What is a book?

A book is an escape from reality; in whatever form you wish that to be.  Life throws you a lot of rough patches and curve balls, and a lot of times the only way to escape from them is to momentarily get away into another land or someone else’s life. Many of times, the stories in books can help relate to your own life and can help you when you go through similar trials. It could also be the exact opposite, a far distant land where the water will kill you and the only food to eat are edible bricks, these places in books help people to forget about their current struggles and just fade away into the stories of the characters.

I think the essence of a physical book in your hands is way better than any Kindle or Nook. It shares a story of its past, and who has read it before you or if you are the first of many. Books offer margins for note taking or commentary, and just in general the physical aspect of a book is so much more satisfying. In Tom Piazza’s interview he says “If everything’s the same size, there’s no perspective.  Perspective, as in, you know, painting. Everything becomes two-dimensional, flat.” I completely agree with this statement in the fact of making books two-dimensional, they have no depth, smell, or meaning to them other than the message the author is trying to put across. With a two-dimensional book the same meaning gets put forward but I think that having an actual book itself is much more important. To me walking into a giant library filled with books is so incredibly overwhelming and exciting. To be able to search through all the different types of books and read their history by just examining the pages, is so much more invigorating than just one Kindle filled with hundreds of stories.

Readicide

Readicide is caused by many different things, but I think that the main reason that people are losing the interest to read is because of our school system. I think that books should be whatever you make of them, and if you read a certain book or poem and it affects you in one way, I don’t think the school has the right to tell you that you're feelings are wrong. Books are interpreted differently depending on who the reader is. One book could tell a tale of love and romance to one person, but to another it could all be about using perseverance to get what you want. Schools are way too focused on the idea of making their students into fantastic test takers, and so they don’t care if you get inspired by reading and are only taking away from the book what they want you to take away from it.

I find that this is especially true with poetry, a majority of the time the beauty of the poem is just in its simple self, however, when you begin to analyze every single word put into the poem, you begin to lose sight of how the poem is supposed to make you feel and the emotions that are packed into it.

Also the fact that teachers and schools force students to read certain books helps readicide to continue. Hamlet may be a fantastic tale of insanity, love, and revenge, and some students may be able to see that, but when you force reluctant students to read Shakespeare, for which can’t hardly understand, nor care about the content of the book, its meaning tends to dissolve. To students that want nothing to do with Shakespeare and his books’ that seem to be in Gibberish, this wonderful story of Hamlet is just turned into a monotonous assignment that wastes their precious time.

Adapting Your Book

Since the Hunger Games has so many specific details on everything, including Katniss's emotions, thoughts, and the environment around her, it can be hard for a film director to capture all of the elements that are included in the book. I think one scene that is crucial to keep in the film would be when Katniss and Peeta are together in the cave and are protecting one another. I think this because it shows the audience the connection and relationship that Peeta and Katniss begin to make. Another important scene is definitely when Katniss and Peeta are about to eat the poisonous berries so they dont have to make the decision of who will die. This is a vital scene because it is the main background for what happens in the next books and it also leads to the fact that both of them are the victors. The last scene that I think is very important would be the whole sequence of Katniss and Rue creating an alliance with one another. This scene is very intimate and important to the rest of Katniss's life in the fact of her love for Rue and wanting to protect her, which also gives her lots of motivation for other things she does in the next books.

If I were to cut out a scene it would probably be the endless amount of time when Katniss is in the woods looking for food or water. I think these are important things, but they are not vital. As a director I would portray in some way that Katniss struggled to find food and water but I wouldnt make it take up as much time. Another scene I would cut would be when Peeta's dad comes in to Katniss's room on the train and hands her cookies, although this scene helps to portray the strange helpfulness from Peeta's dad, it is not vital to the storyline. The last scene I would cut would be when Haymitch and Effie are privately coaching Katniss and Peeta on grammar and etiquette while they are training before the games. Once again, it is partially important but because there is no way to fit the whole book into one movie, it could be done without.

Book 1 Project

1.                  My first idea is to have either a daily or weekly devotional/group guide for possible churches or bible studies that want to read the book together. I think that The Shack is a very good guide on having a relationship with God and it helps to teach you why God may do some of the things that he does that you may not understand fully; for example why bad things happen to good people. The Shack can be very confusing to some people in how different it is from the average person’s stereotypes of God and Christianity, so having a group guide to discuss with others can be very helpful.  The guide will go chapter by chapter through Mack’s life and will be able to help relate his life to the lives of the people who are reading the book. On page 92, Mack asks God “If you couldn’t take care of Missy, how can I trust you to take care of me?” I think this in some way is a question everyone struggles with, and through the use of the reading guide, people can possibly get that question answered by looking into their own lives and by looking into how Mack got that question answered.

2.                My second idea is for wall decals or some kind of home decorating art with quotes from The Shack. This idea will mostly target families (especially mothers) and possibly teenagers. One example of a quote that could be used is from page 100 “A bird’s not defined by being grounded but by his ability to fly” The decals would most likely be black and written in calligraphy to make them aesthetically pleasing. This idea will not only appeal to those who have read The Shack, but also to people who have not read it. I think that this is due to the fact that the quotes are understood by anybody reading them and you don’t have to have any knowledge of the book to understand what the quote means. Also seeing the quote on their friend’s wall, they could possibly be intrigued to read the book. The quotes are also nice daily reminders of how you should live your day to day life.

3.       This world is filled with chaos, disaster and sadness, and many of times the events that occur in your life are uncontrollable. With these uncontrollable events, many people experience grief and suffering due to loss of a loved one, divorce, or many other things. So one way that people can deal with these unfortunate events is through counseling or grief seminars. The Shack by William Paul Young is a fantastic story of a man being able to work through and deal with the murder of his daughter by rediscovering his relationship with God. On page 228 God tells Mack “Don’t ever discount tears. They can be healing waters and a stream of joy. Sometimes they are the best words the heart can speak.” By using things like these in seminars, The Shack can be used as a tool to those who may be experiencing the same things, and how they can overcome these events and start to move on with their lives. The Shack isn’t some fantasy novel about happy little events in a made up world, yes it may be fiction but the things that Mack has to go through in his life are certainly possible and maybe even real to some people. This book also helps to explain to people the grace and unconditional love that God has for everyone and the happiness that comes from a relationship with Him.