Final Exam

A Clash of Kings was a great read with action out the wazoo and characters that drew feelings from you that aren’t normal towards a book character. This book is part of a bigger series called A Song of Ice and Fire and consists of the different houses all going to war. The crown is up for grabs and everyone believes they are the rightful king of the seven kingdoms, so you can imagine there is quite a bit of room for violence! The author is extremely talented. His description is the perfect amount for me and the battle scenes are described very well. In the book he uses his ability to write in different points of view to show the various house’s events and feelings. This fantasy novel brings dragons, swords, romance, and humor into one fantastic story that I couldn’t put down.

Writing Style: George R.R. Martin’s writing style is magical if not perfection. I found myself entranced by his words and was propelled into the story right alongside Arya as she was on the verge of death, or Lady Catelyn when she was falsely told of her children dying back home. Although it is specific in parts that may make readers uncomfortable, usually the scenes are detrimental to the story and plot. The use of points of view gives us more information about the characters in the novel. For instance Lady Catelyn’s point of view here informs us on some of the major characters. “The lords and ladies in the gallery were as engrossed in the melee as the men on the ground. Catelyn marked them well. Her father had oft treated with the southron lords, and not a few had been guests at Riverrun. She recognized Lord Mathis Rowan, stouter and more florid than ever, the golden tree of his House spread across his white doublet” (Martin 257).

Plot: As the various Houses and families war with each other, the reader is taken from The Wall down to the Renly Baratheon troops in the south. The story of Danaerys Targareon on a totally other continent is also going on. Will the somehow overlap??? Not really. Or at least not in this book. Main characters in the story sometimes never even meet each other which is the only weakness in this novel. I want the dragons to interact with Jon Snow north of The Wall, or for Tyrion to travel across the sea. In the long run it is understandable, but I needed to put something negative towards the book! However, the plot otherwise is flawless. It gives you just enough action to entice you to turn more pages and leaves you wondering whether Jon will have to fight the Others, will Bran travel north of The Wall, and will those stupid tiny dragons ever get big enough to do some damage.

Characters: Not since Harry Potter have I been so connected with characters. The only difference? Martin will cut out your heart by killing someone who you love. We always wish for a more real story where the good guys don’t all live and the bad guys all die, and Martin has given us just that. Now that I have my cake, I’m not going to eat it too. I’m going to throw it on the floor and burst into tears as Ned Starks has his head chopped off like it’s nothing. The emotions brought out by the text shows the skill of the author. A reader of this novel will find they are rooting for this person or hoping for the horrible death of another. You find yourself growing with the characters as they go from being little girls and boys to killing machines. “Cursing her softly, the man went to a knee to grope for the coin in the dirt, and there was his neck right in front of her. Arya slid her dagger out and drew it across his throat, as smooth as summer silk. His blood covered her hands in a hot gush and he tried to shout but there was blood in his mouth as well” (Martin 680). Little Arya is now a killer. Not exactly a children’s book.

This book leaves you wanting more, but in a good way. Martin has crafted a novel that was better than the first, leaving you to think they may keep getting better. If you are looking for a read that is full of fighting, sex, strategy, and humor then this is your cup o’ tea. A Clash of Kings paints the story in your head as you flip the pages and once you reach the back cover you’ll be reaching for A Storm of Swords or for the phone to order it. The characters keep you interested and the plot thickens every two pages. On a scale of 1-10 I would give this a 9.8. The .2 I have subtracted is for killing off Ned Stark in book one!!!!! But seriously, the book entrances you until the end and the ending leaves you with shivers. “Meera looked to her brother for the answer. ‘Our road is north,’ Jojen announced. At the edge of the wolfswood, Bran trned in his basket for one last glimpse of the castle that had been his life. The stone is strong, Bran told himself, the roots of the trees go deep, and under the ground the Kings of Winter sit their thrones.”(Martin 728).

George R. R. Martin Interview

Blog Post 5

In my mind a book has to be 99.9% true to be considered non fiction. I understand that it may be hard to remember things accurately and sometimes when we tell our story we embellish slightly but not to the point of altering events or adding new ones. Half-truths are not ok, however 7/9 truths are more tolerable. Frey and Mortenson should be punished for their books because they lied to increase the profit for themselves. Especially Frey, since the only way he could get his book sold and make money was to falsely publish it as a memoir. I disagree with David Shields because genres are very helpful to readers. I believe mixing genres is ok but you can’t mix non-fiction with fiction or else it is no longer non-fiction but instead “based on a true story”. I like genres because I find the ones I like and then I can get books that are in that category for future reading. I used to have a set paper I wrote for all of my English classes about a time when I got locked in a hotel pool and “escaped”, and every year it was more and more embellished to make a better story. I stopped doing that in 9^th grade. These authors acted as middle schoolers and high schoolers when they wrote their books and they got published! Plus they are rich now because of it and well known. I don’t believe that’s fair, I believe that their books should be banned from being printed anymore and all of the sales should be donated to a charity instead of going into a liar’s pocket. If you can’t write a book good enough to be a fiction novel, then write a new one, don’t lie. I’m sure if JK Rowling decided to say Harry Potter was based on her nephew’s life and people were stupid enough to believe it then she would be that much richer.

