The Giver

I have read the book The Giver twice, and watched the movie in class. The Giver is a perfect dystopian story. It comes up with this "perfect" world where everything is the same as in colors, equality, and race, nobody gets any choices, and there are no real feelings or emotions. There is one person in the community called "The Receiver". This one person holds all of the memories, and true history to the world. He or she can then be called upon to make important decisions based on previous experiences that others don't have. As I am reflecting on this, It almost seems like the giver could be reflecting God just a little bit. All people are blind to true beauty and love, but the giver knows of all of these things. This seems very similar to our world, where God is all knowing, and is beginning to share the beauty with us if we choose to accept it. I doubt that this was the intent of the writer, but this story always makes me think of our all knowing God above.

My Reading

I have read a few books since the last time I posted, and I just started a new book called "The color of water". It is a book by a black boy as a tribute to his white mom. This boy lives in the 1960's with his 11 black siblings and his white mom. Obviously this is somewhat a problem, and they go through life facing every possible hardship, and end up loving life anyways
I used to be an avid reader, I would read a book every other week, and If i found a really good book I could finish it in a day. I still would love to read that much, but I don't have the time anymore. Every night I don't get home till nine or close to it, and after homework I never feel like reading, however when I find a book that I do like I can't put it down. Over spring break I read three books, and they were some of the best books I have read, and that has spurred me to begin to read a little bit more.

Goals

I consider myself a pretty big reader, I used to read all the time, probably an hour or more every day, but in the last year or two I have fallen way back in reading. I just don't have very much time anymore with all of my practices, games, and homework, but I would really like to continue to get back into reading. I read two and a half books over spring break, all probably around 600 pages, so obviously I am a generally fast reader, but I also had three twenty hour car rides and two two hour plane rides that I spent a lot of time reading, I won't have that kind of time during normal school. Right now I am just starting "Lord of the Flies". I would like to finish this book, and read "Bounce" which is a book about the key to success. If i finish these which I probably will I would like to give "The Godfather" an other chance. I started it last year, but it was a little slow, and I only read about a quarter of it. I can guarantee I will finish my first two books, but would also like to get "The Godfather" done as well.

Thoughts

I am very close to finishing "No Summit Out of Sight". Our main character Jordan Romero has just summited Everest. Which is his sixth out of the seven summits he is to climb. He has worked very hard and got almost no praise until Everest, when he returned from Everest he was a super star, doing dozens of TV interview and becoming famous across the climbing and pop world. This is a super motivational book, and one of the bigger lines that I really liked from it is that everybody needs to find their "Everest". Not everyone will climb Mount Everest, but you should have a goal. You should go through life trying to accomplish and do something, get up and smell the roses some might say. I really hope that I can live my life this way, and everybody else should too.

What I'm Learning

This book has so many great morals. It is all about experience and pushing your goals. It has taught me a lot about who I could aspire to be. This kid Jordan decided when he was only ten years old that he was going to climb all of the seven summits of the world. Everybody told him he couldn't do it, and that he was too young, and not strong enough, but he did it, and taught me in doing so that anything is possible. This book shows me that I need to pursue my goals, no matter how big they are. I can always accomplish something even if it seems impossible, that is the biggest thing that this book has taught me.

No Summit Out of Sight

I am still reading "No Summit Out of Sight" the story of the youngest person to climb all of the worlds seven summits, these being the tallest mountains on each continent. This book is very interesting, and I am getting more and more into it each time I get to sit down and read it. Right now Jordan who is our climber has just summited Denali or Mount McKinley as some people call it which is his fourth out of seven mountains that he is to climb. This book is getting more and  more exiting and I can't wait to finish it so I can start an other.

Questions

The book "No Summit Out of Sight" is a very question provoking book, so there are many things I am wondering about the Author and climber Jordan Romero. The first is what made him think of mountain climbing? The book says that he was into the outdoors, and all kinds of fun things, but it even says that he had hated going on hikes before he set this goal. So I am a little surprised on how just by looking at a mural on the wall he was able to come up with such a tough goal that had nothing to do with the other things that he liked to do. An other question I had is what did it feel like. I've climbed a few mountains, but the biggest that I was going to climb was Mount Katahdin in Maine, however, I didn't make it to the summit due to bad weather. So this book made me wonder what is really felt like to stand on top of the world.

Free Write

I just started a new book, called "No Summit Out of Site". It is about the youngest person to climb the seven summits, the Seven Summits are the tallest mountains in each of the seven continents, and at fifteen years old Joran Romero set this record. I have always been fascinated by mountain climbing, as I am a big skier and absolutely love the mountains, therefor this book is very interesting for me. I have only ever actually climbed one real mountain, this being Mt. Katahdin in Maine, but it is definitely something I would like to pursue in the future. This book is really cool because this Jordan kid shows that no matter how old you are, if you have a goal you can work towards it and achieve pretty much anything.

Missing

Right now I am reading "The Season of Life" it is about a football team who comes together throughout a season, in order to play a final big game at the very end. It is written in the perspective of a bystander, basically an assistant coach who stands on the side and observes everything that is going on during this season. It talks about the coaches and players feelings, but I really want to see more of the perspective of the players from this book. I would like this because I am a football player and have been in their position, so I would like to know what they're perspective was on this big season.

Perspective

My book(The Season Of Life) is written from the perspective of the main character. His name is Jeffrey Marx, he is kind of hanging in the back of Gilman High School's football program, watching and listening to how life goes on. There are not very many main characters in this book, but it could be very different in the Perspective of Joe. Joe is a former Colts player, and the head of the Gilman football program. He has a very different style of coaching than most coaches, and if this book was written from his perspective it would have been possible to dive a lot farther into his style of coaching, and why he coaches in this particular way. It also might have talked more about his history as a Football player, and how he came to meet Jeffrey in the first place.

I Wonder again

I am just starting to get in to the book I am reading called season of life. A lot of questions are starting to come up in me as to how this book is going to turn out. The high school football team is currently having their first practice, and I am wondering how they are going to come together as a team or a family just like the coach wants them to.

I wonder

I have recently started a new book called The Season Of Life. It is about a football coach, and his history. There are a lot of things I wonder about this book, but the biggest thing is this question, Is there a point when a coach can be too loving and caring, that his players begin to lose their focus on the game. I think there needs to be a balance. Some coaches say "I'm not your friend, If you were looking for a friend you are in the wrong place"(Hoosiers) and some coaches like in this book love and care for their players like their own children. I am wondering what the best ratio between these two mindsets is, and how much of a difference they will make.

MLK Writing

My book, is essentially about kids from MIT who cheat at Blackjack. Well they don't cheat by their standards, but from the casino's view they definitely are cheating. By counting cards they are not using any devices to help them, or changing the game in any way, and therefor are not cheating. The main character, Kevin Lewis, stands up for the fact that card counting is not cheating. It just gives him and his team an advantage because of how smart they are. People come after him, and even try to kill him, but he continues because he knows he isn't actually cheating, or maybe because he is making hundreds of thousands of dollars from it, that too. God asks us to stand up for ourselves, and for him, every day of our lives. I have not always been very good at this, but I am getting better as I get older and more comfortable with myself, and hope to continue to stand up for what is right.

Hello Uncle Koe

Hey Mr. Koeman, I just finished 'The Stand" by Steven King. Now I am reading one of my favorite books of all time, for the third time. It is called Bringing Down The House. It's about Blackjack, and a team of card counters who went to Vegas on weekends and made millions.