Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

I started reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, since it was the book me and my philosofamily assigned ourselves. I am starting to like this book because it seems to involve a lot with philosophy. Oskar's dad died in the 9/11 terrorist attack, and instead of mourning his death all the time, he finds an envelope hidden in a vase on top of a shelf in his house one day. It has a key inside and the envelope has one word labeled on it; black. Oskar thinks it's for him so he embarks on a journey to find out what this key is for, and what "black" could possibly mean.
       I think this book is kind of philosophical because this task Oskar has given himself isn't easy. There are many locks in New York city, and this key could only fit in one. And his only clue is the word black written on the envelope in red pen. There will be many decisions for Oskar to make on this journey; where should he start, what to do next, who should he ask, where should he go, when should he go? I can tell he is very determined, since he keeps on looking for clues and walks through all the boroughs just to find the lock this key could fit into, and he doesn't give up, he keeps on trying. If this was me, I think I'd give up pretty quickly. Oskar doesn't even tell his mom or any other friend or family member about it.
         To me, he might not even have to do this. Who knows, whatever is in that locked chest might not be from his dad, or be meant for him or might not mean anything. He could just forget about it and try to move on with life. I think Oskar is doing this is because it seemed so hidden, and who else could it be from. And his dad died, maybe he thinks his dad had to leave him some type of message, or maybe he doesn't have enough things to remember his dad by, or thinks there are more. Anyway, I think Oskar is an intelligent character and is very determined, and I am definitely rooting for him.

FTW freedom

So, I am still reading For the Win, and today i want to talk about how it kind of connects to philosophy, or the
philosophy I learned in Ms. Rear's ELA class. Recently, we have been talking about freedom, and I think this book connects with what we've learned about freedom very well. Just to remind you, the book is about how gamers and gold farmers (if you don't know what gold farmers are, read my previous post) from all over the world are forming a special kind of labor union. Well, I mean the gold farmers are, and the normal gamers, the ones who play the game for fun, not for pay are just there to help them fight against their abusive bosses, bosses who don't pay them very well and would beat them if they found out their workers quit without notice or
something. And if you were a girl, they might even rape you.
              Anyway, I think that this book connects with what we learned about freedom because it's pretty simple; these gold farmers are demanding freedom, to get away from their bosses if they don't get treated fairly or paid well or put in better working conditions. and if they want freedom, they act. This labor union starts protests and riots and things like that to act out and to demand their freedom. But you know what sucks? So far, it's not really working. They are not getting their freedom. The brutal bosses would send henchmen to go after them, and the police won't really help them either, especially in places like China. The government does not help them at all, and in fact, some of the police are corrupt. If they have protests, the SWAT team comes over to throw tear gas at them and stuff. So basically, not many people are on these unions' sides, because it is pretty dangerous to be. So that's how this has to do with freedom; these people are demanding it, but not getting it.

For The Win Character Perspectives

I am still reading For the Win, and I have been starting to realize why the book focuses on many different perspectives of different character throughout the world, in places like California, Mumbai, Singapore, China, and much more. I think it is on all these perspectives because that sometime later in the book, all the characters will meet, or start working for the same cause or something.
     The cause I think they will be joining is Big Sister Nor's labor union for gamers, where gamers from all around the world who farm gold, basically make money for people that would be willing to pay them for certain things, like advancement in the game, or to find valuable stuff in the game and sell it to to other people using the game's currency, to meet up over the internet and do strikes and stuff for gamers who work for bosses that give them very low pay and bad working conditions. almost like a gamer sweatshop. And other gamers, like Mala, one of the characters, put these gold farmers out of business by destroying their gold farms or whatever. And this Big Sister Nor girl tries to protect these poor gold farmers from people like Mala, or "General Robotwallah" as she likes to call herself.
      And the reason I think all the different characters in the book will join this big cause is because that's what I think the book is all about, how people can make money through videogames, and how other gamers are ruining it for them. A girl named Yasmin, who lives in Dharavi, India, who is Mala's friend, or was, until she joined Big Sister Nor's union because she thought what Mala was doing was bad. So one of the main characters has sided with another, and I think slowly, the rest will too, to start kind of like a gamer revolution.

