September 30

The previous two stories were not exactly my favorite types of books. A topic that did strike my interest had to do with something we talked about in class. It was the topic about if your library can define you as a person. I don’t think that someone’s library could truly define everything about that person but I do believe that you can tell some things about them from what they read. For example, I think that you can tell a little about of someone from what they read, but don’t get me wrong this doesn’t work for everyone. But can you really say that just because someone has a really old book that is worth a lot that that person is therefore rich? I wouldn’t say that’s true every time either, because someone could have easily just inherited an old book not realizing that value that it possessed.
The story also made me think about how sweet it would be to have my own library. It doesn’t have to be exactly like the one from the story. It doesn’t have to be all leather bound books with a place for you to smoke a pipe while reading. It would just be wonderful to have my very own collection of hard and paperback novels that represented the types of books I like to read. I think my library would have a large family portrait of my family. In the room there would be a coach where I could bring my kids to read them a story. This library wouldn’t consist of only books but also books of the rest of my family. I can’t wait to cozy up next to my kids and read them my favorite book from my past. Even if I don’t have a library, at least a bookshelf will do.

Letter

Dear Charlie,

I know you don’t know me but I have been reading your letters lately. Since I started reading your letters I really can’t stop. It is exciting to hear your stories of being a kid in high school. Even if some of these stories come off as being a bit strange. Some of the letters that really got me confused on why you are writing them was the letter about the “dirty” details. The stories I am talking about are about you walking in or sitting in on people having sex. They were just a little too strange for me.

I am really glad that you can be as honest with us as readers. This honesty makes the letters and book more interesting to read. Some questions I was wondering about was why are you so different? I mean not a bad different, but a unique different. Like do you have like a disability of some sort? I love your personality either way though. I also don’t understand why you started to do drugs. I mean you were totally fine with being around drugs but not taking them at the beginning and then it just turned into something that is part of your life. I just hope you know the consequences from drugs.

I totally agree with Bill in that you should totally start to participate. I mean you are only in high school one time and it is truly one the best times of your life. I just hope that you live it up to its full potential and live it out with no regrets. And when it comes to you and Sam, I say keep on trying. You can’t help feelings. You just have to wait it out and be a friend caring for someone before you can truly date them.

Love Always,

Brad

Foreign 2

I will have to agree with Lisa that one of my favorite chapters in this book would definitely be The Market, to Market: The Rebranding of Billy Bailey. I really got into this chapter because of the way the kids acted. It was just funny seeing these kids do business. It just makes you think about how much of logos and business we really buy into. For some reason we get it stuck in our heads that we need to have this brand or that. We feel like what kind of brand we sport defines who we are as an individual. When you read that the school was called Pepsi it blew my mind but it made me wonder. How long will it be before we need to sponsor things like schools in order to pay for them? I mean as of now we have sponsors for just about every sporting event. Why wouldn’t the advertising world expand?

I started reading the chapter The Super man and the Bugout. It talks about the main character named Hershie who is like a super man of his time I guess. Hershie has super human powers such as flying, infrared vision, and super hearing just to name a few. It just makes me wonder how I would use my powers. If I was privileged to have extraordinary powers would I always use them or only when they are necessary. I personally think that I would use them to help make the world a better place but also for my own pleasure. I would love to fly. Think about it… no gas money and you get the best views ever. It just sounds like my kind of thing. I bet it would be really tempting to use this power for evil sometimes too. I mean walk on the wild side at times has always crossed my mind.

A Place so Foreign take one

The first chapter of the book Place so Foreign is actually catching my attention. The first chapter of this book is called Craphound. We later find out that the title of this chapter means trash treasure finders. Craphounds are people who go around looking for junk that they can sell for more money. It makes me wonder how much money there truly is in this whole hidden treasure business. There is this guy who lives down the road from me in my hometown and he is totally a craphound or a yard saler. But I don’t think he is a very successful one. There are just piles of junk everywhere lying around. Every once in a while he will try to have a sale of his own but I doubt he makes that much at all. We were told in class that this book is supposed to be Science Fiction but I struggle to find it really. In like one paragraph the main character in this chapter named Jerry talks about how some people think craphounds should be kicked off the planet. Jerry also says that the aliens keep us in the dark when it comes to technologies. Then Jerry goes on to say how anyone with human DNA could never survive a trip in one of those ships. This little passage of the chapter just confuses me. I guess that helps answer the question about whether it’s a science fiction book or not. I would say it has glimpses as of now from chapter one but other than that I am totally confused about that part of the chapter. Overall the first chapter of this book grabbed my attention for the time being. We will see what happens with this one.

Week 2

For this weeks blog I decided to answer one of the questions we discussed in class about the book, Olive Kitteridge. The question that I decided to answer was question number 4 which says, “What do you think of Harmon’s decision to leave his wife? Is this an instance where you think the character is making the right decision, or is it an instance where you want to yell “Stop Fool!”? My response to that question would consist somewhere along the lines of how I think he made a great decision by telling his wife. I think he is manning up and telling his wife is quite a noble thing in this book compared to everyone else who just hides the dark secrets from their “significant” other. I find the situation with Harmon much easier to understand as well in the sense that his wife and his kids are fully grown up making it a much less difficult situation. In many marriages today the two spouses don’t get along what so ever but they stick together because they have this one thing in common and that is their child. They both love the child so much that they would basically sacrifice each other’s happiness at times just so that their kid would not know that its parents really don’t love each other anymore. But overall I really find the act of him telling his wife noble. Compared to most of the other relationships in this book where one of the spouses in cheating on the other without them even knowing. Surprisingly this book really does show how our world has change in the sense that almost half of all marriages end. It is just sad to think that no one sticks it out or are really in love with their supposedly other half anymore.