February
✩ never read it
✩✩ satisfactory
✩✩✩ good book
✩✩✩✩ one of a kind
✩✩✩✩✩ life-changing
Book Name: The Hunchback Assignments
Author: Arthur Slade
Progress: 185 / 275
Ratings: ✩✩✩
Average Reading: 8 pages per day
This has been my first time taking creative writing as an elective course. At first, I was new to the whole process and was getting accustomed to the environment of continuously reading and writing. At Least with this course, I have a ticket to sit down and read books, other than that I would have always been busy with my schedule and wouldn’t have free time to even read a page of a book at least a day.
For now, I am reading a book recommended by my friend: The Hunchback Assignments. I have rated it a 3 out 5 as it is decent. I like fictional books that touch a lot into mystery and hold a lot of suspense. The reason I rated this book a 3 is because the transition of ideas is not properly conveyed, the climax is a bit rushed, decent imagery, and there isn’t as much vocabulary compared to other books. Till the point that I have read, the story talks about a kid who can transform himself into other people. A secret organization adopts him and trains him vigorously into an agent to crack down mysteries. They then unleash him into the real world all by himself at the age of 12, to test his skills. A few years later they summon and assign him a partner to solve the mysteries of people’s disappearances. This is the point that I have reached. My reading stops here, and I wish to complete this book in the next few days to find out the ending.
My reading goal for March is to complete this book and some other book of my choice. I haven’t determined the books that I plan on reading but for now, it is sure that my next book will be a mystery one or the next sequel of “The Hunchback Assignments”. Also since my average reading speed for February was so low, I want to boost it up to at least 15 pages per day.
March
Book Name: The Hunchback Assignments
Author: Arthur Slade
Progress: 275 / 275
Ratings: ✩
Book Name: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Progress: 373/472
Ratings: ✩✩
Average Reading: 23.4 pages per day
I am really happy with my reading and the number of pages I got over the month. Last month my main goal was to get at least 20 pages per day because of the low pages that I was getting. Now I am fully satisfied that I have successfully accomplished and surpassed my goal by getting over 20 pages of reading every day.
I completed my previous book: The Hunchback Assignments. I found the ending to be a bit rushed and unlike other books that have multiple series, this book didn’t leave a whole lot of suspense for the reader to be engaged and pick up the next series of the books. It doesn’t give a sense of satisfaction and suspense when the book ended as it was just plain and really dry. Anyhow the book ends off when the main characters; Olivia and Modo find out what the whole supreme scheme was: A giant robot powered on the young energy of kids, with the purpose of destroying the parliament building. However, Olivia and Modo get on time and shut down the robot by unclipping the kids, but the person who was controlling the robot escapes with the rest of the legion: The guild masters.
The other book that I read, was assigned over the break to read for ELA: For Whom the Bell Tolls. This book was interesting as it went deeper into the book with a lot of suspense. Initially, there is the main character: Robert Jordan who comes across this Guirealla camp that is going through their own problems. Robert Jordan received orders from general Golz to explode a fascist bridge with dynamite that is going to play an important role in the war. Robert enters the camp with the tour guide Anselmo and then soon gets the assistance of the camp in blowing up the bridge, but before he does so Robert Jordan falls in love with a girl named Maria who was rescued by this same camp several years ago. Further in the book, Robert faces another Guerilla camp attacked by dozens of fascists leaving all of the members dead. I can’t wait to finish this book next month and find out if the bridge really was blown up or not, if so what happens next.
My reading goal for next month is to start reading more challenging books instead of candy books while also maintaining the amount of reading that I get done every day.
April
Book Name: The Book Thief
Author: Markus Zusak
Progress: 584/584
Ratings: ✩✩✩✩
Book Name: For Whom the Bell Tolls
Author: Ernest Hemingway
Progress: 472/472
Ratings: ✩✩
Average Reading: 24.4 pages per day
This month I successfully finished one of my writers seminar book and the book assigned to me in ELA. I am also glad that I maintained my reading this month and that it didn’t really drop as much as I had thought it would.
