Summer Reading Post #4: Looking for Alaska

***SPOILER ALERT***

I chose Looking for Alaska because of the author. John Green also wrote The Fault in our Stars, which is up in my favorite books. There were many, many connections, in very strange ways. Not to be depressing, but honest, but I relate to a lot of the thoughts Miles has about Alaska’s death. There’s always questions. The finality of death hits you and takes your breath away. It’s like instantly aging 10 years. Miles just wants to know why. I could agree with that to some extent. There’s always the “why me?” floating around. Another thing in specific, the constant reminders of a human passed come with everything you do, and Looking for Alaska really does show that. Anything that someone loved is a sudden thought of them, and it’s hard.

I would recommend this book to any teenager. There is a part for any and everyone in John Green’s book. This one just focuses on loss specifically. The confusion of situation, the sadness of moving on, and the satisfaction of knowing, are all inevitable feelings that high schoolers face. There’s no avoiding it. So in conclusion to this post, but not to my thoughts on the book, this book is a very relevant source of an accurate portrayal of loss, and I highly recommend it.

Summer Reading Post #3: Looking for Alaska

One section of the book that I got me hooked was something Alaska said. Miles and her are talking about where they got their names, especially one like "Alaska". Miles then tries to kiss Alaska and is abruptly stopped. She then goes on to talking about how if there's something you want, you have to go for it before you can't anymore. She says,"You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present," (Green 54).

This part grabs me and pulls me in. It's such a reality check. Like, what are we all waiting for? She is saying that if you want to do something, do it, and do it now. You can't think about it, the time we have is fragile. When she says, "You use the future to escape the present," it reminds everyone that by thinking about the future, you're wasting your present.  By then, it might not even be what you want anymore. Alaska is very thoughtful and her character is addictive.

Summer Reading Post #2: Looking for Alaska

The first thing I want to talk about is the “before/ after” sense of the book. I have come to discover what that means, but haven’t gotten that far in the book. It makes the story have a depth that I haven’t experienced in any other book, that I can relate to. A theme flows out of this that I can’t find the right words for but I can describe from personal experience. Death of someone who is a big part of your life (in my case, a parent) turns your life into a before/ after. I literally feel this day to day experiencing my ‘after’ and thinking about my ‘before’ and how lucky I was without knowing it. I hope that shows the theme I feel. Miles is a very complex person in that he goes “in search of a great perhaps” at the boarding school and he has a curiosity for people’s last words. He wants satisfaction of knowing and physically having answers. I want to talk about Alaska in greater depth in a future post when I feel like I know enough to judge her into words, but she simply wants to feel either complete, or numb, and I can’t decide which at this point in the book. I'll leave you a quote since I can't do much at this point of the book to accurately show you her complexity. In this quote, Alaska and the gang are all talking about the worst day of their life, and Alaska describes the day her mother died. "So I just sat there on the floor with her until my dad got home an hour later, and hes screaming 'Why didn't you call 911?' and trying to give her CPR, but by then she was plenty dead. Aneurysm. Worst day. I win. You drink," (Green 119). I think this exemplifies her thought process in a way I can't squeeze into a phrase to give you to get a good judgment. The Colonel simply wants the most out of what he gets. If he goes to a party, he’s going to party hard. If he has a test, he’s going to study hard. But I don’t know much about him yet. And a newer major character who has come in is The Eagle. As the Dean at the boarding school, he wants nothing more than order. Things must be his way or he is angry. I’m getting increasingly excited to venture further into the book. I'll leave a quote from the book I really like.

"If people were rain, I was a drizzle and she was a hurricane."

Summer Reading Post #1: Looking for Alaska

The major characters in Looking for Alaska so far are Miles “Pudge” Halter, Chip “The Colonel” Martin, and Alaska Young. Miles is the protagonist, and the story is from his point of view. Something interesting about the book is that it is set up in “before” and “after” and instead of chapters, they are titled like “74 days before,” leaving a big hole and cliff hanger in the reader’s head. It is set mainly at a boarding school in Alabama, present day. They all attend it and hang in the more “rebellious” crowd. Alaska really just does not care about much, but she is a very complex person, and I think that is why Miles is attracted to her. The Colonel is a complex character but I haven’t read to the point of knowing much about this. I see similarities in this to The Fault in our Stars, another work by the same author, John Green, in how real the characters are.  John Green is a very straight forward writer in this sense. I predict that the before/ after is revolved around Alaska, and that she goes missing. Maybe it’s a little of me being gullible, but “Looking for Alaska” kind of gives me the sense of that. I look forward to reaching the “After” of the book. 

