My Reading Journal 7 H組 潘巧紋

I found "Macbeth" on my bookshelf last week. I bought it as an outside reading when I was in senior high school. The book is a retold version, published by Pearson Education Limited. It is at Penguin Readers Level 4, the intermediate level, and uses about 1700 words in vocabulary. This one is pretty easy for me now and I finished it during a very short time. It is good that there are not many words I don't understand, within five words, I think.

The story is about a brave soldier, Macbeth, who was admiring by his king, received a prediction by three witches. They told him that he would be the king. After this, his wife and he planed series of crimes to make the dream come true.

Actually, I don't understand what the point of "Macbeth." What's the meaning of this story and behind it? I only saw that so many people and Macbeth himself were all killed because of his ambition. He became more and more cruel and suspicious when he turned into a king by the first evil murder. He even killed his own friend! How could a person do such things? In the end, he even had no emotion with his wife's dead. Maybe power really trends to corrupt.

My Reading Journal 6 H組 潘巧紋

I finished "A Year Down Yonder" yesterday.

Somehow I felt the story is kind of similar to a Japanese book "佐賀的超級阿嬤." These two stories both narrate how a grandmother kept body and soul together during the hard time with an extra child. Of course, these two grandmas are still very different. Grandma Dowdel of this story is a very strong and tough woman. She knows a lot of things and pays lots of efforts to make their life better.

After living one year with her grandmother, the main character, Mary Alice, has changed, too. Comparison to the first time she got here, now she knew everyone who lived along the street. She knew this town as she'd never know Chicago. She also knew her grandma better. And she would like to live with Grandma Dowdel continually despite of the fact that she couldn't.

In the end, in the last year of World War II, Mary Alice was going to be married. She chose to marry in grandma's house. Although her parents and her brother couldn't come because of the war, she was still not lonely. Grandma Dowdel was beside her and handed her to the groom.

I think it is a lovely story. Maybe it's not a very thrilling one, it means a lot.

My Reading Journal 5 H組 潘巧紋

I have read about half of this book, "A Year Down Yonder." There are 130 pages of this book. The background of the story is the depression in 1937. They called it the Roosevelt recession.

The main character is Mary Alice, a fifteen-year-old girl who lived in Chicago. Her father was also one of the ten million men who were out of work, so he couldn't afford the apartment the family used to live. Instead, Mary's parents moved into a "light housekeeping" room which was only big enough for two people. Mary's brother had been taken on by the Civilian Conservation Crops. Therefore, Mary, who was left alone, had to live with Grandma Dowdel.

By many events, we can see that what a person Grandma Dowdel is. Mary's grandmother is really a surprising and impressive person. She used many "tips" and sometimes even "cheat" to get over the hard time. For example, when Old Man Nyquist said they could have any pecan that fell in his yard, Grandma Dowdel drove a wagon, hitting it on the pecan tree and the pecans just fell like rain. That's really impressive, wasn't it?

I just can't imagine what else her grandma would do.

My Reading Journal 4 H組 潘巧紋

I have finished "Matilda" last week. It was really great that Matilda used her intelligence and super power to help the children in the school from being controlled by the terrible headmistress. She also helped the lovely and friendly teacher, Miss Honey, get back her house. In the end, Matilda left her parents who never really cared about her. Instead, she then lived with Miss Honey. I'm sure that she will have a bright future after this change.

Last Thursday I picked up another book. It's "A Year Down Yonder," written by Richard Peck and published by Puffin Books. Actually, after reading for a while, I found out that it was a sequel to the author's another book "A Long Way from Chicago." Despite so, I think it would be as brilliant as the former one. After all, if the former one was named a Newbery Honor Book, an ALA Notable Book, and an ALA Best Book for young adults, how bad its sequel could be?

I am eager to see what is going to happen when the young city girl is sent to live with her grandmother in the country. I believe it will be very interesting.

My Reading Journal 3 H組 潘巧紋

"Matilda" is a 240-page book with comfortable typesetting and lovely illustrations. I have finished about half of this book.

Matilda is an intelligent little girl. But obviously her parents don't think so. They cannot appreciate the talent their daughter has. On the contrary, they don't like Matilda to read or even learn anything good. Actually, they think TV is all enough to have as a pastime at home. In school, there are nice teacher Miss Honey and horrible headmistress Miss Trunchbull. I can't wait to see what would little Matilda do to the mean and overbearing headmistress.

Although this book is easier than last one I have read, there are still many words I don't understand. It seems that my vocabulary is some kind less than an American child's because "Matilda" looks like written for children. Maybe I should read more and expand the vocabulary I have. However, I hope I can finish this one as soon as I can.

My Reading Journal 2 H組 潘巧紋

I have finished "The Talented Mr. Ripley" recently. The whole story is about the main character, Tom Ripley, who lives a boring life, goes to Italy by chance to find the other person, Dickie, and get him back to America. But the life Dickie lives amazed Tom. He is envious of the money and freedom that Dickie has. So he starts a plan to get all of these. The things Tom does to reach his goal are terrifying. But eventually, he makes it and he just gets everything he wants.

I don't understand why Tom could have that "happy ending." Well, he even commits crimes! How could no one notice that?! Um……Maybe that is why the title describes Tom Ripley "talented."

To my disappointment, I still did not keep reading every single day. I think it should be improved as well as the speed I read English books.

Whatever, I pick up another book this week. I expect it would be a great and funny story. It's "Matilda," written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake. It was first published in America in 1988 by Viking Penguin. I read this one faster because its typesetting and the pictures in it. I think I will enjoy it.

My Reading Journal 1 H組 潘巧紋

I chose "The Talented Mr. Ripley" for my first reading. It was written by Patricia Highsmith. Her first novel, Strangers on a Train, was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock. And this one, The Talented Mr. Ripley, won a prize from the Mystery Writers of America and was also made into a movie.

The reason why I chose this book is that I had watched the same-named movie long long time ago. It was played by Matt Damon, Jude Law, and Gwyneth Paltrow. That cast is really amazing. But actually I only recognized Matt Damon when I saw the movie then. Although I don't remember the details about this movie, it is just exactly what I need. I can use this chance to feel the story's thrill and charm again.

The novel I borrowed from the library is the retold version. This version used about 2300 vocabularies. Despite not using so many words, I still read one page for 3 minutes on average. This is really different from the time I spend on Chinese books. I think it needs to be improved. I didn't read the novel everyday, so the progress was pretty slow. I have only read the half of this book. I would try harder. I hope I could indulge in English reading this semester!