Life of Literature

" Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

[sarahreno]

What a depressing book! Holy %&#@ these two never seemed to catch a break. I think i figured the theme out though. I noticed that during the depths of their despair, like the darkest moments where death was imminent, they found hope, they found something to keep them going. Such is life. Sometimes...

[kristenhmckay]

I thought the book was very depressing as well. I also think the theme for the book would be hope. The man and boy finding food and water gave them hope to keep going after being starved for several days. I think this book is a great example of how everyone will go through hardships and dark times throughout life but if we have hope and are willing to carry the fire, we can overcome and find the light in any situation. It may not be starvation but with having hope and never giving up anyone can keep going through life.  #reblog04272014

[kristenhmckay]

I have finished reading The Road and I have also watched the movie. Although the ending of the book did not give any details to what happens to the boy after he went off with the family, I felt like it was a good ending just because the boy did not end up alone and that he would be with people who seemed to care about him. Over all I enjoyed this book, it took me a little over half way into the book to get interested in it, but in the times where the man and boy were desperate for food and water I had to keep reading to know what happened. I cannot believe this semester is almost over; I have really enjoyed this class.  #04252014

[nichole-haire]

I will just start and say that this is the only book that I was 100% interested in reading in this course. I cracked it open and as I knew already, the vocabulary used in the book is somewhat challenging, which means I sat with my dictionary app opened on my phone. I love a book that uses...

[kristenhmckay]

I agree with you that one of the reasons I like The Road is the challenging vocabulary that is used. I have been learning a lot by having to look up some of the words as I read through. I like how this book is different than what we have read so far in that it is not focused on a lot of characters, but it is helping me learn academically. I have not started on my last critical response yet but I do like the ideas you have for theme for this book. The book defiantly shows faith and survival. #reblog04202014

[kristenhmckay]

As I started reading The Road I was so glad to know that it is in chronological order, however I could not get into reading it because it started off so slow. Now that I am almost finished with the book, I have become really interested in knowing what will happen next. I am really upset to know that throughout the whole book that there is no mention about what catastrophe has happened. Although we do know that the book is post-apocalyptic, it really bothers me that the author never tells us. I am really excited about watching the movie and seeing how it differs from the book.  #04182014

[natashabailey910]

The Road

Has anyone started reading The Road yet?? I started reading it yesterday and I had to keep reading. I finished the whole novel in one day. I have to say it was the best book I have read all semester! It was not confusing and didn’t have a billion points of views or characters to remember! I just do not know how it relates to post modernism. Hope when you start reading it you enjoy it as much as I did. I think it was a great novel to save for the last reading. 

[kristenhmckay]

I have started reading but I am not very far into it yet. Before I started reading the book I thought it was going to be very different than what it is. I am still reading the beginning so it is very boring and reads very slow. I am glad you think that it is the best book we have read this semester because I am hoping that it will be a very good book once I get past the beginning. I am very glad that it is not like the last book with a lot of characters and point of views to keep up with. #reblog04132014

[kristenhmckay]

I thought the ending to a visit from the good squad would have pulled all of the characters together and have a resolution, however it did not have an ending like I was expecting. I did not like the last chapter because it left a lot of questions still unanswered. I did like how chapter twelve was a power point and how it illustrated the chapter through diagrams and charts. I have started reading The Road and so far I cannot get into it. I heard after about the first fifty pages it gets better so I hope I enjoy reading the rest of the book.  #04112014

[pri2117]

Everyone is complaining about the book. Yes, it is annoying that it keeps on jumping around. It helps if you look at the book as short story. I really enjoy this book because I can jump around the chapters and not have to worry about being lost. There is not a theme. It is just stories of this...

[kristenhmckay]

I love your idea of looking at the book as individual short stories. The book does jump around a lot but I see where it would be a lot easier to read if you read it as separate stories of each person’s life. I like how you think of it more as a diary, rather than trying to figure out how everything comes together. I feel the same way about not enough information to some of the characters but I think this is one of the ways it makes the book postmodern.  #04062014

[kristenhmckay]

I am finally getting interested in this book. At first I did not like it because the plot skipped around in each chapter and the point of view being different in each chapter. Now that it is starting to come together I am interested in knowing how it is going to end. The class discussions we have had on each individual chapter has helped me a lot and working in groups has helped me try to keep track of each character. I am half way through chapter eleven and the first part of the book is finally starting to connect with what I am reading.#04042014

[doylecasey]

At first, I thought this book was going to be a little bit easier for some reason, but I think I was wrong. Haha. The personality change and the character change through out each chapter, and almost each page has me in a loop. I will have to find that character flow chart to help me out. For...

[kristenhmckay]

At first I also thought that a visit from the goon squad was going to be easier to read, but with the character and personality change it is hard for me to keep up with each character. A character flow chart would be a lot of help while I am reading through the book. As I am reading more of the book I am very curious as to how all the characters may come together. I believe there will be a huge connection between all of them at the end. I am also curious as to what has happened in all the characters’ lives from when they were teenagers to their lives in their thirties. Since the book jumps around it is hard to put the pieces together, but I am excited to know what the connection is. #reblog03302014

[kristenhmckay]

I have read the first five chapters of a visit from the good squad and so far I’m not sure how I feel about this book. I like how you find out a lot about the main characters in the first few chapters however I do not like how the point of view changes in each chapter. I caught myself having to flip back to previous chapters to figure out whose point of view the chapter I was reading was in. It also confused me that each chapter jumps around in time. With one chapter being the characters as teenagers and then the next one the characters are in their thirties. I think once I read more of the book I will really like it. #03282014

[sheacox]

I don’t know how many of you attended the extra credit opportunity this past week but I was disappointed. I had to leave a little early to pick up my kids from school but of the little I heard from Dr. Peter Bogohossian we should be carful what we allow to influence our thinking. His lecture on...

