Hey Guys

Hiya. So I'm going to try to post every day, or close to every day now. So here's what I'm purposing. Every Monday there will be a, you guessed it, Discussion Monday. Every Friday there will be a book review (maybe, I'm going to try for every Friday, but it might be every other). For the rest of the days I would like to do something along the lines of Discussion Monday, but obviously something different. So here are a few of my ideas.

• A day where I discuss some quotes and what they mean to me. 
• A day where I discuss something that isn't related to books. Like maybe just something that's going on in the world. 
• A top seven day where I discuss my top seven of something. Like my top seven teams or shippings, or my top seven least favorite books. 

But that's all I have for now. So if anybody has any suggestions that would be nice. Or if you have any comments on the ones I suggested I would like to hear them.Or any suggestions about the blog in general is also welcomed. I'll make an post on Wednesday about what I've decided to do and what days they'll be on.

Thanks for your help.

I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga

I recommend this book

See. I promised I would post by the end of today. I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga was my summer reading book, and I just took the test on it today, and I just finished it last night. Do you see the problem? I didn't even give myself time to digest it. Usually I'm pretty good at BSing essays, and that's what the test was so I thought I'd do well, but I think I missed it completely. Oh well. Lets get to the review.

This is going to sound really creepy but I think serial killers are interesting. The main character in this book is named Jasper "Jazz" Dent, and he is the son of the worlds most notorious serial killer, Billy Dent. Throughout the book Jazz struggles with the idea of becoming like his dad. He doesn't want to hurt anybody but that was the way he was raised. At first it was interesting to read what Jazz had to think about turning into his father, but then it wasn't. I feel like somewhere in the book it turned into more teen angst than anything interesting. Often in the story Jazz would have to remind himself that people matter. It was okay the first few times but then I got bored with it. Honestly I just got bored with his complaining. That was my major problem with this book.

The boring teen angst that we all love so much was brought on by a killer popping up in Jazz's hometown. Jazz want's to help the cops find him. He's seventeen so yeah that wasn't happening, but like all defiant teenagers he tries to help anyways. I will say this, not knowing who the killer was until the end made me really happy. I've read other books where the killer is basically introduced within the first few pages. For me, knowing the killer's name makes it less interesting. I like it when I cant put a face to him/her until the end. This book did well with it.

Throughout the book I had a couple idea's about who the killer was. I wont tell you who it is because that would be stupid of me. But that was another thing that disappointed me. I didn't really like who the killer was and if I had written the book I would have written the ending a lot differently. But I didn't write this book so whatever.

Despite not liking angst and the killer I still really liked this book. It was written so well and it managed to keep me entertained.  There were some flaws but they're the kind that I think most people can look past so I don't really mind. I cant wait to read the second one. Hopefully it will be a little better so I can give it five stars instead of four.

I give this book four stars

I totally Failed

I'm sorry. I totally failed at reading this summer. I just worked a lot (and by a lot I mean not a lot at all) and I was so busy (and by that I mean I went on a psych, criminal minds, and supernatural craze and had to watch them all every second of the day). But with the school year starting I am going to have a lot more time to read, I promise. I'm going to be updating again really soon. I know I kind of missed the last few Discussion Monday's so starting next week I will start those up again. You will absolutely have a review by 11:59 p.m. on Friday night. And if you don't then that means I didn't finish my summer reading book and just failed my English class, so, feel bad for me if that happens. Sorry for being lazy.

Turning Books Into Movies

It's Discussion Monday again and today's topic is about books that get turned into movies.

Let me start by saying I am both a book and a movie person. I'm the kind of person who watches the director commentary and all the little bonus stuff that nobody but me cares about. I'm also a person who needs to have a perfectly organized bookshelf. So you see, I care about them both. I think a lot of people don't like it when books get made into movies because they think it ruins them. Well that's not what I see. For example, The Hunger Games, fabulous book, fabulous movie. The Hunger Games is my absolute favorite series ever. So when the movie came out I was nervous because I cared about it. But when they made changes I didn't mind because I knew they had to be made. Things that work in books don't always work in movies. You can have a character with like nine pages of just thought in a book. You cant do that in a movie because movies are visual.

