Blog Post #2

A Book is a Canvas

What is a book? A book is a canvas. An empty one to be specific. You have the freedom to paint the picture as you please given the story line. When reading the book, you develop images in your mind of what you think you are reading. In essence, what the movie scene would look like. The book itself tells you what to paint. How you decide to do that is completely up to you. Imagine you’re a famous painter known all over the world. You have a request to paint a picture of a park. There are millions of parks in the world that you could base your painting off of, or you could always just make up your own. Now come back to reality and focus on the book in your hands. The book is your request, your script, your empty canvas, and you have the power to paint the picture however you choose. No one else is going to have the exact same painting as you do, it will be uniquely your ideas, your creativity.

One of the opinions that I really agree on of the authors was how the physicality of the book is important. I hate the idea that books someday might be hard to get hold of due to Kindles, iPads, etc. When Tom Piazza comments on how a book has weight, he’s absolutely right. There is an obvious difference between a 200 page short story and a 1000 page novel. The sense of accomplishment that I get when I read a longer book feels good, and I like to put it back on my shelf with a little wear and tear. I also agree with Nancy Jo Sales when she talks about the history of a particular book, and how it could have been passed down through generations, with messages in the margins intended for great-great-grandchildren. That quality of books is important to me because I have some books in my possession that have been passed down to me and when I eventually have kids, I’ll pass them down once again. I don’t agree with Joe Meno when he compares books in any form and says they are all similar in the way that they are a “place”. To me, it is extremely different to flip actual pages in a paper book than to press a button on a screen that says next. I get more engaged in the book and as the amount that I have left to read gets less, I can see that and it makes me more excited to finish the book. I know that the words in a book are the same no matter what form they come across in, but books are in some way “magical”. They take you away from reality for the time you read, and allow you to escape into a world that’s not your own. The feeling of curling up with a good book and a blanket, with the smell of the fresh pages, is something that always makes me more relaxed.

Book 1 Project



Book 1 Project: The Hunger Games

My idea is to create a video game that allows you to experience The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins, in the most realistic way possible. The players would be able to participate in the reaping, in which they would be chosen as a tribute, then go through the training required prior to the games themselves. Through the training, they would determine their best skill and then before the games begin, demonstrate that skill in front of the judges, just like Katniss and the rest of the 24 tributes did in the book. Because you have to give the judges a good show, it is important to take the training seriously in order to perform at your best abilities when it matters. When in it is time to enter into the arena, the same principle of the 60 second rule will come into play, and when the time is up you have the option to fight for supplies. Then it’s time to win. You will be able to do whatever it takes to win the Hunger Games. Just like the tributes, you will have a kill list and various other stats that will appear at the bottom of your screen. An overall score based on hiding and hunting tactics, resourcefulness, and just plain staying alive will determine the number of sponsors if any that you receive. The obvious goal is to win and stay alive in order to return back to your district with new found respect and a higher quality of life.

The video game would encompass many of the aspects in The Hunger Games novel. Because both the game and book are focused on the same thing, the two would be very relatable. Before and during the reaping, Katniss is overcome with anxiety and fear that she will be chosen. Katniss explains, “The word tribute is pretty much synonymous with the word corpse” (22). During the setup of the game, you can enter your real name into a database so that when you are chosen at the reaping, it will be more personal.  Although the players of the video game will know that they are going to be chosen at the reaping, the feeling of your actual name being called on the screen will create some anxiety in the player. One scene from the book that relates directly to my idea is when Katniss has her first kill of the boy who plunges a spear into Rue. The reality of the games begins to sink in as she adds her first kill to the list. During her realization, she is filled with mixed emotions. “Then I realize…he was my first kill. Along with other statistics they report to help people place their bets, every tribute has a list of kills” (243). The players list of kills will grow throughout the games, obviously based on how many fellow tributes you kill. The overall major goal is to be as realistic as possible in all aspects of the video game, and in order to do that you have to have the players go through everything that the characters in the book go through. In addition to this, obstacles will be a setback for some when the game makers put them into effect at random times. At the conclusion of the games, if you have won, the exact same announcement as in the book will boom through your television set. Claudius Templesmith announced, “I am pleased to present the victors of the seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark!”(345). In the case that you do not win and are killed during the action in the arena, you will be given a quick overview of how the games turned out and who killed who, and then you will be free to begin a new journey.

This idea will work because readers around the world have become fascinated with The Hunger Games and all that it is about. Almost every person that you ask in a random survey has read or is reading one of the three novels. Obviously, the books have become extremely popular in a relatively short amount of time and anything outside of reading that relates to them will certainly spark peoples’ interests to a new level. When I was reading the book myself, I often wondered what it would be like to be in the position of the character and be forced by your own government to fight others just like you to the death. That thought has without a doubt crossed the minds of hundreds of thousands of other readers and this video game will finally give them a chance to find out in a sense what it actually is like. People will hopefully become just as attached to the new game as they did to the books, movie and characters.

Blog Post #1

Reasons I Read

I've thought about why I read many times and can't come to one conclusion. Reading isn't something that I do on a regular basis for pleasure because of a busy schedule, and a lack of initial motivation, but I wish that I did more of it.


First off, reading is relaxing. Whenever I pick up a good book and start reading, I start to get lost in it and all my stress goes away. It becomes a different world away from normal life that I can go to. This only usually happens though when I read alone in a quiet place so that I can focus all of my thoughts on the book. The best place to read for me is on the beach, lying under the sun with a small breeze in the air. Everything is peaceful there, with nothing to worry about.


 In my opinion, the best books to read are the ones that you can relate the most to your own life. That doesn't mean that you won't enjoy a novel that is the polar opposite of your reality, but for me I get more into the books when I know how it feels to be in a similar situation.


 I also feel smarter after I read a book. Reading makes me think in a way that I don't normally do. I have to analyze the characters, plot, setting, and conflict and somehow tie everything together so that the story makes sense. A lot of times I have trouble comprehending what is going on during a book, because I'll get caught up in something else that happened that day and my mind will wander. I hate when this happens and end up having to reread what I just "read", so that I actually know what's happening.


 Another time when I like to read is whenever it's raining outside. I like the sound the rain makes against the house and it helps me relax and get into the book. Rain also helps me sleep though, so sometimes when I read during a rainy night, I fall asleep mid-sentence. One time, my family went camping and the night we went there was a terrible rainstorm with torrential downpours throughout the night. Before we left for the campground, I packed up my 30+ Junie B. Jones books. By the time that we left in the morning, I had read fifteen of them, one book every half hour or so. So the main reason that I read is to relax and enjoy myself, which is to me what books are made for in the first place.