Best Book Ever

     So I have realized that I have a tendency to be slightly blunt and sarcastic, and I incorporate (as best I can) that into my writing. Now I personally don't mind it, but I understand it's not everyones cup of tea. My goal in this blog is to be a little more on the less cynical side of things. Now my favorite book, as I have mentioned in previous blogs, is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. That is my sophisticated book, I guess, more like if I had to write an essay one my favorite book, it'd probably be that one. I must say though that before I go to bed at night I don't really enjoy reading about a crazy little man that is pure evil and runs over little children. Not exactly night time reading material, but that's not what I want to talk about. I have to say the best books of all time (for me) are the Calvin and Hobbes series.
     Okay, I understand that they are comic books, and not exactly difficult reading, but just because an author uses big words and describes every detail that isn't even slightly beneficial to the plot doesn't make a book good. Non the less Calvin and Hobbes I would recommend to anyone, not every one is going to say it's their favorite book, and that's just normal. For me, I could go my whole life rereading Calvin and Hobbes. I have eight books in my room and who know how many more I have floating around my house. I never get sick of it no matter how many times I read them.      
     What makes these books "the best", is just gonna change from person to person but I love the characters. Calvin is a typical six year old boy who has this crazy imagination and creates his own little world. He has a friend tiger, Hobbes, and at times you really wonder if Hobbes is part of Calvin's imagination or real. Even at times Calvin's parents admit that they feel like Hobbes means a lot to them. The author, Bill Watterson, definitely wanted the effect of Hobbes seeming completely real, cause to Calvin that's what he sees. Now Calvin isn't crazy which some people might think that he is, he is just using his imagination which is what kids do. Reading Calvin and Hobbes is worth every second because there's just so much in every little comic strip, I think it's one of the best.
    My brother also reads Calvin and Hobbes as much as I do, and we can reference any comic strip and the we will understand what the other is talking about. I definitely have memories with reading the books, which makes me love it even more. I remember the first time I read a Calvin and Hobbes book, I went to my friends house and she told me I should read it, so we spent the whole afternoon reading them, and I have loved it ever since. So, hey, maybe comic books aren't you're style but I strongly suggest reading at least one of the comic strips. If you don't like it then oh well you have a different style but Calvin and Hobbes is at the top of my list for best book ever. And I must say this blog was completed with out sarcastic remarks, so goal accomplished.

The Thoughts of a Junior

     A chapter from the story of my life. This chapter won't really have an end until next year but it's what is most present to me right now. It's more of a section of a chapter of my life. So here is section one out of three:
                                                               Finding a College
     The thing that is looming in the back of my mind, constantly brought up at school and just seems so out of control, is college. This probably is what everyone goes through when college comes around, or at least more than just me. I have been working on finding colleges since thanksgiving break of 11th grade. I don't just mean like looking at what the majors are and how much it costs, I've been taking notes making lists crossing out colleges adding them on. Constantly thinking about what I want to do at college, what type of college I want to go to, if I really even want to go to college right now, how far away I want to go, if I'll be able to afford the college I want to go to, if I want to go to the city or not, if I am smart enough to get into the college I like, do I want to run or do I want to ride, do I want to do sports at all, and a thousand more questions that i don't even want to think about right now. Every school break we got that lasted more than three days I began to look at colleges. I have a journal full of just information about colleges. When their open houses are, what type of majors, where they are, when I want to go visit, what I'll need to apply, and so on. And frankly, it's been driving me CRAZY!
     At first it was almost fun but now it's all seems to feel so real. Every one is giving me their opinion usually promoting the college they attended, which isn't bad but I've started to get sick of it. Now to be very honest I've had my dream college picked out since freshman year. I want to go to Skidmore. Now I am very aware that it's a big reach for me between my grades and being able to afford the school, but I'm doing everything in my power to be able to attend there. I haven't shut out other schools though. I've been doing tons of research about other schools and narrowed my list down to about eight schools that I would like to apply to. I  want to do early decision to Skidmore, but even doing that I have other schools I really would like to go to. There is a small liberal arts college called Hollins in Roanoke, Virginia that is my second choice. Although it is a fairly unknown school, and very small, and all girls, I want to go there because it has what I want. I'm going there for their precollege summer program and I'll learn more about it then.
     So the choosing process has began to calm down. Now the applying process will start. I've been thinking about  my essay, my college interview, remembering to sign up for the ACTs, calling and reserving a spot in the open houses at two colleges over the summer, looking at the applications I'll have to fill out for Skidmore which is due by November 15th I think. I have a lot of stuff to work on for my application and hopefully it'll all get done. Right  now I'd like to focus on my tests at the end of the year but that's just not gonna be possible. I like to hope at some point I'll be able to sit back and enjoy myself with out having college or school enter my mind. Hopefully that will come at some point. It's not all bad, and I have learned a lot, but I'd just like this all to be over with. Sadly that's not how it works and this is just section one of a chapter of my life, now I have to apply then once that's done I have to choose and go. It's gonna go fast, but it's just torture right now. I don't know if anyone else feels the same way but this whole thing is just so stressful. I have spent countless hours looking and searching and this all better amount to a damn good college experience or that was a lot of wasted time. 
     So I've realized that this has been a lot of me complaining. I'm torn between starting over and finding something more interesting to talk about, but the thought of college will probably appear in that one too. So, hey, might as well get all my thoughts about it out now and maybe I can figure out how I can deal with this with out getting stressed out so it'll get better. This chapter is currently in progress and hopefully it has a happy ending like Disney has taught me happens to every one. But reality has shattered poor Walt Disney's happy endings and I just have to prepare myself as best I can and do what I can do. So now that all my thoughts about this almost seem tangible maybe I'll be able to put everything together and just do what I can do.

