Finally

Starting the class, I was already a pretty independent reader. I did depend on other people to recommend good challenging books. If I didn't have any recommendations, I would usually read Nicholas Sparks' books or something similar. During the week I wouldn't read much, but mostly save it as a Sunday activity curled up in bed. This semester I read books I normally would not have read. This class I think helped me go from simple young adult to more challenging adult books less awkwardly than I otherwise would have because I enjoy really unique books, but I also read a lot of really crappy books, I don't even know another way to say it. I never read with my phone with me because I get too distracted. I absolutely love talking to people about books and recommending books to other people. Besides changing what I read, I've also changed how much I read. Now I choose to read over watching tv or getting online. I'm looking forward to having more time to read now that band season is over. I'm also looking forward to exploring new genres of books that I wouldn't have been exposed to.

The Help

The chapters in this book are written from the perspective of either Skeeter, Aibileen, or Minnie. Aibileen and Minnie each write in the voice that they would have spoken in. Grammar is incorrect and accents are included, but it's actually much easier to follow and to read than I originally expected. I enjoy being able to hear their voices while reading. The southern accents included throughout the book remind me of my family and I've often caught myself laughing because they use some of the same sayings as my family.

I was reading this on my trip to Arizona and people on three of my four flights made comments about the book. Everyone had good things to say about it and I loved having something to talk about instead of awkwardly sitting next to a stranger.

The Help

This will be a post about The Help.

Curently

This week: 205
Last Week: 118

"But the bald spot in the back of her hair kind a throws things off."

"Today is a good day though. That girl just grins."

"She got this way a clearing her throat real delicate-like that get everybody's attention without they even knowing she made em do it."

The Help

Unfortunately, I saw this movie before reading the book. Usually I won't see a movie until I read the book, but my Dad offered and seeing a movie sounded nice. My dad read this book and said it was really good. I'm only a chapter in, but the style is actually really easy to follow. Mae Mobley has a caretaker named Aibileen and Mae Mobley's mom is Miss Leefolt.

House of Leaves

House of Leaves wasn't really a horror story like I expected. One person dies throughout the entire book and not much emphasis was really put on it. More than anything, relationships are explored. Karen and Navdison are in a long term relationship with two kids, but are not married. Johnny loves a woman named Thumper who doesn't feel the same way about him. Karen & Navy have a falling out when she moves the kids to New York to escape the house, but she faces her fears and returns to the house where Navy is lost within the hallway. Days go by and Karen even ventures into the hallway in hopes of finding him, with no luck. Near the end of the book, after all the haunting and adventures, all relationships are resolved. Because of this emphasis, I really think House of Leaves is more of a love story than a horror novel. Another reason I don't think it was really horrific was because all of the bad parts were broken up throughout the novel by smaller stories of Johnny and Lude's relationships.

Close-Reading Bingo

Disclaimer: I feel really bad for pointing out flaws so please don't be offended if I use yours.

1&2. "At first, the character introduces the reader to the point of the passage." --ariadna permelia
           Rule #3-- What is the point of the passage? 
           Rule #4--Don't include "the reader"

3. "The girl screams to her sister “I will kill if you touch this, Julie, and if you do I swear to go I will kill you, no mercy, no take-backs private property, this means you, Julie, you” which explains how the infuriated girl feels toward her sister." --emily 
          Rule #2-- Break it into two sentences or shorten the quotation.

4. "In Nicholson Baker's work The Mezzanine, he uses elegant and intricate diction to create a formal tone."--Maddie 
          Rule #6-- Avoid the verb "use"

Best Response: KG

House of Leaves

House of Leaves includes a lot of commentary on human nature. Johnny in particular seems to make a big deal out of nothing. Karen often complains about her boyfriend although she is unfaithful and rude quite frequently. Karen and Navidson also talk badly about each other on Hi-8s a lot. The characters are pretty cookie cutter for the most part, it's just their actions that throw you off. Navidson decieves his girlfriend and explores the hallway before any official explorations begin and again later in the book. Although Navidson and Karen do not always treat each other right, their relationship works out because they love each other. They have a very realistic relationship.