Post #4: Adapting Lord of the Rings

Lord of the Rings is a tough book to turn into a movie, but they did and did a pretty good job of it. I personally agree with some and disagree with others of the changes the director made. No doubt they had to be done, but it still takes some of the thunder away from the original work. If I were to adapt the book into a movie it might have turned out differently. So far there have been a ton of essential scenes but I will pick the main three that must be kept in the movie. First, the scene with Gandalf and Frodo in Bilbo's house when they are talking about the ring and then Gandalf catches Sam right outside of the window is a very important scene. We first understand the ring and its power and we also see how the adventure came together. The second scene of importance is Bilbo's disappearance. His last laugh as he believes it is important because it is a passing of the torch from Bilbo to Frodo. Frodo inherits all of his things and is destined to be the next to go on an adventure. The last scene, which they cut from the movie, was the Tom Bombadil scenes. It must be 50 pages in the book and yet it is totally missing from the film. It's important because the hobbits get into a lot of trouble and learn alot in the process. I would exclude two parts of what I've read so far as well. The time between when Frodo talks with Gandalf and when he actually leaves on his quest is extremely boring and long, therefore it would be a horrible addition to the movie. Nothing of importance really occurs during this time as well so there is more reason to delete it. The second scene I would remove is the Elf party scene where the hobbits run into a gorup of elves and spend the night with them. The information they learn could be told to them later on and it's just another stopping point in the grand scheme of the journey.

Book 1 Project (Text that's hard to see in pictures is first)

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  Issue 2: The Girl Who Played With Fire

Our Goal:

The purpose of this catalogue is simple and yet strong. We fans of Lisbeth Salander want to be more involved in the story, and we want the story to last. The items in these catalogues will enhance the reading experience for the fans, while providing tools for survival.

Examples:

Don’t believe us??? Here are some examples:

Irene Nesser Wig– To some this may seem like a silly piece to purchase. If you have read the novels you will realize that without this piece Lis would not be able to be her. This disquise allows to go out in public when she is a wanted fugitive. It allows her to purchase items with no questions asked. Also, it hides her appearance. The true her is a black wearing, pierced, troublesome looking individual, but the text clearly shows she can wear this piece and be a whole new person. “Unfortunately that was not something she could do while holed up in her apartment. She went to her wardrobe and took out the blond wig and Irene Nesser’s Norwegian passport.” (Larsson 413).

 

PowerBook– Salander is known for her abilities with technology. However, without the proper gear her abilities would be useless. This laptop provides the memory and speed required to do what Lisbeth does best. With the purchase of this item you too will experience its power! The PowerBook allows even the least tech savy individual to be a master of the internet. Without it’s characteristics and tools, Salander would most likely have not been alive! “He booted up the PowerBook with the 17-inch screen, 200 GB hard drive, and 1,000 MB of RAM.” (Larsson 580). Drooling yet?

 

Map of Sweden– If you are one of our international fans, you may have a hard time understanding the setting. A huge part of the book is knowing where the leads for Zalachenko are heading! Whether it’s Stockholm or Lundagarten your reading experience will be quadrupled if accompanied with this handy map. It’s even marked with key events to help you follow the story through Sweden! Understanding is part of the experience which we are seeking to push as far as we can take it. We guarantee we can turn your puzzled faces when Blomkvist observes, “Blomkvist was standing at that moment by the window, looking out at a magnificent view that stretched far from Gamla Stan towards Saltsjon.” (Larsson 578), into an “ah ha!” moment when you see on your personal map where these locations are in relation to the story.

Post 2: What Is A Book?

A book is a…

A tool wielded by an individual in their own unique way. This tool exercises your brain, your emotions, and your true existence. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but books do open up a lot of doors for us. They enhance our creativity, our vocabulary, even our opinions. Sometimes a book can be read by a thousand people, it contains the same words on the same pages (relatively the same pages depending on the type of tree I’m assuming) and yet the words can be interpreted in a different way for all of the readers. It doesn’t matter if your interpretation is completely out there, at least you were thinking for a moment. It’s quite different than the mindless intake of social media, or even movies. Movies just make you mad because the director uses what HE saw when HE read the book and puts that on screen instead of the way you saw the characters or the places in your mind when you read. Books are puzzles with a million solutions. These puzzles bring even the best jigsaw puzzle masters down to the same level as even the most puzzled puzzler because everyone is right. Reading the different views on that paper I see mostly my own views. I totally agree when Nancy Jo Sales said “There’s something about the physicality of a book, the way it looks and feels and even smells” because I know I love that new book smell way more than the smell of an iPad. If iPads have a smell. There’s an app for that. I also agree with the idea of the electronic copies taking away the uniqueness of each individual book. They make a book such as Peter and the StarCatchers, a book with lightly ripped and ridged pages all of slightly different lengths and turn it into a screen with words the same size as every other book. Finally the main reason for me that I hate the electronic books and love the physical copies is progress. I love seeing the pages fly by and being able to see the progress over the days as more and more of the story is on the left, behind me, and the end is approaching fast on my right. Books will not disappear, I hope, because of the beautifully written stories they all hold and the ability to pass down stories that you loved so much to your kids or friends. I have all of my books I have read and someday I’ll pass them on to my kids so they can create fantastical worlds in their heads just as I did, I can share these tools with them by simply passing the copies from my hand to theirs (something not quite as easy with an app on iTunes because dang, it’s real hard to share from iTunes accounts now-adays).

Post #1: Why I Read

I believe that the reason I, and many others, read is to escape from reality for a little while. Some books draw you in and take you from a living room or a car to a place where dragons exist or you're in the middle of a battlefield. I read alot when I was younger because I always wanted to be in a magical type world. Reading gave me this opportunity to be right alongside Harry Potter as he defeated Voldemort, or uncovering the true existance of God in The Lost Symbol. Every once in a while reality just isn't quite exciting enough, or is getting you down. Instead of reverting to drugs or crime we can turn to books! They give the same release from reality and flurry of emotion with quite different long term affects. You may have a reading hangover when you're done, but this only means you might have questions begging to be answered, or a plotline that you need finished so you salivate over the idea of a possible sequel, or prequel, or spinoff that isn't quite as successful but keeps the story alive just the same.