Perks of Being a Reader

         Recently I read the Perks of Being a Wallflower. This book was an awesome rendition of the story of a teenager. This teenager was on the outside, or a wallflower. He does not partake in any social groups or cliques, but he joins a group of misfits where he fits. The story follows his life in his freshman year of high school. Now one of my favorite parts of the book was the way the book was written. This book is written in a series of letters. You know who writes the letters, but they are written to a mysterious person who does not know the main character. In every letter he writes something about what happened to him in the past days and weeks. As the story goes on the letters get more dense and scary as the main character, Charlie, starts using drugs and alcohol. Through these letters the reader follows the progression of Charlie's character. You see an innocent freshman turn into something else. I enjoyed how I could see, and sort of feel, his change and his emotions. This format is a fresh change from the normal chapters in a novel. It was interesting and kept me reading.
        My second favorite part of this novel was of course the ending. Which for me is always the best part. This ending was something I had never expected. When I started the book, I thought that he was writing to his future wife. Then, towards the middle of the book I began to believe he was writing to someone random. The ending really shocked me. Towards the end of the novel Charlie has a nervous breakdown and a really bad incident with drugs. I still don't fully understand the ending completely. So if anyone reading this understands completely what the author intended the ending to mean please comment! I took the ending to mean that he was in a mental institution because of some breakdown, and he was writing this story. Now I take it as he was writing to himself and the story was made up. But, I also could see how he might be writing these letters to a therapist who wants him to recollect what happened to him. Basically I am totally confused by this story, but I love it. I read it in a few days and could not put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting book with some mature content.
       

Humanity Condensed

In class I was given a paper entitled The Ten Rules of Being Human. This paper included the top ten rules of what it exactly means to be a human being. There are a few points in this list that I found very interesting. My favorite line in this paper is the last point (#10). It says, "You will forget all this". This registers something with me. As humans we tend to forget. Even if we are given all the answers, such as this list, we still do not realize what we have been shown. That is why I think that this point has real meaning. Also, #8 has a strong meaning. it states, "What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.". This point relates to me the basis of all human life. Our lives are not controlled by our destiny, we have the chance to make it our own. We all leave the mark that we choose, what mark do we want to leave on the world? This list was very meaningful. I think that as lists go, this one is good. If I could give this list a "makeover" of sorts, I would add one or two things that are near to my heart and coincide with my views on life. One thing that I would add would be that the greatest things happen to you when you last expect it. This is true and there are many times in my life where this has happened. I met some of my best friends by chance. Because we are human, a lot of things happen to us that we either do not acknowledge or we do not take the time to care about. I believe that what it means to be human is to take life in stride and take hold and leave the mark that you believe you should leave.

The Perfect Murder Mystery

              One of My favorite novels is called The Westing Game. I read this novel when I was in fifth grade. Since that time I think I have read it at least 20 more times. It sits on my bookshelf in my room an whenever I get time to read something, I always go for that book. I don't know why I love it so much but every time I read it it feels like it's my first time again. This book is my favorite book of all time. There are many reasons why I like this book. This book for me is the quintessential murder mystery book. It has everything that I personally enjoy in any type of book, TV show, movie, etc. The first thing I love is that there is a murder. This is the murder of a very important man. Now what I think is so unique about this book is that Mr. Westing knew he was going to be murdered and he set up a game for people who live across the street from him to play. These people live in an apartment complex and they all are very different. This game that Mr. Westing has set up is for these people to find out which one of them did it. Yes... ONE OF THE PLAYERS IN THE GAME IS THE MURDERER. When I read this book it still surprises me every time that such an old frail looking lady could have committed such a heinous crime. The amount of mystery in this book is astounding. You think you know who committed the crime but then something changes that you just don't know anymore. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in a murder mystery. My favorite genre is murder mysteries and this book turned me on to all of the shows and anything that involves a mystery. This book made me a reader when I was younger. I read all the time. I credit this to this novel. It may not be the most sophisticated book out there, but it only takes one book to change the way you view books forever. This book was the book that changed me to a reader. The fact that I can still pick up this book today and read it as if it is my first time is a true testament to how I am connected to this book. I'm sure I'll be reading this book and remembering it for the rest of my life.

