the westing game. ellen raskin. (184)

i sub for a teacher that is the advisor for "battle of the books", a competition held by the kern county school district. for "battle of the books", students read books all year and then are tested on them at the competition.  it sounds amazing to me and i wish that it was around when i was in elementary school.  i came across the westing game in their pile of books to be read.  i had never heard of it before but the premise sounded interesting, heirs compete to win a fortune.  in fact, as i read it, i thought it sounded like the premise for a reality tv show.  i am shocked no one has turned it into one.  it would be one of these fake reality shows where everyone is an actor except one person and the storyline follows the book.  maybe the produce would give the participant a required reading list with the westing game on it and see if s/he puts two and two together.  

back to the novel, the westing game is also a newbery medal winner and this was my motivation to finally pick it up.

the westing game definitely kept me on my toes.  i assumed since it is a children's book, i would be able to read between the lines and figure it out but in fact i was not that good.  i knew that "america the beautiful" held the secret to the mystery but i was too lazy to actually do the leg work.  i had assumed that the real clues were what were missing too but again didn't try to sort it out.  i did pick up on some of the foreshadowing, the look-a-likes and weird notes but again didn't put in a deep analysis to try to figure it all out before turtle did.

i loved all of the odd and eccentric characters.  turtle of course being my favorite, even though she kicked shins.  i also loved how her nickname even ended up being a clue.  (i don't want to give much away just in case some of you haven't read it.)

again without giving anything away, i loved everyone happily ever after endings!!!

all in all, an enjoyable book and one i would have definitely loved as a kid.

fahrenheit 451. ray bradbury. (51)

i actually read ray bradbury's "fahrenheit 451" when it was assigned to me in high school. shocking i know. i even read it without the aid of cliffnotes and i loved. i remember thinking the premise was very clever, a firefighter that burned books and admiring clarisse for her wisdom. and since back than i was a bookworm, i appreciated its endorsement of reading books.

so when ray bradbury passed away in june, i decided to reread this classic in addition to his other books. sadly, this was the only one i read prior to his death.

and re-reading it as an adult, i still found clarisse wise beyond her years. i admired her family for still reading books. and i hoped that if bradbury's dystopia ever came to life, my future family would know the wonder that is books.

since it has been 10 years since i read it, there were two things that were different for me the second time around. one is due to the way the world has changed and the other because i have changed.

the first thing that stood out to me was how our current society is sadly on its way to being the pill-popping wall parlor-watching population of guy montag's world. i was a teenager when i first read this and therefore, mass media was everything. growing up in middle of nowhere, california, it was the only access to the outside world. as a result, i wasn't too critical of guy's wife and her friends. in fact, this aspect of the book did not make an impact on me, i just assumed that big televisions were simply the way of the future. the future in movies, shows and cartoons id always depicted with large tv screens. also back in 2000 when i read this, reality tv was just coming into play, and i was obsessed with mtv's real world, so i was okay with where the future was headed. fast forward twelve years to today and i am now worried about the extremes of tv, really folks a 3D tvs?!?! today with reality tv shows being the main source of entertainment and twitter giving us access to celebrities 24 hours a day, we are about two seasons away from the dialogued tv days of mildred montag. and don't get me wrong, i do my fair share of bravo watching and tweeting but i also average about 4 books a month so i think i am excused. but tv watching is extreme now we watch it everywhere, like seriously everywhere thanks to tablet and smartphones. and with the decline of bookstores (hopefully due to the rise of ereaders versus lack of reading), i worry that reading is out of fashion. (with the exception of nyc, people actually read there so kudos to them.). and i think that is scarier than censorship. society censoring books is a lot less dangerous than them simply not reading, the burning of books is at least a recognition of their power.

the other thing that changed was my perspective of guy montag. which i took as an indication of my maturity, thank goodness i am not still the same snot-nosed teen.) he wasn't the hero of my youth, in fact, i found myself frustrated and appalled by his reaction in situations. there were so many errors he made because he let his emotions get the best of him. what i saw as passion as a teen, i now saw as hotheadedness as an adult. guy reacted emotionally in situations when he needed to be rational. guy had a lot of heart but sadly he lacked the brains to make a difference in the world. he had the right ideals for the world but he did not have the means to put them into action. as a result, he ended up causing more harm to the cause than helping it flourish. and so what i once saw as a tale of doing what you believe in regardless of the consequences, is actually a warning that in order to start a revolution you need heart and brains. it's sad because i guess i lost my fiery spirit but with it also my naïveté about how the world works. passion can only take you so far in changing the world you also have to rely on intelligence and selflessness, you need to work for the greater good versus your own satisfaction.

the copy i read also had a great afterword or maybe a foreword (?) written by bradbury. in which he shared how he wrote "fahrenheit 451" in the basement of powell. he also wrote a wonderful mini manifesto about censorship that made me regret never seeing him in person. the afterword also gave me a new found respect for "fahrenheit 451." and if "dandelion wine" wasn't on my 30 before 30, this would be on it like flavorpill's list.

and if you are reading this, for the love of ray bradbury, please continue to read!!! feast upon them like the fire chief (cue gasp!), "i ate them like salad, books were my sandwich for lunch, my tiffin and dinner and midnight munch."