World War Z Review...

            World War Z is written by Max Brooks. This was one of his first books and it’s being made into a movie that will come out in June of 2013. Max Brooks has written for Saturday Night Live. Max Brooks seems to like writing about zombies because he also has books out called Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks and Zombie Survival Guide. But anyways, World War Z takes place in post-apocalyptic unknown time era. There were three major things that really bothered me, they were the way the book is told, how many characters there are, and the time the book takes place.

            World War Z is told through a series of interviews. I’m not too fond of this writing style because you don’t get to connect to a character. I like it when I’m able to connect and grow alongside a character. In World War Z you always have the interviewer (and I’ve made the assumption it’s the same person every time) but they never give out their name, gender, age or anything that would help you get to know them better. I wish it was the story of the interviewer as he traveled the world and he wrote down what he saw and what other people saw but of course not everything turns out the way you want it to. So right now the book has a 0/5 stars, according to me.

            World War Z has too many characters. When you go from person to person and you never hear of them again it gets frustrating. I like when there is a book where if there are multiple people they at least come together at some point and the book’s plot unfolds. But the book’s plot never unfolded. It was always the same story; I need to survive and here’s what I did and what my thought of it afterwards. The characters also always use the same voice. They are always melodramatic for someone. It can be the zombies or a love one.  “’You went after the corpse?’ ‘To bury it. I couldn’t just leave it there, desecrating the stream. It would not have been… “proper”’”. This quote comes from a blind Japanese man who feels bad for the zombies. The guy feels bad for the things that are trying to eat him! I don’t like this. This is really weird and so unexpected that it shouldn’t have been used in the book.  So again right now the book has a 0/5 rating.

            World War Z also takes place in an unknown time and it takes a spin on previous events. “I watched the Al Jazeera broadcast from behind the counter at the Starbucks where I worked at every day after school.” This quote tells us that this Palestinian boy watches the Israeli leader speak. We can infer that this takes place right around 1995 or 2000. If I knew the book was going to be like this then I don’t think I would’ve read the book. It leaves out things that we know happened and doesn’t give an explanation on the things that led up to those things. The book also takes place post-war and you never read much about fighting. This wasn’t a great way of writing and I think it would help if Brooks started in the middle or before the war. The book does go in chronological order with how it starts with the outbreaks and then how everyone panicked and ends with the human population prevailing with all odds against them, but again this is told after the war not during and you only get the glimpses of aht everyone remembers. So yea this book has some decent parts in it but they are so far and in-between in this messed up world that it doesn’t make the book enjoyable. So I would give this book a 1/5 rating.

            Overall I didn’t enjoy the book. Don't get me wrong I love zombies as much as the next guy and I can play Black Ops Zombies akll day long but this book wasn't what i thought it was and the potential it has to be. There weren’t many action shots, too many characters, and there is no given time when the book takes place. The rating this book deserves is a 1/5. There just isn’t much to this book that made it worth reading. I would advise you to not read this book unless you’re into a lot of characters, a messy plot, and no given time era.

               

Book Talk

Here is my book talk, click on the link to see...
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Da Vinci Code book trailer

Blog 5... Non-Fiction

A book has to be 100% true for it to be a non-fiction book. I don’t want to read a book where there are lies in it. I want to know all the facts, everything about the thing I’m reading about I want to know. If I’m going to read about Peyton Manning I don’t want a book that claims he went to Florida and got drafted by the Bengals, I want a book that claims he went to Tennessee and played for the Colts and now the Broncos. I don’t like being lied to. So in my opinion for a book to be considered non-fiction it has to be 100% true.

A book can be half-true though but it shouldn’t be considered non-fiction. It would be realistic fiction. And it does matter that Frey and Mortenson bent there truth because then the book isn’t 100% true and shouldn’t be considered non-fiction. Half-true books can still be good but they aren’t non-fiction.

David Shields isn’t right. He’s stealing other people works and putting his name on them. If they were a collection of stories like a book I have called Guys Write for Guys Read then that would be ok. The book is about a lot of different writers that try to aim toward guys as their audience and they are life stories of themselves from their childhood up to being an adult. It’s a great book. But that book doesn’t have an author. But what Shields has done is take peoples work and but his name on them as if they are his own. It’s plagiarism and I think may teach young kids that it’s ok.

post 4.... adapting the Da Vinvi Code

   If you ever wanted to adapt The Da Vinci Code, it should be fairly easy. There is one huge plot and 3 sepreate stories. There is Robert and Sophie, Silas, and the Bishop. Robert and Sophie meet after Jacques, the curator of the Louvre, is murdered by Silas. That would be a very major scene you would have to put in. Silas shoots Jacques and Jacques dies slowly but before he dies he leaves a secret message. Sophie is the granddaughter of Jacques and Robert was supposed to have a meeting with him. They are brought together and they have to Uncover the true meaning of the Priory of Sion. Silas wants to find it to and is using the Bishop to help him. Another scene you would have to incorpperate is the escape scene. Robert and Sophie must escape several times but a major one is their escape from the Louvre. They find a tracking device in Robert's coat pocket, stick it in a bar of soap, throw it out the window onto a truck bed, and must try to escape in a SmartCar. It's very thrilling. The thrid scene you would have to throw in is the scene where they find out who the bad guy is. The bad guy ends up being Teabing but it's so unexpected it was a shock! I thought the whole time the bad guy was Fache, the policeman in charge of this. I thought when Robert and Sophie were trapped in the room with Teabing when he had the gun. Robert was able to act quick on his feet and was able to save them while at the same time being able to keep the secret hidden.
   Two things that could be left out are actually two minor characters. One character is Remy. He is Teabing's helper but doesn't do much. All he really does is just die. He is a waste of a thought for Dan Brown. The book would be better off if Teabing was able to walk on his own but Teabing has crutches and needs help. So in my opinion Remy should be left out and Teabing should be able to walk on his own. Another character that would make the book better if he wasn't in the book is the Bishop. The Bishop is used because he needs to help control the Vatican while this takes place. The Bsihop must also get money to help pay Silas for the job but The Bishop never gets the money to him and Silas ends up dying while The Bishop must recover from a shot wound. Both of these characters are so insignificant that the book would be better without them.

