Books can have a major impact on people's lives and over the course of taking this class and being able to read books that I can choose, I have a newfound appreciation for them. Never in my time reading has a book kept me interested and on the edge of my seat like the DaVinci Code and Lord of the Flies and I had never read a book that genuinely made me laugh quite like The Martian. Some of the ways that I believe that books can benefit people are that they can relate to their readers, they can help the reader escape from the real world, and even expand their views of the world.

Relating to readers: From the time that I started reading I have always come across books that had some very relatable topics such as being alone, having to think on your feet and trying to fit in. Books like Divergent, The Martian, and Ender's Game contained these veery problems and showed how the main characters were able to overcome their hardships. While reading Divergent I was constantly inspired by how Tris would push herself to the limit in order to be able to join the Dauntless faction and how after she made it in, she was celebrated and treated like family by all of the other members. This reminded me of my school experience where I really try to make friends with everyone and how this year all of my closest friends really seemed like one big family that was always supportive of each other. Also, I felt like I could relate to Mark Watney's character in The Martian because of his goofy nature and how he was able to solve many of his problems by thinking outside the box. The book was written mostly from the perspective of Mark through the reading of his mission log over the time he was on Mars with the occasional change of perspective to show what was going on at NASA. However, for the most part, his mission log was made up of his uncensored thought process and I actually felt like I was reading something that would have come straight from my own mind. One of my favorite quotes had to be from the part where everyone on earth was trying to fathom what Mark could possibly be thinking while being stranded on Mars and it said, "How come Aquaman can control whales? They're mammals! makes no sense," (Weir ch 6). That quote made me laugh so hard because thats something that I would end up thinking if I was stranded in the middle of nowhere. Also, I could really relate to Ender's ability to think outside the box and come up with solutions to problems that nobody else would think of. During Ender's Game, there was a quote that really stood out to me while Ender was talking to a member of his army named Bean. He told him, "I need you to think of solutions to problems we haven't seen yet. I want you to try things that no one has ever tried because they're absolutely stupid,” (Card ch 11). This is something that I really related to because whenever I get stuck on a problem, I always try to find new ways to try to solve them even if it may seem like something that would never work no matter what.

Escaping From Reality: Many times when I am having a bad day or even if I was bored, I would pick up the book I had to read and immediately be enveloped in the unique and incredible worlds that the authors created for their readers. I often remember when I was younger and was reading the Harry Potter series with my mom, reading Divergent or even reading Ender's Game, I would always dream of being a part of their worlds and trying to live my own life as one of them. After all, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who has dreamed of going off to Hogwarts to live a life of magic and wizardry. Also, I thought it would be the coolest thing to be sent up to space and fight the battles that Ender was fighting at the battle school especially because I have always wanted to know what zero gravity felt like. Finally, I also found the Dauntless faction to be another cool world to be in because I want to learn to fight and I believe that even though it would be hard work, they all seemed to have a lot of fun times together and they treated their members as one big family. I feel like by being able to read books, you allow your mind to be filled with new dreams and ideas that can help you to deal with stress and truly appreciate the thought and creativity that went into writing these books.

Expanding Views of the World: I believe that books such as Divergent, The Lord of the Flies, and The DaVinci code really opened my mind to different views of the world. At first, the world of Divergent may seem pretty fun on the surface, however when you take a closer look, you see that the world is full of corruption and what the world could have possibly been. It's books like this and The Hunger Games which really make me appreciate the world how it is now. I couldn't even imagine a world where you are split into individual factions or districts and not be able to interact with any of them, however, I would have to say the same thing if their world was ours. When I read dystopian novels, I often find myself wondering wether I would enjoy living in their world and say the same thing about our own. Then again, I wonder how we would survive if there was no order in the world such as in Lord of the Flies. In this book, kids are left stranded on an island and in their struggle to survive, the vast majority lose their sense of humanity and order to the point where they kill each other and worship a false Idol that they refer to as the monster. In a world like this, everything would be chaos and I'm not sure how anyone would survive. These are all very extreme cases of the world changing, but then I look to The DaVinci Code which is set in our world and try to imagine if there are really secret organizations operating in the shadows that are protecting us from secrets that could destroy the very fabric of our beliefs. These all are real possibilities and I find it pretty crazy that some of these worlds could have existed instead of ours. Overall, I enjoyed indulging myself in these worlds and really look forward to reading more books like these.