FTW

I started reading a book called For the Win. I decided to read this book because it is by the same author who wrote little brother, a book I enjoyed. I also thought I enjoyed it because it involves video games. But it's kind of complicated and challenging to read sometimes, when the character(s) talk about currency and stuff like that, which is quite often. The reason they do this is because it's about these kids who make money of of video games, how they can make money by doing missions for someone on a different computer screen who is willing to pay them, earn profit of selling in-game items, and stuff like that. And it's really complicated, because they mention all this video game stuff that even I am getting bored by it.
           Also, it has many different character perspectives, so it's like five different story lines, and confusing to follow. Maybe about two of the characters have an interesting story line, but the rest don't, and I get annoyed when there's a new chapter and it goes from the interesting character's perspective to the boring character's perspective.
           And another thing is that there is lots of math involved sometimes, and it's usually some high school level calculations that involve a game's currency rate and stuff, and it's very hard to follow. Maybe it's just boring because I'm at the beginning of the book and not all the characters have conflicts yet. I read it kind of slowly, and it is a very long book. I could barely even predict what most of the characters' conflicts will be.

The Hunger Pains

I just finished reading a book called The Hunger Pains, which is basically a parody to the hunger games. At first I thought it would be more corny instead of funny, but I was actually quite humorous IT was very short, more of a summary of the hunger games except with some funny twists, like Peeta is fat. A lot of the humor is basically crude humor, some of the jokes being immature, but it still made me laugh throughout the whole story. I just wish it was a little bit longer.
                 I recommend this book if you are a fan of the hunger games or even if you are not. Other than that, the plot is the same, (since it's a parody obviously).

DJ Rising

I recently started reading a book called DJ Rising, a book about a teen who live a pretty harsh life working everyday after school washing dishes and stuff to get money, so he and his drug-addict mother won't stay homeless. But his real dream is to become a DJ, a real DJ, playing for very famous clubs and getting paid lots of money to do it.
         This book actually reminds me of the movie 8 Mile, a story of Eminem's hard childhood and how he grew up to become a rapper. Marley, the main character in the book, and the character of Eminem in the movie seem to have a lot in common. Marley's dad died years ago, and Eminem's dad left him and his mom when he was little. Both of them don't have the most loving moms, either. And they both have a dream they are trying to fulfill; Marley wants to be come a professional DJ, and Eminem wanted to become a professional rapper, and they both get through it with the help of their goofy, but supportive, best friends. That's a lot of things in common, right?
        The only thing that I don't really like that much about this book, or that I think is weird, is that there isn't really any major conflict in the book. If you take away the fact that his mom's just sitting in front of the TV everyday like a couch potato with her "loser" boyfriend that's only there to keep her company, eat all the food, and help her take shots of heroin. But Marley already found a good gig at a club pretty early in the book, and no one ever said he sucked, and he never messed up once. It's almost like life just keeps on getting
better for him with barely any obstacles in the way.

Finished city of the beasts **some minor spoilers alert**

I finished the book City of the Beasts, and all the characters have changed from the beginning to the end. First of all, Nadia was just a small Indian girl, an average tribe child. The only notable thing she had was her intelligence of knowing many other Indian tribe languages, although that did help her, Alex, and the rest of the expedition a lot throughout the book.
   And Alex was an average American kid living in California. He went to school, played sports, all that kind of stuff. The only thing unusual about his life was his poor sick mother who has cancer, which kind of got him into this mess, since the mom had to go to Texas for an operation that might help with it a lot, and Alex couldn't go so he had to end up with his somewhat crazy grandmother.
    Anyway, both of them had to conquer so many obstacles after being kidnapped by the People of the mist, a mysterious tribe, that they had matured so much over those few days. Alex attempted many brave things, like going on a long journey for something important, passing the initiation of becoming a man in the tribe, and much more. Same with Nadia. She used to be really afraid of heights and now she she doesn't mind them at all, and she did many other brave things throughout the book, just like Alex. Alex came out a brave man, and Nadia came out a noble woman. Even Kate changed a little! She still tries hard to hide the affection for her son, but it's a lot easier to see for Alex now, the great pride she feels for him.