Final Blog Asssessment

For my final blog assessment in my Honors English 1B class, I had to write about my writing voice for once of my blogs, I chose this one:

 So as you can see, I have seriously been putting off reading The Abundance of Katherines by John Green. It's not that I don't like this book, okay maybe a little bit. But I mean it's kind of really boring right now! I can't relate to most of the characters, the plot is dull and has been going on for quite some time now, and I'm just not interested. I don't know. I didn't think these words would ever be coming out of my mouth about my favorite author, but I guess it just happens. Colin wants to figure everything out, while I'm more prone to just sit back and let things happen with no question. Lindsay is the kind of person who usually always gets what she wants and is very assertive. Again, in other words, I'm just pretty lazy. I guess I'm most relatable to Hassan because he just kind of goes with the flow until he really can't take it anymore, and then he lets his feelings out. I'm actually exactly like that, so I mean that's probably why I like Hassan best. But Hassan might not be enough to keep me reading this book. Colin is my least favorite character and don't think that will change. The book mostly focuses on him, so you can see why I'm not very interested. I mean, would you be interested if you had to read about a narcassistic brainiac who doesn't have any other passions beside Latin and formulas and getting dumped by girls by the name of Katherine? I don't think so.

Another reason I may be dumping this book is because I haven't read for a REALLY long time. And I'm not even exaggerating when I say it might be over two weeks. Is that bad? Whatever. Usually when I really like books or even just are interested in them I plow through them in a couple of days or at least a couple of weeks. This has taken me far longer. And it's not even like I'm the kind of person who would rather stab my eyes out instead of even just thinking about reading. I really enjoy reading, I've always enjoyed reading. It's sad, really. Like, I wouldn't even feel bad abandoning it. That's how uninterested I've gotten. I think I might just be being lazy, maybe I'm just too lazy to even find or look for a new book. Okay, seriously I need to stop. I'm going to get off my computer and find a book right when I publish this book. Okay, well, bye.

A specific phrase I say a lot when I don’t know what else to say is “I don’t know”. I almost subconsciously wrote that here. I didn’t mean to write it, I just typed it because we have been talking about typing how you talk, so that’s what I was trying to do. I was about to delete it when I realized it actually did show my voice and the readers of my blog would get to know me more as a person. I also say “I need to stop” a lot, when I’m doing something embarrassing or funny around people. I meant to show this in my blog post because I know it’s a part of how I talk, so I thought it would give more insight. I feel like the readers would be able to picture me saying these things and maybe relate it to how they talk or how a friend does. I also say “I mean” a lot to start out a sentence. I know I say it a lot because people tell me I say it a lot. Even my ECA (public speaking) teacher told me I need to stop saying it while I’m presenting. I say “like” a ton, and I know I kind of tried to incorporate that into my blog because I feel like a lot of people have a habit of saying that, so it’s relatable.

 

I used low and informal diction to describe how I felt about the book, to make it seem conversational, like the text was directed towards you. I used words like “like” and I wanted to use a lower style of diction. I felt like in doing that, I could capture any age group’s attention. I did include some good adjectives or higher elevated diction, but only in places where I would also say these kinds of words while I was talking. I really wanted my blog to sound like I was talking to you. That was my goal the whole time; it just took me a while to find that voice. I used short and long sentence length. Some sentences were short like “It’s sad, really,” which I really enjoy when I’m reading a book. I love love love fragments, so I try to include them while I write. I also used longer sentences like “And it's not even like I'm the kind of person who would rather stab my eyes out instead of even just thinking about reading.” I like this kind of sentence as well as short ones because it makes the writing fluent when you have sentence lengths that vary. Long sentence give writing a feeling of ranting or the kind of talking where you talk so fast because you feel like you need to take everything in, which I also sometimes go for.

 

The Fault in Our Stars Trailer is out!