Man's Best Friend

        Manchee is my favorite character in the novel The Knife of Never Letting Go. I attribute this to my obsession and love of dogs. Manchee is a big character in the novel. He is the main character Todd's dog. This dog was given as a present to Todd by his uncle. Oh, and Manchee is affected by the noise as well, and by that I mean Manchee can speak through his mind. Todd doesn't appreciate Manchee, but Manchee always appreciates Todd. Towards the end of the book Todd starts to notice how important Manchee is.This relationship between Todd and Manchee is a classic example of dogs being "man's best friend". Manchee sticks with Todd through everything that happens in this novel just as a dog does with their owners. Manchee is not the smartest which I think that Ness was wrong in portraying him in this manner. I think that dogs are naturally smart. Manchee did help Todd an he had his moments, but the way his thoughts were written out made it seem like dogs were inferior. For example in the beginning of the book Manchee is barking at a squirrel and even the squirrel sounded learned and sophisticated while Manchee was portrayed as being at an elementary school level. Ness should have portrayed the thoughts of Manchee as a little more sophisticated while still adding in the humorous "squirrel!" and "ball!" in there somewhere. I understand that his stupor is to add humor and to support the reader into understanding why Todd is not in love with Manchee like the usual dog owner is. I just think that Ness went about it the wrong way. Another thing that I would change about Manchee and his part in the story is how Todd treats him. Todd never fully appreciates Manchee. Now the one thing that I absolutely HATE about this novel is the death of Manchee. I hope I didn't spoil this part for anyone. I hated Todd after he left Manchee behind, and I know that he was ill and he tried, but you can't kill a dog in any book an expect me to not be upset. In my opinion, you can kill off a character, but not a dog. I mean look at how people reacted to Michael Vick and his involvement with dogs. I just think that Ness should have kept Manchee for the entire trilogy. If I read on to the next books I will definitely miss the character of Manchee, and I will miss the humor and lightness he brought to the book. He truly was, in the end, "man's best friend".

*What Would We Do?

        In the book The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness there is one main concept that is focused on. This concept is the noise. The noise is the aspect that every thought in your head can be heard by everyone else around you. While reading this I began to think... What would we do if this happened to us. How would our society be changed? How would common courtesy and manners be changed? I know that I think things in my head that I wouldn't want anyone else to hear, and I'm pretty sure that this goes for anyone. But, if the world came to where we were plagued by this noise we would have to change and be conscious of everything we thought. There would be no privacy anywhere unless you lived alone in a remote area. there would never be the "safety" of thinking things inside our head and "biting our tongues" when we think bad thoughts. This noise would affect our friendships, our relationships, and basically everything we have ever known. For example, think about your relationship with your best friend. I'm sure that you have gotten in fights and you may have thought mean things about this friend. All of these thoughts would be heard by your friend, and that may ruin your relationship. Also, think about your relationship with your parents. You may have gotten in fights and both of you become frustrated. your parents may think things out of frustration that could ruin your relationship for a long time. The noise would change everything in our lives and actions. In the novel, the main character Todd hates the noise because of the way it sounds. What I mean by that is that everyone's thoughts are all being heard at the same time. so this would sound like everyone in one place is talking at the same time. Now I can imagine that would be one big headache. I think that some people would go mad over this cluster of noise. I firmly believe that my opinions on people would change. I would love to go through and see what people truly think about me and other people. The noise would change everything about our society and I think that the effects would be terrible. I believe that everything we know about our friends, families, and even experiences would change if we knew everyone's true thoughts.

Confusing but Captivating

          These are the two words I would use to describe the novel The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness. The first chapter starts you off with the story of this young man named Todd. Now Todd lives on a planet that is very different then Earth...this is where things started to confuse me. This planet has a lot of confusing aspects to it. One aspect is that he lives on a planet where everything a person is thinking is heard out loud. This is called the noise. The noise was plagued upon Prentisstown by the aliens that inhabited the planet and town before Todd's kind did  The residents of Prentisstown killed off all of the Spackles (the aliens). This curse, so to speak, is the living legacy that the Spacks left on the people of Prentisstown. There are also many other strange characteristics about this planet. One of them is that the planet is filled with only men. Now, Todd is the last male that is not over the age of thirteen which is when you can work and be respected as a man. So, Todd is all alone. Another confusing aspect about this setting is that cursing is forbidden and frowned upon. In the first two haters Todd gets slapped because of his cursing; he isn't even safe in his own mind. When I started this novel, these were some of the things that I was most confused by. I was not confused by the amount of information that is given in such a short time, I was confused on how all of this would be shaped into one congruent story  I have never read a book that set up such a unique and creative backdrop for this story. Part of the reason I kept reading (captivated) was because of the amount of creativity that went into this setting. The second word I used to describe how I felt when reading this novel was captivated. I admit that I thought that this book was a little weird at first, and I didn't know if I was going to like it that much. But, I kept reading and I have to admit I am hooked. The most captivating thing about this novel is the sheer creativity that Ness himself has put into this first book of his series. The characters, the plot, the setting, etc. are all so imaginative. He has made a whole fantasy world that he can add or change anything he wants. Also, I was so enthralled by the story even at the first time Todd finds and experiences silence. I am both excited and thrilled about my choosing this book because it keeps me on my feet because it is not based on Earth, so you never know what's coming next. This first novel in the Chaos Walking series is a fantastic read that keeps the reader's attention by being both confusing AND captivating.