Friday, January 28, 2011

Inkheart Book Review

 Cornelia Funke's book, Inkheart, grabs my attention and leads me into a great book.

A theme of this book would be that people always need to think about their actions and if they were to make a mistake then they should try to correct them. In this book Meggie's father, Mo, read aloud from a book, Inkheart, and his magic releases a character from the book. Mo needed to think about what he was doing releasing the character into the world. Meggie now has to rewrite the story that has changed her life due to her father's actions. Really, Mo should have been the one correcting his own mistakes.

I like the author's reading style of this book, it has put me on the edge a few times. The book kept my attention and it was easy for me to keep reading until the end. I stayed interested in this book and it was an easy book to read, level wise. It was a bit longer than my normal book, but was good.

I can compare this book to a Harry Potter book. There are many villains within both books. Characters want to capture the villain and solve the problems the villain has created. The characters think that once the villain is captured then the problems will be solved, while that does happen most of the time sometimes it does not work out like they had initially planned. The plan is to find the villain and capture him and take him back, but it is not as easy as it sounds.

I would recommend this book to any fantasy book lover. This book has a lot of make believe situations in it, but is still not a cartoon. The overall scene of this book is imagined. If you love stories about villains and people trying to capture them, this would be a great book for you to read.

576 pages = 3 books

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

My Theme Word for 2011

My theme word for 2011 is optimism. I want to be very optimistic throughout 2011. If I go through life being pessimistic then I will not go very far and be someone honorable. Being optimistic is more than just keeping your head up, it is reaching out and affecting others too. Not only do I want to stay happy and let good opportunities come to me but I also want good outcomes for others as well. When I have opportunities in front of me I want to be able to take them and succeed with them.

When I have optimism I will have hope for myself and others, hope that everything goes well and hope that everyone will be able to do what they want to be able to do. Last year I was always stressed about everything. This year if I just take a breather and be a little less stressed I can be looking at the brighter side of things. Last year I would also always assume the worst for everything. This year I need to think about a good outcome for situations rather than just assume the worst first thing.

Being optimistic can help me through this year and years to come if I am just able to follow through with it. Not only is this a theme word for me but it can also be a very good theme word for others as well. If everyone were to be a little more optimistic throughout life then this world would be better place.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Me, Myself and Ike Book Review

K.L. Denman's book, Me, Myself and Ike, is probably the best book the I have read lately.

A theme of this book would be that you don't always have to do what you are told. In the book, Kit Latimer's friend Ike, tells Kit to do many things. Some of these things were to steal a Blackberry from a store. Kit has hesitations about it but then follows through with the plan and stole the phone. Ike also tells Kit to break into his parent's liquor cabinet and get vodka out of it, Kit does so. Listening to others can sometimes be good but there are too many times that it is bad, so always go with your gut feeling and do what is right.

In this book the main character is Kit Latimer. He is a teenage boy that used to be happy. He had a wonderful girlfriend and he was close to his friends, and extremely close to his family. Now Kit is under the influences of Ike. Ike is very persuasive in convincing Kit to do bad things. Kit once a good kid, now has a secret from everyone except Ike. Ike is going along with Ike in his secret mission.They both do some bad things in order to complete the mission.

I can make a few connections to this book. In this book Kit falls into the trap of peer pressure. Peer pressure is a very big thing in this world right now. Everyday everyone is tempted to do something that they may necessarily may not want to do. For example, Last week I witnessed a guy trying to convince his friend to steal an item from a gas station. Its against the law and the friend knew better than to do it. Kit stole the Blackberry from the phone store and he knew it was wrong and was very paranoid about it.

I would recommend this book to everyone. It is a very easy book to read and it is short. For short book lovers, this would be a great book for them to read. Even to people that like longer books, this will still be a good book. This is a very good book and I would not mind reading it again.

192 pages = 1 book

Thursday, January 6, 2011

New Year, New Goals

In the year 2011 I hope to achieve many goals. I hope to keep good grades, read more, and run more. In doing all three, it would benefit me greatly. These three goals that I have set are small but very important.

Keeping good grades is probably the most important goal that I have set. When my grades are all A's it will return to be very rewarding. Keeping to good grades will boost my GPA and help me get into college. Every kid wants to get in to college, I just want to ensure that I will be accepted to the college that I want to learn at. Not only is keeping my grades high important for college but it is also important so that I pass the class and can move on to 12th grade.

Reading is something that I struggle with. I do not read near enough. This results in my reading level not being where it should be. I never have been very interested in reading. Reading is crucial to passing all English classes. Not only is reading important for school but I will be reading my entire life whether it is signs, directions, a newspaper, or instructions. It will be very hard to get through life if I can not read very well.

I love to run. Running is one of my favorite hobbies. While I do not much time to run, I still like to when I can. I love to run long distances. If I am able to manage my time better I will then find time to run. Running will keep me healthy and feeling better. I always love the feeling when I have just finished running three or so miles. While running I also like listening to music so I guess running relaxes me.