[kristenhmckay]

I was unable to attend both of the extra credit opportunities because of a class so  I’m glad you posted something about it because I was curious about what Dr. Peter Bogohossian spoke about. I believe that attitude has a lot of influence on critical thinking however I disagree with him that attitude is the most important aspect. I agree with you that as I have been taught critical thinking comes from skills and knowledge over time. I believe that most college students need to build better skills for critical thinking but I think having a speaker come to the college who is such a liberal may have not been the best idea. #reblog03162014

[kristenhmckay]

I cannot believe we are already half way through the semester. I am really glad to have the midterm out of the way and looking forward to spring break.  Even though some of the stories we have read so far were hard for me to understand at first I am looking forward to the upcoming stories we will be reading.  A visit from the goon squad looks like it will be an interesting book.  Now that I have a better understanding of postmodernism I think it will be easier for me to read and understand the stories. I look forward to the second half of the semester. #03142014

[pri2117]

I can not believe we are about to have midterms. Time has past so fast. I love our literature class. I enjoy every moment of it. From group discussion to working in groups. We had way to much fun making the midterm test. I am so glad that we will know 70 percent of things that will be in midterm....

[kristenhmckay]

I agree with you that time has went by so fast and that it is already time for midterms.  I enjoy our class as well and being able to work in groups and share ideas about the books we read. We did have a lot of fun making the questions for the midterm test and discussing the books as we decided on questions. I am also really glad that there will be no essay on the midterm and that seventy percent of the questions will come from the class. There were a lot of people with the last name Black in the last book and as we were choosing questions for the midterm I got them mixed up and had to search for which person we were talking about. #reblog03092014

[kristenhmckay]

I really liked the review we did for the midterm in today’s class by making up our own questions and answering them. I have never had a professor that let the class choose seventy percent of the questions on the midterm and I enjoyed it. While working in my group trying to think of questions from the novels and short stories, I actually learned more from each book and story that way. Having to go back through the books and stories to look for a possible question helped me to remember what had happened, and trying to figure out what type of question was harder than I thought it would be. I am interested to see everyone else’s questions and to know what to expect on the midterm.  #03072014

[ejn1010]

My favorite chapter in this book is the “My Feelings” chapter where she revisits the day of 9-11. It is my favorite because of how real it is. We all felt the affect of what happened that day, but we didn’t understand what it meant to be looking for your husband or son, even though in the back of...

[kristenhmckay]

I agree with you that on the day of 9/11 everyone felt the effect of what happened, however not everyone reacted the same way. I also liked how the book was not focused on just one character but had many different points of views. At first to me it was confusing, trying to figure out whose point of view I was reading, but getting to know exactly how the grandmother felt on that day of 9/11 and how the grandfather felt in certain times of his life like in the bombing in Dresden was very interesting and helpful for me to understand what was actually happening. #reblog03022014

[kristenhmckay]

I have almost finished reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and I am so glad that everything is finally making sense to me. At first the chapters Why I’m Not Where You Are confused me because I wasn’t sure who was writing the letters and the pages with just one word or one sentence really had me confused. Later when I found out that it was Oskar’s grandfather Thomas who didn’t talk but wrote in a day book I was confused on why he didn’t talk. At first I thought he had lost his voice but then read that he quit speaking after the bombing in Dresden.  I do not like how the books plot is set up; throughout reading the book I had to go back to a certain chapter to make the connection with what I was reading. Although this book confused me at first all of the questions I had are now being answered and I think the book was very interesting to read.

#02282014

[kkesther]

In this past week I have begun to read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and to tell the truth, I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. I definitely understand how one would find this boring or untasteful due to the character of Oskar, but I for one find him fascinating.

As I said in class, I have a developmentally delayed brother, and I have found one of the most intriguing things about him, is learning how he thinks. Getting inside that brain of his and figuring out how it functions the way it does. How socially awkward he is while yearning for human contact at the same time. Why he gets attached to certain (what we would think of as irrelevant) subjects and learns all he can about them, but yet he cannot tie his shoe or ride a bike. How he has the mind of a 7 year old (or less depending on the day), and yet his vocabulary exceeds mine at times. (and he understand what the word means!). How little things in his routine, like getting the Sunday Paper every week just for the comics, become the most important thing to him. When you live with an Autistic child you really understand how fascinating it is.

A lot of what I have read of Oskar thus far shows signs of him being developmentally delayed in some fashion. He is socially awkward in the limo but yearns for the drivers attention all at the same time. His logic is intriguing on jewelry and inventing, but giving a stranger the key to his house makes perfect sense to him. His actions at times shows his age and at other times exceeds or diminishes his true age through simple things like crude jokes or advanced vocabulary. He refuses to wear any color except for white, and that is extremely important to him. 

All that being said, this book has already hit home with me and I’m only a few chapters in. I cannot wait to figure out the whole story line behind his family, and Oskar himself. :) 

[kristenhmckay]

I really like the picture you used of the characteristics of a person with autism. I have worked with autism children at an elementary school before and I was able to learn how they think and interact with other people. Like you said how your brother is, these kids were very smart but had trouble with daily task such as tying their shoes. Having the previous experience with children that have autism, as I am reading the book I can understand Oskar a little better and how he does not  act like the normal nine year old. Just like you said I cannot wait to read more to find out more about Oskar and his family.    #02232014  reblog