Practice Diction Analysis

In the first page of his novel Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger’s literal, blunt diction expresses Holden’s attitude towards his life and his surroundings. Holden describes his parents as “touchy as hell” and mentions his “lousy childhood.” The negative connotation of his words is straightforward, lending them to be easily trusted. Even when speaking of his brother, Holden says where D.B. lives “isn’t too far from this crumby place.” Though Holden is capable of positive emotions shown by his compassion for his brother, Holden has a negative outlook of his surroundings.  

House of Leaves

While Navidson is lost alone within the hallway, the stairway flips and turns and he becomes very disoriented. To mirror this, the text on the page grows and shrinks, changes places on the page, makes you flip the book around, often doesn't exist, and is very unorganized. Just reading the book and flipping the pages as quickly as you have to makes you as disoriented as Navidson must feel. It took me a minute to realize which side is the bottom and which is the top. It's this varied writing style is what interests me about the book.

Currently

First week of the quarter!

This week:118 pages
Last week:266 pages

On the other hand, the figurative language detailing simple but memorable scenes in Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami provide deep emotional connections to the character.-- E

Even more casually written is Jack Kerouac's On The Road, which incorporates a stream of consciousness that mirrors the complex workings of the narrators mind using words that are far less complicated. The flowing, jazzy language including the description of a break-up as a "miserably weary splitup" begs to be read aloud because its sounds are so pleasing to the ear.  --Charliebucket

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey is written with crude diction that protrays the aurthors critical struggles and a repetitive flow that allows the reader to understant his thinking.--Phyllis

Style Mapping

1984 by George Orwell uses straightforward and exact diction, colloquial formality, and dull sound to create a harsh feeling for the reader, much like how Winston feels the chill of the bright cold day and the enormous eyes of the face watching him.  Homer's The Odyssey poetic connotation, elegant and scholarly formality, and melodious sound. In House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski, literal, thudding, choppy, vulgar language allows readers a glimpse into Johnny's recently changed mind.

Quarterly

I haven't really surprised myself this quarter as far as what I read is concerned. I've basically always read what I had available to me and I've never stuck to one particular genre. House of Leaves has been the most challenging and I feel like it took me a long time to get in to it. I love the story, but absolutely hate the book. It's just a bunch of crap. There are references that don't exist, footnotes with footnotes, and the layout is unnecessary. Though I do hate it, I respect it. It clearly took a lot of thought and creativity and I'm really enjoying the challenge. It's a piece of art. I mostly read during fifth period and at night right before I go to bed. During yearbook, I've often found myself being a loner in the "patio room" reading. I really don't mind though, it's really nice to be able to hear the craziness but not actually be a  part of it. I also cuddle up with my puppies in this big blue chair in the sun room in my house a lot to read. I think my dogs probably enjoy being read to... haha. I usually don't have my cell phone on and I try not to talk to other people while I'm reading because if I get sidetracked, it takes me a while to get back to where I was reading with the same concentration I had before. I want to find more books that make me think though. I think I need to stop reading books because I relate to the characters. It's neat to be able to live vicariously through a character. I'll never be a crazy drug/sex addict, but it's cool to imagine what they think.

So the hallway in Navidson's house changes. The staircase took the explorers six days to reach the bottom and it only took Navidson five minutes. It basically says that each person has their own thoughts about the space before they venture into it. The explorers were searching for the bottom which is why it took them so long to reach the bottom, Navidson knew there was a bottom and had the goal of getting to the bottom. To relate this to the readers, it's like when you're a child and the year between each Christmas seems like a lifetime, though as you get older, the last Christmas always seems like just yesterday. It's also like visiting a place you used to frequent as a child and realizing it is actually much smaller than you recall. In this instance, you have grown, the space has not gotten smaller, but you don't notice the change in yourself. The more I thought about this, the more I started wishing I could feel others' interpretations of things and places. Clearly it's impossible, talking about it can't even clearly describe what you feel about a thing or place, but everyone has their own. I used to wonder as a child how other people viewed colors. Maybe my pink was blue to someone else. What if other people saw shades that I couldn't see? Is it not possible that we all see different colors and we just know the colors we see? Maybe what I see as black you see as my teal, but you've learned it to be your black. That's not something you can talk about though... how do you describe the color black? It's dark, it's the opposite of white, but what if adjectives are just relative? You'll never really know. The book is like this, it has more questions than answers.

