Nothing But The Truth

Today's book was Nothing But The Truth by Avi. (As I mentioned before, I have a bunch of books to read, and about half of them are by Avi.)

This book is the story of a young man and the people around him who are caught up in a crazy story. What Philip Malloy begins by complaining about spirals out of control into national news, hurting and confusing many people in the process. This book seems to be a warning against the dangers of only half the story and the distortion that the media causes.

There are a couple of words that people should not be repeating, but for the most part, there's nothing wrong with the book.

Captain Grey

Because my school is winding down and I still have a good many books to read, I'm attempting to tackle one a day.

Several of these books are by Avi, an author I remember reading a bit from when I was younger.

Today's book was Captain Grey, a story of a boy who was captured by some pirates. It was pretty short (since I didn't remember until the afternoon that I was trying to read an entire book).

I enjoyed it well enough. There wasn't really anything bad about it, so I'll be putting it on our family bookshelf.

That's all, I suppose? I'm not the best at book reviews.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

After two or more years (I honestly can't remember when I started), I've finally finished reading the fifth and final book in the Hitchhikers Trilogy. I'm a slow reader and took long breaks, which is why it took me years to read five books.

In any case, my dad told me that after reading them, I should report back to him, probably concerning the morality of them, etc. I know that was a long time ago, but I'm going ahead and doing that now. Hi, Dad. c:

SO.

My first thought about the series is that they are clever and marvelously written. To be honest, half the time I didn't know just what was going on, but the books were such a pleasure to read that it was all okay.

The worldview presented in the books was not a Christian one, but was also not meant to be taken seriously. While there were some gems of what one might call wisdom* that were uncovered by the odd perspective taken, for the most part, I learned to disregard any "truth" that seemed to be presented, as it was very obviously a goofy story told in a serious manner.

* For example:

“This planet has -- or rather had -- a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.”

The characters had loose morals, and there were certain scenes that I only skimmed, so I won't be recommending the series to children. The language was not commendable either, as it was not uncommon to come across words that I would much rather not hear (or read).

I should have said "certain usages of language were not commendable," though, because Douglas Adams' masterful use of the English language to create an enjoyable read is undisputed in my mind. He picks apart idioms, figures of speech, and conventional phrases and looks at them in a different light. This has actually affected my own writing a great deal.

Sometimes the books seem to become serious, but not for long. Adams has created a ridiculous, random, and enjoyable adventure that I'd recommend to any mature readers who already have a good grip on their worldview and morality and stuff. c:

My thoughts on The Hunger Games

So yes, I was one of the millions of teenagers seeing the Hunger games last week.

I didn't bother to go to the midnight premiere, instead I went early Saturday morning, when tickets were only six dollars instead of 7.25 or 10 something, and I went with my friend Peggy.

The main thing that turned me off from the books was the fact that they were written in first person. Katniss isn't an extremely interesting person--her thoughts are dry and typical, and the fact that the narration obviously stops if she dies means you already know she's going to [LE POINTLESS SPOILER ALERT] win.

I felt like the idea had potential but was badly executed. So I was looking forward to the movie. It's kind of hard to do a movie in first person, and as I expected, all the narrative problems were cured in the movie.

In the books, I felt like Collins was being too nice to Katniss--everything just happened to go in a good direction for her and it had nothing to do with her own ability. I still kind of felt that in the movie, but not as much. However, I still kind of felt like everyone liked her too much.

I felt like I understood more of the reasoning behind others' actions in the movie (once again, because it's not just Katniss and her thoughts).

Even though I still find Katniss a pretty boring person, seeing her from the outside made me realize why she's the hero of the story--not because she's anything fantastic, but she's the spark to the eventual flame that [LE ACTUAL SPOILER ALERT] burns away the corrupt Capitol government. One girl on fire isn't anything noteworthy, but once other things catch, the blaze can be unstoppable.

In conclusion, the movie is violent and in that way concerning except for the fact that the characters are fictional. It might serve as a warning to what we might become if we continue to consider others' pain as "entertainment." While the movie is okay as far as production and stuff goes (I guess, I'm not an expert or anything), I don't think it's going onto my list of favorites.

Paper Towns by John Green

While Paper Towns is not "clean" by a long shot, it is intriguing. It was the first John Green book I managed to read for longer than a few chapters. That's kind of disappointing since I'm a fan of John and Hank's youtube vlogging (for the most part) and consider myself a nerdfighter.

Paper Towns is kind of about seeing people as they really are, not what they pretend to be. The whole plot revolves around a guy and a girl. For most of the book, the guy is trying to follow some clues the girl left, and he's trying to find her. It gets kind of repetitive as his theories change and he goes in all sorts of different directions. That's more true to real life, I suppose, but since it's fiction anyway I'd almost prefer that the story picks a track and stays on it.

