Book 2 Review 3

       My book, Cloud Atlas, would be considered a mixture of genres in each story. Overall thought I think it would be considered Fantasy...I guess. I really couldn't tell you what type of book my book is, I could tell you that it is a really good book? There are different stories about different things that all tie together with meanings and metaphors so, I can't exactly pin point what it is. There is a story about love, mystery, futuristic stuff, and everything in between. One story is about a relationship between two men and one of them wants to be a composer but ends up killing himself. The man that did not kill himself is part of another story which is a somewhat like a mystery because of documents that are being hid by a corporation. The man is killed by a mercenary hired by the government and the mystery continues with a reporter following the paper trail. Another story is about a publisher fleeing from thugs and winds up in a old persons home, he and newly found friends try to break out of the place. That was one of my favorite ones, it was quite hilarious. Another story is about a Korean girl that has a revelation about the world they are living in and dies for her cause (also a love story bit in there). The same girl is a god in another story to people that have a survived an apocalyptic situation and are living on a remote island. The last story is about a man sailing with a doctor and a stow away slave but, the slave is a skilled seamen. The man is sick but the doctor on board is actually poisoning him to take all this fortune. So there they all are, although I dumb'd them all down to a sentence, that is the basic idea or genre of each story.

Reflection 7

      In my last reflection I talked about how I don't think that genre really matters in a book and that the quality and content is the key. Its pretty fitting that we are talking about this next, stealing my topic ideas Mr.Coates? Just kidding, or am I? Anyways, what the book is doesn't really matter it pretty much every case. If opera said that it was one of the best stories she has ever heard then is it important if it were true or not? Does it being true make you feel more emotions towards the characters in the book knowing they were real or not? I guess it would but, how do you know Harry Potter isn't real? Prove me wrong and I'm talking hard evidence! I could careless if some guy lied about things in his book because all in all, its just a book and in a book is a story. What really matters if it is a good story with good plot and good characters. If you sold 1 million copies of a book and 100k people took it back, you still sold 900k books. Must've been a solid story with characters and plot that made the reader feel emotion towards it. And if you really think about it, most of those people that bought those books are just sheep following a herd, and the shepard is named Opera. When you watch a movie that says "BASED ON A TRUE STORY", do you really think that everything that happened in the movie happened in real life? Lawless for example, the dude got shot, stabbed, and his neck slit open and lived. I HIGHLY doubt all of that actually happened the way it did. Sure, he probably got cut and shot once or twice and maybe even nicked in the throat but, everything is an exaggeration of the truth in some way.

Reflection 6

      Genres aren't something that will really turn me on or turn me off with a book or movie or anything else for that matter. I don't really think I have a preference in genre but most of the favorites come from Thrillers and things of that nature. Movies, books, songs, and even art work that just blows my mind. When I saw Shutter Island for the first time it is just the best when you are taken for turns and twists on an emotional roller coaster for a movie. I want something to make me feel emotion for something that isn't even real, that's how you know it is good. That could be said for anything though I guess because if a love movie and can make me feel something besides boredom and frustration then good on them. Maybe what they should do is make genres of things that determine quality such as: Amazing book, good book, If you have nothing else to book, and lastly, you probably shouldn't read this book. Boom, problem solved. I understand that genres are there to distinguish between what type of book it is but in my circumstances, I could careless what kind of genre it is. My question is, is it a good book? Will it make me cry if the main character dies? Will I smile if he saves the day? Will I be horrified? I would hope the answer is yes.

Book 2 Review 2

One of my favorite parts is when these two men and two others are trying to break out from a retirement home

       Although its premature to talk about me finishing the book in a the second review, I want to start off with comparing the book to the movie. I did watch the movie after I finished reading the book and I can safely say that they both were amazing. The movie apparently got bad reviews which is crazy considering I'm pretty sure it is one of the best movies I have ever seen. The movie gave you different perspectives at the same time, feeding you more information at once. The book didn't exactly move in a linear way either but, it was more in a chronological order than the movie. You went from one story and time period to another and you made connections that way. In the movie you could make connections at the same time with other time periods. How human nature is circular in the aspect that "history repeats itself", on top of the metaphors and meanings you pull from the idea of the book, you get the movie perspectives that you wouldn't get otherwise. There are even meanings that I can't even really articulate to explain because they are just so, unexplainable. The mixture of love, hate, hope, death, sacrifice, and everything in between makes the book and movie beyond amazing. There are down points too, you can't get instant gratification even with the movie. The book and movie take time to pull in all the information happening at once to bring it to those amazing metaphors and philosophy. I couldn't even tell you what genre this book would be considering all the different stories have something different to offer, so the best way to describe it is, a well written and thought out book.  

