Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Completion Date: 7/10/2009
Rating: <3
Number of Pages: 165

My Most Memorable Quote: This book was chalk full of awesome sauce quotes. This one is just kind of explaining the government's reasoning and frame of mind.

"If you don't want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides of a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war. If the government is inefficient, topheavy, and tax-mad, better it be all those than people worry over it."

Fahrenheit 451 is rather 1984-esque. Society has made people thoughtless and narrow minded. This America is filled with lawlessness. Everything is set up for the very purpose of entertainment. Don't worry, be happy. Forget war, forget knowledge, forget anything that causes you to worry, be bored, or to think.

Montag, the protagonist, is a fireman. Not one that puts out fires, but one who starts them. His job is to burn books. Anyone caught reading or possessing books is, at the minimum, confined to a mental hospital while the books are burned by the firemen. He's always enjoyed this job, but one day he meets a girl who gets him thinking about things in a new light. Clarisse McClellen makes him start asking why. Why does he burn these books? What could be in them that is worth burning? Eventually this causes him to rebel, get caught, and go on the run.

Honestly, I found this a lot easier to grasp and understand and compare than 1894. Is it because I'm pretty much disgusted at the thought of books being burned, so I payed closer attention? Possibly. But, really, I found it very easy to compare to today's society. The main comparison is that people really are looking for the greatest convenience.

It's that kind of mind frame to which people are really subjecting themselves these days. Why should I read the DaVinci Code if I can just see the movie? BECAUSE IT MAKES YOUR BRAIN WORK. DUH. Oh my land, my computer is so slow, maybe I should upgrade so that I can get to different facebook pages quicker! GO OUTSIDE AND LIVE, YOU PANSIE! Oh, why should I care about politics? BECAUSE IT'S YOUR COUNTRY, YOUR TAXES, YOUR FUTURE. BE AWARE OF IT.

I feel like my generation is underestimating the importance of learning and thinking! People spend way more time watching Spongebob than reading books. People don't need to write letters anymore, they have e-mail. There's no need for face to face communication, we have texting. What is it that the smartest, most talented people are trying to develop these days? More convenience. Trying to make things easier and more "fun." But how can you learn the same amount when you're working so much less?

I think this book really depicts this problem very well. Ray Bradbury writes very clearly and eloquently, and though it went over my head once or twice, I feel like I got some good things out of it, and people really need to read this book. It's fantastic. :)

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Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom

Completion Date: 6/18/2009
Rating: <3
Number of Pages: 192

My Most Memorable Quote: This one was pretty difficult because there was a lot to learn in the book. I chose this one just because I felt like it. It just kind of shows how he looked at death and all that stuff.

"--he would not wither. He would not be ashamed of dying. Instead, he would make death his final project, the centerpoint of his days. 'Study me in my slow and patient demise. Watch what ahppens to me. Learn with me.' "

Tuesdays with Morrie...such a good book. So very sad, but another one of those books that you learn from. The moral of the story is, basically, that we just need to pay more attention to the important things in life; like family, and love, and just being positive and stuff.

When you read about this man whose days are running thin, who is completely dependant upon other people and can't do anything for himself, you wonder how he could not be racked with self-pity. I'm pretty sure I would be. I would pretty much pity myself all the time. I'd be embarrassed by the things people would have to do for me. He, on the other hand, was just always positive. It's absolutely amazing.

This book was very close to making me cry. It is so sad. You become attached to Morrie throughout the book, and as you read about his withering body, you feel some pain. At least, I did. But honestly, it's spectacular. I could read this book a million times over. If you haven't read this book, I'm sorry, but you have to.

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The Prophet by Khalil Gibran

Completion Date: 6/11/2009
Rating: *
Number of Pages: 96

My Most Memorable Quote: This one was a toughie; There are just so many amazing quotes in this book! I almost want to do them all but . . . that would be a lot. So! I'm just going to do two. The first of which just kind of hit me because I just moved and I've found it to be true.

"Ever has it been that love knows not it's own depth until the hour of separation."

The second is when the Prophet was asked about joy and sorrow, and he goes on to explain that they are interwoven; You can not have joy without sorrow. I loved this quote, I thought it was just so cool and explains joy and sorrow really well, and kind of turns sorrow into a more positive thing.

"The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain."

Well, I love The Prophet in a different way than how I love Pride and Prejudice; There are so many lessons you learn from it. It's absolutely incredible. While Pride and Prejudice just gives me warm fuzzies because I love Mr. Darcy, The Prophet just leaves me in awe of all the things I can learn from it. This book explains emotions such as love, joy, pain, and sorrow; but it also explains things like beauty, buying, houses, clothing . . .. Somehow or another, he always finds a way to bring it back to religion and God, or applying it to your own goodness, and it's amazing! I mean, really, I was encaptured in the words I was reading; Trying my best to apply it to myself and to learn from it. I really liked, at the end, when he says,

"Less than a promise have I given, and yet more generous have you been to me.
You have given me my deeper thirsting after life.
Surely there is no greater gift to a man than that which turns all his aims into parching lips and all life into a fountain.
And in this lies my honour and my reward, --
That whenever I come to the fountain to drink I find the living water itself thirsty; And it drinks me while I drink it."

It's crazy, I know. I still have to read it a million times to even get any understanding out of it. I mean, that really is a gift and I don't think anyone really thinks about that. That metaphor right there goes pretty far over my head, and every time I think about it, I get different meanings from it, but I think that's what's so great about it.