My First book that I read that was out of my comfort zone was Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell. This teen romance novel tells the story of a young pair of teens named Eleanor and Park and how they struggle to keep their first relationship afloat despite the discrimination and harassment from both their classmates and Eleanor's abusive stepdad Richie.
Personally, although I really didn't like the idea of reading some sappy teen love story, I thought the book was well written and could really send the reader on an emotional rollercoaster if they really got connected with the characters. Some of the strengths of the book would have to be its writing style and ability to sympathize with most people around the main character's age group who may be experiencing some of the problems that the main characters are going through within the novel. This book's writing style is one that switches narration between Park and Eleanor at each new chapter. Due to this unique style of writing, the story is told from both perspectives, appealing to a wider range of readers. Next, the book really sympathizes to those who are going through problems or who are feeling a little bit down by telling an inspirational story of overcoming obstacles in an effort to help each other. Since Eleanor is the new kid at Park's highschool, she has to deal with constant bullying based on how she looks and tells about how she is able to deal with them. Some of the weaknesses that I found in this book would have to be its somewhat guessable plot and the fact that there isn't very many plot twists or elements that would make it more interesting. I feel as if the pace of the novel was pretty monotonous and that I could in some cases know exactly what would happen before I read that far in the book. Also, considering I really enjoy books that keep me on the edge of my seat, this book really wasn't too enjoyable for me to read overall. If anything, I'd probably recommend this book to young adults who would preferably be in high school because I feel that the book goes over some sensitive topics that younger readers may not be comfortable with reading and that it would be the time when the reader would connect most with the plot of the book.
This book was way out of my comfort zone given my background in solely reading sci-fi or action/thriller books. This book slowly ended up growing on me and although it wasn't my absolute favorite book, it wasn't the worst book I've read. This book didn't have too big of an impact on my reading preference but I feel like it was a genre that I would eventually end up reading anyways. Honestly, I really didn't enjoy reading this book and I probably won't be reading another book within this genre anytime soon unless it is necessary for school. I would much rather be reading a book that makes me want to keep reading rather than one that felt like more of a chore than fun.

For about three days of class, we watched the movie Jane Austen's Book Club. Personally, I didn't particularly enjoy the film considering I'm not one who particularly enjoys books and also thought the movie was pretty boring.Some of its strengths were that it showed how books can be used to express ones emotions through the constant quoting during the film, and the fact that books can be a way of meeting new people and bringing people together. The whole plot of the movie revolved around the idea of relating to and discussing Austen's books which can be considered both a strength and a weakness in my opinion. On one hand, people who have read the books can easily relate to their ideas and on the other hand, people who have never read the books are left clueless.  In the movie, each character was supposed to represent the main character of the books they were reading, however, we had never actually read anything by Jane Austen. I can't really take much from this movie either way because not only did I not understand what they were talking about, I also wasn't able to watch most of the second half of it either.

During the movie, there were some points where each character stepped out of their comfort zones in order to expand their horizons. One person who displayed this attribute from the start of the film was Grigg, the lone man in the book club. For starters, he chose to join the book club that was all about a genre of book that he knew nothing about. He was invited to the club by Jocelyn and was brave enough to read an out of comfort zone book as well as try to be in an all girl club. In Grigg's case, he ended up thoroughly enjoying the new genre and really was enjoying the book club and spending time with the girls. Another time that Grigg stepped out of his comfort zone was when he gave Sylvia a chance at going on a date. Unlike the other time he stepped out of his comfort zone, this lead to Sylvia actually going back to her ex-husband and Jocelyn ended up falling for Grigg in the process.
This movie expresses the power of books and their ability to help people and bring them together. One example of books helping people through their lives would be when Sylvia ends up trying to make her marriage work with her ex-husband again because she read the book Mansfield Park in which the main character is tempted in falling in love with another person but ends up staying true to her heart and marrying the person she originally loved. This book club also manages to bring together six unlikely friends together to get to know each other and discuss ideas about not only books, but about their lives as well.

For this group reading project, we decided to read The DaVinci Code, a book which fell under the suspense and thriller genre. I would describe this genre as an action book that somewhat verges on the edges of horror and detective fiction. These books usually center around one major conflict and small events that build up tension and eventually lead to a grand event at the end of the book that makes everything come full circle and is the major confrontation between the protagonist and antagonist. What specifically appeals to me about these books are the fact that they usually leave you on the edge of your seats and make you constantly think about how the author will be able to tie everything into a sound conclusion. Furthermore, I also enjoy how the authors are able to create somewhat of an emotional connection to the main characters as the book progresses which make the stressful and dangerous situations they get into impact you as a reader. Within this genre, I have read a multitude of books such as the Divergent series, To Kill a Mockingbird, some of John Grisham's novels. In the future I might read a few more books by Dan Brown such as Angels and Demons. What I found interesting about this genre was that movies such as Austin Powers were considered as suspense.

