Finally

During the course of this semester, what kind of reading did you do?
This semester I read two classics, one bizarre book, and one pop fiction.  They were very different, but I enjoyed them all.

Was it easy to find things that interested you?
Yes.  I know what I like to read, so it wasn't a challenge.

Did you have trouble finding something you could stick with?
No, I finished all of the books, even though there were occasionally dull parts.

How did you choose the things you read?
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius was a book that Mr. Hill had sitting on the shelf to recommend to the students.  I liked the title and asked him about it.  He recommended it, so I borrowed it from his classroom.
The Magicians and Mrs. Quent was a book I purchased on sale when Mitchel Books went out of business.  I read the inside cover and liked how it sounded.
Frankenstein was a classic I bought after watching the musical.  I liked the story and wanted to read the book.
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is a book I bought because I love both King Arthur stories and satire.  Seemed promising.

Did you have trouble meeting the weekly page quota?
I was crunched for time, but it was never an option not to finish.  I ended up reading about 50 pages a night the Wednesday and Thursday before it was due since I was reading for Novels the other days.  It was a lot, but I made sure that every week I accomplished my goal.

Last Response

I did it!  I used technology successfully.  This is my last blog response post for the semester, so I thought I'd take some time to wrap up the project.  I've really enjoyed doing this.  I love to read and I love to write, so this has been the perfect combination.  The books I read have been fantastic and I can't wait to continue.  I haven't had much time in high school to devote to reading, so being forced, in a way, has been great.  I have probably read more in this one semester than in a few school years combined.  I am not sure if I will continue this blog - if anything I will keep updating the list of books I have read.  Maybe once things settle down in school I will come back to this, but for now, I think its time to say goodbye.  Thank you technology, for once you have been cooperative.

Not so funny....

I'm still loving A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, but today I got to a part that surprised me. For once, I wasn't laughing.  The Boss and the King are traveling across England dressed as commoners.  The King is pretty terrible of acting normal, but he finally sees real suffering when they stop at a house for him to attempt his communication skills.  Instead of a nice chat, they discover a woman lying on the ground, dying of small pox.  Her husband and daughter have died of the same disease, she has no idea if the other daughter who is just upstairs is alive, and her two sons are locked in a prison in the baron's home for a crime they did not commit.  For the first time, the King is exposed to the true horrors of his country.  Instead of fleeing, he waits with the Boss, delivering the remaining family members water until they die.  Just as they leave the home, the two sons arrive home, having escaped from the mansion.  To the Boss's dismay, instead of mourning what the boys will discover once they go inside, the King states that they should be recaptured since the lord has a right to hold prisoners.  After all that suffering, he still does not understand.  They continue on their way and discover something even worse.  The baron has been killed and, though the people living in the town hate the deceased man, they are going around hanging people for the murder based solely on suspicion.  The scene described is tragic and sad, speaking of man's inhumanity towards man.  A very different tone from the rest of the book.  Its sad, but profound.  I think as I keep reading it will be funny again, but that was an interesting wake up call.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain

Pages Read in the Last Two Weeks: 214

Pages Read this Semester: 1,203

Sentences of the Week:

1. "Contantinopolitanischerdudelsackspfeifenmachersgesellschafft!" ("The Bagpipe Manufacturers Company of Constantinople" in German) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain

2. "I could have eaten with the hogs if I had had birth approaching my lofty official rank; but I hadn't, and so accepted the unavoidable slight and made no complain." A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain

3. "She never had any ideas, any more than a fog has." A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain

I'm not really sure if my first sentence is truly a sentence, but the Boss used it as a spell to bring back the water to the monks.  I thought it was just a funny, made-up word, but the notation of the bottom of the page gives a translation!  Makes me want to learn how to speak German.  The second sentence is hilarious because of the context.  The Boss had been on this long quest to rescue trapped nobility with Sandy, but upon arriving at the "castle" they had been searching for, he discovered that it was merely a pig sty.  Sandy had this idea in her head that the pigs there were actually princesses and that they had an enchantment on them to make others see them as ugly.  In order to leave, the Boss humors her by buying the pigs and taking them to freedom.  On the journey home, Sandy insists on calling them by outrageously formal names of royalty and won't let the Boss abuse them in any way.  At one point, he grabs a pig by the tail to keep her from running away and Sandy becomes upset because he was apparently pulling on the train of the princess's dress.  Finally, they reach a cottage and spend the night there, with the pigs inside of course, and have breakfast in the morning.  Obviously, the Boss is not suited to eat alongside nobility, so he and Sandy sit separately.  I think the whole situation is really funny and very sarcastic - just the way I like it.  The final sentence is another great insult (I find myself drawn to these).  I hate stupid people.  This reminds me of a lot of them.  It was hard choosing sentences this week because the entire book is so funny.  There aren't many "one-liners," but entire situations have actually made me laugh out loud.  I can't wait to keep reading and I wish I hadn't let this book sit on my shelf for so long.

