Why this book?

I Looking For Alaska, because it was written by John Green. John Green wrote The Fault In Our Stars which I read and fell absolutely in love with. I read it 3 times, so when I saw that he wrote this book too and had to try it. It turns out, it was just as good as TFIOS, and that anyone who read TFIOS should definitely give Looking for Alaska a try, because if your a true die hard for TFIOS, you would definitely like other books by the author.
I also chose this book because it is a love/romance novel. I just adore books about people finding their true love and has some happy endings, but usually always has a plot twist, and I like surprises. Now, I'm not saying all love stories have surprises, but this one does and if you like those, well then I know Barnes&Noble has some copies.

Why you should consider this book.

I was going to talk about just one section of the book, and it try to persuade you to read it, but there is no one section. After I started reading the first paragraph of Looking for Alaska I couldn’t stop reading. There was no slow start into the book or a rough part to get through that was boring. It starts with a week before the main character, Miles (Pudge), goes away to boarding school; and how he never got in with the crowd at his old school. Now, if you’re a reader like me, you would want to know if he finally finds friends and gets along with his new school. But, when he gets there, he not only finds his true friends, he finds love. Only he doesn't know it yet, and thats what the book is about. It’s a story in the words of a seventeen year old boy who finally finds friends, gets to know a girl he fell in love with day one, and just talks about his life in Culver Creek High. If that isn't enough for you, there is a Before and After, so you know something big is going to happen or a major plot twist. So it is a book you will get hooked on and can't finish until the end. Until the After.

The characters

     In my book, Looking for Alaska, I am far enough to know what the characters are starting to want. For example, Pudge and Alaska have tension between them to where they are madly in love already, although they barely know each other. Alaska, unfortunately for Pudge, has a boyfriend. So, Pudge and Alaska want each other. Now the Colonel is having troubles with his girlfriend. They are both bad girl/boyfriend material, so they deserve each other, that's the only reason they're together still, so other than that, Colonel is just free. Lives day-by-day. Doesn't really want something. Not yet anyway.
   I would say that the main theme in this book is love. Finding love, losing love, and most importantly looking for love. colonel and Alaska hook him up with some girls, when really Pudge just wants Alaska, hence the title. Now my book is split up into two main parts: Before and After. Then in the Before, it is separated into days: days before the After.  The Before is when Pudge is pulled into Alaska's world and makes him fall in love with her, and After that, nothing is the same.

Looking For Alaska

       I have recently started reading Looking For Alaska, and am on page 60. So far the main characters are Miles, Chip, and Alaska. Miles lived in Florida, but for his junior year, his parents sent him to his father's old boarding school, Culver Creek in Alabama. As he gets set up in his non air-conditioned, flaming hot room, he meets his roommate that's been there since freshman year. Chip, the roommate, says that they all have nicknames. His is colonel, and Miles' is pudge, which is ironic since he is a 6'1 scrawny kid. Down the hall they go and meet up Colonel's friend for some cigarettes, which is when Pudge meets Alaska. 

     The night before the first day of school, the Weekday Warriors, or the rich kids of the Birmingham-area that think are so cool, grab him, duct tape him, and throw him n the lake after they say it's for being friends with Colonel. Pudge gets out and tells Colonel. Apparently they do it to all new comers, but they don't duct tape the people to where they can die. So Colonel "declares war". After a couple weeks go by, Colonel, Pudge, Alaska and some more friends go for a smoke, when The Eagle, one of the vice-principals, catches them and throws them into school court. A court that they hold every semester and make some kids come in as the jury. Alaska and Colonel take the blame, since they were the only ones smoking at the time, and Pudge and the other friend, Takumi, were let off, for no rules against watching people smoke. 

   Now the questions I have are, will Alaska and Colonel get thrown out of Culver Creek in the future for getting caught smoking again, and will Alaska and Pudge date, because they have tension between them, but always turn it away because of Alaska's boyfriend. 

Reflection

  Words that I’ve used to indicate my voice would be words like anyways and TV show and 2 PM. I was writing like I was talking to an everyday friend. Very casual. It shows my personality by showing I’m an everyday person. I wasn’t trying to spruce up my blog posts like I was about to give a speech to the president or to the Queen of England. I was just me.