Currently.

Pages this week:something just a bit above 100.... not really sure exactly since I don't have my bookmark

Pages last week:100 pages exactly

1. He could be funny for a while solid day without ever once being stupid, and one time during lunch he made me laugh so hard a noodle came out my nose.
 -A Girl Named Zippy
I think that is the ultimate definition of love.

2. "Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath." -Rules for My Unborn Son
Because it's great advice.

3."Sleep's been stalking me for too long to remember." -House of Leaves
Because it's too true.

House of Leaves (again)

After the explorers have departed, the family in the house begins to hear a strange knocking-- three short knocks, followed by three long knocks, followed by another three short knocks. This is the S.O.S. signal. The explorers began randomly knocking and the house has translated their calls of distress. The whole book is starting to get creepy like this. Parts of Johnny's story are getting hard to decipher if he's having an attack or if these things are actually happening. Overall though, I'm really enjoying this book. It's different and it's challenging.

House of Leaves

I stopped reading this book for a bit because it's such a slow read. Not to say it isn't interesting and enjoyable, I just couldn't find the time or patience to read 100 pages of this per week. I've just begun the most interesting part of the book so far. Navidson has hired men to explore the dark side of his house and Johnny, the narrator, is experiencing attacks that are similar to anxiety or panic attacks. The book never said this, but it's pretty clear that Johnny was messed up from a young age, moving from foster family to foster family although his mother was still alive. Because of this void, I think he looks for women to feel a sense of worth. Honestly though, parts of this book are incredibly inappropriate and I pray no one is looking at my book over my shoulder while I read them.

Currently

Pages this week:100
Pages last week:172

1. He could be funny for a while solid day without ever once being stupid, and one time during lunch he made me laugh so hard a noodle came out my nose.

2. I knew from Marcus Welby, M.D., that this could and did sometimes happen, that bad news was followed by more and more bad news, until finally the doctor was telling you that you had to give up coffee, which I knew for a fact would have killed my dad.

3. King could only gasp for air. He never had a good day, as far as oxygen went.

4. Ha ha on the smokers.

5. Well, how about this: he once got locked in a basement by evil Petey Scroggs in the middle of January and survived on snow and little frozen mice. When I'm cold at night he sleep right on my face. Of that whole litter of kittens he came out of he's the only one left. One of his brothers didn't even have a butthole!

All from A Girl Named Zippy. Number five is just funny by itself, but I find myself standing up for my puppy that I found on the side of the road all the time. She's half blind in one eye and completely blind in the other and the worst dog we've ever had, but she's just so stinkin' cute! Although admittedly, maybe a little ugly. Just google search brussels griffon and find the ugliest one-- that's what she looks like.

Zippy has a friend named Dana who quickly appears in and leaves her life. Throughout my life, I've had a lot of friends like that. Dana moved in to the newest house from California and interested Zippy. When I lived in Dallas, many families would go in and out of the private school based on financial ability and disability. When you're young, it's not easy to understand why your friends have to leave and why they never say goodbye. The way Zippy reacts is very similar to how I used to react as well.

While reading A Girl Named Zippy, Zippy says, "My own mother prated about almost nothing but my dad. Week after week, year after year, for twenty-seven years she prayed that God would touch his heart and cause him to become a hardworking, nondrinking, churchgoing kind of man." Reading this, I thought of how marriage has changed since the 70s when this was written. Zippy's parents never fought and never mentioned divorce even though neither of them were exactly the type of person that the other wanted. Maybe because it was a small town and there weren't many options when it was time to marry, but Zippy's parents endured while current couples divorce, even if children are involved. The whole book is like that; it says small things about the time period without saying it right out.

Sentences of the month.

Pages this week: 172

Pages last week: 256

1. "Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath." -Rules for My Unborn Son
Because it's great advice.

2. "Later he married and divorced the same four times, sometimes marrying other women in between, including one whose name was, honestly, Squirrellly." -A Girl Named Zippy 
 Because it reminds me of my mom's side of the family... seriously.