CAMELOT AND SPAMALOT!!!!

At this point in my book, there is some hilarious satire on the Church.  While traveling home, the Boss comes across a group of pilgrims who are traveling to worship at a blessed fountain guarded by monks.  Stupid, Monty-python-like Monks.  The Boss tags along, but before arriving, finds out that the water has suddenly dried up!  Now, he has to make some plot to again convince the subjects that he has magic powers by bringing the water back.  He calls up some of the people he has educated back in Camelot and they immediately set out to bring the proper tools.

The Boss arrives at the holy shrine to find some not too flattering representatives of the Church.  The monks are kind, but ignorant and gullible.  All of the monks knew there was a well feeding the spring, but no one thought to check if there was something wrong with the well.  Instead, they called in Merlin to perform magic and begin to beg the Boss for help.  Right away, he realizes there is a leak and knows how to fix it.  As soon as his cronies arrive, they quickly complete the task then focus on tricking everyone into believing there was magic.  They put on a great show and, even after demonstrating to some of the monks how to work a pump to keep the well working, all of the men believe that, by the Grace of God, the Boss has magically restored their spring.  Right....

The entire book so far has been hilarious, and I can't help but draw parallels to other King Arthur Themed Satires - Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and more recently, the musical Spamalot.  I love Monty Python (my best friend got me a Black Beast of Aaaaarrrrrrgggggh for my birthday), and the way this book makes fun of the classic adventure story is very similar.  For entertainment purposes, I have a link to part of the movie in my first paragraph and I am including a link from the musical as well.  Enjoy.

Doctor Who



A Companion, the Blue Box, and the Doctor
EPIC HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

An actual police box in Scotland

Okay, prepare for another geeky post.  This one will probably go over the heads of most normal people, but for me it is very relevant.  Doctor Who is one of my all time favorite shows.  Its basically about a 900 year old human-looking alien who travels through time and space in a little blue box that is bigger on the inside.  Lost yet?  Its actually very popular in England - its been running for decades and has a huge fan following.  Its hard to describe if you haven't seen it, but the basic premise is that in each episode this insane man, the Doctor, travels to a new place and has some adventure.  I promise its cool.  Anyway, the connection is that A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is starting to remind me of my favorite British Sci-fi Show.  Like the Doctor, the Boss (the main character's nickname) is in a time that is not his own, dealing with people that cannot begin to comprehend his intellect.  He even has a companion in Sandy, a confused girl who is helping to lead him on quests.  It must be a archetype for time travelers to hang out with random girls they meet on their journeys because the Doctor does the same thing.  Unlike the Doctor, however, the Boss is breaking some serious time travel rules.  Whether its Hot Tub Time Machine, Back to the Future, or Doctor Who, generally you are not supposed to change the past.  Merely stepping on a butterfly could be enough to change the course of history, messing up your own future and basically wreaking havoc on the time stream.  The Boss apparently missed the memo.  Here he is, back in the Middle Ages, attempting to introduce the 19th century.  He's building factories, changing currencies, and trying to change the mindset of the entire population.  Its hilarious to read about, but for a geeky human being like myself, I immediately begin to wonder how much this would affect the future.  The Boss would make a very bad Doctor.





Bucket List

When I was younger, I created a list of things I wanted to do before I die, and many of them are still some of my priorities.  A few of my favorites are:

1. Skydiving

2. Coal walking

3. World Travel

And most notably:

Being Knighted

I'm not kidding.  Ask my parents.  I've researched it.  Turns out, if you want to be a knight it's not good enough to do a great service to Great Britain.  No.  You have to be British.  The best I could do is become an "Honorary Knight."  That's just dumb. It is difficult to explain the soul-crushing, handicap-rendering effect this has had on me.  My dream has been ruined.  Talk about depression.  Luckily, however, one of the first steps towards being healed is learning to laugh, and this his book is the perfect treatment.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court makes my dream seem a little silly.  It blatantly mocks the common adventure story, poking holes in the accepted archetypes.  Now that I think about it, armor wouldn't be all that comfortable.  Maps sure would be nice for quests.  I like soap.  Although being knighted is still a distant goal of mine (Would marrying a Scottish or English guy grant me citizenship somehow?), this book has already made me reconsider the romantic time I used to dream about.  Ogres, hundreds of strange women locked in towers, and a missing cup hardly seem like my business.  Maybe I should think more like Mark Twain - why would I want to go back to a time where everyone believed everything and talked like someone straight out of Monty Python?  No thanks.  I'll stick to this century for now, at least until I figure out how to either a) travel through time and space whenever I want  b) be knighted in my own time or c) marry David Tennant or Ewan McGregor.  Honestly, I find all three of these options acceptable.