Sunday, October 16, 2011

How I came Across "My Life in France"

It all started when my brother and I heard about how all of the Borders stores were closing. About twice a week throughout August we would go and buy at least two books from a Borders store. One week he let me know that I would need four non-fiction books for AP Lang, so we started looking. When we went that week he showed me 3 books: My Life in France, Julie and Julia, and The Elephant to Hollywood by Michael Caine. They were all non-fiction, and I happen to like Julia Childs and Michael Caine. My brother and I watch Julia Childs' "The French Chef", so I was excited to get her memoir.  We split the money and bought all three. There isn't a special reason for why I picked "My Life in France" first; I was just so excited to get started on reading it because I had been waiting so long.

Monday, October 10, 2011

Why I Write: Timothy Ferris on Writing to Learn

"Why I Write: Timothy Ferris on Writing to Learn" talks about how writing is a very difficult subject and how science writing can help you and others learn. He starts off with saying that he writes to learn. Ferris also says that you don't just learn, you also create. He then goes into how writing is difficult and how there are no excuses, or "hiding places", when writing, it just has to be good. Then Ferris goes into the next section, where he talks about how writing about science is one of the best things to write about. He explains how you can learn from writing about science, and that it is genuine news because there is always new discoveries or events in the science field.

Timothy Ferris' "Why I Write" is more of a persuasive passage of how science writing is so great and can help you learn. It was very inspiring the way he put his words and how he said that writing is difficult and takes time to learn. I like the contrast between writing and artist. He says that artists working in other media can make excuses, while writers can't make excuses, "writers have nowhere to hide." When he jumps to the "No Finer Subject Then Science" section, it's almost as if his tone fills with excitement, which in return fills the reader with excitement. The fact that he said science is genuine news was interesting, because he is telling you that it's not the same topic every time. Another phrase that catches my attention it when he says, "Science is not just a novel; it's revolutionary." This was a very eye catcher statement that pulls you in. I found this writing passage very interesting and enjoyable because it makes sense and is credible.

http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3664 Why I Write: Timothy Ferris on Writing to Learn

My reaction to Myers' "And Then I Read..."

"And Then I Read..." by Walter Myers was a very interesting reading passage. The way he described his relationship with his mother, in a way relates the relationship with my mom. I also like how he said he learned new words and language from his mother and how he learned the language of the army and other people. It was interesting when he said, "I started writing again....I needed to reinvest in the inner person that seemed closer to who I really was." It caught my attention because he was trying to find himself through writing.  When he writes about characters in his books, Myers wants to own them and experience the atmosphere that the character would be in. This was another attention getter because he went into jail to experience the jail atmosphere for one of his books. I find it bizarre, but yet very clever to "own" the character. In addition, in the last page he says the more reading equals more writing, which says to me that you learn from reading, which will help you learn from writing. In the second to last paragraph he says he is still thrilled by opening a new book, which is true to me that there are many exciting books out there, so you should never stop reading.