3."Sleep's been stalking me for too long to remember." -House of Leaves
Because it's too true.

More death

In A Girl Named Zippy, more and more deaths keep occurring. Most are about animals, though two human deaths have occurred as well. Zip was supposed to be dogsitting for her neighbors, although Jiggers goes missing the first night and is found when the family returns. Poor Jiggers had tried to crawl under the porch to escape the heat and had split her stomach. Strangely, Zip doesn't comment on how this makes her feel at all.

A few weeks later (I thought all this posted the first time I wrote it, but it didn't so this will be short) Zip follows a Bausban truck to an old lady's house where they men carry out 68 dog corpses and the old lady's corpse.

Understand Close-Up Photography

I got this book by Bryan Peterson for my birthday last year, but didn't really think much of it until I was cleaning my room last weekend and picked it up. I'm really glad I read it-- it made me think about the way I take close-up photos. I asked for a macro lens for my birthday and got this book instead, but I'll share some of the photos I took!

A Girl Named Zippy

Haven Kimmel is a young girl growing up in a small town in Indiana. She's nicknamed Zippy at  a young age because of how quickly she ran around the house and is lovingly called "Zip" by her father.

What's most interesting about this book is the responses I've been getting from adults that notice what I'm reading. Many say they can relate their own childhood to Zippy's life and comment on the nostalgia the book provides them with. Between the time period and the setting in rural Indiana, it's giving me an interesting perspective because I'm trying to imagine my teachers and friends' parents as Zippy's neighbor and schoolmate going through the same things she's going through.

Something I didn't expect out of this book is the amount of death that is recounted. Zippy recalls the death of a man in town as any other child would. She explains the surprise she feels and how a little girl related to the man reacts when she brings it up-- Zippy gets a swift punch to the arm. She doesn't let the punch bother her though.  Besides the death of humans, Zippy explains, in detail, the death of eight rabbits and a chicken. Avoiding going to church, she hides behind a tree and watches her neighbor lovingly feed her chickens, when, at random, her neighbor picks one up and swings it around, instantly breaking its neck. Later, from the same spot, she watches two boys who moved in to the woman's house staple one rabbit after another to a wall and then chop their heads off, laughing about the headless bodies that hop around after hitting the ground. Her dad catches her watching both times, but gets mad at the boys the second time, intimidating them and making them apologize. The only response Zippy gets is to go wash her hands.

 Zippy has an older brother and an older sister and often comments on her relationship with them and their relationship apart from her. In one situation, Zip's older brother gets mad at her sister Melinda and rips the bathroom door off the hinges because he's going to be late for the bus. In a more personal situation, Zip's sister is running for the queen of the town fair at "a penny a vote," and Zippy wants her sister to win so badly that she gives her entire life savings-- $1.61-- to the cause. At the crowning ceremonies, she even wears a dress in hopes of making her sister look good. Melinda gets first runner-up and Zippy feels crushed, though Melinda is later crowned the winner after the original winner admits she's 3 months pregnant and is getting married in two weeks. I only have one older brother, but I spent a lot of time around my many (MANY) cousins and step-cousins and a young child. My brother and I never fought much because we had separate areas in the house and didn't spent too much time together, but the way Zippy's siblings act reminds me of the way my cousins both fought and supported each other. Ultimately we love each other, we just have differing opinions sometimes.

Claims of the Day

"In this shocking yet comically amusing video we observe an unusually grotesque reaction to some news that set a strange wild boy into a mystifying tangent of caterwauling violently."

"In this photograph, the contrasting colors of the bench and the grass, along with the thoughtful camera angle, communicate a sense of appreciation and respect for the nature that we seldom acknowledge."

 "In this photograph, the contrasting colors of the bench and the grass, along with the thoughtful camera angle, communicate a sense of appreciation and respect for the nature that we seldom acknowledge."

"In this painting of a couple meandering down a sidewalk, the relaxed broshstrokes and comples simplicity of the colors embody a feeling of pleasant passion which mesmerizes with its unassumingly focused design."

