Cullen

__**Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy**__ **by Douglas Adams** (trimester 3)

 For the trimester 3 book report, I read Hitch-hiker's  __Guide to the Galaxy__ , by Douglas Adams. To start, I have to say this is a very clever book. It’s a sci-fi book about an ordinary man who escapes Earth as it is annihilated, 42, and mice being hyper-intelligent beings. It’s a very funny book, and some of the punch-lines need a bit of knowledge to understand. There is a series of books I have yet to read, but I can tell that they are probably pretty funny. It was a short and easy read, but at the same time, some of the alien names were a bit confuzing.

The author’s style of writing this book was peculiar, but clever at the same time. In some parts, it would go off into a part that made completely no sense to the story line, but at the same time were funny, and not annoying at all. I think that Douglas made very obscure analogies “like getting hit in the head with a lemon wrapped around a golden brick.” Though they were quite random, I enjoyed reading the absolutely haphazard analogies he would formulate.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who likes a random book that is witty and has a fairly comedic atmosphere. I myself am eager to read the rest of the series. I have to rate this a five star book, because it is almost a classic for sci-fi lovers. Though we may not know why the meaning of life is 42, but as long as google says it is, I am guessing it is true. Hats off to you, Mr. Adams, you did a very fine job.   [] Picture Above


 * __The Lord of the Flies__ by William Golding** (trimester 2)

__The Lord of the Flies__ by William Golding is another classic book for kids to read. It's about a bunch of British schoolboys who had their plane shot down over a deserted island, with no adults. The kids try to form a society, but as the book progresses, social problems develop, paranoia sets in, and the community spirals downwards. Eventually, there are two groups, and they aren't exactly very friendly towards each other. With paranoia of a monster stalking the boys endlessly, and new enemies being formed, the two groups eventually spiral into all out war, leading to deaths, traitors, and bonds being destroyed. This truly is one of the greatest books I have ever read. The plot of this book is highly developed, keeping the reader to push on, while at the same time being very deep and believable. Honestly, I spent many sleepless nights reading this book over again, just for enjoyment.

The entire story takes place on an unmarked, unnamed tropical island. Even an estimated location is unknown, all we know is that it is somewhere out in the pacific ocean. The setting is very easy to imagine, as it is very well described in the book. I think that the island heavily influenced the characters, because the location of everything really plays into the story. For example, the location of the signal fire was not close to the entrance to the hunting grounds, which sparked the main event of the story. If the signal fire was closer to the hunting grounds, the hunters would be able to keep better track of the status of the fire, and then the separation of the hunters may have not have even happened. If castle rock did not exist, the hunters would have to look around a little more for a strategic position to make their village.

I thought that the characters of this book where just amazing. Every one of the characters had a very distinct personality, and all of them were very well developed. For example, Ralph was a very strong leader, and was a little more diplomatic than Jack. Meanwhile, Jack was a very charismatic person, and he had the ability to really rile the boys up. Meanwhile, Piggy was the intellectual, who always tried to find a logical solution to the situation, while complaining that everyone was immature and very reckless. Sam and Eric were very loyal to Ralph. Even when they were forced into Jack's tribe, they still provided Ralph with food that they were not supposed to give, and telling Jack that they had not seen him.

I would recommend anyone who wants to read a that is interesting, but at the same time has a very deep meaning. Also, this book would be very useful for anarchists, traitors, leaders, sailors, or bearded Brits with sub-machine guns on an island with a PACK of wild boys running at you like dog smelling beef. The book really makes you want to read more, and it deserves a whopping five stars, for being one of the best books in the history of mankind. I have never had a more fun time watching the crumbling of a society created by a bunch of crazed British schoolboys, ever.

__**The Oxbow Incident**__ (trimester 1)

I read __The Oxbow Incident__ by Walter Van Tilburg Clark for my book review. It is a book set out in the West, and it was a suspenseful book to me, because it had a very extremely slow start, and I did not enjoy it that much. It began to pick up slowly, but that did not compensate for the extremely slow start, which some parts seemed like filler that never made any sense. The only exciting part in the beginning was when Gill had a fist fight. When the fist fight ended, the seemingly perpetual chapter started, which was overly detailed, and half of the content was unnecessary.

The plot seemed to drag on forever, and I could barely concentrate on reading. Everytime I turned the page, I expected to find something mildly exciting, but the most insignificant part of the book dragged on forever. They had a whole chapter that was around a hundred pages long, but it had no excitement. The main character just walked around talking to a bunch of random people. The whole plot was not even forced, it seemed to wander off like a cow in an open field. I eventually got so bored with it I barely wanted to read it.

The story took place somewhere out in the western parts of the United States, I am guessing in Nevada somewhere, but I am not sure. I guess you could describe the setting as the stereotypical wild west, with cowboys and dust and such. It took place some time ago, around the time of cowboys, somewhere in the middle of the 1800's to the late 1800's. The description of the setting, old, dusty and forgotten, seemed to fit my description of the book. The setting had no positive effect excitement of the book, except that it made it more boring then it already was.

The book was about a bunch of cowboys (and one woman), who live in some dusty old town somewhere in the Wild West. They form a lynching group after they hear that their friend has been murdered, and they set off to find the murderers. I guess you could say that the book had some kind of suspense, because my predictions of what were going to happen were always wrong, but it was not the exciting suspense, because whenever there was a plot twist, it "twisted the wrong way.". I think the author intended to make a book that was a little more exciting, but got caught up in all the detail, and came up with this.

I would recommend this book to older people, who may like slow going books. Anyone who likes excitement in their books should not read this book. Personally, I don't like it because the plot is extremely slow to start, but the character development is amazing. I actually felt like I was standing in the square of a dusty old town, surrounded by cowboys with atrocious grammar. Two stars for the character development.