12/2 post

We are still reading the short stories out of "Nevermore". The latest two that I read was "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Tell-tale Heart". These short stories both seemed very strange to me. The way that they changed them from the original version also struck me as very odd.
In the short story "The Fall of the House of Usher" they really didn't change that much about it except they tried to make it a little bit more modern. They tried to make it sound like some rock star was crazy and they also mention that he thought at first that he could be using drugs again, which kind of gave it a more of a modern twist. It was also weird how they really didn't build on who the girl was. In the old version the guy that came to visit was trying to take the girl away but her brother stopped them. In this one she dies and then one night she wakes up and then the house falls down. It was just way to short for me to like and the pictures where really weird looking.
The short story "The Tell-tale Heart" I found it very interesting that they made the murder the one that had trouble with eye sight. In the old version it is the man that is murdered that has a weird eye and that is the reason that he is murdered because the person can not stand it looking at him. In this version they also made it so she was wearing the clothes that she killed the man in, which completely gave her away as the murderer. I like how in the old version he was completely clear and them the detective sat down and talked to the guy and he kept thinking that he heard a heart beating and it drove him mad until he confused. In this version it was kind of the opposite since she was going to be found guilty anyway but then she just lead the cops to the body since she thought it was still alive.
These stories that are in the "Nevermore" book seem even stranger then the way that Edgar Allan Poe used to write them. These books are just a little to weird for me to enjoy

11/18 post

I just finished the book "The Road". I really enjoyed this book even though we never really found out a whole lot about the characters. In other books that we had read this semester I had not really enjoyed the books that did not build on the character of the story. The reason I enjoyed this book is we really didn't need to know about the characters because I think the book was supposed to make you think about how you would act in this situation. The main theme to the book in my eyes is trying to decide what is right and wrong. The boy would always ask his father whether it was ok that they where taking other peoples things. It also made you think about what you would do to survive. Would you be one of the people that resulted to eating other human beings. I know I wouldn't because that is descusting and wrong but it makes you wonder just what people are willing to do in order to survive.
The last thing that I wanted to talk about is the very end of the book. When the boy goes out into the road and sees the man coming why didn't he run away. If he would of done what his dad had told him he would of ran back into the woods. I was also wondering why the man with the shotgun never tried to talk to the boy and man before because we know that they had been following them for sometime since he asked who the man the boy was with was. I guess he was scared that the man would try to take his stuff or try to kill him.

The Road

To me McCarthy has done a good job building suspense in the first twenty-five pages. He has really made it so I want to find out what is going to happen to the two people that are traveling down these roads trying to get to the south, where it is warm.
The thing that really held my attention is trying to figure out what caused all of the people to die and why some people survived. My guess after the first twenty-five pages is there must of been some kind of nuclear war and not everyone died instantly, but he keeps coughing up blood and this makes me believe that he is slowly dieing from the radiation of the bomb. In the book so far he has done a good job of describing how the land is all burnt and still burning, which give you a great sense of what the scene probably looks like. So far I have enjoyed the book and want to continue reading it.

Bonus blog

To me contempory literature is something that needs to catch and hold my interest from the very beginning. If the book that I am reading starts out really slow then I have trouble getting into it and makes it hard for me to follow the rest of the story.
When I pick a book in the last ten years that is a mystery story I expect it to be one of those stories that are interesting and one that you can try to figure out on your own. These books are normally very clever and fun to read from the very begginning.
I really like the kind of books that build on the main character. I really like these kind of books because you start to know that person and then you now how they are going to act in certain situations. It also makes it so you can understand the book better.
In all I really like books that hold my attention the entire time.

Nov. 4 post

The book that we are reading right now is "Still Life" by Louise Penny. This book is a mystery book about a murder of an elderly women in the small town of Three Pines. It is full of mystery and really has kept my attention the entire time. This book is easily me favorite book so far. The reason that this book is my favorite is the way the Penny makes it so anyone in the town could be the person responsible for the death of Jane. It really makes it fun for the reader because they can try to piece the story together themselves.
I really enjoy being able to read a book and try to figure it out. For people that don't want to know who I think committed the murder you might not want to read any more of this blog. I know that they found the arrow and bow in the basement of the Croft's house but it just doesn't seem to fit. I don't thin that any of the Croft's killed Jane. I think that the murderer is Ben. Now I know that this seems a little bit crazy since they where friends and all but there are a lot of things that don't add up with him. The thing that really caught my attention at first is that Ben and Peter where the ones who started the archery club in the first place. This means that both of them had to be very good shots. Now this is not enough evidence on its own but then when Peter and Clara went to visit Ben, Clara went into Ben's living room and smelt cleaning materials. He may of used these cleaning materials to clean the blood up. The next thing that I noticed about Ben is that him and Peter would go out into the woods dressed up and pretend to be Robin Hood. They might of accidentally shot her. Or maybe she caught them doing something that they didn't want people to know about because there relationship seems a little strange to me so maybe it is something more. The last thing I noticed about Ben is how he kept looking at Gamache when he was talking to Clara. I am probably way off but I really enjoy trying to figure these things out ahead of time.
This book is my favorite book so far and I can't wait to see how it is going to end.