Currently

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Youth in Revolt by C. D. Payne

Pages this week: 110
Pages this semester: 800


Quotes:

1. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." - Princess Bride

2. "HE DIDN'T FALL? INCONCEIVABLE." Vizzini
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." Inigo Montoya -Princess Bride

3. "I got a headache from reading, so I thought I'd try typing for a while. I'm still using the F3 (help) key a lot. Too bad life doesn't have an F3 key." - Youth in Revolt
A F3 key would be absolutely awesome.

4. "I'm not speaking to her right now. Last Monday I came back from two miserable days in my dad's custody to find she had painted my bedroom a ghastly pink. She said she had read this color was widely used in hospitals to calm mental patients. I told her I wasn't mentally ill, I was just a teenager. Meanwhile, I am now embarrassed to invite my friends over." - Youth in Revolt
Ha. It would stink to come home to your bedroom that got redecorated in a way you don't like. It'd be awesome if you actually liked the redecoration, but this character obviously did not like the new color.

Anything for Love

I find it interesting to hear what people will do for their girlfriend or boyfriend or even friends. For example, in Youth in Revolt by C. D. Payne the main character, Nick Twisp, is adopting his girlfriend's dog because her family does not want it. Well, after the dog destroys Nick's house, Estelle Twisp (mother) wants the dog gone. Nick then proceeds to ask his friend, Lefty, to house the dog. The girlfriend, Sheeni, thinks that Nick is still taking care of the dog when, in reality, Lefty is taking care of the dog. Lefty just happens to be allergic to dogs (Gee, go figure) and therefore must keep the dog outside until his mom discovers the dog. Mom found out about the dog when Lefty's sister, Martha tattled.

Parallel to this issue, is the sibling-rivalry issue with Martha. Martha is currently trying to make Lefty's life a "living hell" by playing music he dislikes and tattling on him for various reasons. This revenge is a in response to Lefty's actions of reading Martha's diary that contained some "Rated-R" details that Mom and Dad need not know about. Lefty asks for Nick's help in taking revenge of Martha. Nick agrees if Lefty will take care of the dog.

Nick's plan is for Lefty to pretend to runaway but really stay in the RV parked outside of Nick house. Lefty will also have the dog staying with him. So, Lefty wrote a runaway note and then began staying in Nick's RV. Well, Nick had other ideas and took Lefty's note, backpack, and some of his clothes and staged a suicidal drowning. The neighbor found out that a person was in the RV, so Nick lied and said it was a Mexican trying to find a job etc. Well the neighbor was happy to help and provided food and electricity for Lefty "the Mexican." The family became distraught, police and coast guard were searching, and they held a funeral for Lefty. Nick wouldn't let Lefty watch TV for fear of Lefty discovering his plot. Lefty then got transported by bus to Clear Lake where Sheeni (the girlfriend) lives and he had to stay there for a few days. He went by the name of Lef Ti and pretended to be Asian (he looked Asian when he was swollen from the allergic reaction.)
Martha began to feel guilty because she thinks that she caused Lefty's "suicide" with her sibling-bullying.  Eventually the family found out that Lefty was not dead but a "runaway," because they received a postcard in the mail from Lefty's visit at Clear Lake. Idiot. But then again Lefty wasn't aware that he "died."

Nick set this entire scheme up just so he could remain on good terms with his girlfriend. It's amazing what people will do for love.

Youth In Revolt "Overview"

I am still reading The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne but I have added Youth in Revolt by C.D. Payne to my plate.

I was looking for a more modern book and this book reminded me of the movies Juno and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist, which both have Michael Cera as main characters. This book just so happens to have been made into a movie with Michael Cera as the lead character and book cover. Ha.

Michael Cera is definitely the actor I'd imagine while reading Youth in Revolt. All of the characters that Michael Cera plays are similar to this main character, Nick Twisp. Nick Twisp is a 14 year old boy in high school who likes to write journals and is struggling with high school. Nick Twisp has a rough home life and above-average intelligence. His best friend is Leroy, a.k.a Lefty and he lives with his neurotic mother, Estelle, and mother's truck driver boyfriend, Jerry. During summertime, he lives with his alcoholic father, George, and his father's "latest bimbette. " His sister moved to L.A. with her boyfriend before the book's plot began.

This book is written in a series of journals from the viewpoint of Nick Twisp. This book is probably not school-appropriate because Nick is obsessed with sex. He also uses SAT-style vocabulary, which is strange for a 14 year old. I have inferred that this book takes place in the past because Nick likes to listen to Frank Sinatra on a record player and the computers are dinosaurs. Nick owns a IBM AT clone and his friend owns a Atari ST. Microsoft Word is not the word processing program he uses because this probably was not invented yet. Nick has also not mastered the computer very well. Most modern-day teenagers do not need to use the F3 key for help.

Overall, this book is interesting if you can ignore Nick's obsession. The author uses various words to cover-up the proper terms, which prevents some of the awkwardness. He also likes to write with many adjectives and use the same meaning in various ways to mix things up and keep it interesting. For example, (sorry it's the first one I found) the author used "fat [belly]"  previously and then writes "hairy, white flab" a few lines later. See? Same meaning but different words.