Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Blog # 3
The book Confessions of an ugly stepsister, which I am reading first, is very long. So unfortunately I am not quite halfway through the book, but I am a good chunk of the way through it. I am not quite sure exactly what my thesis will be, but I was thinking maybe something like how people react when they read a book that is put in another perspective that they did not thin of them selves. This would apply to all the books and I could use my own personal experience of reading it to help me with this thesis idea. I am still however going to think of other ideas as I read further in this book and then start my next book.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Block quote from Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister
Screeeee-an airborne alarm. Seagulls make arabesques
near the front of the church, being kept from the fish tables
by a couple of tired, zealous dogs. The public space is cold
from the ocean wind, but it is lit rosy and golden, from sun
on brick and stone. Anything might happen here, thinks the
younger girl. Anything! Even, maybe, something good(Maguire, p. 5-6)
Maguire uses show not tell detail in this book. Instead of just saying the seagulls fly around he says “Seagulls make arabesques near the front of the church”(p.5).So far he has done this on every page that I have read. He really adds a lot of detail to the story which makes it come to life which I am really enjoying. For example he says “The public space is cold from the ocean wind, but it is lit rosy and golden, from sun on brick and stone”(p.6). He could have just said the public space was pretty or lit nice, but that would have made it boring. I can tell that he likes to make his writing engaging so that people can get into it. He also uses a mix of big words like arabesques and then little words like sun or lit.
I just started the first chapter of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. So far it is interesting. From what I read its just introducing the characters. There is Iris and her sister Ruth and then there mother Margarthe. They have just moved from where they lived. I have not noticed much yet about symbolism because I have not read that much yet, but like I said I do like how he uses a lot of show not tell detail.
near the front of the church, being kept from the fish tables
by a couple of tired, zealous dogs. The public space is cold
from the ocean wind, but it is lit rosy and golden, from sun
on brick and stone. Anything might happen here, thinks the
younger girl. Anything! Even, maybe, something good(Maguire, p. 5-6)
Maguire uses show not tell detail in this book. Instead of just saying the seagulls fly around he says “Seagulls make arabesques near the front of the church”(p.5).So far he has done this on every page that I have read. He really adds a lot of detail to the story which makes it come to life which I am really enjoying. For example he says “The public space is cold from the ocean wind, but it is lit rosy and golden, from sun on brick and stone”(p.6). He could have just said the public space was pretty or lit nice, but that would have made it boring. I can tell that he likes to make his writing engaging so that people can get into it. He also uses a mix of big words like arabesques and then little words like sun or lit.
I just started the first chapter of Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister. So far it is interesting. From what I read its just introducing the characters. There is Iris and her sister Ruth and then there mother Margarthe. They have just moved from where they lived. I have not noticed much yet about symbolism because I have not read that much yet, but like I said I do like how he uses a lot of show not tell detail.
Monday, February 4, 2008
WA # 6
When we first got introduced to this project I knew that I wanted to do an author that I was interested in and a genre that caught my interest. That way I would it would be easier for me to read the books and look up information on the author if it was someone that I was really interested in. The genre that I enjoy the most is fiction, but more specifically fantasy books. As soon as I heard about this project I started looking up fiction and fantasy authors that I knew to see if they were American, but a lot of the ones that I was interested in were not American. I had first picked Lemony Snicket who is the author of the Series of Unfortunate Events series, but he did not really seem like that important of an American author.
Then I thought about the book Wicked and I looked up the author and sure enough he was American. That is what made me decide to choose Gregory Maguire who is the author of Wicked. I have heard about this book for a long time and how good it is and I figured that this was the prefect time to read this book and also find out more about this author. He sounds like a very interesting author and I like the idea that he takes fairy tales and writes them in different perspectives then people would think of. For example Wicked being told from the witches perspective form the Wizard of Oz. I always enjoyed fairytales when I was younger, so I think that his books would be fun for me to read.
As far as meeting the requirements I think Gregory Maguire meets all of the requirements. He lives in the United States and he has written quite a few books in the last couple of years. I think that he is an important author in our society. He has amazed most people and became most famous for his book Wicked and he appeals not only to kids, but also to adults. He has also funded some children organizations as well as writing his books. He is a well-known author to most people and most people that I talk to who have read his books really enjoy them.
For the paper I think that his books will help out a lot. I have heard that his books are well written and it might be interesting to do a paper about how we react to books when they are put in another perspective that we did not think of in the first place. Since his books are fiction and seem to be engaging I think that I would be able to find lot to write about for the paper. So I am not to worried about it.
The books that I am planning on reading that this author wrote right now are Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and Mirror Mirror. I think that these books will be good, because they are big books and they are some of his more famous ones. I think that I will read Wicked first, because that is the book that drew me to this author, then Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister cause this one was the second one that sounded the most interesting to me when I was looking up his books and then Mirror Mirror last. Mirror Mirror still sounded interesting, but not as interesting to me as the other two. However this order might change as I hear more about the books or start skimming through them. I am still not sure though about the biography or articles of literary criticism. That is something that I still need to research into online in the next couple of days and weeks, because I don’t know if he has a biography or not.
Then I thought about the book Wicked and I looked up the author and sure enough he was American. That is what made me decide to choose Gregory Maguire who is the author of Wicked. I have heard about this book for a long time and how good it is and I figured that this was the prefect time to read this book and also find out more about this author. He sounds like a very interesting author and I like the idea that he takes fairy tales and writes them in different perspectives then people would think of. For example Wicked being told from the witches perspective form the Wizard of Oz. I always enjoyed fairytales when I was younger, so I think that his books would be fun for me to read.
As far as meeting the requirements I think Gregory Maguire meets all of the requirements. He lives in the United States and he has written quite a few books in the last couple of years. I think that he is an important author in our society. He has amazed most people and became most famous for his book Wicked and he appeals not only to kids, but also to adults. He has also funded some children organizations as well as writing his books. He is a well-known author to most people and most people that I talk to who have read his books really enjoy them.
For the paper I think that his books will help out a lot. I have heard that his books are well written and it might be interesting to do a paper about how we react to books when they are put in another perspective that we did not think of in the first place. Since his books are fiction and seem to be engaging I think that I would be able to find lot to write about for the paper. So I am not to worried about it.
The books that I am planning on reading that this author wrote right now are Wicked, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, and Mirror Mirror. I think that these books will be good, because they are big books and they are some of his more famous ones. I think that I will read Wicked first, because that is the book that drew me to this author, then Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister cause this one was the second one that sounded the most interesting to me when I was looking up his books and then Mirror Mirror last. Mirror Mirror still sounded interesting, but not as interesting to me as the other two. However this order might change as I hear more about the books or start skimming through them. I am still not sure though about the biography or articles of literary criticism. That is something that I still need to research into online in the next couple of days and weeks, because I don’t know if he has a biography or not.
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