Reading Log 10/28

I forgot to post it!

10/22- The Book Thief Markus Zusak 60 mins Pages 1-78
10/24- The Book Thief  Markus Zusak 20 mins Pages 79-102
10/27- The Extra Short Stories (Araby, Sucker, The Sniper) 60 mins

Halloween

When I was little, Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. I loved going and shopping for my costume. I would spend at least an hour in the costume store searching through each and every costume. Eventually after a long journey of shopping, I would finally find the perfect costume. I would try on my costume multiple times before Halloween night would come.

When Halloween night would finally come, all of our neighbors would come to our house before we would set out to trick or treat. All of the kids would beg the parents until 7:00 when we finally got to set out. We would all run out of the door, going to each house and asking for candy. Our bags would fill up quick because our neighbors were very generous. After we went the whole route, we would all go back home, and feast on our candy.

Reading Response 10/28

This weekend, I read the three short stories I was assigned. However, one of thing stood out to me. "Sucker" by Carson McCullers, "The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty, and "Araby" by James Joyce was very interesting. One thing that I have noticed with many of the short stories, and particularly this one, is that at the end of the story, there are not happy endings. Most books and movies end happily, but lots of the shorts stories that I have read do not. I think it may be because books and movies take a long time to read/watch, so the author probably wants to please the viewer for spending so much time on their work. However, with short stories you don't spend so much time with them and you don't get as attached to the characters. In "Sucker", "The Sniper, and "Araby" the endings leave you sad.

Another thing that I noticed is that the stories are about very strange things that books would not be about. For example, "Araby" was about a guy who went to a bazaar and ended up going crazy. Other stories such as "The Waltz of the Fat Man" and "Harrison Bergeron" also had very strange plots.

Reading Times and Personal Questions

10/9      Ready Player One-  Ernest Cline      35 mins pages 344-370

10/10     Rereading Short Stories for test          55 mins

10/12  Ready Player One- Ernest Cline        50 mins     pages 371-425


Personal Questions:

How does a person's personality form and change over time? What causes it to do this?
What would happen to the world if all electricity suddenly went out?
What compels people to do terrible and tragic things?
What would happen if we lived in a world with no rules or laws?

Reading Log

Date	Book	Time
9/30	And of Clay Are We Created	25 mins
9/31	Ready Player One- Ernest Cline The Girls in their Summer Dresses	45 mins 20 mins
10/2	Waltz of the Fat Man	40 mins
10/3	Ready Player One – Ernest Cline	30 mins
10/6	Short Story Draft	40 mins

My Short Story

My short story will be set in America in a future dystopia world where civilizations have gone to poverty. More than 98% of America is unemployed, due to all the jobs being taken by computers and robots. The main character will be a 15 year old girl named Valerie, but all she has ever known was living in poverty due to robots and computers. Her family is not that bad off; they still have decent food to eat and a home with walls and a roof. However, they are considered "lucky". Since she has never known any better, she just deals with living this way and doesn't complain.

The world will be introduced by Valerie waking up, and going to get the small breakfast her mother has prepared for her. While eating her mother tells her that her dad got promoted to a job that pays $4 an hour. This is a huge deal, and they celebrate. Her father is one of the few people left with a job. He is a barber, and barbers are one of the few jobs left for humans to do. Robots have been banned from being barbers because of the many incidents of eyes being poked out. The conversation will continue on and her mother were announce that her little brother's birthday is that day. Valerie decides to go and get things from outside to make a small party for him. While Valerie is outside looking for things to throw the party with, she will face many dangerous people. She is used to having to be defensive because that is the world she has grown up in. Throughout her journey, she kept on hearing ruffling in the bushes and felt like someone was watching her. She collects all the items, and heads back to set the party up. When the party starts, and guy shows up and begins to cause chaos. He was being violent, and there is a fight. With this, they defeat the guy, and everything goes back to normal and they continue having the party like nothing happened. I want to convey on how Valerie has grown up in a world like this, and having this man attack their party was not a very big deal, and the only thing she was worried about was the decorations being messed up.

Short Stories

I have been enjoying reading short stories in class. I honestly think that they are very interesting. One thing I noticed was that when you summarize all the stories in a sentence and just talk about the plot, they sound very weird or boring. For example, Harrison Bergeron was about a guy resisted the government, declared himself emperor, and began to fly on live television. A&P was about a group of girls who walked into a small supermarket in their bathing suits. When you summarize these stories, they seem either weird or boring. However, when you read them, they are actually highly entertaining. This helps me because I have been having trouble with coming up with a plot for my short story. It makes me realize that you can honestly make any story interesting with good writing.

I have also been enjoying reading these stories because I think it is interesting finding out why the author put a certain detail and what it stands for. I usually can not find these types of details on my own, but when I go to class and we go over it together I understand it. I don't know why, but I find this very interesting. Reading the short stories have been very enjoyable for me, and I can't wait to continue.


9-24 Ready Player One Ernest Cline 30 mins
        A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings Gabriel Garcia Marquez 20 mins
9-25 Ready Player One Ernest Cline 25 mins
9-26 Dry September William Faulkner 35 mins
9-28 Ready Player One Ernest Cline 30 mins