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The free-read structure this year was fair, but annoying at times. We had ten to fifteen minutes each day to read. Since it is a Pre-AP class, I expected us to read one hundred pages a week. The annoying part about it is that I had to read on the weekend. I’m a slow ready, so reading on the weekend wasn’t fun. My system for it was to read fifteen pages a day, and ten pages on Sunday to make it one hundred pages a week. It was either that or read all one hundred on the week days. My suggestion would be to read one hundred and fifty pages every two weeks. If you read all of them the first week, you would be rewarded the second week, by not having to read. I think it would be a fair system. I also tried to branch out and read new books. One book that I took a chance on and read was “Ready Player One”. I usually read non-fiction books, and this book is fiction. It was an okay book, but I never really felt attached to the characters than I would in other books. My favorite book I read this year was “Night Hoops”. I really enjoyed the story the author was trying to write. I also felt closer to the main character than I did to the other books I read this year. The only problem I had was that it was one of those books that you already know the ending way before it happens. The only thing I would change is to do reflections of passages we read with the whole class.

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Last week I finished the book “Reality Boy”. The book was really good in the beginning, but it was losing me in the second half of the book. I really liked the beginning when it gave the whole backstory of the reality show Gerald and his family were put into. Then it goes to present day where Gerald is now. It was also very interesting to see how that reality show changed Gerald’s life for the worse. I’ve never read a book where the main character had severe anger issues. It was intriguing to see how people like Gerald deal with that issue in their life. Getting back to the stuff I didn’t like about the book, which was the second half. Once Gerald met this girl Hailey, they became girlfriend and boyfriend, but once you meet this girl, you find out she wants to run away. Her motives throw off Gerald’s motives and it just took a huge turn I was not expecting in the book. Another thing I didn’t like in the second half, was when the author kept going back and forth between chapters. After every two chapters the author kept writing flashbacks from the reality show, and it would put aside the main plot. It really threw me off when it kept happening over, and over again. Every time I got to the next chapter and it was a scene from the reality show, I just said in my head, “Here we go again.”. Those are my complaints about the book, but I don’t regret reading it, and I do recommend it to readers who want to read something new.

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Julius Caesar has so many hidden messages in the play that I’m probably never going to figure out. But, in Act one of Julius Caesar, I found a universal theme that everyone can relate to which is jealousy. Jealousy affects a lot of people’s thoughts and their motives. Jealousy makes you not like yourself. It also forces you to try to be somebody who you’re not. Brutus and Cassius make the conspiracy ultimately because of them being jealous of Caesar’s power. So they killed him. Caesar never did anything wrong, he was just a normal human being. I guess what led to his downfall was being loved by everybody. Even Brutus went along with it even though he loved and cared about Caesar. In the book I’m reading now, “Reality Boy”, there are times where the main character Gerald gets jealous. Gerald was on a reality tv show when he was a young child and was always embarrassed. He was seen as a disgusting bad kid by the audience. Since then he became famous in a bad way and is known as “The Crapper”. Gerald gets jealous of other people a lot because he just wished that he got to have a normal childhood and not a made up one where everybody could see. The jealousy throughout his life made him develop anger issues. This proves that jealousy only leads to bad things and not good ones. The conspiracy’s jealousy of Caesar led to his death, and Gerald’s jealousy led to him developing anger issues.

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The book I am currently reading is “Reality Boy”. A theme I have found in the book is that you should always love your family no matter what. A discussion question I would associate with this book is should you ever hate your family? If I was somebody who has never read the book, I would answer this question by saying you should always love your family no matter what. They are your blood. You may disagree or absolutely hate them, but family is the biggest connection you have in this world. Another question I would ask is if you activate your own anger or does other people? I would say it depends on the situation or what type of person you are. A second theme from “Reality Boy” is if you care about somebody, you should show it. A discussion question I would associate with this is if you have feelings for someone should you always tell them your true feelings? Should you not tell them? I would respond to this question by saying that if your close to this person, you should always tell them how you feel. If you don’t personally know them, you shouldn’t. Another question I would ask is if love can change you as a person? Does it not change you? I believe that love always changes you as a person. It makes you care for somebody more deeply than others. Love is a very powerful thing.

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This week I finished my book I was reading called “The Card Turner”. It was an alright book, but the whole thing was just them playing an overly-complicated card game with a bunch of elders. Of course, it was one of those books where you already know what’s going to happen at the end. Once you figure out the plot of the book at the beginning, you can already correctly predict the ending. That’s one of the things I hate about books. You can easily guess what’s going to happen at the end. Any book or movie about sports, the ending is always the underdogs impossibly winning the championship, or if a book is about a girl and their grandpa. The grandpa would most likely die at the end whether it be from old age, or tragically by a disease. There are tons of books out there where you could never guess the ending. These books have very complex story’s and intriguing characters. Those are the books where you can be shocked at the end. Another thing that confuses me are movies based one books. More likely than not, the book is better than the movie. I believe it is because the movie makes different decisions than the book to try to make it unpredictable for the people who have read the book. Another reason is when your reading any books, every page you read you create a picture in your mind. You imagine what the characters and setting look’s like. So when they make a movie, it is completely different than what you imagined in your head. The most successful movie based on a book I would say is not even a movie. It’s the show “Game of Thrones”, which I think most people would agree with.

