Posts tagged as:

books

Jeanne

HUNGER GAMES!!!

by Jeanne on April 2, 2012

in Extracurricular

Hello Everyone,

I hope spring is integrating nicely into your lives. I know that during my break, I was mostly working, but I did get to see the MIDNIGHT showing of the HUNGER GAMES!! So, today will be a kind of movie review. For those of you who do not know of the Hunger Games, SHAME!! Really, though, the Hunger Games is one of three books about a post-apocalyptic society completely controlled by the government system known as the Capitol. Twelve districts reside in this society, there were 13, but 13 revolted and then the Capitol just blew them up as an example. The main story line is that every year, one male and one female from every district between the ages of 12-18 MUST participate in what is known as the Hunger Games. Each year from 12 on, your name is added to the drawing for your district. Most of the districts are in extreme poverty so to compensate, people can put their names in more than once to receive food for their families. Now what is the Hunger Games you ask?! Well, it is a fight to the death. 24 kids are thrown into an arena and only ONE can win. In Hunger Games, Katniss, the main character from district 12, sparks a reaction when she volunteers to compete in order to save her younger sister. Her actions start the motion for an underlying revolt that takes place over the span of the three novels. Also, within, is a triangle romance between Katniss, Peeta (the male chosen for district 12), and Katniss’ male companion Gale. Now that was just a book summary… the movie… was surprisingly GOOD! I do have some qualms about parts of the book not being represented well, but that was bound to happen, and you can’t make everyone happy.

The acting was really good and the different effects in the movie, while skimpy at some points, did a good job to show a futuristic nation. The only thing that really bugged me was the constant shaking of the camera. If you get motion sickness extremely easily, then beware. You kind of forget about it because it is such a fast-paced movie, but the jumping around and continuous moving around the particular scenes does not give me enough time to appreciate what I am looking at. I would HIGHLY recommend reading the books beforehand because some scenes would make much more sense, but also because they are fantastic books. READING is GOOD for YOU!!! That is all for the moment.

Jeanne!

Tagged as: books, Hunger Games, movie, reading

{ 0 comments }

Elizabeth

Cryptonomicon

by Elizabeth on March 5, 2012

in Extracurricular

That’s the name of this book I’m reading, and it’s by this guy named Neal Stephenson. I’m kind of obsessed with it at this point: it’s 1400 pages, and I’ve been reading it for a month, so I’m getting to know these characters pretty well, and I’ll miss them when the book’s over. The reason I’m blogging about it this week is that I’ve been reading it in between (and in place of ) bouts of homework in the evenings, and it’s kind of become my sole focus besides school. It’s just an overall cool book.

It’s a science fiction book, but my (arguably-existent) remaining shred of street-cred is saved by the fact that there are NO ALIENS involved.  The book earns its sci-fi classification because it’s all about cryptology and government intrigue. The story skips back and forth between World War II, where a brilliant mathematician cracks and writes codes for the Allies’ war effort and just chills out with Turing at Bletchley Park, and the mathematician’s  grandson, who, fifty years later, is engaging in some cryptology of his own on a risky business venture, is contacted – well, spied upon – by some of his grandfather’s very old yet dangerous pals and some government officials. Then, Nazi gold is discovered in a sunken submarine by a contractor that’s part of the grandson’s business,  and this blows everything out of proportion as lawsuits start flying. (This is a poor summary.  Read it yourself if you’re interested.)

Why the book’s cool: it explains ideas involved in cryptology and abstract math with narrated proofs that use a lot of symbols and concepts that I’m learning in Algebraic Structures right now, like isomorphism! (Isomorphism, for the ignorant, basically means two sets with similar properties and the same number of elements.) There are also funny proofs, like when one character uses a coordinate plane to split up his grandma’s furniture fairly among his extended family when she moves into an assisted living place, with “emotional value” as the x-axis and “monetary value” as the y-axis.

Right now, the grandson’s in a Filipino jail because someone was “sending him a message” when they planted heroin in his luggage so he’d get caught by customs at the airport. Guess who’s his cellmate? His grandpa’s old pal, the guy who’s been following the grandson. Who knows how it’ll all end???

Tagged as: Algebra, books, sci-fi

{ 0 comments }

Elizabeth

The E-Book Experiment

by Elizabeth on November 28, 2011

in Academics

Over the summer, I got it into my head that an e-reader would be an awesome thing to have for school because it would save me from having to carry around a bunch of paperbacks for class.  (You know, because I take so many incredibly reading-intensive classes as a computer science major…)

Before school started, I purchased one and have been using it to read the e-book versions of the paperbacks we’re studying in my Intro to Religious Studies class.  I know people are writing about Thanksgiving this week, and I suppose my tie-in with that would be that I’m thankful for my e-reader.  Since I can check library books out on it, I’m reading more fiction these days than I have since my junior year of high school, when I still had time to read for fun!

Here’s my evaluation of using an e-reader in class:

Pros:

1. It technically does lessen the load in my bookbag, but really, a paperback’s not that bulky or heavy to begin with.

2. I don’t ever write in books (it’s just a quirk of mine), so the inability to put sticky notes or draw arrows in the margins with the e-reader isn’t an issue for me.  I do sometimes use the note-taking function on it, though.

Cons:

1.  When the professor says “And on page 28, he references…” I have to scroll through my book or do a search for the quote because my page numbers aren’t the same as my classmates’.  In reality, though, this can happen even when you have a paperback.  Just beware.

2.  The battery dies sometimes, and it’s a real bummer when you put off a reading assignment until an hour before class time and realize you’ll need to wait a half an hour until the machine’s charged up a little to do your reading.

All this to say:  if you’re thinking about getting an e-reader, don’t buy it solely to reduce the load in your tremendous book bag!  A lighter book bag and less hassle with paperbacks aren’t really worth the $100 or so you have to shell out for the machine, making this a pretty flimsy argument.  If you’re anything like me, though, the book bag argument might help you rationalize the purchase, and as long as you know you’ll end up using it the most for pleasure reading, you’ll be fine.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Tagged as: books, e-readers, Thanksgiving

{ 0 comments }

Students writing for Real Life at Fontbonne are paid a small fee for each post by the university.