"The painting “Bold as Love” by Scott Cicero portrays an intense and dramatic expression through the spiritual flow, soothing colors, and compassionate movement emphasizing the complex design."

N00b!!

Mommy's Nose is Scary

Emerson's chubby cheeks, varying moods, and melodic giggles highlight the sincere, playful, and cheerful innocence of children.

Appearance- adorable, chubby, blue-eyed, precious, small

Moods- curious, frightened, amused, innocent

Giggles- cooing, high-pitched, melodic, squealing

Surroundings- comforting, busy, clean, stimulating

Amused, energetic, happy, optimistic, sincere, playful, cheerful

Currently

This week: 256 pages

Last Week: 378 pages

This Semester: 962 pages

1. "Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath." -Rules for My Unborn Son

2. "Remember, the girl you're with is somebody's sister. And he's perfectly capable of kicking your ass." -Rules for My Unborn Son

3. "Later he married and divorced the same four times, sometimes marrying other women in between, including one whose name was, honestly, Squirrellly." -A Girl Named Zippy

Rules for my unborn son

Rules for My Unborn Son by Walker Lamond is very cute, short, and fast. I finished the 206 page book in about thirty minutes. The rules apply to everyone-- not just young boys. I had my mom read it and also suggested for my boyfriend to read it. The short rules on each page are humorous and are good advice. Some of the rules I've discovered for myself already while others made me think to the future. The rules about girls even seemed true to me and how I would like to be treated. I definitely think it's a cute book to pick up every now and then. Although I did find a typo :)

Currently

This week: 378 pages
Last week: 119 pages
This semester: 706 pages

The three day weekend gave me plenty of time :)

"How can she say she loved a man when she's incapable on anything even remotely resembling commitment?"

"The simple answer I know: Lude woke me up at three in the morning to check out some dead guy's stuff."

"No better bookends than two walls. Lessons from a library."

All from Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves

Sarah Dessen

As a general rule, I don't really like pop fiction books. The two exceptions to this rule are Sarah Dessen and Nicholas Sparks. Roll your eyes all you want, I'm a sucker for a good love story. I recently finished Just Listen by Dessen and it wasn't exactly my favorite book of hers. Maybe it was because I didn't feel like I could relate to it, but I've enjoyed her other books much more. Dessen's novels tend to include dramatic events that, though rarely, do actually occur to high school girls. While others include orphans, pregnancy, divorce, or drinking, Just Listen focuses on eating disorders, family, and friends. Overall, the main character was not very likable. I thought that she complained a lot, about everything from her parents to her house to the fact that her sick sister got more attention than her. Even on her modeling career, she complained that there were prettier girls. She makes one friend in a boy named Owen, who she originally did not like at all and was quite rude to. Similar to character though, she pushes him away and then decides that she does want him as a friend. I was happy for Owen when he treated her rudely back. I mean, how am I supposed to root for a character like Annabelle? She appreciates nothing and Dessen expects readers to want the best for her. Just Listen isn't a book I should have finished, I should have given up on it. I just kept hoping it would get better. I was very, very wrong in those hopes.

House of Leaves

So far House of Leaves is a pretty slow read. Despite that, I'm really enjoying it. It's slightly confusing because the actual story has footnotes that tell a completely different story. The cover is 1/4 of an inch shorter than the pages of the book, which I didn't understand until it said the house that Mr. Navidson moves in to is 1/4 bigger than the blueprints say it is. He discovers this the day after two mysterious doors show up in the bedroom after they are away for a weekend. Along with other strange things that I don't understand yet, the word house is always blue, even when it is said in other languages. I'm not sure if this is to give the house in the book more importance. but I'm sure I'll find out. I'm really excited to read the rest of the book, I hope everything fits together eventually. For now though, I'm satisfied by how different the book is. It's not challenging text, but keeping the plots separated is slightly difficult.

ESFJ

According to the quiz, I'm a caregiver. I think that's pretty true because I love taking care of children, friends, and even my sick boyfriend. It also says I don't understand unkindness, which is also true. It also says that I need to be in control, which may explain why I always strive for leadership positions. What isn't true is that it says I blindly accept rules without questioning them. This couldn't be more wrong because I challenge rules a lot and try to stretch my limits. It drives my parents crazy, but oh well.

