My Top 5 Favorite Books ♥

5 Book Links ♥

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book

http://static8.businessinsider.com/image/4f1721276bb3f72819000041/chart-of-the-day-sai-how-people-use-their-kindle-fires-jan-18-2012.jpg

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/banned-books.html

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=books&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&oe=UTF-8&rlz=1I7GZAZ_en&safe=active&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=13883255368114371237&sa=X&ei=lSdNT-PKCNTkggf_rsC1Ag&ved=0CPwBEPMCMBQ#

A Walk to Remember Review ♥

A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks is a love story about a troublesome boy named Landon Carter, who falls in love with the preacher’s daughter, Jamie Sullivan. The infamous Nicholas Sparks, who is known for writing love stories and romances created this world of falling unexpectedly in love and going through the hardships that comes with it. It was released in 1999 but holds to its readers to this day, as a novel containing powerful moments that make you cry and laugh.

Landon is 17 and lives in a small, religious town in North Carolina. His dad is a congressman who doesn’t spend much time with him. Jamie approaches Landon with an opportunity to be in the school play with her. He reluctantly accepts and prepares for one of the main roles in the play. She becomes upset when Landon doesn’t give her his full attention and tries to avoid being seen speaking to her. “Please don’t pretend like you don’t know me, okay?” Jamie whispers to Landon after having him avoid her in the hallway at school one day. Landon says back to her, “But I do, I do. We've had all the same classes in the same school since kindergarten. Why you're Jamie Sullivan. You sit at lunch table 7” (Sparks, 56). The novel is set in Landon’s point of view at the age of 57 looking back on his teenage years. The book had some strengths, such as the fact that it incorporated a tragedy at the end which set it apart from romances. This is a love story, an imperfect romance if you will.

                I would give it two stars out of five for being just ‘okay’. The reason it was just okay, is because I didn’t really like the style of the novel. Sure, it contained a tragedy which I always look forward to, but it was too cheesy. Everything was expected and bound to happen, which makes a book boring. I’m not saying that I didn’t like it; I enjoyed many parts in the story. I just didn’t appreciate the normal, boring set up of the plot. The themes (like ‘love conquers all’ and ‘faith’) seemed too predictable and obvious, which generally bore me.  On page 43, there was a funny quote that made the book seem more enjoyable: Jamie- “Are you trying to seduce me?” Landon-“Why? Are you seducible?” That made me laugh, because Jamie didn’t seem like the kind of girl that could easily be seduced. The book is a small branch on a tree of other books, being very thin and insignificant when you look at the tree as a whole. It is like a mouse that has escaped from a mouse trap, the trap being my mind. I won’t remember it five years from now, and I will be fine with that because it’s not something that resonates in my library of a mind.

I can compare this book to The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, because they are both love stories that deal with losses. Both novels are pretty short and relaxing to read, despite the tragedies that take place. Everything is quite perfect in a romance, but not in a love story. The Notebook has the same writing style as A Walk to Remember because they are both written by Nicholas Sparks. A Walk to Remember has a very common genre that is seen a lot these days in the New York Times Bestseller list. It isn’t a series which I appreciate because I don’t like having to find all of the books that are part of a series. Overall, I am happy that I got to experience this world of Landon’s, however, I wouldn’t recommend it to those who want to dive into an in depth novel.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dso2Tfye2q4&feature=related Best Scene of movie (:

My Top 5 Favorite Books ♥

Book Trailer ♥

When Landon Met Anna ♥

Landon Carter (A Walk to Remember) is a boy who is in love with Jamie, a girl with leukemia. Landon relates to Anna Fitzgerald (My Sister's Keeper), because Anna's sister also has leukemia. Jamie and Kate are both going to die, and Landon and Anna are very sad. One scene to relate between the two books would be the scene where Landon visits Jamie in the hospital and Jamie is very sick, which relates to the scene where Anna is visiting her sister in the hospital. Both of the sick characters have the same type of disease, and both are going to die for sure. A difference is that Kate has been sick ever since she was born, and Jamie just recently got sick. I feel like Landon and Anna are similar because they are both teenagers and they both understand and in a way accept the fact that their companion/friend is going to die. Landon is in love with Jamie, but Anna loves her sister in a different way. Landon was a 'bad boy' before he met Jamie, because he would stay out past his curfew and not behave well in church. But when he met Jamie, his world changed for the better and she taught him how to love unconditionally. Anna is younger than Kate, so it's very hard for Anna to understand what is going on and how to help her sister. She does know that she was made for one reason, and that is to lend her organs to Kate whenever she may need them. That pressures her and when she becomes a teenager, she realizes how wrong this is. She decides to take action by suing her parents for the right to her own body. Little does she know, this leads into a big controversy that fills the book until the end. Both books had sad parts and happy parts. I feel like both were in some way a love story, just one was between sisters instead of lovers. Landon and Anna are more similar than people may think.