Good Book, Good

       Every one will have a different opinion on what makes a book good, for some it's the genre, some it's the style of writing, some just don't like reading at all. I've never really become attached to a certain type of genre, which is pretty much true for every aspect of my life. I have no favorite genre of films, music, no favorite style of clothing, no favorite foods. I prefer to take something from every type of genre. I believe if you commit yourself to one genre you could miss something that you might really enjoy. One thing that I look for in a book is the author's ability to make you feel. I think if the author makes you completely hate one of the main characters, but still like the book, that is a good author. I mean I really can't think of a lot of books where the character is so well developed that you can feel such emotion towards. I don't mean in most books, where there’s the good character that's the protagonist, then the evil character that you're supposed to hate is fighting against the good character.

       I guess I look for in a good book is the author's ability to really develop the characters. Also when the author takes a character that would originally be looked at in the traditional evil light, and changes the reader's feelings towards that character. To be honest there aren't a ton of books that I have deemed a "good" book. My favorite is Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and it doesn't exactly fit my good book criteria, but I love that book. I can't really point out what makes it good to me but it just is. When we read it last year in class, a lot of people hated it, but I thought it was wonderful. I still don't understand the book completely, because of the way it's written, and maybe when I figure it out I won't like it anymore.

       I still can't say exactly what makes a book good. There defiantly is stuff that makes a book crappy, but it's like that quote "the beauty is in the eye of the beholder". I don't know if that's right but it sounds good. I think that a good book is when the author is able to really bring you into the book, mess with your feelings and have the book come to life.

Books, books, books

      Has technology impacted my literacy? Of course it has. And I absolutely hate it. As much as I hate how the way human kind communicates now days, I can't say I don't buy into it all. I text all the time, I have a facebook (I don't use it a lot though) I have an email, and at times I love it all. To be able to be in contact with someone in a second is great at times but if that's our only way we communicate with those people, then it's just sad. 
     Let me just go on a tangent about communication for a second, our generation is frowned upon so much for our use of the internet and texting. And I can't say it's great but now that people other than our generation are using things like texting and facebook, good god they are worse than we are! I mean maybe it's just the adults I know, but it's the only way they communicate with each other and they lose so much in the internet or through text. They'll get all mad at each other and it's just ridiculous. I must say that since we grew up with this stuff we learned at a certain point what a good idea to talk about over texts was and through facebook and what was bad. (Okay not EVERYONE has learned, but it's gotten a lot better) I think we learned in middle school when we all first started using these things, and at first it was really bad. But as we grew up we got some common sense about how to deal with these things. Now that adults are using this stuff that seems new to them, and I hear about these miscommunication over the internet I feel like I'm hearing about a middle school student. I mean come on! Grow up and just call them or go visit them! Okay that is my very opinionated tangent about these things. 
       Back to my literacy...I prefer not to blend literacy and technology. I hate it when teachers assign reading on the computer. I just go home and print out what I have to read because it hurts my eyes to read all that. And just books in general are better, and then have a feeling and a smell and you can bring it where you want with you. I don't really want to snuggle up with my laptop. It's a machine, I'd have to bring the charger just in case the battery dies, and then I'll get distracted with facebook or a TV show. 
       Books are just wonderful. It's like opening another world, and you forget where you are. When I read on the computer it's like working, I don't enjoy it at all. Technology I guess has really made me appreciate the wonderfulness of a book, how each is different, even if it's the same story each book is unique. Maybe I'm old fashioned...which would be weird because I'm 16 but I'd take reading a book over reading a nook or on the computer or whatever else there is, any day.

      My Literacy history is much like anyother kid's. It started out when my parents would read to me as a kid, and pogressed from there. I don't remember being read to by both my parents or before they got divorced, but they both read to my siblings. My mom would read us short stories before we went to bed on week days. We would read Go Dog, Go, or Ferdinand the Bull. Nights when my mom was tierd she would start to fall asleep in the middle of the story, and she would start to read the book in spanish, and we would have to wake her up to finish the book.
      My dad, on the other hand would read to us on the weekends when we were with him. We didn't have a t.v. at his house, and he didn't have any childrens books either. So, when it was time for bed we would sit on the couch and he would read us My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George. That's what we would do every other saturday night when we were at my dad's house.
     My parents reading to me didn't really make me become a die heart reader, and I never really became one anyway. Some kids read books, some watched t.v., some played outside, and I played outside. I guess I read more as I got older, I used to read alot in Lenaepe and middle school, but not as much on my own now. I read the books we read in school and between that and everythiing else I do I don't really have time to read. But every once and a while I get the chance to read a book that takes me away from where I am, that takes me away from time.
      My Literacy history has no definate point in time that I can pin point and say "This is when it begain!". My Literacy history is a mystery, I don't know when, what, or who started it, it could've been the little kid books, or my mom making me go to the Elting Memoriol Libabry, or my dad reading to me. Some where aloong the road i decided to pick up a book and read it by myself, and that's where it started.