Monday, November 4, 2013

Blog Reflection

For my old blog post, I will be using the first blog I ever did, which is The Fault in Our Stars book review
For the better blog post which I think I did best on, I am using Insurgent Reading Skills
In my very first blog post, I believe that the only introduction paragraph that I had was barely existent, and was very week as well.  All it said was that I read the book over the summer (Highlighted).  In one of the last blog posts the introduction paragraph is still very brief, but I feel that it gives the reader quick information they need to know.  Instead of just saying that I have read the book or am reading the book, I say that I am reading the book, as well as what the book is, the series that it is in, as well as what genre the book would fall under in my opinion. (Highlighted)  My way of telling the readers about the book also has changed, which improved my blog posts.  In my first blog, I would say something small about the event, and put a quote here or there, and then move on. (Highlighted)  But, in the other blog post, I would put a detailed description of the event so the reader would understand more about the book, and then use a quote where I felt necessary, and then explain the quote to help the reader understand.  (Highlighted)
            One thing that I struggled with on this assignment was keeping up with the amount of blogs that we had to do.  As I improved, the more detail I wanted to put into my blogs, which meant that I had to spend more time on them.  Because of this, I would not be able to finish the blog post that I wanted to do in the amount of class time that we had to work on the blog.  I tried to overcome this by trying to spend as much free time that I had to work on my blogs.  A strength that I have in my blogs would be the amount of detail that I have in them about the book and the author.  I set a reading goal of 20 books, which was way too high for me, because I only read 5.  This is because I had lots of different activities going on, as well as other homework to do, so I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would like to read.  I used goodreads.com to keep track of my reading goal, as well as to see what my friends where saying about a book that I wanted to read, and to try and update them on the books that I was reading or have already read.  I improved as a reader over this trimester by being able to understand different types of literature and being able to make real world connections. 
Older blog post: The Fault In Our Stars Book Review 
Over the summer, I read the book The Fault in Our Stars by John Green.  Hazel, one of the main characters, starts out as a shy girl who may have depression.  Early on in the book Hazel claims that depression is not a side effect of cancer, but of dying; "But, in fact, depression is not a side effect of cancer. Depression is a side effect of dying." (Green, 1).  She rarely leaves the house, only to go to the cancer support group that she attends, where one week, she meets Augustus Waters.  Acting shy around others was how Hazel acted, but when she was invited to go to Augustus's house that same day, she couldn't say no.  Hazel starts coming out of her shy and depressed shell and becomes more and more outgoing throughout the book.  This is because of her interactions with Augustus.  Later on in the book, when Hazel and Augustus get the chance to go to Amsterdam, Hazel claims that she would have never done this before, but she ended up going with her mom and Augustus. She becomes more outgoing when interacting with other characters, as well.  When she goes to the mall and a little girl asks her what is in her nose, Hazel even asks the girl if she wanted to try them on.  "'Would they help me breath, too?'  'I dunno.  Let's try.'  I took it off and let Jackie stick the cannula in her nose and breathe.  'Tickles,' she said." (Green, 51) Becoming even more outgoing through interactions with other characters is how Hazel becomes a more complex character as the story continues on.  One of the main themes in The Fault in Our Stars is love, and Hazel contributes to that theme because she ends up falling in love with Augustus.  "I fell in love the way you sleep, slowly, then all at once." (Green, 122).  
The Fault in Our Stars article 
This article does give away spoilers, so I suggest that if you want to know just what the book is about, you should read the first 2 paragraphs.  This article explains everything that happens in the book, without all of the details that John Green includes in his book.
Better blog post: Insurgent Reading Skills
Insurgent, the sequel to the book Divergent is one of the 2 books that I am reading right now. I haven't finished the book yet, but I can already tell you that it’s a very well written book, with lots of action.
In the book so far, Tris, Tobias, Caleb, and Susan where staying at the Amity safe house. They were staying with others, such as Peter and Marcus, but later on in the book the Erudite come and try to search the Amity safe house, looking for the 6 of them, and they all run away. The Erudite chase them, and when they split up to try to lose them, gun shots are fired. I assume that Marcus is dead, because he isn't with the group any more, and the other 4 assume that Peter is dead as well, but I predict that the Erudite capture him and get him to join their side. This scene of chaos unfolded when Tris saw the Erudite cars and ran to warn others. They went to hide themselves by blending in, but that plan didn't work when one of the Erudite women saw how Tobias' hair was cut. "The Dauntless woman walking towards him looks at him right away. Her eyes narrow as she walks closer, and then stops directly behind him. I wish the collar of his shirt were higher. I wish he didn’t have so many tattoos. I wish... 'Your hair is pretty short for Amity,' she says. ... He did not cut his hair like the Abnegation. 'It’s hot,' he says. The excuse might work if he knew how to deliver it, but he says it with a snap. She stretches out her hand and, with her index finger, pulls back the collar of his shirt to see his tattoo. And Tobias moves. He grabs the woman's wrist, yanking her forward so she loses her balance. She hits her head against the edge of the tale and falls. Across the room, a gun goes off, someone screams, and everyone dives under the tables or crouches next to the benches." (Roth, 80-81). This is a quote to show that the Erudite where working with the Dauntless, and how the scene was set up. Although in real life, this maybe would've taken about 1 minute to set up, it seems as if this would take forever to get through because of the detail that Veronica Roth, the author, put into it.

I predict that towards the end of the book, there will be another large war, and the good people will win. Then everyone who was not on the bad side that is alive will try to change things to make them better, or to change things to try to keep a war like what they just went through not happen ever again. Some of the questions that I have so far are: what happened to Marcus and Peter? What is going to happen to Caleb, Tris, Tobias, and Susan? Will the war end? Who will win the war if it does end? How will the war end if it does end?

I cannot make any text to world or text to self-connections, because as far as I know, there have not been any world wars, or any wars, where people were injected with a drug that took over their minds where they were controlled to kill other people and get something that they didn't know existed. I can make a text to text connection from this book to the book that comes before it, Divergent. These books are similar because they both have the same issue, how to stop the war, and are connected basically. I could make a basic text to world connection, because some people and other countries could not value their military, just like how some people don't value the Dauntless, who are their military.

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