  To enhance my writer’s voice I used low/ informal diction and different sentence lengths. One time I wrote, “You could tell that he wrote it and maybe visualize his voice reading it, even though you don't watch a TV show called Ben every day at 2 PM on channel 3” (Vicknair). That was a long sentence right. After another long sentence I put a short sentence, “Take Ellen's book for example”. I wrote with different sentence lengths everywhere. For my low/ informal diction I said, “Every time I picked up her book and read, I could hear her voice reading it to me, like we were talking all day long.” I could have changed read to perused and voice to articulation, but I wanted informal diction, not formal where the words are more challenging and you don’t use in an everyday sentence.

The Author's Voice.

       In the final chapter of Seriously... I'm Kidding, Ellen said that she didn't care if we dripped coffee on her book or almost left it behind, but she was glad she could spend some time with her. It got me thinking. Every time I picked up her book and read, I could hear her voice reading it to me, like we were talking all day long. I could tell that she had written it. It's amazing that you could visualize her voice just from words on a page. That's what my teacher Ms. Cohen was talking about in class, use your voice in your writing. She even showed us great examples like Ben's blog. You could tell that he wrote it and maybe visualize his voice reading it, even thought you don't watch a TV show called Ben everyday at 2 PM on channel 3. Anyways, all I'm saying is that every writing piece could use a little of your own voice. Take Ellen's book for example.

Favorite Quote

I am almost to the end of Seriously I'm kidding and I was laughing so hard at this one quote that Ellen  had written. She said, "What’s not so great is that all this technology is destroying our social skills. Not only have we given up on writing letters to each other, we barely even talk to each other. People have become so accustomed to texting that they’re actually startled when the phone rings. It’s like we suddenly all have Batphones. If it rings, there must be danger. Now we answer, 'What happened? Is someone tied up in the old sawmill?' 'No, it’s Becky. I just called to say hi.' 'Well you scared me half to death. You can’t just pick up the phone and try to talk to me like that. Don’t the tips of your fingers work?'"

   This got me thinking about what our society is really about. Most teenagers now are constantly on their phones. It's like they're married to them. I actually feel the same because I was on the brink of tears when I dropped my phone and it shattered the screen. I can't be the only one who has done this. Right? 

If I had a conversation with the author.

If I had the chance to talk to Ellen Degeneres, I would ask her if her life is always funny and crazy. I mean, do all comedians and stars have laugh out loud moments all day, everyday. I sure don't, but laughing is a choice. You could laugh all day if you wanted, or you could be a debby downer all day. I would also ask Ellen if she makes up some of he things that she says are true, or is all her trips to the mall ironic. I also think that Ellen would talk to me like one of her guests on her show. She makes all her guests feel like her good friends that she's known for ever. I think she would talk to anybody like that. I mean, have you seen a newspaper article about Ellen Degeneres fighting with paparazzi?

The best thing about my book.

      I would say that the best thing about my book is that there's no plot. You don't have to remember any character names or how the author makes the character react to certain scenarios. It's just Ellen Degeneres and who ever she talks about in the 2-3 page chapters. You can escape all the author's connection questions and just have a good laugh at her sarcastic humor. She makes you relate to her stories and even included coloring pages for if you don't want to read, which I have colored already. But I guess she just wrote down the first thing that came to her head just to write a book for more money. That's what all stars want out there in Hollywood. More money. Anyway they can get it. That doesn't mean that what came to her mind isn't funny, because it truly entertains me and if you watch someone that's reading her book closely, you might see a visible smile on their face.

Why I chose this book.

    A new trimester started and I went to my english class and my teacher said that we will be doing blogger again. I knew I had to pick another book for this trimester so I went to Barnes&Noble to pick a book. I didn't feel like going through two plots from tow different books, because of our class novel, so I leaned toward comedy. I had heard of Ellen Degeneres writing a book, but I never payed any attention to it until I found it in the book store. I started skimming through it and was laughing in the book store. I had to buy it.

   In her book, she had many different stories about her and her life. She was like an everyday person, but turned her ironic moments into humor and joked about it. I felt like this book would bring me joy to an everyday school day to blog about weekly.