Click this link for an about of John Green, because I believe the more you know about the author, the better you can understand your book.

Next book

The next book I'm going to read will be The Perks of being a Wallflower. But I've already read it once? Well I want to take a closer look. I missed out on a lot of things that could have made my experience better. I flew through the book so I could see the movie but not i just really want to focus on the details. The movie was accurate to me but apparently it wasn't all that true to the book. So long story short, I want to reread for the details of a good book.

About F. Scott Fitzgerald

The author of The Great Gatsby lived an unexpected life for the author of an American classic. He was a complete drunk since he was in college (at Princeton University, if you were wondering). He married a girl named Zelda who he met in the military. Some people think she was some sort of inspiration for Daisy but I don't think so according to the personality I've read about her. He had one kid, Frances.

Here's some actually interesting things I found now:

• Not only was he an alcoholic, he was renown for being extremely drunk, all the time.
• He died eating a candy bar and reading the newspaper, of a heart attack. Ironic?
• His third cousin is Francis Scott Key (writer of the Star Spangled Banner) is why he's named Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald. BUT also after his dead sister, Louise Scott.
• Only 20-30 people came to his funeral.
• His wife died in a mental institution fire but I can't find out why she was there
• Alternate names for Gatsby included Trimalchio, Among the Ash Heaps and Millionaires, The High-Bouncing Lover, Gold-Hatted Gatsby,Gatsby, On the Road to West Egg, Incident at West Egg, and Trimalchio in West Egg.

Alright now this is awesome, check it out. I found a digitalized version of his ledger (basically his notebook) and it is really cool if you look around. Here's the link. If you have only been skimming until now please go take a look and realize that its literally from pre-WWII era and you have complete access to it and if you don't think that's historically awesome then I don't know what is.

Go check that out and tell me what you find, it's worth it.

The Worst Thing about The Great Gatsby

Although The Great Gatsby is a pretty good story, let's talk about the typical boring "book" qualities. Everyone says they hate reading. Everyone's said it, even if you're the type to read 6 books a week. But no one hates reading when there's a good story. That's what Gatsby's like. The story sucks you in and makes you do the pathetic "read 150 pages in one sitting oops" type thing. So the worst thing about The Great Gatsby? There is none. Read the book, see the movie, and google pictures of Leonardo DiCaprio as Jay Gatsby. It's cool, I get you.

Excuse the short post, I just really wanted to say this. Any suggestions for my next book, that you could say the same about?

Suspense; The Great Gatsby

Does The Great Gatsby have effective suspense? Some might say yes, but I would say no. There's not much action to the book (for me, at least) as there is just sharing a lifestyle love story of Jay and Daisy. But instead of suspense, I think curiousity is what keeps you reading, not suspense. You get invested into this book and the tale of Jay Gatsby, but it's not really a cliffhanging, must-read-on type book. Fitzgerald uses one of the most basic human characteristics; curiousity. You feel you need to know what's next. So no, The Great Gatsby doesn't have "suspense", but using the human, curiousity-driven mind is just as effective, and twice as genius.

For those of you who have read this, do you feel the same way? And those of you who have not, do you think a cliffhanger and using curiousity are essentially the same technique?

The best thing about The Great Gatsby

The best thing about The Great Gatsby is the realism in the characters. Jay, for example isn't just a polished rich guy in New York. Jay has a very shady past and human fears. His emotions for Daisy are very human, not just typical love story, happily ever after. He gets jealous, he makes mistakes. It happens and he accepts this and moves on. Daisy also isn't just a polished, beautiful girl either. She has her fears and anxieties just like Jay, and it gives you a deep connection in the book. Empathy draws the characters to you in this book. You feel their emotions, and that is the best thing about this American Classic.