Third Post: Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Choice #1 - Reactions. So far, do you love/hate/can't stop reading the book, watching this film? What makes you feel that way? What reactions do you have to your own writing, the writing of your peers, the world around you? What made you choose the book/film? Who recommended it?

Book: Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

So far I am about half way through the book, and Katniss Everdeen has already been obviously chosen for the hunger games and she is competing for her life and is targeted by a gang formed by Cato and a couple alliances. The game makers recognize Katniss's strategy and decide to act upon it by setting fire to a certain area that Katniss is traveling towards. This gets Katniss traveling back in towards the other groups and this is where the real story begins. I find this book interesting because for the first time I strayed away from the usual genre that I usually like to pick which is non-fiction, and for once I actually very much enjoyed it. When I write something, most of the time is I lay out everything that I have in my mind onto a piece of paper or document depending on whether I am writing on a piece of paper or typing it up on a computer. This means that when I have a lot of pre knowledge about a topic that I am about to write about, all that pre knowledge and maybe a little more research will be portrayed on the piece that I write about, but if I have to write about a topic that I know very little about that too will show in my writing. Most of the time I feel very proud of my work though, because I know that I have tried my hardest and and have given it my all. Reading the writing of my peers is what has developed me into the writer that I am today. I am not an efficient reader at all, and tend to be very picky about my book selection, this can be proven even in my SAT scores, where I am strong in my writing section, but weak in the reading. Through reading and revising my other peer's work or essays, I have learned the things that work and don't work, which has shaped the writer that I am today. I chose to read this book because one, it fits the genre that we were assigned to read, and two, in early high school the movie was the talk of the year, so I felt left out having not watched the movie and instead of taking the easiest route of understanding the story, I decided to read the first book of the Hunger Games Trilogy.

Movie: To Kill a Mockingbird 

The reason for watching this movie was a big surprise when I actually thought about why I wanted to watch this movie. I wanted to watch this movie solely based off the reason that I enjoyed the book more than anything I have ever read in my life. "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee was always the dreaded book to read in 10th grade because of all the deep meaning and the boring amount of time that it took to finish the book, but for some reason I loved the book. I finished the movie in one sitting, and even though the movie is in black and white because of how old it is, I still enjoyed the movie and wouldn't mind watching it all over again. But one thing that I didn't quite remember after reading this book all the way back in 10th grade, was the mystery of Boo Radley and how he finally revealed himself in the book that changed Scout and Jem's perspective of Boo Radley. This finally becomes clear to me of how Boo Radley saves the day by tackling and killing Bob Ewell from attacking Jem. At first, Mr Bilenky my english teacher for last year recommended us to watch it, but that suggestion literally went in one ear and out the other because I didn't take it into consideration at all, but finally I remembered it and watched the movie, which I have no regrets doing.