Philip+Swanson

=April 15, 2011.= I am now to page 70 in __The Great Gatsby__. It is a pretty interesting book. The main character I now find out is Nick. He has now met Gatsby and he is puzzled by him. He has such a high respect for him, even though he hardly knows him. One of the other big characters in the book is Jordan. Nick seems to really like her but he doesn't want to get in a relationship so quickly. He is writing her letters and he signs them Love, Nick. So he likes her for sure but he isn't willing to admit it. He goes to parties with her, and they write letters to each other. At this point in the story I think we are going to get to meet Gatsby and find out more about him. One of the last parts I read was that his opinion of Gatsby had kind of faded. He went from thinking that Gatsby was very interesting and hard to figure out, to now thinking he is just some rich guy next door. He doesn't think he is as interesting. = =



=**April 1, 2011.** = The book that I am reading is __The Great Gatsby__ by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I have read 10 pages this week. At this point I have only met the main character who is speaking from his point of view. He has just moved here and bought a house, that isn't in great shape but it will do. He talks about The Great Gatsby, but he has not met him yet. He is just getting used to the town. He has not yet told us his name. He is currently showing someone around the town. Quote: "If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away." It is an interesting line because he has yet to meet Gatsby yet he has this profound respect for a man he has never met or seen.

=March 28, 2011. New Book.= The book that I will be reading independently this quarter is __The Great Gatsby__ by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I got the book at the Boone High School Library. I decided to read this book because my English class last year watched the movie __The Great Gatsby__, so I'm interested to see how it compares. It also seemed like a very interesting setting and topic for a book. I haven't started reading the book yet, but I am exited to get started. = = =March 16, 2011. Final Blog.=

Characters:

 * Jake- he is the main character and also the narrorator. He tells the story from his point of view. I would say he is very laid back and doesn't want to offend anyone. He is also very conservative, because all his friends seem to go out and party like every night, but when they drink alot he generally drinks just a little and sits by himself. He is a very interesting character because he does have friends, it's just that he hangs out with people that aren't like him.
 * Robert Cohn- Jake's best friend. He comes and goes throughout the book going on buisness trips and travel, but Jake really likes and appreciates him. He is a little more outgoing than Jake but they seem to have alot in common.
 * Bill- a friend who stops by occasionally. He is an author so he isn't around much, and he travels around the world to get ideas. When he drinks, he DRINKS. In our society we would call him an alcoholic.
 * Brett- Sounds like a boys name but it is really the the girl that Jake likes. She is a person who these days we would say she "sleeps around." Jake really wishes she would change so they could settle down, but she always seems to be liking someone else. She is the character who appears the most in the story, besides Jake. She also is a person who drinks alot.
 * Mike- the guy that Brett likes through most of the book. They plan to marry soon but no plans are told. He also is a drunk.

Summary
Well in this book not alot of things happen. It seems like everyday all they do is talk with friends during the day, go out and party, drink some more, sleep, and then repeat the process. It goes on like this for quite some time. I didn't finish the whole book, but i had started to get into the interesting part. One day Jake decided he wanted to go on a trip to Spain to fish and hang out, to be away from everyday life. Robert and Jake were going to go up there a day early and meet Brett, Bill and Mike there the next day. Well the next day the 3 didn't show up, (as Jake figured) so Robert and Jake went and started fishing by themselves. They fished for a couple days and then decided to head into town. At this point they find Bill, Mike and Brett, and they are quite drunk. Together they go to the running of the Bulls. They enjoyed that, and for dinner they went to eat with a matador, that was going to be competing the next day. As the story goes on from there, it is evident that Brett likes the matador. And that is to the point where i had read.

Rating: 2.5
It definitely wasn't a great book to read, because often it was very slow and dragged on. There was moments of interesting parts, mostly toward the end of the book, but there was alot of slow reading too. I enjoyed __Old Man and the Sea__ so i thought i would enjoy this too, but this seemed to drag on too much. It just didn't have much going on through out the story. It just seemed like they were always partying and drinking or talking about doing that. It got more interesting toward the end but overall I didn't think it was a great book.

I think I may read __The Sound and the Fury__. It sounds kind of ineresting with all the flash backs and such. Also it is always interesting to see how people make it out of difficult situations and being able to deal with that. Sarah read it and I read about it on her page. = = = = =February 18, 2011= [|Book Review] Well so far in __The Sun Also Rises__ the main character, Jake, has basically gone around to a bunch of parties, drank alot while watching people dance. He often just goes home and sits by himself and then goes to bed. It is kind of a strange book right now because I don't know what to think of it. There's not too many quotes to pick from because it is really bland at this point. =January 27th, 2011.= I have not picked out a book yet, but i plan on picking out __The Sun Also Rises__ by Ernest Hemingway. I really liked the other book that i read by him, __The Old Man and The Sea__. Although not many people like that book, I thought it was quite interesting. __The Sun Also Rises,__ sounds like a good book too. It says it is based in Spain and has to do with the running of the bulls so i am quite interested to see what it is all about.

January 14th, 2011 My favorite books. I really like the series of sports mystery books by John Feinstein. They include Cover Up and Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery. They are really awesome because it has alot to do with sports which I like but then it incorporates mystery and it keeps you turning the page. And I absolutely love the characters. They are two teen kids from opposite parts of the country and have very different views on sports but they agree to work with each other and come to really like each other. Also I have just read the 2 books by Jason Elam and Steve Yohn. It's 2 books about a football player who turns basically into a special agent after terrorist threats. They are called Monday Night Jihad, and Blown Coverage. If you don't like sports books you can still like these books. Those were by far my favorite books. It is so entertaining and crazy action packed.