Romeo and Juliet and books I've read before

Currently I am reading two books, in class I am reading “Romeo and Juliet” and out of class I am reading, “Perks of Being a Wallflower”. While reading my book recently I realized that characters in books I’ve read could easily relate to all characters in “Romeo and Juliet” and other Shakespearean performances. I find it strange because Shakespeare wrote these plays in the 1600s and now in 2000s you can still relate to situations and characters in the plays. I later thought more about this and thought maybe this is why it’s considered a classic.

 Plays have been made since before Shakespeare but the thing is that Shakespeare writes about relatable topics, even though its 400 years later we still have similar morals and thoughts as these characters. For Example in Romeo and Juliet one might think that it’s different because they have swords speak in long sentences. However you could also think about how similar Montague’s and Capulet’s are to current gangs.

While reading Romeo an Juliet I tried to find the characters with most similarities to modern day movie and book characters. In my opinion Mercutio is the most relatable character, he is funny, nice, and a bit like screwed up. There’s always that one character in movies that tends to be the one telling inappropriate unneeded jokes like Barney on how I met your mother or Seth Rogen’s character in 50/50 (I could go on). Mercutio however is also relatable because he’s normal. He doesn’t let his friend by on everything and he’s not always partying. When he gets stabbed his personality switches completely to this angry character with so much to say in so little words and no will to speak. This character is by far the most relatable because we’ve all been that person who gets hurt and cant speak words yet have the need to blame everyone for what happened to you.

Romeo and Juliet could be related to many topics, books, movies, situations and more and its important to acknowledge that.

Perks of Being a Wall Flower

I recently started reading "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky. So far I love the book and i can tell that i will like it more as I continue. Stephen is in my eyes the ideal writer. He writes about a easily imaginable character, in imaginable situations with imaginable solutions. So far in the 40 or so pages i have read, although i love the book, nothing much has happened. First we are introduced to this character Charlie who has recently moved to high school. We learn his previous friend killed himself but in his new life he has started to move on from his old friend and grow up.
       In the text charlie is fitting in to the "new high school world" but i think theirs more than just fitting into high school i think its fitting into the world. So far we've already seen him trying to talk to girls, forming opinions on the world, and more things you grow into. This is something that me and most kids could relate too. at our age kids start becoming more then just kids. When we were kids we would listen to our parents music, watch what's on TV, eat what's on our plate and agree with everything that our parents stood for in politics. Yes once and a while we would say we didn't like broccoli but no one listened, we still were pretty simple we ate, we slept, and we copied what everyone said. However at a certain age this changes, we start becoming a part of the world in all different ways. We become independent and start to branch off from what we thought before and start to formulate new opinions.
        In "Perks of Being a Wallflower" Charlie is slowly growing up. His friends patrick and sam are their too help and guide him but he is slowly realizing his place in the world and I am exited to find out how it ends up.

review for Rosie Vasen's non-fiction post

       I recently read Rosie's post about a gun violence, Rosie summarizes and discusses an article about a recent political debate, gun control. I read many posts today to find one to review but Rosie seems to be one of the best. 

       She does a lot of things that I like, for starters she is obviously amused by the article. Rosie explains what her stand is on the issue, Rosie believes in what many people believe, gun laws need to change because guns are too easy to buy. another thing that Rosie did is that stayed strictly on what Ms. Rear taught us, Introduce the article, present the authors thoughts and how they showed them, and then her thoughts and reflections.

        I could really see Rosie's effort and to tell the truth she had one of the best blog I saw. Rosie i saw has been getting better and better in her blog posts. Her blogs are getting longer and longer every week, which does not mean they were short to begin with, her early posts were huge. Rosie unlike others is passionate about her posts, she seems to like all her books and believes all her beliefs she states. 

        I also read her "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" post and really liked it, I liked how its a book about 9/11 and she picked an entirely different topic to discuss. The post really made me want to read the book and made me wonder about her questions she left us with. The question was do we think that the key will open something that might hurt him and is it safe for him to go out and search like that.  It was a great and got me hooked. 

picking books

Everyone always has their favorite books, and least favorite books that they could name, but this year during reading I've been trying to think deeper then that. I've learned that I like books with characters that I can relate to easily, with not realistic plots exactly but realistic characters, solutions to problems, and actions made by characters. I thought that this had been a recent interest of mine however recently I've proved my self wrong

I have recently been reading a child hood favorite of mine called "Nicholas And His Gang," My mom mom used to read it to me in elementary school. I thought these stories were absolutely hilarious they are about young kids doing things adults are meant to do. These things include talking in high class formal words, acting like they know everything, and creating rules to life like "glasses make you smarter." The book plays a joke on how kids these days act so much higher then kids in the "olden days." While reading this book I had multiple flash backs to my elementary school reading days. I like "My Side of The Mountain," "winnie the poo" and "the box car children"along with of course Nicholas and the gang. In all of these books i realized a common connection that connected to my current favorite books, they all have realistic characters. Although its hard to relate to a run away boy, talking stuffed animals, and homeless children Its easy to Imagine this and to relate to deeper meanings in the books.