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The book I am currently reading is “The Card Turner”. A pivotal moment in the book is the beginning when the author introduces his uncle Lester. Uncle Lester is the most important character in the book. He is the main reason we have a story in this book. Without him it would just be a normal summer for our main character Alton. Uncle Lester is very old but has a lot of money. Alton’s mom wants to inherit all of his money when he dies, so she always calls him her favorite uncle every time they see each other. She also makes Alton do it too. She wants that money so bad, she would do any little thing to make uncle Lester feel good. Before he dies, she is hoping to hear those words “The moneys yours”. You can’t really blame her for wanting the money because, it’s a lot. She is also going way overboard about it, but that’s how desperate she is. The whole story is Alton driving uncle Lester to play cards everyday and also getting on his good side by learning how to play. If you removed the element of Uncle Lester not being super rich, I don’t eve think there would be a story here. Alton’s mom wouldn’t ever have to be obsessed with uncle Lester and, also wouldn’t make Alton drive him. Alton also wouldn’t ever learn how to play bridge or get closer with his uncle. It would just be a normal summer for Alton.

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The books I have read this year have been stories about a main character progressing throughout the book, and having a satisfying ending to his adventure. My book list would show someone that I very much enjoy reading about main characters forced to face, and overcome a difficult task. It makes it a great read when the main character has progressed, and has become a new person at the end of the book. I honestly don’t think I have challenged myself with any of my reads. All of the books I’ve read were pretty long, but that’s it. I only read books in genres that I would enjoy. I don’t get challenged because I never go out of my comfort zone. Thinking about it, it would probably be a good thing for me to challenge myself by reading book genres I wouldn’t want to read. To challenge myself, the next book I am going to read will be a biography. Those types of books don’t really interest me, so I’ll try to find one about an interesting person. To increase my reading level, I am going to have to do multiple things. I’m not a big reader, so I’m going to have to read more often in order to increase the speed of my reading. I feel that I have very much increased the speed of my reading from last year, so I am on track. I’ll also have to read more challenging books. The books I read are long, but they are easy to read and follow.

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There are a lot of problems, issues, and difficulties that everybody has to deal with in the book The Hunted. There was a massive earthquake that hit California and brought it to ruins. People are trying to stay alive and rebuild civilization. With this earthquake, it also brought a very deadly disease called Romero disease. Many people are getting infected by it, and chances are they won’t survive. Since these issues are affecting human society, people can’t trust each other. There are multiple instances where people have gotten into shootouts. The two main characters are Shy and Carmen. I know, these are the weirdest names I have ever seen, but once you are deep into the book, it becomes less of a disturbance. Shy is a guy and Carmen is a girl. Carmen has lost her fiancé and hopes that he is still alive out there somewhere, but Shy has a huge crush on her. This makes Shy look very impatient and weak because he really likes this girl. Soon Carmen starts developing some feelings for him. I wish this wouldn’t be the case because this just makes the main characters look weak to me at least. They are in a state of crises, there has been an earthquake that has killed thousands, there is a disease out there that is more deadly than cancer, and you’re out in the corrupted world trying to stay alive! This shouldn’t be focused on now. Maybe when California is back in order, and her fiancé is dead then yes, go be together.

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The book I am currently reading is The Hunted by Matt De La Pena. It is the sequel to The Living and is even better than the first one. This book has made me reconsider or think twice about future life. In this book there was an earthquake that hit California leaving many people dead. There has also been a developing deadly disease called Romero disease which has killed many more. Is something like that going to happen in the real world? Is there any chance that I’m going to die from an earthquake? Am I going to become very sick and die from a disease? It gets you thinking in your head while your reading this book and makes me more grateful about the life that I have now. It also gets me thinking about our world as a whole. Our world is definitely not perfect and we certainly have our problems, but this book has so much drama like people getting into gunfights, and the spread of a deadly disease. Anyone could be infected and your just waiting for scientists to find a cure. Just like Cancer they may not ever find a cure to this even more deadly disease. Everybody in California is just waiting for their life to be taken away from them. The book really puts into perspective of how California has changed after the earthquake. At one point the main characters go to Los Angeles and the streets were all empty. All of the places including the Staples Center is all torn apart and empty.

