I was born for this

 

 

Alice Oseman 

2002/10/18

The Ark was everything for Angel. For Angel, the Ark was not only a band. The Ark gave Alice the energy of life and let her meet new friends. The Ark was much more important than her real life. Her dream was to go to the concert and meet the members in person.

The Ark gave Jimmy everything that he owned. He was the main vocal of The Ark, and playing music with his friend had been his dream for a long time.

However, there was always a gap between dreams and reality. When Angel and Jimmy were frustrated, they met each other due to a sequence of accidents. Because of their meeting, they changed each other’s life.

The story was mainly about the life of an idol and a fan. For example, fans were confronted with others’ misunderstanding of the Internet culture. Idols were forced to face the trespass of their private lives. Also, they had to accept that they were no longer general people at all. In the story, Angel’s and Jimmy’s perspectives rotated; therefore, you can the façade of the idol from a fan girl’s eyes and from reality. The difference made the plot more appealing.

Through the aspect of Angel, the emotion from a fan to an idol was vivid and precise; also, it showed the importance of these feelings. The passion of a fan (especially teenage girls) toward his or her idol was mostly treated as valueless. What’s more, they might be mocked by others. Through Angel, the author said that it was precious to have this kind of passion because this passion might change one’s life, and give his or her the propulsion to live. Therefore, no matter the passion was toward a band, a book, or a movie, as long as the passion could give you happiness, it was worth loving.

Never let me go

Log 5

Never let me go

Kazuo Ishiguro

2006/01/05

The theme of the story is clones. Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy were grown up in a boarding school, named Hailsham. All of the students in this school didn’t have parents, and most of them live isolated from the rest of the world. Students in this school were special They were looked after well, and were required to perform well academically and physically. Needless to say, there were many excellent students in this school. However, when they grew up, they would not be part of society. They were given unique tasks at the moment they were born. They were designated to be the donator of organs, in order to continue human lives.

Besides the identity of the donator, they were allowed to be the caregiver. They were responsible for takig care of those donators who were weak after donations. When taking care of their peers, they were waiting for their first donations. Most of the donators were alive until the third donation. They would pass away in their midlife. Although there was no clear statement, they were not defined as human. They are clones. They are nothing but tools to donate organs.

The description of the story was from the insight of clones, about how they face themselves and how they treat the world. Their lives are meant to be short. What’s more, the time of death and the way to dead were literally clear.  They were having no misgivings about their destiny. However, they were still eager to hope. They accepted their identities, but they anticipated to real one. Frankly speaking, although clones are born by gene copies, they owned their emotions and feelings, like the donee did. In the end, using true love to exchange for the last of life was nothing but an illusion. They were confronted with a more brutal fact because they were doubted to have the root meaning of life, the existence of the soul.

As a whole, there was no happy scene or dramatic plot in the story. However, the story gave me a comfortable feeling and made me wonder about the genuine meaning of how we live.

The binding

Log 4

The Binding

Author: Bridget Collins

Publication: 2019/12/26

I am addicted to witchcraft themes, such as Harry Potter, Chilling Adventure of Sabrina, and so on. As long as I start taking up those stories I will literally into the story as if I were in the world of the characters. While searching for books, I noticed this book was on the chart of Elite, and I was appealed to the cover and the introduction. I decided to this read story; however, when I tried to find the original version in the library of our school, the library didn’t collect this book, and neither did the NTU library. What was worse, the book was out of stock in Elite around Taiwan. Therefore, I chose to read the translated edition first and ordered the original version online. I hoped my book would soon be put in my bookcase.

After reading the first chapter of this story, I was strongly convinced that the book was worth buying the original version. For the latter content, I will not mention too many plots in the story, because I recommend my friends to read the story literally and chewing the words thoroughly.

Fascinating, inspiring, and heartbreaking. Those three words are my comments after I finished the story.

Fascinating. The description of the scene is impressive. Through the description, the view of ancient Europe is vivid and distinct. The description is the light that will lead you to have the glance of the middle age Europe.

Inspiring. The effect of binding in the story is aim to archive one’s memory into the book so that the person will not remind it anymore. The witchcraft makes readers ponder about archiving memories that are sorrowful and somber is a way to looking forward to better future or nothing but a way to escape the reality.

Heartbreaking. The relationship is refinement. From the “first” meet of them, the foreshadowing is set. Actually, when I read to the part, I was confused, because I didn’t figure out the emotion that he expresses; however, through further reading, I realize the emotion. It is hatred; meanwhile, it is also love. The love is consisted of misunderstand and pity. The love is too strong that it could not be erased despite of the magic.

For me, the binding is a book to fulfill my imagination to magic world; also, it is a bridge between me and the author. It is a good story literally; meanwhile, it is the book that influences my insight toward love and hate.

The Midnight Library

 

Midnight Library

Author: Matt Haig

Publication: 2021/02/18

The story is about a woman named Nora, who lives nothing but a normal life. She feels unaccomplished and unwilling, and her despair is accumulated for a long time; therefore, she decides to kill herself one day. After committing suicide, however, she doesn’t go to heaven or hell. Instead, she finds herself in the Midnight Library which is filled with the books that store parallel lives that she might have lived. She is given the chance to undo the regrets and fulfill ideals by trying out those lives. 