Okay, I meant to write this blog when the trailer actually came out a while ago, but I got distracted and so here I am. But I am SO excited. You guys don't even know. I have been looking forward to this since they announced that it was becoming a movie. I read this book last year in 2 days and it was just, ah, so amazing. I even cried during class becausae of it. Ha. I'm excited for the movie to come out, and kind of nervous. I'm hoping for a spectacular-best-movie-you've-ever-seen kind of movie. I reeeeaaaally want it to be so good. The book is good, it just deserves it. I'm really unhappy with the casting, but that is a different story. I'm kind of mad they announced it so early because I want to see it right now, but I guess the suspense will build and just make it better...or worse.

The book is about (if you don't already know) Hazel Grace Lancaster, who was diagnosed with, I think it was stage 4 cancer, at age 13. She is now 17 years old and still living, lugging around an oxygen tank with tubes up her nose wherever she goes. She meets dreamy Augustus, who seems to be perfect, and actually remains perfect throughout the whole book somehow, although Gus is a remissioning cancer vicitim. Hazel is pretty much perfect too, except for the fact that she has cancer that could kill her. Well, soon enough Hazel and Augustus are inseperable. I think it's a cool book. Because everyone thinks these characters are too perfect to be real (which is probably true), but in reality they're living with the possibility of either one of their own or others deaths in the back of their mind. And if you think about that, that would not be a perfect situation at all. I love John Green and I feel like I can relate to him when he writes. He inspires the way I would like to write someday. He was involved with the making of this movie quite a lot, so I'm just hoping that it will be good.

If you haven't read the Fault in Our Stars yet, I strongly suggest you go out and buy a copy. You may be thinking, "oh everyone reads this, that's so mainstream, this book can't be good, everyone likes it so it must not be interesting or peculiar to me". Trust me. You. Will. Love. It. This is not a joke, like I really think that everyone should read this book. If everyone likes it, that just means it's really good. It doesn't have to mean that it's too relatable or dumb or whatever you think it is. And please, do not watch the movie first, because I really just have this gut feeling that it's not going to be as good as the book and I really want you guys to read it, I really do. Okay lol, I''m starting to sound creepy and weird so I'm just going to stop. Bye bye.

Looking for Alaska?

This is the only book by John Green that I haven't read, or I guess, started. I've heard this book is almost or equivalent to The Fault in Our Stars, which is my favorite book. It's called Looking For Alaska. Now, whenever I see, like, summaries of this book's plot I don't really know what to think. It almost seems a little bit cliche, but I don't really know because it doesn't really give a lot of information. But from what I've heard, it's a great book and The Fault in Our Stars was beyond cliche and it was still the best book I've ever read, so maybe John Green knows what he's doing. I think I'm going to go buy it and start it over the weekend. I'm so done with The Abundance of Katherines. I hope this one's not as boring.




So I just looked up the plot summary for it on goodreads.com to refresh my memory and it still is a little fuzzy. But whatever, that's okay. It makes me want to read the book to see what's going to happen. It seems like John Green really likes making weird or interesting names go with the protagonists of his stories. Hazel and Augustus on The Fault in Our Stars, and now it's Alaska and Pudge. Weird. I don't know if I like that or not. Oh well. So, it seems like Alaska is a beautiful, crazy, interesting girl, that got messed up along the way. And now Pudge is supposed to be, and probably is, and average guy, with average looks, and average ways that Alaska is intrigued with because the author is making opposites atract. Cliche. But whatever, it seems interesting enough. And I feel like I might be able to relate a little bit. I'm looking forward to actually getting emotionally invested in a book for once in a long time.

Abandon this Book?

So as you can see, I have seriously been putting off reading The Abundance of Katherines by John Green. It's not that I don't like this book, okay maybe a little bit. But I mean it's kind of really boring right now! I can't relate to most of the characters, the plot is dull and has been going on for quite some time now, and I'm just not interested. I don't know. I didn't think these words would ever be coming out of my mouth about my favorite author, but I guess it just happens. Colin wants to figure everything out, while I'm more prone to just sit back and let things happen with no question. Lindsay is the kind of person who usually always gets what she wants and is very assertive. Again, in other words, I'm just pretty lazy. I guess I'm most relatable to Hassan because he just kind of goes with the flow until he really can't take it anymore, and then he lets his feelings out. I'm actually exactly like that, so I mean that's probably why I like Hassan best. But Hassan might not be enough to keep me reading this book. Colin is my least favorite character and  don't think that will change. The book mostly focuses on him, so you can see why I'm not very interested. I mean, would you be interested if you had to read about a narcassistic brainiac who doesn't have any other passions beside Latin and formulas and getting dumped by girls by the name of Katherine? I don't think so.

