The Abundance of Katherines

The worst thing about my book is the fact that the main protagonist is unrelatable to me. He has a lot of goals and knows what he wants. And I'm more of a person who's just going to take life as it comes. Colin (the protagonist) has his life planned out for him. He's very technical and smart. He is very focused as well. I think the reasons that all of his past "Katherines" have broken up with him is because he is too focused on figuring new things out and he doesn't show how he cares in ways that they will convey as caring. I think that Colin is very smart in a book smart kind of way. However, he does lack a connection to people emotionally. I feel like he only looks at things and thinks about them if he can make logical sense of them. His thinking is based on what he knows, not what he wonders. He doesn't let himself have feelings or thoughts if they don't make sense and I think that's part of the reason why he doesn't have a good connection to people. For example, right now in the book, he is trying to come up with a mathematical equation to prove why he gets dumped all them time and is never the one doing the dumping. He can't do that!

Love is love and you can't just predict it. Colin thinks there needs to be a logical explanation or reason for everything, when really, that may not be the case. I think the vacation Colin is taking from his normal life is something that he needs. Maybe stepping out of his comfort zone will help him realize that sometimes it's okay to just go with the flow.

Independent Reading: The Abundance of Katherines 2

When Hassan, Colin's best friend was first introduced to the novel, I really did not like him. I just thought that he was annoying and lazy. But he's grown on me and now I kind of think that he helps Colin stay sane. Colin definitely overanalyzes and overthinks. And Hassan is more of a humorous character which plays into that. Colin and him make a perfect pair because they really are almost vitural opposites. And now I like him, because with that humor you can also tell that he really cares about Colin, or just people in general, as well. Right after the break up, he came over to Colin's house and offered a plan to help get his mind off of things which, now that I think about it, is actually kind of sweet. He says, "...you have a very complicated problem, with a very simple solution." Even if Hassan was only offering it thinking it would be fun to go on a road trip, he still related it to Colin's problem. He is supportive. I think a lot of his humor and even his support towards other people relates to the fact that he is insecure. Colin even describes Hassan as "a rather fat, hirsute guy of Lebanese descent", which kind of illustrates the humor in Colin. But since Hassan believes that he is fat, he often makes jokes about it. And being supportive has to do with the fact that he probably needs support so he gives it to everyone else, too. I am excited to get more into this book and find out what it's all about.

Independent Reading: The Abundance of Katherines by John Green

I have just recently started reading the book An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. But so far I have learned about the main character, Colin. Colin seems to be a very devoted pessimist, almost as if he likes being negative and wouldn't want to view the positive even if he could try. Colin views himself as a prodigy, not a genius. His view is  that "prodigies can very quickly learn what people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do." He just has gotten dumped by the 19th "Katherine" that he's dated. His main goal is to feel important, he wants "to matter". He feels useless now, though I'm not really sure why. To me it seems like if he's dated 19 different Katherines, let alone different people, he has some kind of lack of feeling or emotion, or he just gets over people really fast. Or maybe he has some kind of fault that is always causing these break ups. Gathering from the information on the back of the book, it seems like that's what Colin is going to try to do. Colin is starting up on a road trip with his best friend, Hassan who believes that this will help him get over Katherine XIX. I think Colin is starting to fall, very quickly, for a tour guide that Hassan and him meet on their adventure. He describes her scent by saying, "It was not the way Curve smelled that Colin liked-not exactly. It was the way the air smelled just as Lindsey began to jog away from him. The smell the perfume left behind. There's not a word for that in English, but Colin knew the French word: sillage. What Colin liked about Curve was not it's smell on the skin but it's sillage, the fruity sweet smell of its leaving." He reads really deep into her smell, I don't think he would do that if this was just his tour guide. Colin also reacts to her smile. He takes notice to it. "She had the sort of smile that you couldn't help but believe--you just wanted to make her happy so you could keep seeing it." and "The girl smiled again. Colin wadn't thnking about anything but himself and K-19 and the piece of his gut he'd misplace--but there was no denying her smile. That smile could end wars and cure cancer." He is way overexplaining her smile, not to mention the fact that she kind of distracted him from thinking about his last break up. Therefore I think that Colin has more than just aquainted feelings with this girl and could potentially become a love interest. Maybe Colin needs someone other than a Katherine.

