Post #7: No Country for Old Men Trailer

Post #8: Truth in Memoir

In order to be considered a non-fiction book, a book must be completely true.  James Frey claims that his book, A Million Little Pieces, is non-fiction, although some of it is untrue.  He claims that 95% of it is true, which makes it non-fiction.  I disagree with this.  If you tell someone that a book is non-fiction, they are going to believe that everything in the book is true.  You can't put fiction in a non-fiction book.  His book might still be a good book, but it is fiction because he made some of it up.  People shouldn't be misled into believing what they are reading if it is labeled as non-fiction, but is really not true.  There does need to be a line between fiction and non-fiction.  It matters so that people know what they are reading.  In order for A Million Little Pieces to be non-fiction, Frey would have to take out the part that is not true.  If he wanted to keep that part of the book, it would have to be labeled as fiction.  I disagree with David Shields when he says there doesn't need to be a distinct line between fiction and non-fiction.  He encourages readers of Reality Hunger: A Manifesto to cut out the pages where he cites all of the quotes he plagiarized in his book.  I think that it is important for people to know what they are reading, so there does need to be a line between fiction and non-fiction, and people should know where the information in his book comes from.

Post #5: Adapting No Country For Old Men

One scene from No Country For Old Men that is important to be in the film adaptation is when Moss returns to his wife and says he is in danger and he might not come back home.  This is important because it introduces his wife and it is when Moss first states that he is going to keep the money and face whatever danger comes at him.  Another important scene is when Chigurh flips the coin at the gas station for the first time.  This is a very important scene because this scene develop's the character a lot so you get to know more about him.  One more important scene is when Moss and Chigurh meet at the hotel, because it is an intense confrontation between the two of them and it helps move the plot along.

One scene that is not important is when Chigurh gets hit by a car.  Although this part of the book is cool, it does not move the plot along at all and it would have to be cut in the movie.  (Although this part is kept in the real movie.)  The scene when Moss goes back to where he found the money is important, because an assailant sees him and shoots at him, but the movie should not include all of the detail from this scene, because there is not that much time in a movie to give a lot of detail and the scene would still make sense without all of the detail.

The best thing about The Bourne Identity

I am still reading The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum.  I am enjoying the book very much and I would recommend it to anyone who likes thrillers with a lot of action.  The best thing about my book is the suspense.  Jason Bourne is always in danger.  As soon as you think he is safe from some danger that he was facing, something else comes up.  This example comes from a time in the book when Bourne thinks he has escaped people who were trying to kill him, "His eyes were looking at two thin intersecting lines. Crosshairs!  A scope... an infrared scope of  a rifle."

The Bourne Identity: The most important line from a chapter is...

I have recently started reading The Bourne Identity by Robert Ludlum.  I decided to read this book because I have seen the movie before and I really liked it.  So far I am really enjoying the book also.  I have wanted to keep reading for a long time without putting it down.

In chapter four, the most important line is,"The clerk continued writing, then lifted up the card, reversing it for the guests signature.  Mr. J. Bourne. New York, N.Y. U.S.A."  This quote is very important because Jason Bourne was working very hard to get some of his memory back for a long time and he finally has some closure on who he is.  This quote from chapter two shows how long he had been working on this: "The weeks passed; the verbal exercises continued as the pages grew and the man's strength returned.  It was mid-morning of the nineteenth week..."

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who likes crime thrillers or any exciting books.

Post #6: Readicide

Readicide is a problem in schools.  The love of reading is dying because all we are reading in school is literary fiction and it is boring to students.  Students like to read genre fiction and lessons can be made out of those types of books also.  If genre fiction was used more in school, maybe students would actually read the books and not just use Spark Notes.  It is still important to teach some literary fiction, but the 50/50 idea should be used so that students can read some genre fiction in school as well.  Literary fiction is not relevant to our current culture.  Kelly Gallagher said that one of his 18-year old students didn't know what Al-Qaeda was.  The student asked, "Who is this Al guy?"  This is ridiculous because this student was about to graduate and would be able to vote in the next election.  It is important that we read genre fiction that is more relevant today than literary fiction.  Not only do school curriculums need to start incorporating more genre fiction, but book awards also need to recognize the popular books that people enjoy.  What the book awards are doing now is preaching philosophical books that few people enjoy and trying to get people to read them.  Genre fiction is not less "worthy" than literary fiction, because it actually entices readers with interesting plots.  Books do not have to be based on ideas in order to be great.  It would be good for students if Macbeth were swapped for Hunger Games.  Things like that need to be done so that people will continue to enjoy reading.  Readicide will always be a problem until the curriculum is changed to include more interesting books.

Research about Cormac McCarthy

I have recently started reading No Country For Old Men by Cormac McCarthy.  Cormac McCarthy is 80 years old.  He is an author and screenwriter who has won awards for his works.  His novel, The Road,  won a Pulitzer Prize and he has also won a National Book Award.  No Country For Old Men was adopted into a film that won an Oscar for Best Picture.  He writes western novels and post-apocalyptic novels.  He has had 3 wives who have all died while he was married to them.  He has had a son with two of his three wives.