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The last book I read was Miles Morales Spider-Man. The main character in the book is of course, Miles Morales who is Spider-man. Instead of focusing on the superhero aspect, the author focuses on the teenage life of Miles. Since he did that, it makes the character so much relatable to me, and all teens who read this book, because he goes through the same stuff us teens go through. He hates all his teachers, has a crush on a girl, and works at a gas station which he was falsely accused of stealing. His parents are the typical parents as well. But there are also a lot of things that I can’t relate to him. He’s black, and goes to an academy. All the students who attend the academy live there and go home on the weekends. there’s also that one thing that definitely doesn’t relate to me and you guessed it. He’s a superhero. When I was reading this book, I sometimes forgot that Mile’s was Spider-man. The way the author structured this book was that Miles was the main focus, and Spider-man was kind of like an afterthought until the end when he has to fight the bad guy. Miles’ dad and uncle were criminals when they were teenagers. It’s crazy to think how one generation went from being a criminal to the next becoming a superhero. I very much admire Miles’ self composure. He is faced with so many things in this book but doesn’t freak out and tries to handle himself.

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Two weeks ago I finished my book Ready Player One. It was a good but not great book. I Was just ready to read something different and I am. I’m now reading the book Miles Morales Spiderman. I’m actually thirty pages away from finishing the book. Again, it’s a good but not great book. It’s a very relatable book for me and for most teens because Miles is a teen. The book is not necessarily about spider-man, instead it’s about the teenager life of Miles and dealing with his parents. One thing that intrigued me off the bat was that obviously his best friend knew he was spider-man but, his dad also knows. The book never really explained how his father found out. On the other hand, his mother has no idea. Also, his dad went to jail a lot when he was a kid up to no good, and turns out his son became a superhero. I’m ready to finish this book so I can find a better one. I know there are better choices out there, and I am just ready to find a great one. I guess it’s just because I’m not that fond of reading. I don’t think that there is a second book, but if there is, I’m sure I would like it better than this one. the teenager who is spider man isn't even Peter Parker! it is a different version of Spider man that has been in the comics, which is Miles Morales. I never would have thought that somebody would make a book about Miles Morales instead of Peter Parker. That makes me appreciate that there are a lot of people who have love for the character

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The book I just finished reading Ready Player One is told in first-person. It is told in the POV of Wade Watts in the whole book. Any book that is told in first person especially this book, helps me as a reader because you understand the main character, because your inside of his mind. Every thought the main character has, you can see. It makes the book story more relatable because you feel that you are in the main character’s shoes. You feel that you are a part of the story, and feel the emotions the main character feels if you are that intrigued with the book. POV is one of the main things that makes the book what it is. The characterization is based on the POV because if the book is in third-person, you might think about the characters differently than if the book was in first-person. If the POV wasn’t first-person, you would be able to see the other characters and understand them more. There are a lot of instances where the book is told in first-person, but you might not like or agree with the main character. you might not agree with the character’s decisions and I think that’s ok. We have our own opinion and I didn’t agree with some of the stuff Wade did, and I got a little frustrated, but the main character, most of the time recovers. When that happens you think that the main character is stupid and messed up. That’s sometimes one of the reasons we keep reading to book just to see the main character do something that you don’t agree with.

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A book I very much enjoyed reading was Scythe. It was an easy book for me to comprehend and I was into it throughout the whole book. The book I’m reading right now, and the book Scythe only have one thing in common. They both take place in the future, but the two books are completely different. Scythe is about population control and Ready Player One is about living inside a virtual world and a hunt to get an egg for billions of dollars. All the main characters in both books do have to face difficult tasks, and must conquer challenges they face. Over all I much rather prefer Scythe over Ready Player One. Even though Ready Player One is one of the most popular books out there and they just made a movie, I felt more attached and engaged while reading Scythe. I wouldn’t really say I’m drawn into certain books. I just read a book that sounds interesting to me. Every year the next book I read was 9/10 times completely different than the last. I prefer doing that over reading the same type of books because I want to expand and see if different types of books interest me. If you read the same type of books, you’re pretty much reading about the same types of ideas in each book you read. I feel that I improve every year in my reading. I’m definitely not a fast reader, but I can read at a good pace while reading books I can easily comprehend.

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The first book I am reading this year is Ready Player One. I chose this book because it was recommended in the power point you showed us the first week of school. It also became a movie just recently, so I thought it would be a good read. So far, the book has been ok, but I’m not enjoying it as much as I would’ve wanted to. I understand the plot and everything, but it’s been kind of slow for me. I’m not going to change my book, so I can really see if this book is any good. It’s supposed to make you route for the main character to beat Art3mes in the race for the money, but I honestly don’t care who wins. Even though I have a good idea that the main character will get it, because the main character always wins in most books. I’m just hoping that there’s going to be more intensity and drama involved, because I’m not getting that feeling at all. If that does happen soon I will maybe be able to have good things to say about the book. The book isn’t bad, but it could be better. I feel that this book does challenge me, because of a lot of reasons. This book is a very long book with 372 pages. The book’s page numbers are long, and have a lot of words. It takes me more time than usual to read each page, so my next book is certainly going to be an easier read.