Independent Reading: Paper Towns by John Green

Margo Roth Spiegelman is one of the main characters in this piece of text, but she is not psychically in the book for most of it, I'm wondering what would happen if Margo was in the book more. Not exactly that she was where everyone else was, interacting with them, no. I'm just wondering if I would've taken the book a different way and thought about it differently if maybe Margo's view was offered more throughout the book. I think it would have made the book a lot less mysterious. The whole book nobody knows where Margo is and that's what makes it exciting. if we were getting updates on her I don't know if I can say the book would have been as good. The whole book I thought that Margo wanted Quentin to find her, that she had left clues so that somebody would eventually find her. But when Q does find her, she doesn't respond in a very pleasing manner. "She spins around and grabs a fistful of my shirt and shouts into my face, "Where do you g I think it could be interesting to see into Margo's head and to see what she was thinking, but I think that the author didn't do that to almost give her character more character. Margo is made out to be a very special and different individual in this text. She acts normal, but only the reader and Quentin and some of the other main characters know, or try to know, her true self. I feel like Margo definitely thinks differently than others. Her mind goes deeper than most people are willing to try. I like that, though, it makes for a better character in my opinion.

Independent Reading 3

The theme of the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is that even the small things build up to a point if pushed too far. Seventeen year old, Hannah Baker is pushed too far. She commits suicide and leaves 13 tapes behind, her thirteen reasons. One of them being Clay. Clay gets sent the tapes anonymously and starts listening to them. On his journey through listening to them, he finds that Hannah has been put through a lot. Nothing amazingly terrible has happened to her, just all these little, unavoidable things. These little things are building up though, and Hannah feels like it's too much to deal with. First it was rumors that were spread by someone she thought was a decent person, then it was the people taking her reputation and making false assumptions about her and then it was the lack of support that she felt people had for her. It was too much to handle for her. Hannah even says in her first tape, "And sometimes, a rumor based on a kiss has a snowball effect."  I think this book is kind of a message for people to think about how big of an impact something could have, not how much of an impact they think it does. Could their words or actions be a deciding factor for someone's life? In Hannah's case, somebody's were. She felt lost because nobody was going her advice and when he actually sought it, all that was given was to "move on". Your words can mean a lot.

Independent Reading: Paper Towns by John Green 2

The theme of Paper Towns by John Green is that if dedication and love meet, extraordinary things can be accomplished. This is clearly shown throughout the novel by describing Margo and Quentins' past together. Then it is present and the now popular, wild Margo and the calm, collected Quentin hang out one night. Quentin is fascinated by Margo and her views of everything and can't wait to be friends again...until she doesn't show up for school the next day, or the next day, or the day after that. She has disappeared and left Quentin clues to find her. Quentin is certain that he loves Margo and he sets off in every place he can get his hands on that have even the slightest connection to Margo. It seems to all be going downhill when there isn't really any more clues to figure out or places to go, until Quentin finds another clue, but this one is bigger than the rest. He then skips graduation and sets out to drive almost a full day to New York in order to find her. He skips graduation for this sense of hope and the feeling of love he has for Margo, if that's not dedication, I don't know what is. He doesn't know if he'll find her, he doesn't know if she's dead or alive. He just has hope. He has this dedicated love for her after such a short reconnection in that one night. He devotes his entire rest of the school year to find her. That is dedication.

Independent Reading: Paper Towns by John Green

Margo is wild, she's the girl that everyone loves. She's a leader. She's ran away before, but not like this. One night she sneaks into Quentin's room and they go on adventure. They get revenge, break the law, and just do things for their own enjoyment. But the next day Margo doesn't come to school. Quentin then quests out to find her. She leaves clues for him in the most peculiar ways and he traces them down. He is a very determined individual and him and Margo have a past that no one could forget. He can't just forget about her. The usually collected Quentin spends hours, day, trying to find Margo and gets no where. Throughout his expedition, Quentin stands true to himself. Though he figures  he does love Margo, he doesn't loose sight of who he is because that's just who he is. He stays loyal to his friends, or more like they stay loyal to him. Radar and Ben are there helping Quentin every step of the way to find Margo. While Margo is spunky, Quentin is focused and simple. And he won't give up.Will Quentin's drive to find Margo be enough to find her dead or alive?

Summer Reading

I rate The Fault in Our Stars as a 9, it was probably one of the best books I've ever read. The Fault in Our Stars is about teenage cancer victims, Hazel and Augustus and their journey together. They are bonded by the hard aspects of their life and by Hazel's favorite book, which soon becomes Augustus's favorite book, too. They do everything together and they become each other's best friends. The theme of this novel is that love and care overcomes hardships, because Hazel and Augustus have a very special relationship that would be very hard to break.