Review of the Semester
The things that i have learned from these books is that nothing is ever guaranteed, so you have to make smart choices, and leave your impact on the world while you can. Also from Jack Gantos' "The Hole in My Life" I realized the very harmful effects of of partying hard because eventually too many drugs and alcohol will catch up to you, but i also learned that if you work hard enough you can turn life around. However, with Gantos' "The Hole in My Life" I feel as though this book can be more widely discussed by, related to, and learned from by teens and young adult; while "The Last Speech" can be talked about, related to, and conferred upon universally.
1/22/14
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
I pick a warm hearted talk show like Ellen, with Ellen DeGeneres as the host because to me she is the best one around, and she will be interviewing Jai.
Questions:
1. How are you dealing with the loss of your husband?
2. At first you were skeptical about your husband doing the last lecture, how do you feel about it now?
3. Do you feel like your husband left behind a significant enough legacy for your children to get a sense of what he was like?
4. What is the best memory you have of your husband?
5. your husband always said "We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand," how has this quote affected you and your husbands life?
6. What reminds you most of your husband the most?
7. What was the hardest part about losing your your husband?
8. Millions of people feel like they are personally intertwined with your story, how do you feel about this?
9. did people send you sentiments after your husbands death?
10. what have you gained through this experience?
1/14/14
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
"The Last Lecture is solely based upon a person (Pausch) being stuck in a situation that he neither created nor planned: cancer; and the sad part about this is that there is no real solution for him, just the inevitability of mortality. Although there were some things that he did before his passing such as moving to Virginia so that his family could be to his wife's family after he passed, writing this book, and performing his last lecture at Carnegie Mellon; but you as the reader have to realize that unfortunately there is no happy ending to this story, or at least this time around.
12/24/13
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
In high school especially in Columbia you can either choose to go through the system quietly slipping in and out, or you can leave your own unique legacy for students and teachers to remember you by. This can easily be compared this book because Randy Pausch could have gone silently into that goodnight but instead he decided to go out with a bang. I feel like nothing is ever guaranteed, and especially after reading this book i think that everyone should try to leave a piece of themselves wherever they go. Even if it is in a mediocre place like Columbia High School.
12/17/13
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
From the perspective of the minor character Jai, Pausch's wife, she has to watch to her husband die, all while remaining strong for him and for her family. Just the idea of watching someone you love in pain and not being able to do anything about it makes me cringe; but the fact that this women had to deal with this first hand, and the inevitability that her husband could die anytime leaving her alone to raise her three kids is insufferable. However, from the readers perspective even though you are thrown to this world of hurt, you are still an outsider and have to realize that the emotional and physical reactions you feel to this family are forged; while Jai's are pure, and the worst part is that she has to see what she has lost everyday in the faces of her children. I feel as though the truth of the reality of the situation is somewhere in between Jai and the reader. While Jai's perspective can be too hysterical and the readers perspective can be to withdrawn, the perspective in between them is perfect and showcases the true view of reality in this heart warming story.
12/3/13
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
Perhaps this book isn't just about establishing a long lasting legacy, but it is also about establishing successful roots. In the fourth chapter Pausch is talking about how without his great parents, the support they offered him throughout life, and the life lessons that they taught him, he would not have accomplished as much as he did. And by writing this book and giving his last lecture he almost doing the same thing for his kids. He is teaching them valuable life lessons and impressing his mentality on them through his voice inside of this book and the lecture. This is just like freakonomics when people who gave their child an Ebonics name were less likely to succeed essentially because their had already set them up failure. So instead of letting an empty space where Pausch should be rot lives of his loved ones, setting them up for failure in some way, shape, or form; he fills these wholes with the spirit of himself that he has left behind in this book, and through his last lecture, creating a strong root for his family to succeed.
11/26/13
There is one sole purpose of this book, and that is to leave something that people will remember the author by after he is gone. The author is barely in his forties, has three very young kids, and has begin diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. This book is for the author's kids when they grow up and want to learn something about their dad, to his wife to have a constant reminder of his love, to the college students he never got to teach, and the college students he did have the opportunity to teach. Randy Pausch's book, The Last Lecture is written for anyone who wanted to know Randy Pausch. It is his way of leaving his presence and mind on this earth, even though his body is long gone. (30/150)
11/19/13
The Last Lecture
Randy Pausch
In the past I have not limited myself to only one certain preference of books; i have simply just chosen to read books that have somehow intrigued me. Recently every Saturday I have been listening to the moth on NPR with my parents. The true life stories that the people tell during this radio hour are truly fascinating, invigorating, and passionate; so when i came across the book The Last Lecture, the thought of reading somebody's last story; their last attempt to leave something to remember them by intrigued me in a way that many books have before. The Last Lecture is about a middle aged professor who works at Carnegie Melon and gets diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. He also has a wife, and three very young kids who will probably have little to no memories of him because he is going to die when they are so young. So in order to give his children something to know him by, and to create a legacy for himself he succeeds in giving one last lecture at Carnegie Melon and continuing his ideas further to create the non-fiction book The Last Lecture.
