Hail NaNoWriMo

For everyone who hasn't heard of NaNoWriMo - and seriously, who are people and where have you been hiding?! - NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. This is an event held world wide for anyone who's ever had the goal of writing a novel. Annually taking place in November, NaNoWriMo encourages writers to complete a 50,000 word transcript by the end of the month. This is a great kick in the butt for people like me who spend all year coming up with novel ideas that I never have time to sit down and write. A month means a short 31 day commitment and the website has amazing tools to help you as you write your novel.

The website asks that you create a username and password in order to be part of the event. The whole process is simple and free. Once you've signed up for one year, your account can be used every year during NaNoWriMo. The site suggests that you title your project and provide a blurb. After that, all you have to do for the next 31 days is write. You can log the number of words completed as you write throughout the month and a status page for your project will tell you the average amount of words written per day, the total amount of words already written, what day you're on in the challenge, how many days you have left, and how many words you should write a day in order to meet your 50,000 word goal. If you complete the 50,000 words, you're asked to copy and paste the text into a text box to that the site can verify your word count and no one else will be able to see or steal your writing material. Throughout the month, you are also sent encouraging emails by professional writers giving advice on how not to give up and other writing problems such as: procrastination, writing blocks, structuring stories, etc. Once you've won by completing 50,000 words, you are offered a prize for you hard work (given to you by companies who sponsor NaNoWriMo) that can be seen here.

As someone who never has the time to write during the fall because work as a tutor is A LOT more hectic during the school year, I've opted to do Camp NaNoWriMo which is offered during the summer. I'm enrolled in the July Camp and really like the difference in how the program is run differently. To start, because it is called a camp, you are offered the chance to be placed in a "cabin". This means that you can be put in a group with people who are similar to you in what genre you are writing, age group, word count, etc (although you choose only one of these for your cabin assignment).

Your cabin cannot see the text of your story but are shown the title and word count progress of your work. And best of all, you're around to encourage each other and give advice and commiserate about how tough the writing process is. The camp also allows you to pick your own word count goal as opposed to the fixed 50,000 word goal of NaNoWriMo in November. Other than that, you still have the same stat tools to help you monitor your progress and keep you on track and still receive inspirational emails filled with pep talks and advice.. At the end of Camp NaNoWriMo, you are also offered prizes after validating your work count. These prizes can be seen here.

NaNoWrimo is a great opportunity for those who really want to write a book. It's a great community of people and the site offer write-ins, where you can travel to a give location and write with other people who are signed up for the event.

I really recommend this to people who write or even as a great experience. Completing NaNoWriMo goals fills one with a SERIOUS sense of accomplishment. Please check out the sites and consider signing up yourselves. The July camp is already half way through but you can still sign up and complete 10,000 words (or whatever smaller goal you have in mind) by the end of the month.

Good luck guys and keep calm and write on.

Fahrenheit 451

Title: Fahrenheit 451
Author: Ray Bradbury

Get It Here:
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Rating: 

Fahrenheit 451 is my first book by Ray Bradbury and I'm so glad I've read it. It's a little book packed with so much meaning and bibliophilia.

This book was on a long list of books I should have read a long time ago but didn't. It may even have been assigned to me once and I just didn't do it. Sadly, this behavior was very like me as a pre-teen/teen and I'm glad to rectifying this now.

Fahrenheit 451 (which is only 165) opens with Guy Montag, a fireman. He is burning books for a living and we are given to understand that this is what firemen do in the future - they don't put our fires, they start them. From here we learn the parameters of the world. It moves faster - literally. People drive at above 90 mph, sometimes killing other either for fun or by accident - something that is societally acceptable and not thought of as a tragedy. Giant tv monitors the size of a wall are installed into peoples homes so they can be entertained by endless television shows with no plot. Montag shows us that people are so busy being stimulated by images and sound and adrenaline that they doesn't question their society, they don't question why they can't read books, and they keep telling themselves that everything is okay as long as everyone is having fun.

But it seems not everyone is having fun. Very early into the book Montag walks home to find his wife dead. Montag's wife Mildred has taken a large amount of sleeping pills in order to kill herself. It seems A LOT of people in this book try to kill themselves: jumping off of roofs, provoking firemen who are trying to burn your books, getting hit by cars, taking too many narcotics... Mildred is patched up by the paramedics and when she wakes up the nest day, it's like the suicide never happened. She denies that she would ever do such a thing that it must have been a mistake. It's distressing how adamant she is about it not having happened and how happy she is.

Then Montag meets a teenage girl who is different from everyone else who is just going about their lives in this oddly absent way. She looks at things and people - really looks - and thinks about them. He is intrigued by her and loves the way she is silly and thoughtful and appreciative of the things around her. It gets him to consider the way he lives his life and realize a lot of the things he had been blind to earlier.

