Monday, September 28, 2009

Into The Wild

The story of a man who went into the wild of Alaska to live off of the land, Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer is a book that makes the reader wonder. At first, my thoughts were "How could anyone be so crazy as to wander off in to the frozen Alaska tundra with no money, food, or worldly possessions. My first thoughts were that this man was not mentally well. However, as I read on, I began to learn a little bit more about who Chris McCandless (the main character) really is. He is really just someone who wants to be in touch with the world, one to one. He grew up in a very privileged home, and wanted to get away from the whole upper class scenery. One day, he just abandoned his home, left his college, and set out on the road for years just looking for a place to go. As the story goes on, the reader begins to feel for McCandless, and I began to understand where he was coming from. Granted, I'm not going to give up everything I own and go in to the wild, but I can see his point and why he did it. I hope to find out more as the story goes on.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Tex

This is a novel by S.E. Hinton, the same person who wrote The Outsiders. I am only on page sixteen but so far, I am not really enjoying the book. There is a very strong focus on living in the country and riding horses. The main character, Tex, has a horse named Negrito which he rides almost every day after school. He is very attached to the horse, and treats him like a human. He talks and has conversations with his horse, and discusses with the reader how his horse stomps his feet and tries to say how annoyed he is when he is not fed on time. I can tell that there is definently a very deep connection between the boy and his horse. Unfortunately, there is not really anything interesting going on in the story, and the book is slow.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Nineteen Minutes

Over the summer of 2009, one of the books that I read was Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Piccoult. This was a very deep book, and really made me wake up and be exposed to some of the things going on in high schools around the country. The main character in this story was physically and verbally abused so badly that he was driven to bring a gun to school and open fire on students for nineteen minutes. This book shows fictional examples of atrocities that actually do occur. The main character, Peter, is the but of all the jokes from the school jocks. Even in kindergarten he is bullied by the fifth graders. This book made me think about what goes on at Ardsley High School. Although we do not have as big of a bullying problem as the high school in this book did, we still have bullies. It could happen at any high school where someone is abused so badly that they just snap. It makes you think, even when you're just messing around with your friends.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Test Post

Just making sure everything works.