For our book we read The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. Some of the genre traits that were evident throughout the book were the villain's perspective, the peril and danger that the main characters were in and the high risk behind their adventure. I honestly consider this book to be one of my favorite books of all time because it really kept me guessing at how it would end, but also was written in a way that I could almost believe that the story was real. I would definitely recommend this book to others because unlike most other thrillers that may be set in a place that doesn't really exist, this book involves real events in history and it really showed that the author researched the topic immensely in order to write this story.
One of the genres that seemed to interest me the most had to be the graphic novel genre. Considering that they are starting to become more popular, I have taken an interest into reading them but have never really gotten the chance. I feel as though it will be a different experience entirely from reading a normal book because I won't have to try to picture everything happening in my head as I read. I plan to read the book Watchmen later as well as the Scott Pilgrim series because my friends have said that they were all really fun to read. I learned that these books are not like comic books and that they can be about anything unlike the common thought that they are all about superheroes.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth is a science-fiction novel that follows the story of a girl named Tris who has just escaped from the evil plan of the Erudite to overthrow the faction system. Tris, along with her friends Tobias and Susan and her brother Caleb have to work together in order to prevent their civilization as they know it from falling into chaos. The book is set in the distant future in a post-apocalyptic society that has been divided into factions in order to maintain peace and has been cut off from the outside world. Within the futuristic society the factions Abnegation and Erudite have had a long-standing conflict between each other and Tris is caught between the two when Erudite makes the first move and attacks.
I am reading this book because after reading the first novel in the series Divergent, I was left on the edge of my seat leading up to the end of the book and wanted to pick up where I had left off by reading Insurgent. So far, some of the weaknesses that I have seen in the book is that the plot started off very slow in contrast to how the last book ended and that I feel that Tris is becoming more of a supporting character rather than the most important. Some of the strengths, however, are the continued action and constant conflict throughout the book with some nicely added plot twists which tie characters that had been left behind in the first book back into the plot of this one. I feel that the recommendation given to me was fairly accurate by saying that the book starts up pretty slow, but after a while gets better.
I feel that anyone who liked books such as those in the Hunger Games series would enjoy these books because they both have somewhat of a similar dystopian world and have strong female leading characters who share similar traits. This book is similar to the first book in the series but i feel like now that people understand the backstory of the faction system and no longer have to introduce the theme and characters, the author is free to throw in any number of plot twists and life-changing events than in the first book. Overall, I give this book a thumbs-up because even though it was initially a slow read, the book has slowly gotten better and almost to the point where I could say that it was as good as the first book in the series.

After reading Divergent by Veronica Roth I would have to say that I really enjoyed the story. Initially, I thought it was going to be something along the lines of a worse version of The Hunger Games series, but after reading a few chapters, I slowly got hooked. This book well exceeded my expectations and was a very enjoyable read. Although some of the plot was predictable such as the attack on Abnegation using the simulations, it still threw me for some twists and turns along the way. I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of The Hunger Games  as it has a similar dystopian structure with a strong female main character. Also, the book is full of action and kept me on the edge of my seat wanting more.
In my opinion the film was a disappointment compared to the book. I feel like the whole plot was very rushed and the parts that they did end up focusing on came across as very forced. Some of the similarities between the film and the book were the fact that Jeannine was accurate to the books description as condescending and devious, all while keeping calm and collected Also, I enjoyed how the Dauntless as a faction were portrayed in the movie as it captured their free-spirited attitude and energy throughout the movie. Overall, it was a mediocre film at best because they never went into detail of the initiation process and how it truly pushed them to the limit and couldn't quite capture the character of Tris being strong when she needed to instead of the random bravery she showed in the movie.
I am glad that I was both able to read this book and watch the movie adaptation. I often try to read books before watching their movie counterparts because I feel that if I had watched this movie before reading the book, I would have never read it. I plan to take away the fact that I truly prefer the book over the movie and to never watch that movie again. In my opinion, if anyone wants to know the story of divergent, they shouldn't even bother with the movie and just read the books instead.

1. When I think back to my childhood, the book that really stands out the most in my mind is none other than Captain Underpants. What really stood out in this book above the rest was the fact that it wasn't like any other book in the past. While most books were just words written on the page, I enjoyed the way that this book allowed you to interact through its many flip-o-ramas and made you laugh with all of its immature jokes. This was one of the few books that I feel really just let kids have fun and encouraged them to have fun and goof off. It taught me that school wasn't all about work, but should be treated like an adventure and to let the fun moments last for as long as you can.

2. A character that I identify with would probably be Katniss Everdeen from the Hunger Games. I believe that people should be free to choose their own path and believe that I have the same protective attitude towards my friends and family. Constantly throughout the series, Katniss shows cleverness such as when she used the tracker jackers to get rid of the careers that were chasing her or using the apples to blow up their food supply. Furthermore, she has a leave nobody behind mood to getting through the games. Whenever one of her friends gets hurt or has to rest, she never goes on ahead or wants to leave them behind, but helps them through their struggles. Personally, I believe that I am a creative thinker that can find solutions to problems quite easily and am always someone who tries to help a friend if they need help or don't understand something.