Hole In My Life
Jack Gantos
Page 200/200
11/5/13
Hole In My Life by Jack Gantos represents the rejuvenation of a dream and the ability for a man to dig himself out of a whole that he got himself into. In essence this is the quintessence of redemption. For a criminal that came from nothing, to return
Hole In My Life
Jack Gantos
Page 150/200
10/29/13
As I high school student even though It may not feel like it at times I inevitably have my whole life in front of me. In response to this people are always telling me to go to a good college, don't do that in the future, or to not turn out like this; and most of all to not do drugs and alcohol. In essence this was also the life of Jack Gantos; he was always taught right from wrong however he ended up giving into temptation. Even though our parents and elders try to teach us and scare us into becoming a successful straight edge adult it is curiosity that in the long run that kills the cat. However, weather you will let yourself fully indulge in this curiosity is another thing; and this is what Gantos's tragic flaw was. In fifth grade when the program D.A.R.E came to my elementary school it opened up a world that I had once before been oblivious too. A world that scared me yet thrilled me all at the same. This new found knowledge left me wanting to explore the pleasure of being "high" and the sloppiness of being "drunk". However, my self restraint stopped me and that is the difference between Jack Gantos and I. In my high school years and throughout life I plan to wade in the shallow end of this world, while Gantos jump straight into the deep end without first learning how to swim.
10/21/13
One event in the book that I am reading that shows the quintessence of passion is the main character Jack Gantos finding a way to write in prison, and becoming an award winning author. In prison the criminals were not allowed to write because they thought it would cause rebellious tendencies, however Gantos found a way around this. Even though writing was banned criminals were still allowed to read, so in response to this rule Gantos kept a book in his cell and wrote in between the lines, and books such as these acted as his journals for all of his time in prison. In the beginning of the book Gantos said that there was no point in him writing a book because he had nothing to he could write about in his own life, but once something worth writing about actually happened to him the fact that he took the time write about it is exceptional because he could have just rotted in prison and given up on himself, but instead he kept a very important promise to himself and ended up successful. Hole in My Life. page 100/200
10/14/13
"I have learned this: it is not what one does that is wrong, but what one becomes as a consequence of it." (Oscar Wilde) The book that i have chosen to read; "A Hole in My Life" the author Jack Gantos chose to open up the book with this exact quote. In doing this we are able to foreshadow the meaning better than any New York Times summary, and it is because of this that the meaning of the book is so simple, yet so deep, and appeals to so many different audiences. This book is a compelling tale of redemption and it proves that just because someone made a bad decision, it does not mean that they are a bad person, or have a bad life. The most prominent piece of information that emulates Jack Gantos's redemption as a person is that today he is a multi-published award winning writer that was once in jail, but managed to dig himself out of the hole that he got himself into. What was also very compelling about his writing is that he illustrates that while everyone was going crazy around him in prison he managed to stay sane through the art of writing, and it is because of this that he ultimately fulfilled his dream of becoming a writer. (70/200)
Hole In My Life by Jack Gantos
Page 50 out of 200
10/7/13
Some issues that arise in the book are drug use, alcohol use, education, and Jack Gantos's dream of becoming a writer. However,the biggest issue within this book is the criminal behavior, and mindset that followed Jack around for most of his adolescent years, and eventually lead him down the path of becoming a criminal himself. This issue is so prominent within this book because because as a read further and further into it, in some way it is a reoccurring theme that just keeps repeating itself. In the beginning of the book Gantos talks about about his father would take him to the slums of Florida and point out all of the people who were ex-convicts to him so he would know to never end up like any of them; and then later in his teens he ends up going to a high school that used be a high security prison, and how on rare occasions these prisoners would come back to to the school/ their old prison to tell kids about how much they resented their choices in life. Perhaps Gantos's high involvement with criminal activity as a kid somehow intrigued him to try to it for himself in the future. This can be related to my fifth grade experience with D.A.R.E when they explained every drug to you and told you the risks of them, but in the long run the program really only made me wanted to try them and had the opposite effect on me and other kids that it was intended to have.
Page 37 out of 200
10/4/13
In the past I have not limited myself to only one certain preference of books; i have simply just chosen to read books that have somehow intrigued me. In choosing to read "A Hole in My Life" the plot line of regaining control of your life after it plummeted downward due to drugs and alcohol is not only compelling, but it should make for a very interesting plot line. Although I have not been much of a non-fiction reader in the past, in essence this book still fits my reading preference because it has interested me enough to pick it up, and continue reading it.
From all of the books i have read, i can conclude that i am intrigued by books that relate to me in some way; whether it is a complex metaphor or blatantly obvious. For example in this non-fiction novel by Jack Gantos the heavy involvement he has with drugs and alcohol and the effect it had on his life can be related to the effects of drugs and alcohol on many kids at Columbia High school including myself; and how risky they can be if you lose control for even a second. As i work my way through many different non-fiction books this school year perhaps my goal will be to expand my horizons and read something that may not intrigue and relate to me now, but will probably relate to me infinitesimally later in life.
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