Writing II: Blog Post 5

I finished "The Road" several days ago and I have to say I loved it. That might be a bad sign, considering it was a brutally dark and depressing book. But my own sociopathic tendencies aside, it really was a great book. It was the epitome of a gripping survival adventure and despite all the hardships and horror, the ending was somewhat hopeful. Either way, really epic story, and for once the movie of it actually followed the book (*cough *cough *hobbit *cough). Now I have started my new book, "The Heart of Everything That Is", which is a biography of a Native American Red Cloud, who led the Sioux and various other Indian people in the only winning war against the US. This book is actually really awesome, especially for a history work. If you have ever read a history textbook, you know how dry they can be, but this book is so in depth and well-flowing that it feels like a novel. Not to mention that it is just plain interesting. The authors, Bob Drury and Tom Clavin, do a great job of creating a scene, especially at the Indian gatherings and raids. It must have been incredibly difficult to track down all this information, and I can't imagine how long it took to verify everything in the book. The bibliography is about 10 pages long, so these guys must really love history. Aside from just being an interesting story, I find it fascinating since I am planning on majoring in history in college so this type of writing might be appealing to me, so getting an idea of how historians write is probably a good idea. One thing I have noticed in the book, and perhaps it helps to keep the reader entertained, is that although I am only on page 67, there have to have already been a dozen references to torture and graphic killings by the Sioux people. I understand that the Sioux people were warriors, and in Great Plains Indian culture torture killings were common (as stated in the book), but I feel like any book that needs to mention the removal of a man's reproductive organ and subsequent replacement in his mouth to cause suffocation more than twice may be pandering to the side of readers that love good old fashion violence and death. And lets be honest, almost everyone loves violence, human nature is naturally drawn to watching it. For real, I'd totally watch gladiator battles if we had them today, millions of people would. Anyways, so far my new book is also great, and I'm quite enjoying it.

Writing II: Blog Post 4

This week I finally finished "Plague Dogs" and I have to say, the last 50 pages made the book. There was a giant plot twist right at the end that completely changed how I read the book. It had really seemed that it was building up to a sad and brutal climax, and I was sure there was no chance of a happy ending, but let's just say I was shocked at what happened. I was disappointed at how long it took me to read this book, as I'm am usually a much more dedicated and speedy reader. I blame about 90% of it on Senioritis however. Anyways, overall I give "Plague Dogs" an 8.5/10. It was a compelling story with a deeper undertone that did not compromise the actual adventure, and the ending was satisfying and complete. The only lacking point of the book was the occasionally confusing dialogue, which sometimes made the reading hard to follow or slower. But that doesn't change the fact that this was an excellent book. Today I started my new book, "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy. "The Road" is a book set in a desolate post-apocalyptic world and follows the struggles of a travelling father and son. In terms of powerful books, I know this one will be a winner, and I'm only 25 pages in. I did see the movie adaptation of the book, which I also found incredibly powerful and shocking. I would recommend the movie and surely the book as well, but only to those who can handle brutality and some horror. Both the book and the movie deal with the violent side of humanity. One interesting thing I have already noticed is that McCarthy does not use quotations for speech and doesn't always start a new paragraph when a character says something. It seems to make the whole novel flow better, while decreasing the importance of the father and son's words. Also I noticed that in both the movie and the book, neither the boy nor the man had names, they are referred to as the father and the son. So far I think "The Road" is acting as a narrator's stream of thought while following the struggle of two lone, "good" souls in the end of the world. The narrator seems aloof and distant, unconcerned and with no tone, simply relaying all that happens. I'm very excited to continue into this book, and hopefully I'll zoom right through it.

Writing II: Blog Post 3

I am still reading "The Plague Dogs" and I know that I need to finish it up soon because I usually don’t take this long to read a book. It has really been a busy couple of months for me and I’m getting pretty lazy to boot (currently writing this at 11:22 pm). But the book has gotten very good now, yet I do have one or two persisting issues. Firstly, I am bothered by the thick Scottish accents of various characters and one fox, which make reading very slow and hard. I understand the whole relevance and necessity of adding an accent but sometimes it’s just too hard to read. Also I find that because of this every character with an accent sounds exactly the same in my head, whereas I usually create accents or voices for each character. My other issue is that Rowf, the main dog in the book, seems to have had little to no character development or progress. The book is focused on the other dog, Snitter, but Rowf has had no change. He just seems to stay a big aggressive, dumb dog, kind of like my dog expect without the aggression. But at any rate, the plot of the book has picked up quite a bit, as the dogs are now actually being hunted. There is also an interesting case going on with a reporter, and I have discovered why the title is “The Plague Dogs”. Let’s just say someone discovered something about a deadly disease being used at the Research Facility the dogs escaped from. I also really enjoy the fox that travels with him, despite his annoying accent. He is just too funny, constantly making jokes and swearing and saying “Oi canny lad” and such. He’s just an enjoyable jerk. Along with this, Snitter is a very peculiar character and very interesting. The brain surgery he had while captive really affects his progression as a character. At first I kind of hated his random dialogue and odd gibberish but further into the story it makes a lot of sense, but there will be no spoilers on this because you should read this book. However, if you had to choose between this and “Watership Down”, also by Richard Adams, I would say choose the latter, it is much easier to follow and is more compelling, plus the language is much more inviting. Honestly though, you should check out one of these books.