When i realized this I thought of another realization all these things can be "stolen by me in my writing. I promised my self that from now on i wont write about unrealistically made characters but instead write about connectable characters that can be related to other world and personal issues.

Nicholas and The Gang, Matthew gets glasses

     Recently I've been re-reading one of my favorite books, "Nicholas and The Gang." the book is a collection of short stories about an elementary school "gang" from the point of view of Nicholas a member of the gang. When i first read this book I was in 5th grade and although I loved it although it was a bit challenging for me however now reading it i realize the issues and jokes a lot easier then before.
          In the book a main repeating joke is that all these young kids are so mature, they talk perfectly, have a "gang" and they act like they know everything. In the first story a member of the gang gets glasses, when the gang found out they all were super jealous. They all said that it was unfair because now that Matthew he'd be at the top of everything. I found this chapter hilarious because although its stupid that they thought glasses made you smart its relatable. Everyone in their elementary school days thought stuff like this, like all girls had cooties. However the authors had a different approach as well not only did they want to make that joke they wanted to pass a message to the audience. Kids always act superior, like they know it all. From ages 5 to about 14 kids act like they don't need school (this might include me I cant say). In school we are thinking about how we will approach our elementary school students while reading our picture book, from reading "Nicholas and The Gang" I reminded my self that kids always think their perfect, and right so when i read my book to them i will be sure to treat them this way.

oakland avenue short story

Oakland Avenue is a story about 3 characters Mike, Chris, James, and Andrew that look back on their childhood as they attend their missing friend Chris's funereal. In the story it talks about the 4 kids as pranksters. they pulled pranks on neighbors and kept them up all night. However now 30 years later their adults and everything they did then is in the past. 

When I read this story I realized at some time I'm going to be in their places. My friends and I sometimes play pranks and do stupid things but we forget we someday will grow out of all that and become adults. Mike Chris, James and Andrew in the very end leave a shoe filled with flowers on Mrs. Anderson's porch. I thought that was really sad because it was symbolizing both how Chris gave her flowers every weekend and how they all would prank people every friday.

The only problem with the story is that their is no conflict. the kids simply remember when they were 12 while they are at a funeral. (the author) wanted the reader to look back on their child hood however because i have little conflict their is also little relating. However after reading this story the author succeeded by making me wonder how i would feel about my childhood life. Would i be disappointed or ashamed. Sometimes we have to think about this and remember what we really want to be like as a kid and an adult. We do this so we remember not to throw it away by pranking people and doing other things we may think of as "stupid" because someday we will look back and judge our childhood and we in no way would want to make our future self feel ashamed.

teen angst? nahh. and walking dead

          Recently i took a couple days to read the walking dead volume 2 walking dead is one of my favorite graphic novels (and tv show.) In the books they follow a group of people in a world controlled by zombies. In my last post i explained how each of these people demonstrate the certain ways of dealing with the world. The thing i really like about the book is that it really brings out the science in science fiction. by that i don't mean that it is science based like star trek but it in every way (but the zombies) feels like our world. The characters have basic needs and in no time in the 2 books so far has there been a part in which you disbelieve something. These people cant run forever, don't want to live, keep secrets, and even still love.
            After finishing the walking dead volume 2 i thought about its relation to my first book i read this year "teen angst?. . . nahh." Both these books are really different like strange to relate but after reading walking dead I've realized one thing that both share which is the relation to reality. ":Teen angst? nahh." follows Ned Vizzini through his childhood. While this story is a comedy it shows his way of surviving through high school. Its not that high school is in anyway like a zombie apocalypse but the books show this common topic of survival and adapting.
            An example this is in "teen angst? nahh." Ned like many others in high school sees drug use and alcohol use all around him.  Ned found ways of pushing that life away from him and continued to strive for jobs and go through school "clean". In walking dead an adaptation is quite easy to find all the characters have one and thats what differentiates them.
          Its probably the reason I love these books so much but I've realized all my favorite books characters seem so real. they all have basic needs wants adaptations and details that make them special. However in a pure fantasy book like twilight its a lot harder to relate to vampires and therefore  a lot harder to read.