Bucket List, Idaho

Bucket List, Idaho

Nathan Baumgardner

Best Sellers Bell 2

Do you want to live like today is your last day? Live the way Ben Wolf did (but without the terminal illness)? Well now you can! All you have to do is pack up your bags and move to Bucket List, Idaho, the only place where once a week the town does something thrilling, go someplace exotic, or do something that isn’t the norm. Well now is the chance! We have 2 bedrooms, 3 bedrooms, 4 bedrooms, homes or even build your own house! Families, couples, and singles are all welcome. We have an amazing town with a grocery store, clothing stores, and drug stores where you can get all your personal needs. We also have a small school or there are private schools close by, but, do you remember Mr. Lambeer? Well our school has a policy where you can mess around with a teacher, without getting out of line, and not get in trouble! And you can work at any of our stores, become a teacher, or we are only 30 minutes west of Boise, Idaho and there are plenty of job opportunities there.

In Deadline Ben Wolf is a cross country star. He is 123 and isn’t the tallest but he has fast feet and is an absolute cross country beast. But something comes up, "And lay it one me he did, and I am no longer quite so glib," (Ch 1, Pg 3) Doc tells Ben that he has a terminal illness and must go through treatment ASAP, but Ben decides not to. Doc of course doesn’t understand but he doesn’t push it any further. Ben has a school year to live and he first decides he’ll go out for football along with his star quarterback brother. The he has to get the hottest girl, Dallas Suzuki, to go to Homecoming with him. He also wants to mess with the worst teacher in the school, Mr. Lambeer. "'Aw, I'm just keeping Mr.Lambeer honest...' Coach laughs,'Okay, let me know when i need to prepare to bail you out," (Ch 11, Pg 150). He has to do this all before he dies, without telling anyone. Well Ben does go out for football and he is very small for the sport but he becomes one of the best special team players around. He also gets to go on a date with Dallas, and another one, and maybe a few more and they end up becoming a couple. In Mr. Lambeer’s class Ben reads the Autobiographies of Malcolm X and learns that what a lot of American history teachers don’t teach the truth about American history. He questions everything in the class. In football the team makes it to state thanks from Ben and his brother connecting on a last second diving catch in the end zone. This all happens so quickly in the book that it seems like there is no room for the end but there is. Towards the middle of the book Ben finds out that the local drunk is an ex-priest child molester who has turned to alcohol to keep him from molesting children. Ben tries to help him but there isn’t really a way to. He ends up committing suicide a couple of weeks before Ben ends up dying. This book is really great even though it has such a rough and sad surface but if you dig up underneath; it becomes a great book with a great message to it, live like today is your last day or from the book, "'Live every day like you're going to live forever and every day like it's going to be your last.'"

Bucket List, Idaho will be great for people who love Deadline but can still live without a terminal illness. The houses are reasonably priced starting at $35,000 for a 2 bedroom and about $75,500 for a 4 bedroom (for a build-your-own-home, it will depend on the company). Some of the upcoming trips we have planned is a weekend long trek through the Amazon Rainforest (April 13-16), the next weekend on Saturday (April 21) we will go to the rocky mountains and snowboard down the slopes of the steepest mountain, and on April 30 we will take a trip to a skydiving place and fly over the pacific and skydive down to the ocean. This is just one month worth of stuff! So what are you waiting for? Come on over to Bucket List, Idaho, where you can live like today is your last day!

What is a Book?

A book is a container for words. There is nothing special to reading a book or reading a book on an electronic device. What is the difference between opening a book and turning on a Kindle? Nothing. They both have words and have the book and the author. The only thing different is the fact that you are reading a book off pages or electronic pages. You can still use your imagination if you are reading off a book or an electronic device. There is no difference. I agree with Victor LaValle on his argument that, “books are no more divine than a toaster,” and that is because it is true.

A book just contains words. Nothing more. I can read off a Kindle or an iPad and still imagine myself as a star baseball player or being richer than Bill Gates. I read off a Kindle and prefer it because it is smaller. I don’t like carrying a 300+ page book around when I can carry a slim electronic device. And ebooks are cheaper than a hardback or paperback. I can save money, still read the same exact words, and still imagine what the characters look like, how I would act if I’m in a situation like that, where I would fit a character and so on. Also I can download more books on the same device rather than carry 2, 3, 4, or 5 books at a time.

So why carry multiple books around when you can carry a device with many? I don’t know why you would rather than the fact that you can get a book from a library or it is more convenient than getting the book on your device at the time. I love to read from a book or from a device but I prefer the device. It is easier to carry around and I can have more books on there than I would want to carry.