The book gives you a sense of adventure, that kind of longing you have to leave everything behind and just go anywhere and do anything. However, most of us never do such a daring thing, because we worry about our future and the consequences. Well, whatever. Decide for yourself if up and leaving is good or bad.

More of what I have to say is kind of a tangent, though.
Why can't these teenage characters talk about hardly anything except sex and other related topics? This is also what turned me off from Looking For Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines before I even got to find out what the plot was. I think the only reason I read Paper Towns all the way through is because I actually got to some of the plot before I got to a ton of junk.
Also, there was a lot of language. Reading it really does affect the way I think, and I don't like having all that running around in my head. I feel like I need a huge brain-cleaning. 
I don't know what the 'normal' teenager is like, but if this is an accurate depiction of high schoolers, I just have to say...

THANK GOD I HAVE BEEN HOMESCHOOLED MY ENTIRE LIFE.

Wholesome media is pretty much my passion (I wouldn't say I act the way you would think when you hear 'passionate' about it but it's hard for me to act 'passionate' about anything). I'm sure if you ask anyone who knows me much at all, they'll tell you I have extremely high standards. It saddens me to see books that hardly have anything worthwhile to say. To put down a book or finish a movie and realize that just about everything you just took in isn't doing anything worthwhile, and is in fact probably growing mold all over the beautiful walls of your little brain-house, is a very disappointing thing.
I still haven't read The Fault In Our Stars or Will Grayson, Will Grayson, but I'm not planning on using my time for such things very soon.
I'd rather use that time to create something that people will enjoy, but that also won't bathe their minds in dirt.

In the end, I regrettably cannot recommend this book.

It's chilly.

I like the rain. It's nice and friendly and very welcome.
I finished Fahrenheit 451. It was a terribly sad book but yet it was very satisfying. It's a good piece of literature and I can understand why many people are required to read it.

But how many people act on it?
If we're not careful, our world has the potential to become something akin to the world Bradbury describes. It was such a lonely, shallow world.

I like fives and ones.

I just noticed that I have a nice 111 posts on my blog. However this will make it 112. Ah well.

Today I started reading Fahrenheit 451. So far, the girl reminds me of myself. But I haven't gotten very far because the version of the book I am reading had about three introductions.
It interests me. I believe I will enjoy it.

I also want to learn this dance:

Tonight I plan to sleep in my brothers' room and tell stories. That should be fun.
Well, other than that I don't have much to say, since I actually accomplished school stuff today.

So Long and Thanks For All the Fish!

So Long and Thanks For All the Fish is the type of book that I finished. And directly afterwards I asked myself, "What was the point of that?" and followed it with "Well what was the point of any of those books in the series?" and answered myself by concluding that I like Douglas Adams' writing style and the point to it was that I enjoyed the books.
I have to admit that for the most part this book (especially the latter half) seemed a bit boring and had more random and pointless nonsense than funny and brilliant nonsense... Or maybe I was just in a boring mood. I'm not sure.
In any case, I ended up wanting to fall asleep on the porch swing while reading it although the book is not what made me sleepy. It was more like the fact that I never get to bed at a decent hour and that the swinging motion of a swing that is large enough to lay down on is rather nice and that the wind was blowing and the sun was shining and I felt like closing my eyes.

Air like cool sheets and literature

Today's weather is beautiful. On my way to theatre class I rolled the windows down and turned off the air conditioning. Days like this are amazing.

I started Looking For Alaska. I haven't really been impressed so far. Maybe it's that I just finished The Book Thief and I'm still on a high of amazing writing, but it's probably all the language and references to sex and stuff. Call it more "realistic" if you want, or say I'm overreacting, but I have high standards, okay? After all, what goes in affects what comes out.
I decided to try An Abundance of Katherines next. So far it hasn't been much better.
Kind of a bummer, I was looking forward to reading John Green's books, being a nerdfighter and all.

Aaaaaah well. I guess I'll pick up So Long and Thanks For All the Fish and some cranberry apple juice and go outside to read. It's a nice day and Douglas Adams has a witty way with words. Sounds like a good late afternoon to me.

The Book Thief

I just finished this book today. It was excellent.

The Book Thief takes place in Nazi Germany. It encompasses many stories and while at times it is confusing, there is never a dull moment. Zusak does a marvelous job of stitching together events and people with a unique point of view.

I wouldn't recommend it for young children, but to those who are mature enough to handle some death (it is Nazi Germany after all), harsh language (partly in German), and the unfairness of reality, I'd wholeheartedly tell you to pick up a copy and give it a go.

Book reviews are obviously not my forte.