Review 4 Book 2

Cloud Atlas

    My first impressions with the book were that it was long, confusing, and had multiple stories but what I came to find in the first couple chapters or stories was that its really not that bad. At first, I admit, I had no clue what was going on or what time period it was or what was happening. If you keep reading though things start to make more sense and things start piecing together. The different settings are a ship crossing the Pacific in 1849; the home of an elderly composer in 1936 Edinburgh; San Francisco and a nearby nuclear power plant in 1973; London and an Edinburgh nursing home in 2012; Neo-Soul, the capital of a half-ruined Korea in 2144; a valley and a mountain on a post-apocalyptic Hawaii in 2321. It's a lot, I know. So far I have only gotten to Edinburgh in 1936 following an elderly composer. I think half way through the ship story it started to make sense, but maybe outside sources helped me understand better. I found this really great quote summing up the book in its own way, if it could be summed up. "The film explores the idea of an eternal soul that reincarnate through time and space in different parts of the world - no matter of race, gender, religion - but based on the past actions, reborn and rejoin with lost loves, and remedy wrongs from the past. Everything is connected - in one way or another." Also you can watch the trailer here. From what I think I know and understand about this book, its one of the best book I'm going to read and after I finish it I plan on seeing the movie, maybe I'll do that for the project but, I digress. The book doesn't explain but explains things enough so that you can make your own connections and projections about it and find deeper meaning in things. From what I have read, it really is a work of art.

Reflection 5

      I think the way I'm going to go about this is listing book covers then explaining why they are bad or good in their own ways. I don't think generalizing things about what makes a good or bad book cover would be fair considering something might work in other contexts. The book with a cat and a ring of fire with a title of Virgin Heat is just...I don't even know. The cover has literally nothing to do with the title or probably the book. I mean maybe on the other side of things, that could be the thing that makes you want to read this book. Like, why is there a cat and a ring of fire and what does it have to do with Virgin Heat? The cover on the left I think to me would be a good book cover, it's simple and works with the book as far as relevance. The text is clear and understandble. I just think that you can normally tell between a good and a bad book cover. Good ones having elements that people like and you can tell had thought put into it and then you can tell between bad ones that are just plain bad.



Reflection 4

 BEST OF ALL TIME

This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.By far the best movie book adaptation of all time is without a doubt, Fight Club. Not only does it have Brad Pitt but the messages and originality  of the movie and book make it the best of all time. The rest of the list follows 2. Dexter 3. Shutter Island 4. Its Kind of a Funny Story 5. Inception. I found These movies to be all amazing adaptations and also individually well done because of idea, presentation, casting, and the emotions they make you feel.
             I think first of all what makes the adaptation good is the casting, you have to already assume the book is an original idea, for example, any movie with Brad Pitt is a good movie. Solid lead roles that are on par with the book or better make amazing movies. When you think of a movie you think of that person so for most people Fight Club you think Brad Pitt, Shutter Island you think DiCaprio etc. On the other hand though you can have books like Dexter or Game of Thrones that are better suited for T.V because of time restraints or the stories are just better told that way. I suppose though that most reasons why someone likes something is because they tend to sway towards certain genres anyways. A serial killer that only kills bad people with a morbid thriller feel to it sounds like a good show to me. I think that is the genre I sway towards, thrillers that really make you think about things in a different way. Shutter Island blew my freakin mind, the plot twists and the final result of those twists just, man, blew my mind. Not going to spoil anything but, the last line of the movie describes it perfectly. "I'd rather die a hero than live as a monster", then walks off with nurses.....Pfft what?!? Awesome, the same could be said with Inception, the idea on top with plot twists and an amazing lead actor just makes for an amazing movie, although I don't think it was a book first. The other thing that is also very important in making good adaptations is using perspectives in movies that you can't in books that give you more emotion and can make you understand what is happening better/more artistically. The movie It's Kind of a Funny Store is one of those movies where the movie was better because characters and perspective that weren't in the book made the already good story, better.

 Two Geniuses