The Book Thief is taken place during World War II focusing on the main character: Liesel, with the whole story narrated by Death. Liesel is living with her new foster parents and starts to really like her faster father. Hans; the foster father finds a book that Liesel stole earlier at her brothers burial’s site and finds out that she doesn’t know how to read. Slowly, Hans introduces words and they slowly learn new words as they come across it during their read from the book. Hans who previously during World War I owed his life to Erik and promised to take care of his family is now visited by Erik’s son: Max, a Jew seeking refuge in Han’s house. A strong bond is formed between Liesel and Max. One day when Hans helps a Jew being sent to the concentration camps by offering bread, Hans gets in trouble and his name is take down by the officers. Afraid, Hans sends Max away and a book is given to Liesel made by Max himself. As Han’s name was noted down, he was sent to serve the military but later gets sent back home after breaking his leg. Liesel starts writing her own book named “The Book Thief”. One day the neighborhood is bombed and Liesel’s foster parents die but she is survived as she was writing her book in the basement while the bombing occurred. The book ends off with a old happy Liesel who now has children and grandchildren. I really enjoyed this book particularly the part when narrator is mentioned as death and to my knowledge I have never come across a book that has death as their narrator so this particular book was very interesting to me.
Continuing from where we I left off; Robert Jordan does not want to do the bridge attack as he knows he as well as other people in the camp are definitely going to die. With this fear he sends off Augustin to hurry up to General Golz and call the attack off if possible. Augustin is very happy that he got selected to pass on the message as he wont get killed even if the attack was not launched. Meanwhile, Pablo who doesn’t mind blowing the bridge ends up throwing all the detonators to prevent deaths of his fellow camp members while every one is sleeping. Pablo doesn’t feel right on the inside so decides to return to the camp with five extra men, horses and machine guns with an alternative idea to blow up the bridge. Robert who is pissed about Pablo throwing away the detonators is now calm. Just in case the attack doesn’t get called off, the whole band gathers secretly around the bridge waiting for the bombing from the planes; a signal to initiate the attack on the bridge. The signal is taken course and the action begins. There is a lot of exchange in fire at the top while Robert and Anselmo rig the bridge with grenades and dynamites. When done Robert tells everyone to fall back while Anselmo triggers and blows the bridges, in turn killing himself. Robert sees a tank approaching and so the band mounts on top of the horses and begin their escape. This tank is continuously shooting at them and while so Robert is injured by the horse. But he tells everyone to keep moving and leave him behind. As Robert starts to feel the excruciating pain he sees a Lieutenant coming by, to which Robert waits patiently for him to come by for a chance to strike him down. The book ends off here with the reader making assumptions on whether Robert shot the Lieutenant, got captured or escaped. For me I really enjoy when books end off with the reader to make their own thoughts and endings.
For next month my goal is to try really hard to at least reach the 30 pages per day mark while also getting a sufficient amount of books for my grade level and avoiding candy books.
May/June
Book Name: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
Author: J.K. Rowling
Progress: 223/223
Ratings: ✩✩✩✩
Book Name: Animal Farm
Author: George Orwells
Progress: 112/112
Ratings: ✩✩✩
Average Reading: 15.4 pages per day
With all the exams going on; a lot of stress was put on me for the preparations, as a result, I just couldn’t get time to read books or at least I couldn’t find time to read many books. However, on the bus instead of talking with my friends, I took this time to relax and read.
I read Harry Potter as a book to read for pleasure on the bus; taking the time to relax my mind. I rated this book 4 stars because it did a really good job of relaxing my mind as well as having a good story plot. As a fiction fan, I enjoyed this book very much, and its creative techniques in mixing fairytale with real life. This fantasy piece was about a kid named Harry Potter who had recently found out that he is a wizard and started attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Moving away from his foster parent’s home, he found great adventures and made good friends at Hogwarts. Through these great adventures, he confronts Voldemort the Dark Wizard who was behind the murder of his real parents.
The other book that I read was Animal Farm. I read this book as recommendations from my friends and enjoyed it. This too is a fictional book but rather than indulging in a fairytale; it talks about the association between different animals. I gave this book a rating of 3 stars, as the book had great symbolism and metaphors but the story and the way it was narrated was a bit confusing at times. In brief, animals from a farm revolt and overthrow their owner, and make a new start such as create commandments that every animal must abide by, such as every animal is equal. But soon a pig named Napoleon claims as leader and brings the farm towards being corrupt. Napoleon raises the status of the pigs and uses the other farm animals as labour and ignores the promise of making life easier for all the animals. In the end, the farm animals can no longer differentiate between the pigs and humans.
Although my reading average hasn’t matched my goals, I am still proud that I could allocate some time to at least complete few books this month. With all the tests, quizzes, and exams; it was a tough month, but in the future, I plan not to make any excuse whatsoever and read at least 3 books every month.