3. A book that I would highly recommend to friends is The Martian by Andy Wier. This is a novel about an astronaut named Mark Watney who is in quite the interesting predicament having been recently stranded on Mars with the next ship arriving months later. The story is told from Mark's mission log which allows the reader to know exactly what he is thinking and truly get to know Mark while also being put in his footsteps along his journey to get off Mars. Some of the great qualities to this book are Watney's humorous, optimistic nature and all of the science and thought process behind his problem-solving. The novel is full of twists and turns where one moment you think he will survive and then suddenly be on the edge of death. This book is a must-read book and I would recommend it to anyone interested in sci-fi and survival stories.

4. The top book on my must read list for this year is probably Insurgent by Veronica Roth. This is the second book in the Divergent series in which a society has been created in order to prevent war. Within the story, there are five factions that were created to each get rid of one of the "traits of the corrupt" which include cowardliness, selfishness, violence, deception, and ignorance. The five factions are Dauntless, Abnegation, Amity, Candor, and Erudite respectively. The story is told from the perspective of a young woman named Tris who was originally from the Abnegation but had her life changed when she underwent her choosing ceremony. I really want to read the second book in this series because I enjoyed the first book due to its fast paced plot and that there was always something happening with little time in between events, creating a fuller story. Many times I believe that I could be in the same position as Tris and enjoyed finding out how she would solve the next problems that would come her way.

5. My favorite book that went to the screen was probably Q and A. This is one of the few books that I thought was very accurate to the events that happened in the book. I enjoyed the fact that they were able to capture the pressure that Ram was facing during the competition and the humorous aspects like the time he made money by giving fake tours of the Taj Mahal. This book opened my eyes to the many struggles in other countries such as poverty and abuse faced by children that were my age. Although it did scare me in a sense, I was glad to have read the book and see it adapted so well into a movie.

6. My favorite book that I have read so far in school has to be Fahrenheit 451. This was the first real dystopian world that I was introduced to besides the Hunger Games and I saw the many negative effects of censorship. This book really challenged my views of books and how important they really are in both keeping history and spreading ideas to people. I also enjoyed the fact that even though this book was written quite a while ago, that we could still relate to the author's predictions for the future. The idea that we are slowly becoming more self absorbed and obsessed with technology is a real growing concern that should be addressed.

7. My favorite coming of age book was Lord of the Flies because it not only showed the side of human cooperation for survival, but also humanity's savage and animalistic side. At the beginning of the book, the main character Ralph and all of the other kids don't care about what they need to do and nobody takes responsibility over keeping them all alive. However, once Ralph and the others are unable to signal a distant fire since their fire went out, Ralph slowly starts to take charge of the group and organizing parties to preform all the necessary tasks to survive such as gathering food and water and building shelters. While half of the group turns to primal instinct, Ralph matures fast and tries to use civilized methods to survive and overcome the madness that has engulfed the other kids' minds.

I do not read very many books and have never really been too fond of reading in general. Ever since I started reading, I never thought it was too bad until we had to read lots of assigned books for school.  I often find it very hard to read books that don't have very much action or occurrences within the plot, but ever since I have been able to choose the books that I get to read, I have found them to be a bit more enjoyable. Whenever I think of reasons why i haven't liked books in the past, it is probably because I haven't really connected with most of the books that we have read in school. However, since I can choose my own books, I intend to at least try to read around 5 or so books during this class.
The genres that I prefer are genres such as adventure, action, mystery, science-fiction and war books. I mostly read books that have at least some element of comedy or intricate plot development so I really have to think while I read. Some of my favorite books include the Hunger Games series, Unbroken, Fahrenheit 451 and The Great Gatsby. I mostly read outside an in places with some kind of background noise that isn't people talking such as on the beach or in my backyard.
Some of the books that I plan on reading this year are The Lock Artist and American Sniper. I feel that the perspective from which the lock artist is written, a boy without certain senses, will be an interesting read an help me to widen my perspectives on how different people think. I also believe that I will enjoy American Sniper because it is a war book and that it is base on a true story. I really enjoy reading about personal experiences from the authors of war books because they mostly make it seem like they are right in the middle of the action.
Currently, I am reading The Martian by Andy Weir which is about a man who has recently been stranded on mars. I am really enjoying this book not only because of Weir's sense of humor, but also the scientific thinking that goes along with it. Throughout the novel you really get to experience what Mark is thinking and imagine the struggles he goes through.