Another reason I may be dumping this book is because I haven't read for a REALLY long time. And I'm not even exaggerating when I say it might be over two weeks. Is that bad? Whatever. Usually when I really like books or even just are interested in them I plow through them in a couple of days or at least a couple of weeks. This has taken me far longer. And it's not even like I'm the kind of person who would rather stab my eyes out instead of even just thinking about reading. I really enjoy reading, I've always enjoyed reading. It's sad, really. Like, I wouldn't even feel bad abandoning it. That's how uninterested I've gotten. I think I might just be being lazy, maybe I'm just too lazy to even find or look for a new book. Okay, seriously I need to stop. I'm going to get off my computer and find a book right when I publish this book. Okay, well, bye.

My New Favorite Character

Okay, so, as you can probably tell from my continuous character analysis posts that I haven't been making a lot of time to read this book. At least not enough to actually analyze something important. I recently read a lot at a time and I guess Hassan has really grown on me since the beginning of the book. I didn't exactly like him in the beginning, I figured he was kind of holding Colin back. But it's really the other way around. Colin is a jerk. I mean, I'm sure he'll change by the end of the book, but he's a jerk. Hassan has finally started to do his own thing and stop babysitting Colin.

During the section I just read, Hassan and Colin get into a fight. Hassan is excited to tell Colin that he actually kissed an attractive girl, and Colin doesn't even look up. Hassan expects Colin to be excited for him since Hassan has been there for him every single time Colin has gone through a break up, he has listened to all his romantic rants about how great every Katherine is. And now Colin can't be happy for him because Hassan went and had fun without him. Colin accuses Hassan that he's been turning into "everyone else". But Colin can't hold Hassan back forever. Colin just wants Hassan to understand his stupid, pointless "theory" about why people get dumped. And Colin can't understand that it's not important. Even if there was a way to calculate why some people get dumped and why some people do the dumping, it's not worth it to figure it out. Hassan is happy with his new girl and he doesn't have a dumb formula leading him around. I think Hassan really wants Colin to just be happy and let go of his fears of doing something unethical.

To be honest, I don't really like Colin right now, I'm on Hassan's side.

The Abundance of Katherines: Colin

I'm going to go more in depth into what I talked about in my last blog post. Colin is definitely more focused on equations, and reading, and logic than anything else. He says on page 109, "'I'm behind on my reading.'" after Hassan suggests he should go out with Lyndsey and him for the night. And now, thinking about it, he may actually like it. I think that actually may be Colin's safe place, where he is free to control anything he wants. He feels power because he is smart so nothing is tooo problematic for him in the book-smart world. In his social life, he may experience problems he does not know how to fix, though. And that subconciously scares him. Colin doesn't like the idea of making mistakes. He likes to solve mistakes. He's even trying to come up with a formula that decribes why he is the dumpee opposed to the dumper in all of his relationships. He thinks he can just make up a formula and it will solve everything. He needs to realize that real life doesn't actually work that way.

The Abundance of Katherines: Katherine I

I'm going to dicuss the significance of Katherine I in this blog post. I think, though Colin and Katherine were both young, Katherine expanded Colin as a person. It even explains how she was asking him "why?" after everything he was saying about his studies. I think the author was trying to show how stiff and structured and black and white Colin is. Katherine I seems nothing like that. She intorduced Colin to the real world and maybe helped him realize a few thing. Narrating for Colin, the novel states, "it occured to Colin that the kiss didn't feel nearly as good as the sound of her asking if she could be his girlfriend." I think that Colin might be seeking power. He hasn't really had any control or power over himself, he is just expected to be the genius that everyone thinks he is. I don't even think that he himself realizes that he's craving control. He may already think he has control. Sure, he has control over most of his life, and he probably thinks over all of it. But does he really have control of his competitiveness to achieve? I think he'll always care more about success in the books than success in reality and relationships and he doesn't realize that. At least not yet.