Percy Jackson, great book, terrible movie. Sometimes they don't get it right. Sometimes they butcher everything. This was a movie I came out of upset. I think it was one of the first movies I didn't like. They made a lot of changes. I think when you are making a movie out of a book it's important to only change what you need to change, like in The Hunger Games, but when you change everything that's just a bad idea waiting to happen.

The Great Gatsby, good book, great movie. Sometimes the movies are better than the books (I know most of you wont agree with me on this one but that's fine). Sometimes the changes they make only add more to the original story. The Great Gatsby 2013 movie did that. I know a lot of people were mad when in The Hunger Games movie they killed Seneca Crane by having him eat the berries instead of him getting hanged, but that was a good change. It was more poetic. It made the movie better. Sometimes changes need to happen.

So I don't mind when they make books into movie. I think that as long as the movie somewhat matches the book then all will be well. I think if people started agreeing that sometimes things have to change we would have a lot more happy movie goers.

So what do you think?

Don't Forget To Vote

Hey guys! Don't forget to vote for your favorite series on the poll I've recently put up. Which will you choose? Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Twilight, or The Mortal Instruments? Only 39 days left to vote.

The Wolverine

The Wolverine, directed by James Mangold, was slightly above average. It's good enough to be something that I want to own when it comes out on DVD but at the same time it wasn't the best thing I've ever seen. I'm kind of afraid to talk about it because I feel like it's one of those movies where just saying one thing could give another thing away. So I'm going to give you a pretty dry review of this.

The plot was decent. It was basically about Wolverine/Logan (Hugh Jackman) going to Japan to say goodbye to a dying man he saved many years ago, and then it ended up turning into much more than that. There was a lot of action which was nice. I feel like a lot of superhero movies lately have been less action more emotion. There was basically a fight every scene in this one, or maybe it was more like the movie was one giant fight scene. But don't worry, there was still some love, for those of you that like that sort of thing. The acting was great, which is to be expected.

Don't leave the theater when the credits start! Just because it's not technically a Marvel movie (because you know, Fox owns the X-Men movie rights and that includes Wolverine)  it's still a Marvel movie. If that makes sense? Which means there's a scene at the end of the credits. Personally this little scene was my favorite part of the entire movie and made me really excited and I was about ready to die.

Overall I'm pretty happy with this movie and I cant wait until it comes out on DVD.

I give this movie three and half stars

How School Ruins Reading

It's time for another Discussion Monday. Today's topic: How school ruins reading. I'm a big believer that the education system is messed up and being done wrong. I think one of the biggest things they've screwed up is English classes.

Elementary school is the biggest offender. They sort you into groups based on your reading level and make the not so good readers feel stupid and give praise to the smart little know it alls. They base these groups on how well you read out loud (mostly), or at least that's been the way I've seen it happen. Well this doesn't really work because some people just suck at reading out loud. Like me. I can read fine in my head but don't ask me to read in front of people or I'll be stuttering and will barely be able to get through it. It's more nerves than anything else. You see kids are smart, people don't give them enough credit. If you put a kid in the bad reader group they're going to know. Sure the teacher can lie and tell them that they're the same as everyone else but the kid isn't going to believe them. And when somebody, or a messed up system, tells you that you aren't good at something you aren't going to want to do it. If somebody says you are terrible at sports and makes fun of you, especially at a young age, you aren't going to want to do sports. It's the same with reading. Thus causing a lifelong hate and fear of reading.

I think one of the ways to overcome this is to not sort kids into these groups. And that goes for every subject. Instead of treating each of the students different based on their skills they should all be put on the same level. Some kids aren't going to be as good as others, but that's just part of life. They either need to catch up or fall out. The real world doesn't help you by making thing's easier for you. Being soft is one of the biggest crimes against humanity there is.