Truth in Books ♥

For me, a book doesn't have to be true. I don't really care about the truthfulness of a book, just that it's good. I feel that way, because i'm not someone who looks too deeply into a book. I just read it and move on. Personally, i love to fabricate things because it makes life more interesting. Whenever i have to write a story or give a presentation which entails a story, and i'm allowed to make something up, i always do. It's hard to tell the truth when you're given that option of 'lying'. But when i'm conversing with someone, of course i tell the truth. I only fabricate when it's something i have to write or speak about, and i'm allowed to. I don't think authors should deny that they are lying, i just think that they should accept it and maybe there are some people out there like me (who will still read the book). You should tell the truth about if you're lying or not. Because lying about lying is not cool. Or maybe that doesn't matter either...? 0_o
I think half-truths are excellent! It's awesome that Frey and Mortenson may have lied about some events in their books. That's fine. It's creative and not a crime.
David Shields is right. We don't need a line between fiction and non-fiction, unless you are trying to find a reference book instead of a regular book. Other than that, i think books that are supposedly 'memoirs' can contain false events to spice it up.
So in conclusion, i don't give a flying pretzel about a book being true or not. I just don't. ^_^

Literary Fiction vs. Genre Fiction ♥

I chose the Literary Fiction vs. Genre Fiction thread. I believe genre fiction isn’t less worthy than literary fiction because they are both types of fiction and they both deserve to be worthy. Think about it this way: two people of different race. Both are equally worthy in the eyes of God. Genre Fiction isn’t less worthy in the school curriculum, because even though literary fiction is more explored in school, teachers still have a wide selection of genre fiction books in the libraries and classrooms. In my mind, there is no difference between commercial and genre fiction, because sometimes I don’t even know the difference! To be honest, I had to Google what commercial genre was…tee hee. But now I know that it is novels and short stories. Popular works are great and not any less popular or less artistic. I think books are books, just like people are people. What’s up with these different races, religions, groups, genres, types? It’s not necessary. Nobody gets to decide what good writing is. Only the writer (and that deals with confidence). No one should decide, because that starts to define a book (whether it’s good or not), which is not the importance of a book. A book’s importance deals with what it does for a person. What you walk away with from reading it. It’s fine to discuss with friends that you didn’t enjoy a book, but you don’t have to go into an argument about whether it’s good or bad. (:

Blog Post 4 ♥

Adapting my book: Creating The Lovely Bones into a movie would be challenging because it is a fictional, surreal book that you can imagine in your mind. There would have to be some special effects for the movie because Susie Salmon is a girl who dies and goes to an inbetween heaven, but sometimes comes back down to earth in spiritual ghost form and some people can see her. They would have to change that aspect of the character Susie. They would also have to change Ruth because she is messed up in ways that only the book could specify. She has visions of girls and women being murdered in different ways and it's all very disturbing. Those are some adaptions that would need to be made to my book in order for it to become a film. One scene that would have to stay is the scene where Susie comes back down to earth and meets Ray again. That scene is too important to me (even though the real film didn't include it!). Another scene that would have to stay is the scene where Mr. Harvey falls from the impact of the icicle and is buried under the snow. The last scene that would have to stay is the scene where Lindsay is going into Mr. Harvey's house and she gets out at the last minute. That is a very thrilling scene and it is important to include it into the movie. There were many characters that were introduced in The Lovely Bones that were not really important to the main story, so i would exclude three characters: Flora, Mr. Dewitt, and Sophie. I barely remember what significance those characters brought to the story, so they don't have to be included in the movie. So those are the adaptions that i would make to The Lovely Bones. (: