it, always ready to go down fighting.
3- Breaking The Habit - Linkin Park
This is my 3rd choice because it seems to describe all of Katniss's mixed emotions after the first Hunger Games, the event that truly changed her in a way that prevented her from simply returning to her way of life and becoming who she used to be. She's always bogged down and consumed by all of the bad memories of her past that she kept going back to, her confusion on how to make out on the war, not knowing how whether to take her role as Mockingjay in it, all while everyone thinks that she isn't troubled by anything going on. She's hurt by all of the events of the rebellion time and again, perplexed about what she was really fighting for. Before the Games, she had what she considered simplicity - having to hunt and keep her family alive. But now she found herself so entangled with problems and trivialities that she couldn't make sense of anything.
4- Look After You - The Fray
I see this song as more in the point of view of Peeta. From the first Hunger Games when he had confessed his love for Katniss, he had planned to look out for her and protect her. Even as he faked his alliance with the other Tributes and seemingly was trying to kill her, his intention all along was to keep her alive. In the second Hunger Games, even though it was Katniss's idea to protect him this time, he had still tried to make her the one protected by their ally Tributes. He will literally die for her, her safety his top priority.
Second theme. Yippeeee... This week the assignment is to come up with three thinking questions based on the reading and answer them. What. A. Joy.
So, I'm currently still reading the last of the Hunger Games, Mockingjay. Therefore, the questions and answers presented here will be spoilers to those who haven't read this (which I really recommend; this whole series is amazing):
1- Why is Katniss so hesitant and reluctant in taking on the role of Mockingjay?
Based on her current attitude towards the rules of District 13, Katniss is repulsed by the day-to-day morals that she was forced to live by. Her own District, 12, was destroyed and the whole situation was thrust upon her without her consult. She was thrown into the Hunger Games involuntarily twice and became the symbol of the revolt, but wasn't prepared for all that came with the title. She wanted merely for her close friend Peeta to be safe, having been taken captive by the Capitol, not to take charge of all the people of the Districts. She was to lead all of the rebels to revolution, give the citizens hope, but she lacked all the skills to do all that was required. She couldn't find a reason to be the one to provide hope when she didn't possess it; she was solitary, not the type to be a leader and guide others; and most importantly, she was afraid.
2- Why did District 13 broadcast rebellion clips, or as called in the book 'propos', into the Capitol when it was the other Districts they needed to rally?
The point of the propos was to get the Capitol citizens to realize what the government was making the Districts go through, to prove their dedication to the war, and as a signal to the traitors living in the Capitol that were with the rebels that they were still fighting. During the rescue mission of Peeta and the other Tributes, or those offered to fight in the Hunger Games, they used the propos as a distraction to rescue the captives so that the government's attention would be averted enough to get out alive.
The other Districts, with the exception of District 2, were already on the rebels' side, but broadcasting the propos in the Capitol would make the clips show in every District, and it would be of mandatory viewing.
3- Does Katniss love Gale or Peeta?
As of now, it seems that she has feelings for both characters. It was stated in previous books that had she never entered the Hunger Games, everyone knew for certain that Gale would be the one she ended up with. Both he and she knew that she had romantic feelings for him, as they both confessed so, but she didn't want to get involved and put him into danger. It seems she's almost afraid to feel anything such as love, and so repeatedly is pushing him away.
Although, through the events in the Hunger Games, what began as faked feelings for Peeta to gain sponsors and favor, turned into real feelings. As of now, she's uncertain what the feelings are exactly, and as Finnick, one of the surviving Tributes, had stated, they showed she cared about him, but how strong was what wasn't certain. Gale, too, is aware that she possesses feelings for him, and as a result, gets overly jealous, but that only causes friction between him and her, so pushes her towards Peeta further (although I really hope Katniss ends up with Gale, because he's amazingly awesome).
Might as well do my second post now, as I want something to do before scavenging my scary basement for my ski shoes. What a way to spend my snow day...
Anyway, the book I'm currently reading is Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins, the third book in the Hunger Games series. Its cover artwork is of what the title and the book calls a mockingjay, the offspring of jabberjays and female mockingbirds.
Jabberjays were a creation of the Capitol, the dictatorship that rules over the twelve districts, to be used against those who tried to rebel about seventy-five years before during a time called the Dark Days. They could memorize and repeat human conversations, so they could hear the plans of the rebels. But the rebels learned of their ability, so gave them false information to repeat. The jabberjays were then no longer of good use to the Capitol, and so left them all to die, as they were all male. But they didn't expect them to mate with the mockingbirds, producing what the districts called mockingjays, which have the ability to repeat songs. The formation of the birds was a slap in the face to the Capitol.
The mockingjay's significance is that in the book, it is the symbol of rebellion against the Capitol, representing everything that the Capitol hated. Those against the Capitol wore one or had it adorned on an item they possessed. Because not only had the Capitol failed to kill their own creation, it had become something better than before. Also, a jabberjay mating with a symbol of justice added to the theme. --- Time read so far: 14 hours, 10 min Books completed: 2
Sooo...first post. I guess I should figure out what I'm gonna do with this. I'll shoot for an A (but not gonna complain if I don't get there, since I don't really read), and I'm thinking of reading the following:
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
Trial By Fire by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
The Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix
The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series by Michelle Paver
All of these are based off of the library and if they're gonna let me get another card for the third time in the past two years because of disappearance... -.-