Jr. High and High school have a habit of making people read books that are old, and for most people, hard to understand. I'm not one of those people but the majority of students these days are. I think if schools picked more modern books students wouldn't hate it as  much. Most teenagers (again, I'm not one that thinks this way) think that if something is old it isn't going to be good. So they just don't try. Teachers get mad when kids don't do their summer reading but did they ever stop to think that maybe the books on the list were ones that kids weren't going to be interested in? Maybe if they picked better books more students would read them. I've asked several of my non-reader friends why they don't read and most of them either said it's because "it gives them headaches" (which is a stupid excuse, clearly you just need glasses if that's the case) or that they didn't want to read the books from school because they're boring. So I asked why not pick a book for yourself and after a bit of prying we get the conclusion that because school books are boring all books must be boring. It's an incorrect conclusion, but it's what most arrive at.

So I think school really does destroy reading. I think school creates a hate of books and a negative feeling for reading. I don't think school is doing books right and I think something needs to change. What do you think?

Short Books VS Long Books

So I'm going to try something new today, which I'm calling Discussion Monday. (Look at my poorly made design thing.) During which I will introduce a book related topic and provide my opinion on it and then you can feel free to agree or disagree in the comments. This is another attempt by me to get more posts on my blog. So lets see how this goes.

Today's discussion: Short or Long books. Which do you prefer? For me I've always liked long books better. Both have there pro and cons but for me I just like beefier books. If I'm going to spend sixteen dollars on a book I want it to have some length to it. Sure long books may take a little while to read, but if it's a good book it shouldn't feel like that. I feel like in longer books I have more time to get to know the characters and I'll probably end up caring about them more because I've spent more time with them. Not to say a short book cant do that, because it can, but sometimes if the writer isn't skilled enough and the book is short the characters can fall flat. So when I'm in a bookstore and I'm trying to pick between two books and one's 500 pages and the other is only 250 I'll probably choose the 500 pager just because I want more. I think maybe it's just a human thing to want more of something good and to have the bigger is better mindset.

So, what do you think?

World War Z

I went to see World War Z with a couple of my siblings last night. It will be the last time I see a movie with Amy and Emily because they talked the whole time, making me want to strangle them. Seriously, if you're one of those people that doesn't shut up during a movie then don't go see movies. It's annoying and I hate you. I would see a movie with my brother Travis again though. I get the feeling he didn't like this movie, but I did.

Actually, I loved this movie. I know that it's also a book but I've never read it because it didn't seem interesting to me. I still don't plan to read it because everyone says the book and movie are a lot different. I think one of the reasons I liked the movie so much is because it had a lot of scienceish undertones to it. I expected it to be more horror, which is fine, I love horror movies, but it wasn't, which was also fine. It did have a few parts that made me jump a little but it was nothing that would make someone lose sleep or anything.

Another reason I loved this movie was because Gerry (Brad Pitt) was a good guy just trying to protect his family. He was doing everything he could to keep them safe. I thought it was a refreshing change. I feel like most movies and books are going overboard with giving their main character an edgy and dark past/personality. That just wasn't the case here.

World War Z, directed by Marc Forster, is a must see. I know in most theaters the movie is already done playing, but if you live near one where it's still in you should go see it. Or when it comes out on demand or Netflix you should consider renting it. If you liked Contagion or Outbreak I think you would like this movie because that's kind of what it was like, except the virus turns people into zombies which is way cooler. Also there was a good amount of violence so that's always a plus.

I give this movie four stars

Movies?

In hopes to get more posts in I've decided I'm going to add movie reviews to my blog. I mean, hey, I keep dvd's on my bookshelf at home. Mostly because I have no space, but whatever. The movie reviews will not take over the blog, it will still mostly be books. I just saw a movie last night that I will be reviewing later. It got out at like midnight so I'm going back to bed, but when I wake up again I will review it.