During one of his raids into a house, we see Montag snatch up a book and take it home with him. This is illegal and not only could he go to jail, but he could have his house burned down for containing books within it. We find that he has been collecting books for years but has never read them. Montag's need to steal these books shows that he has been unhappy for a long time but has never taken the time to realize it. From then on, Montag shares his secret with Mildred (which is a terrible idea because she is a vapid and happily ignorant woman), finds someone to confide in, gets caught for stealing and keeping books, commits murder, and goes on the run. I don't want to ruin Montag's internal transformation for readers who haven't read the book yet so I won't go any further.

I loved the messages in the book. It talks about:

• why books enrich life (because they possess quality or information and create the leisure to digest it)
• why books are important 
• why making your own decisions is important 
• how quality is better than quantity
• how you should appreciate the things around you instead of shutting them out
• how ignorance is false bliss

It shows us how easily we are fooled by quantity over quality. The the book the government replaces books that make you think and music that makes you feel and reflect, with mindless television. They reprogram social interaction so that we don't create real connections with each other anymore. People are so busy having SO MUCH TO DO. They have SO MUCH TV TO WATCH. They're so busy being visually and audibly stimulated that they don't have time to think and the media that is available to them is so shallow that they have nothing to think about.

I don't think this is much different from the way a lot of us live our lives now. I'm always so busy trying to get from one tutoring job to another, from completing one task to the next, that I don't see things outside my bubble. We're just as plugged in as the characters in Fahrenheit 451 with out Angry Bird and Candy Crush Saga, with our iPad movies and headphone music. We are most of us always plugged in and we need to stop giving our brains so much mindless stimulation that we give up self-reflection, imagination, and quiet. The book teaches us to appreciate the things around us instead of shutting them out.

In addition, I feel we also have a problem discerning quality over quantity. People fall into this trap a lot thanks to marketing. You can buy a sandwich at a deli for $6 or $7. It would have real ingredients like turkey and cheese, lettuce and tomato, and whatever else you could think of. But why would you spend your money on that when a fast food meal with fries and a coke is the same price or cheaper? A lot of people would buy a supersize McDonalds meal and not the deli sandwich despite the ingredient being from less dependable sources and the lack of nutrition.

I also like that the novel emphasizes the importance of books. Now that the US is giving a huge push to STEM subject (which is totally fine), I feel like the humanities are becoming under-appreciated. Reading is incredibly important as it deepens critical thinking skills, teaches one how to argue a point, find evidence, support a claim, structure an argument, etc. Books also have a bit of every subject in them: psychology, science, history, etc. They let people go to places they may never be able to go to in real life. They allow people to live several different lives in the span of a few hours. They make us think about ourselves, about the people who came before us, and the people that will follow. As Faber in Fahrenheit 451 states:

The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. They're Caesar's praetorian guard, whispering as the parade roars down the avenue, 'Remember, Caesar, thou art mortal'. Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world, we haven't time, money or that many friends. The things you are looking for, Montag, are in the world, but the only way the average chap will ever see ninety-nine percent of them is in a book. Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for the shore.
Bradbury, 86

Fahrenheit 451 shows us how important it is to think for ourselves. Montag realizes that he has been following other people's rules for the majority of his life and even when he decides to go against the system he feels like he is just following Faber's orders. He says:

"Faber?"
"Yes?"
"I'm not thinking. I'm just doing like I'm told, like always. You said get the money and I got it. I didn't really think of it myself. When do I start working things out on my own?"
"You've started already, by saying what you just said..."
Bradbury, 92

I feel like this is the moment when Montag starts to take responsibility for himself. Before this he is making his decisions rashly and impulsively. This is when he tries to think through his decisions, when he tries to plan for the future. It's the first step to Montag being a force of change.

Fahrenheit 451 also goes into the negatives of "ignorance is bliss". Mildred and Captain Beatty are the best examples of this in the book. Mildred swears that she is happy and that the system works but she tries to commit suicide in the beginning of the book and is terrified of the idea of books in general. Her whole character arc reminds me of the Allegory of the Cave. She represents the cave dwellers that would not believe and that would rather kill than have the lies they are living revealed to them. Beatty is another great example except that he has read books and has been exposed to books. He quotes texts throughout the majority of the question and even goes out of his way to state that "what traitors books can be. You think they're backing you up, and then they turn on you." (Bradbury, 107). His is a story of someone who was wronged by literature, turning away from the thing he loved most and basking in that hatred until he it undid him.

Beatty wanted to die.
In the middle of the crying Montag knew it for the truth. Beatty had wanted to die. He had just stood there, not really trying to save himself, just stood there, not really trying to save himself, just stood there, joking, needling, though Montag, and the thought was enough to stifle his sobbing and let him pause for air. How strange, strange, to want to die so much that you let a man walk around armed and then instead of shutting up and staying alive, you go on yelling at people and making fun of them until you get them mad, and then...

Finally, I really appreciated that the novel didn't end with a happily ever after ending. Instead, it ends with a hope for the future, a hope that things may change, maybe not immediately but that if everyone plays their part, that things just may settle and rebuild after the rubble in cleared.

