Book 1 project: Room yearbook

            The year book of Room features a description of all of Jack’s friends in his world. This is before his escape, so all of his friends happen to be objects and things (with the exception of Ma). The idea was made up, because it is both interesting and disturbing of how Jack talks of objects as if they are living beings.

            “Good night Room,” I say very quiet. “Good night, Lamp and Balloon.” (pg. 42) As you can see here, Jack wishes the lamp and balloon good night as if they are his friends: Bob and Tom for example. It is odd to think that this boy only knows one person in the entire world. It is all Jack has ever known, his Ma and things in room. Room is Jack’s world; the objects could be counted as countries/states/places in his world. As if you’re going on vacation and you told your neighbor: “hey watch the house, I’m going to California for the weekend”. To Jack that is walking probably 5 feet to go from the toilet to the bed. But the difference is he sees the objects not as states or places but as one of him like people. Towards the end of the book after they have escaped and left room, Jack asks his grandma if they can recover some of Room’s old objects (His friends!). In this part he finally gets his rug back, and is told by different people to throw it away or get rid of it. “I think of Rug, I run to get her out of the box and I drag her behind me. ‘Where will Rug go, beside the couch or beside our bed?’” (pg. 305) His “Ma” tells him its useless and to get rid of it. But for Jack getting rid of something he is so close to is difficult. It reminds me of the classic childhood story of the kid with the bad influence friend or something, and your mom telling you to stop hanging out with him because he is a bad influence. For Jack this is his situation but trying to get rid of Rug. It is a close friend that he has been through a lot with that he can’t just kick to the curb.

            Putting these fake scenarios/analogies into your head is one of my favorite parts of reading. Especially for this book, because it is absolutely mind boggling to try to think like Jack would. In that he only knows an 11x11 foot space and his world revolves around his Mom, Room, and the things in that Room. So in parts of the book where Jack says: “It makes my head hurt” after hearing something as simple as there are other people outside the tiny room frustrates me. Just because I am so used to the way things are in the world. For us or the Lehman it would be like someone telling us aliens really did live outside the universe and that they have seen them. We probably would not believe it, label them crazy, and have our head hurt too. That is why I think this attraction of something simple like a yearbook could really work for this book. Because it brings us to realize how minimal and small Jack’s world was. Of how much these objects meant to him, they are like his family. He was more excited to get his vomit filled, dungeon kept rug back then to see his Grandma and family. The idea of characterizing the objects into people is awesome. This year book for jack is like looking back on Room as if I will when I graduate from high school and point out different people I remember and loved.

ROOM- first post

I am on page 230 of Room by Emma Donoghue, so I have read a good 2/3 of it. At this point, it seems like the one climax of the book has happened. I say one climax, because it is really the only thing that could have happened so far and I imagine for the rest of the book. I found it weird that this one thing happened half way through the book, I don't know what else can happen now besides Jack learning about the "outside" as he puts it. I really want to criticize the book, because it seems like nothing happens. Besides a stretch of about 75 pages, its just small talk and nothing much happening. I really want to hate the book, but I continue to read it and not get bored with so little action. I guess that is just the magic of Ms. Donoghue as a writer, and I guess nothing much can happen when you live in an 11x11 foot space. So it may be boring but I continue to read it and not feel bored. In other words, I will read for a period of time and not be bothered, but afterwards I think back to what I read and think wow nothing really happened in those past 50 pages! 

Post 2: What is a book?

According to the Merriam- Webster dictionary, a book is:
"a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover : a long written work."
Based off of that definition, ebooks are actually not even considered as a book. Considering they are digital, with no printed sheets of paper that are held togather inside a cover. Based off of the definition itself I think that the likes of  Joe Meno and Tom Piazza (People who hold printed books above ebooks) would agree. At first I agreed with these gents, for me a book was the definition, the "written copy" if you will. But I thought, If I am going to look at literal definitions I better look at meriam webster's second half of their definition. Which is "a long written work". I held this on the defense of the hard copy books. But then it struck me that even a hard copy book isn't actually written. They are typed and have been since Bi Sheng invented the Printing press in the year 1041. Considering books are typed as opposed to written I don't agree with Meriam-Webster's definition of a book. Why should a book have to be 'long', 'witten', 'printed', or even on paper?

Books are like people, you get to know the character, you put yourself in their shoes, and get to relate to them. Reading a book is like talking to a person, its conversating with yourself. So I guess it's like your conscious. It is whatever you make it to be, even with a non fiction book, the discription of the subject feels as if your listening to a professer give a lecture. A book truely is whatever you want it to be, it shouldn't have to be long, written, printed, or have to be on paper. A book is your conscious, no matter what form/device it is in.