What if I have the chance to live another life, will I give up the life that I live right now. The answer may be yes before I start reading the story. Recently, I consider my life boring. I live a similar life day by day. Back to high school life, life was even more similar, like studying all day and rushing to bed after school. Life was boring, but there was a goal. The goal was to have good grades and get permitted to the college. The imagination of future life and the faith of being strong enough to support the colorless days. However, after entering college. There is no explicit and distinct goal anymore. My recent life is all about studying and waiting for the days passed. I feel anxious when my life is dull and It seems like I am living just for living, not for my life. By chance, I noticed this book. Some ideals came to my mind while reading the story. I want to experience the decision as Nora does in the story. I want to experience the parrel life with different decisions from now. Actually, I will imagine what my life would be if I study abroad because I didn’t hesitate the chance in my senior. Will I be a language major as now? Will I meet people that have similar thoughts with me? Will I have a different career plan? I used to feel regret about the miss and wanted to fix the mistake. However, after reading the story, I still feel pity, but I will choose the decision as I have chosen. Life is kind of boring though, but it is so-called life. I can’t expect that life would be filled with fun and joy; however, if I have a different attitude toward life, my days are the same, but my mind would be more colorful even the change is slight.

While reading to the end of the story, I learned it is important not to live in regrets. If keeping thinking that I will be much better if I have chosen another decision, life will be harsh afterward. There are always difficulties and obstacles in every single life. Therefore, there is no perfect life even undoing or correcting all mistakes that we have made. To sum up, instead of living in regrets, it is more effective to sincerely live our following days and make them meaningful.

Normal People

Normal People

Author: Sally Rooney

Publication: 30 August 2018

The biggest attraction between Marianne and Connell is a significant difference. Marianne has a wealthy family but less emotional connection; meanwhile, Connell's mother works as a janitor in Marianne but treats Connell well and raises him carefully. Connell's personality appeals to Marianne and extracurricular performance, and Connell envies Marianne's family, which can provide her with a quality education. The plot setting is similar to Titanic and other famous works.

It is hard for me to befriend someone who is literally different or even contrasting because the gap might result in an unbalanced status in the relationship. In the novel, the meaning of scholarship is different between them. For Marianne, it is proof of efforts and hard work, but for Connell, fortune can support him to be educated and live. Having a satisfying conversation with people with different values or thoughts is hard for me, but sometimes I will be inspired by the difference. For example, I would suddenly realize the aspect I had never thought of before during the conversation with whom I classify as a different social circle. 

Based on my experience, I have usually been friends who share similar backgrounds or hobbies. When I step into a new environment, I will find people who seem to have similar personalities. I will try to be close with those people sharing different features, but there are many difficulties adapting to each other. If I want to keep the original personality and not concede in the future, the best way is not to have too much emotional connection with them. In many works, the adaptions between two people are appealing and fascinating. The public prefers to see the conflict and collision, yet the process is harsh—the collision results in a colorful splash or broken remains.

As for me, I will be attracted by someone who has the feature that I don't have. For example, I would observe one of my classmates in elementary school because she is full of imagination and art. However, I would not try to be close to her. It is hard for us to have a harmonious relationship. Rather than being intimate with her, I want the feature she owns. We will always try to hold the stuff we don't own, like personalities or abilities.

Connell and Marianne have been on and off for years, which reminds me of One Day. Nevertheless, it is hard for people to do so under reality's concern. It took time to figure out the explanation of relationships among people, so most people will decide to end the relationship that makes them suffer. Instead of being damaged, most people will choose to on the way, which is not their first choice but the smooth one.

In my opinion, that is the reason why people enjoy drama or noel works; the plot fulfills the imagination that they can't easily reach in real life. The way that the character chooses comforts the pity of people under the restriction of concerns and the society.

About Lisa

Hi guys! I’m Lisa.

Out of question, lingering in words is the last thing that I want l do for my leisure time. There are a few reasons why I am not interested much in the world of words.

The prominent reason is that hardly can I feel the emotions among the characters and the plot in books and articles. While reading others’ stories, I would learn the plots. However, I can’t relate much to the emotions and do not have empathy with the author, so while reading novels, I have numerous questions about the motivations and discissions that are based on emotions. When it comes to sharing my thoughts with others, it is hard for me to express them thoroughly. My thoughts are far beyond my expression. However, I am trying to observe others these days. It is interesting to observe others’ behaviors and decisions; also, analyzing others’ personalities is intriguing. With the observation, I hope I can figure out others’ feelings well.

For the reading and writing class, I hope I can express myself and relate others better in this class. I believe that words have unpredictable power, but it is hard for me to fulfill the goal without practice and skills. Therefore, I will try my best to sharpen my skills and improve myself with detailed advice and professional knowledge. I will try to cultivate the habit of reading from now on, hoping it is not too late for me to start it.

As for me, I have had a weird hobby recently. I enjoy putting everything in my room neatly and only keeping those necessities. If everything in my room is in order, I would feel satisfied and relaxing. Also, keeping the color of my room and outfits in one tone is an enjoyment. I used to not understand my mom, but after living alone, I realize that being neat and tidy in both living place and appearance is the attitude toward life.