Well, this was just an intense book. I'll definitely have to read it again when I'm older and have more of an understanding of life and things like that, but I really learned a lot from it right now. I would suggest it to most people. :)

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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

Completion Date: 6/9/2009
Rating: <3
Number of Pages: 367

My Most Memorable Quote (New to the blog!): Yeah, that's right, I'm going with the famous first line. It's just completely epic and very possibly the greatest first line in the whole wide world. It just immediately takes you into the story and tells you what's up. So here it is, My Most Memorable Quote of Pride and Prejudice:

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

If you know me, you know that I love this book with a passion. I am such a girl, I know, but it's just amazing! The book is extremely well written, Jane Austen is a genius. You know, I can't help but love the story. It's so romantic, and as much as I like to pretend that I'm a tough, awesome sauce baller, I am also a hopeless romantic. The story just flows beautifully. The characters are just so well developed; you feel for all of them. You feel their embarassment, you feel their pain, you feel their joy . . . SO GOOD.

Well, the story is just incredible. Elizabeth is strong, independent, witty, and just awesome sauce. Mr. Darcy is so proud, but just so incredibly amazing! Their relationship is developed so well, I just love it. My heart melts every time I read that ending . . . .

Well, it's just an amazing book. Many people think that this book is just for girls, but I would respect anyone for reading Pride and Prejudice. It's a wonderful book!


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Wicked by Gregory Maguire

Completion Date: 5/26/2009
Rating: *
Number of Pages: 519

I'm not really in the mood to write an especially long or deep review about this book. Sorry. I mean, I definitely could say some stuff in this review, but I'm really not into it.

So! Basically this book is extremely different from the musical. Not especially happy. I mean, it was a good book. It may have gone a tad over my head at points, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It really puts the whole Wizard of Oz thing in a whole new light. It shows that, though Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) was wicked, her intentions weren't such. She had her beliefs, she just carried them out in a more...rude...way. Another thing I liked about this book was that it confronts the nature of evil and good vs. evil a lot, and it's really iteresting to read. It makes your brain work extra hard.

There are some things that I certainly did not like very much in this book. Sex and language were the main things. The Turtle Heart/Melena affair, a few F bombs, Fiyero and Elphaba's affair, were a few of the...risque things that occurred. The thing that I really didn't appreciate very much was describing the night at the Philosophy club in such detail. Very little was gained from that. I suppose that it was just to explain what happened to Tibbit, but Gregory Maguire certainly gave me a little too much information, in my opinion. I can see how Fiyero and Elphaba's affair was necissary to the story, and I didn't mind that too terribly much, but describing human/Animal sex did not make me happy. I'm just warning people that this is not an innocent book in the slightest. Just beware before venturing into the book.

You know, I mostly really liked the book. It's very well written, and it shows that even the Wicked Witch of the West has a soul (even if she, herself, doesn't think she does). All she wanted is forgiveness. It teaches an excellent lesson, and it really is very entertaining. I will admit that this book is certainly not for everyone, so just proceed with caution. :D

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A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah

Completion Date: 3/26/2009
Rating: *
Number of Pages: 240

So...I've decided that perhaps I've been going into a little bit too much detail on these book things. What I mean by that is that I give you pretty much the entire plot of the book. Mostly. Shouldn't I be letting you find out for yourself? I mean...if it's a good book, I wouldn't want people ruining the plot for me. Anyway, I'll probably just go into a little less detail for you.

A Long Way Gone is a true story. It's a memoir...duh. It's even in the title. Anyway! It's a very sad story about a boy who is running from the Revolutionary Union Front (RUF or rebels) in the country Sierra Leone. He is eventually put into the army to fight these rebels. His experience there is absolutely brutal and takes away his humanity, really.

He is in the army for a while before he gets taken out and put into a rehabilitation program. He finds family and eventually goes to New York City to live. There's a lot more to the story, and it's really fascinating to see how this boy learned to be a boy again, rather than just a soldier. Yes, it's very sad at some moments and rather gruesome at others, it's a very good book and is highly recommended by me. :)

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A Separate Peace by John Knowles

Completion Date: 3/16/2009
Rating: <3
Number of Pages: 204

A Separate Peace by John Knowles is really an incredible book. It takes place in the early 1940's at Devon, a boarding school in New Hampshire. World War II is raging on and this book shows how the seniors at Devon see the war and deciding whether to enlist.

The main characters in this story are Gene Forrester, the narrator, and Phineas, or Finny, Gene's best friend. Their personalities really aren't especially similar, Finny being more athletic and carefree as opposed to Gene who takes life more seriously and is an extremely good student. But they are best friends. The story also follows a few other characters, though not as heavily, the main ones being Brinker Hadley and Elwin "Leper" Lepellier. An accident occurs that incapacitates Finny, and this book follows how Gene and Finny lived through the summer and fall sessions at Devon and how they mature in who they are and in their take on the war.

I refuse to spoil the plot of such a magnificant book because people should really just read it. I was captured into the story from the beginning. A Separate Peace is not only extremely entertaining to read, but it also contains in it's pages many important lessons you can learn. I probably could've just read the whole book in a night if it weren't for facebook (yes, that is my weakness). If you have not read this book, read it. I doubt you will be disappointed.

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