Fahrenheit 451 was an amazing book and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a thought proving book or a short read.

The Longest Ride

Title: The Longest Ride
By: Nicholas Sparks

Get it here:
Barnes and Nobles
Book Depository

Rating:

I'm writing about a Nicholas Sparks book so it goes without saying that I have to mention how formulaic a lot of his books are. Boy meets girl. Girl and boy fall in love. In the end someone dies. You can usually count on Sparks to give you a death that has some deeper spiritual meaning but also somehow solves a problem in the novel - the romance novel version of a deus ex machina, if you will. These are all things to look forward to in The Longest Ride.

This is maybe the fourth novel I've read of Sparks' previous novels. I have The Last Song, Safe Haven, The Choice, and Dear John under my belt. Most of these I read because I knew my friends and I would end up watching the movie and I have a general rule about reading the books to movie adaptations before watching the film. I enjoyed most of the books except The Choice which IMDB says with come out in theaters in 2016.

I have to say as far as Sparks' books go (at least as far as the ones I've read), The Longest Ride is one of the best. The novel follows two storylines. The first belongs to Ira and his wife Ruth. In the beginning of the novel, Ira, a ninety year old man drives his car off the road. After finding himself stuck with no hopes of escaping the vehicle, his wife Ruth (who has passed away years before) keeps him company and encourages him to survive while Ira and the reader wait for help to arrive. Ira states and thinks that he is hallucinating his visions of Ruth and that his dead wife is really his subconscious trying to keep him alive but Sparks does a good job of creating some spiritual ambiguity there. Ruth distracts Ira while he waits for help by having him recount their lives together. Through Ira's retelling we see the couple's entire lives together. We see how they met, how they fell in love, the difficulties they had staying together when the world and a war (WWII) tried to tear them apart. We see how marriage and growing old affect their relationship.

Theirs is a truly touching story to read. As Sparks himself says, they are:

a wonderful example of enduring love.

The second storyline follows Luke and Sophia. Sophia is a senior in college trying to figure out what to do with her life after graduation. Luke is a bull rider risking his life in order to keep his mother's farm from foreclosure. Theirs is a modern love story. It shows Sophia's sorority house home and how she hates the cliques and gossip she's subjected to while living there. It shows the aggressive, preppy, rich, white ex-boyfriend and his superiority complex. We get scenes of Luke's life on his ranch where he and his mother work hard every day in the hopes of making ends meet. Ultimately, they fall in love and Luke must choose between getting the girl or continuing to ride to save his mother's ranch.

I have to say that to me, Ira and Ruth are the true gems of the novel. They're what make the book great for me. They feel genuine and more complex as characters to me than Luke and Sophia (maybe because the conflict in the younger couple's storyline was stretched out too long for it to not be overly dramatic). Granted, there was a lot more to see of Ruth and Ira as they spent a majority of their live together, whereas Luke and Sophia had only months to their storyline. But still, there's something commercial about the way Sophia and Luke read off the page. Luke's problem - to ride or not to ride - while understandable at first, becomes exasperating and redundant when EVERYONE is telling him not to. And while I understand that guilt is a very strong motivator, something about the way that story arc flowed bothered me. I feel like this awkwardness in the Sophia and Luke storyline really points back to the formulaic essence of Sparks' writing. He even states on his website:

...because Ira and his wife, Ruth, were such a wonderful example of enduring love, I wanted to find a perfect counterpoint as an example of new love. And that’s how I came up with Luke and Sophia. Sophia was created to resonate with my college-aged fans, and Luke is really the quintessential All-American guy.

Ira and Ruth read as a moment of inspiration for Sparks - full bodied and bursting with life, while Luke and Sophia seem to fit some reader demographic. I'm NOT saying that the characters weren't well written but their motivations were sometimes lacking and the intensity of their story paled in comparison to that of the older couple.

In terms of writing style, I have to say, Sparks has some neat tricks up his sleeve. I like the way he uses Ira's visions of Ruth in the car as a device to move their storyline along. He uses the device flawlessly and it reads smoothly. I also appreciated the way he separated his chapters. Often, I would be dragged through some emotional rollercoaster belonging to one couple only to be flung into the storyline of another. It kept me reading and turning pages. It kept me in invested in his characters, if a little frustrated that I had to wait to find out what happened next (which is also a great thing for a writer to do - leave them wanting more). I also have to admit that I had to physically stop myself from crying and sobbing on the train (where I usually do most of my reading) because of one of Ira's letters to Ruth. Something about that relationship struck me deeply and I have to applaud Sparks for being able to create this connection.

Overall, I would recommend this book to anyone who likes romance novels or is thinking of reading the book before watching the movie adaptation which is now out in DVD. For those of you eyeing this movie, here's the trailer.

Let me know what you thought of the book or if you liked any of the MANY changes that were made for the movie adaptation. 

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