Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy

I have always been interested in things like war since I was a kid, and Tom Clancy is probably the most notorious war author that I know of. I always knew that at some point I would be reading a book by him but I had no idea that this book would be this hard. Its a great plot so I will definatly stick with it but when it takes 2-3 minutes to read one page you know that the book may be a little out of your league. What has me going back to this book is the plot. It can be looked at as complicated but also very simple. Essentially, terrorists blow up 3/10s of Soviet Russia's oil supply and Russia's only option if they want to remain a world power is to fight NATO and invade the middle east for oil. On the more complicated level you have members of America's armed forces tracking all of the Russian's moves trying to anticipate what is going on because although such a bold move cannot possibly go unnoticed, it is hard to ponder that the Russians could even ponder an idea as taking on the world to survive. Although one may be discouraged when they bick up this pook, feel how heavy it is, open it up and see that it is 700 pages long, that person should definatly stick with the book for as I anticipated it is surely enough a great read.

Bump and Run by Mike Lupica

Ok, I finished this book and I have to say, like every other Mike Lupica book that I have read so far, I have been satisfied. Hes the type of author that his books are similar in plot story but the characters are so perfectly developed that it really doesnt matter in your mind. This book was pretty much about the guy who is living a great life and doesnt really care that to his dad he is the disgrace of the family but when his dad dies he has to take over the family business in other words taking over the New York football team, the Hawks. Everyone knows that the world is corrupt, and if you want to find some of the most corrupt people on the face of the planet, look no further than into the center of the sports industry. This is essentially what mike Lupic shows in this excellent book. Really to anyone whos reading this blog, Mike Lupica has a book for you, if you dont like sports, Im sure that you would even enjoy his ooks a little and gender really doesnt matter. Hes just that good of an author that it doesnt matter what he is writing about, he is just able to keep any audience captivated and one thing that I know is that I would hate to be the author of a book read after anything by Mike Lupica.

Me Myself and I

Ok so now I am going to state my current observations about what observations that I have previously made about the few books that I have read so far. Run on? I think not, (though please correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway after looking back on all of my blog posts from this year so far, I notice that rather than focusing on or about the main character or any character for that matter I have focused on the author and his writing style. I believe that this is mainly because I would like to improve as a writer myself and what better a way to improve than to expose myself to the professionals around me. Also, I am a type of reader that likes to find an author and stick with him, so my over analyzation of a writer's work is just a little bit of me trying to draft the right guy, which of these guys am I ready to make a commitment to? Heavy stuff right? Anyway that has pretty much been what I have been observing in my observations ect. I said it all before.
For the second quarter of this glorious school year I hope that I continue to develop a real, not fake; that was redundant, not corny voice that is just me being me. I am pretty happy about how I have been picking books apart but Mainly I want to read faster because even I know that sticking with a book for five posts is pretty tedious for me and especially you guys, the readers. Anyway I want to read more and be able to absorb just as much information.

Bump and Run by Mike Lupica

OK so i finally finished Slaughterhouse Five and Im not saying that it was a bad book, in fact I enjoyed that book quite a bit But I am very excited to begin reading a book that is back in my comfort zone as a reader. I have been reading Mike Lupica for years. Whether it was growing as a reader last year with Summer Ball, Heat, Travel Team and Miricle at 49th Street or reading his columns in the Daily news or even hearing him on the radio at 660 WFAN, I have always grown up listening to him. His storylines are always amazing and so far in this book it seems like there will be multiple plot twists and turns. This book is about a man who works in a hotel in vegas and his job is to get people what they want and I do not mean the public, I mean people who matter. Not that you and I dont neccesarily matter but I think if you ask people from london if they have heard of me or Lebron James Im pretty sure they might know a little more about King James, not the british King James, just Lebron. Anyway, So far this guy has a reat life, hes the right hand man of a famous hotel owner and he can manipulate any situation. It seems he has so much power that he could move the world series with one phone call. Anyway I am very ready and excited to see how this book will play out.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

This book continues to be a thoroughly entertaining book. I really like the part where he is describing his own death. Any one in the real world would freak out if they found out the time of their death or any details what so ever, but because Billy Pilgrim can travel through time, death to him is described as a violet color and a humming noise. Billy Pilgrim gets known for what he knows about time travel and when he is giving a speech and calmly tells everyone there that he will die in a matter of minutes, of course everyone in a two mile radius of him begins to freak out. But not Billy, he calmly describes to everyone that if they have been paying attention to what he has been saying during the speech that he was giving, he has already been through this moment and will go through it again. Although this is funny, at the same time it is actually a very intriguing statement. During another point in the book when he is talking to the tralfamadorians about how they will blow up the universe he asks, if you know that its going to happen, why don't you stop it? The Tralfamadorians then reply, that the blowing up of the universe will happen and will always happened merely because it already has happened. And out there to the few people reading this, this may hurt your head but think about it, it actually makes complete sense.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Ok so this book is actually making some sense to me. Billy Pilgrim even though he is the main character isn't the most important one. Billy Pilgrim is one of those characters who just adjusts to whatever situation. He just accepts what he is thrown into and doesn't take a second to question what he or someone else is doing. He is simply a pushover which normally in literature isn't a worthwhile character to follow unless in the end he overcomes it. But Billy Pilgrim is a normal pushover being thrown into the most depressing situations that one could think of. I mean WWII, being married to a wife you don't love and being trapped on a far away planet, these aren't the most happy or eventful situations to write about but the beauty of Vonnegut's writing styles is that whatever situation you tell him to write his story about, even in the most depressing situations, he manages to turn the topic into a funny comedy story. This is the major reason that I am able to read this book. In my head right now, Billy Pilgrim is not a very complex character, however, it is the situations that he is thrown in and his reactions to the situations that makes this book a very enjoyable one. Also although the book was very slow to read, it has now become a book that I can sit down and forty five minutes of my life has instantly passed by, not that I'm complaining about wasting it or anything like that.

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Now that I finally know what is actually going on in the book itself and in the life of Billy Pilgrim, I begin to not only just laugh at Vonnegut's writing style, now I feel like I am actually reading a book. A book with definatly complex characters and an even more complex plot. I still don't completely understand billy pilgrim nor do I believe I will at the end of the book. He seems to not fear death but at the same time he doesn't, when he is on the front lines its not like he wants to fight and goes out and gets himself killed while killing others, when hes out on the front lines and a German patrol is waltzing by, he just stands there in the open, takes no cautions and stands there until another soldier gets him down. Now maybe he was just distracted or zoned out but I think that at this point in the book, by this I mean when hes fighting the war, after all of the war and death hes seen, hes lost the will to live, maybe after the suffering that hes seen he really doesn't care if he lives or dies. Maybe this state of mind only lasts for a couple of sentences but its still important, once you've thought like that, your mind never goes back to being the same, or so I've been told. Anyway now I am really interested in the character Billy Pilgrim and as long as the plot of Slaughterhouse Five doesn't throw me off course I will continue to finish this book and enjoy every minute of it.