Week two blog tour.

Kind of like a field trip, but not.

These are the blogs I checked out today:

On Paper Wings: This is me. This blog made me laugh.

Inside out. Seriously, read The Egg.

Noodles.

The Ozone lair.

Phyllis.

Chillin in the Nyle.

Life's Unexpected Adventures.

Fire Side Reading!

Jake Hath Spake.

I only wrote on two... sorry.

week two. 9211.

This week: 119 pages

Last week: 209 pages

Total this semester: 328 pages
 SoTW is a few posts down! They're not as funny this week, but I'm still rather fond of them.

SoTW

"Sleep's been stalking me for too long to remember."

"Vandals, junkies, you name it, they get near the building and Flaze will lunge at them like a pitbull raised in a crackhouse."

-Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves


"The sky was coconut ice cream."

"Main street buzzed behind her like gnats around a licorice whip as she grimaces, weary of my idiocy,"

"Horror, in my heart. I won't cry. I will. Not. Cry... Didn't cry. Honest. Until I picked up the bag."

"Everything she says has a pin in it. Even the nice things. She was trying to be nice, wasn't she?"

Chip Kidd's The Cheese Monkeys

 

Hello, HHS. This is your pub staff. Be afraid. :)

Good is Dead.

While continuing The Cheese Monkeys, a Professor Winter yells at a student for turning in good work. Winter's reasoning is that "good is dead." While this may seem to make absolutely no sense, think about what would be more interesting: a perfect painting of a forest that looks incredibly lifelike or an abstract painting of the same landscape. Personally, I would definitely rather look at the abstract painting. Although it may not be as "good" as the other, it demands more creativity and imagination from the artist and would challenge my thinking on the scene. 

The narrator's friendship with Himillsy was also challenged in these pages. He wants more of a relationship with Himillsy, though she is dating a bland architecture student. Her boyfriend is the type of person she hates, but in the glimpse of the relationship you see, they seem to challenge each other and balance out. The narrator, nicknamed Happy by Winter, does not understand Himillsy's relationship and is frustrated when he sees her with her boyfriend. Himillsy also steals Happy's idea for a graphic design project after she tells Happy it is a stupid idea, though he doesn't stay mad for long. In one case when Happy was defending Himsy's (his nickname for her) art, Winter says "Nice try Hap, she's got you on a tight leash, doesn't she?" I'm really interested to see how their relationship will develop.

A Face in a Cloud, No Trace in the Crowd.

     I started a new book today that was reccomended to me by a friend at IU called House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. So far, I don't really have all that much to say about it. It starts in a very interesting way and it definitely grabbed my attention and had me asking questions. Flipping through, the variety of the page layouts and included materials really seems strange, but made me excited to get to those pages and read them for myself. The dedication page simply reads, "this is not for you," which makes me want to read the book, of course. It's like a secret not meant for my ears.

Currently

The couple of the week:

The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd
Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

This week: 209 pages

I took a nice nap during fifth period to prepare myself for the rest of the day. Go HHS football!

"Bye Buddy! Hope you find your dad!"

The Cheese Monkeys

In short, this book is about a boy's freshman year as an art student. It is broken down into Fall Semester and Spring Semester. In Fall Semester, Chip, the author and main character, includes his adventures during registration, Art 101 Introduction to Drawing, Art 101 Introduction to Drawing continued, and Winter Break. While this may seem like a boring story that would describe what he learned in the class, it's way more than that. Chip's thoughts are what makes the book so enjoyable.

Registration: "Small talk is small in every way except when you try to get around it. Then it's enormous."

Art 101 Introduction to Drawing is run by Mrs. Dorothy Spang, or Dottie, as she instructs her students to call her: "Reffering to a teacher by her first name is odd enough. A nickname seemed like nudity."

Art 101 (first drawing of a live model): "After everyone was seated, he threw off the robe to unveil at least two hundred pounds of flesh that looked like a pile of mud in a rainstorm. His hands were clumped into ham fists, and defiantly poked into either pillowy hip. As his head slanted upward, he gleamed with a puffy nobility-- Lord of the Fluffernutters."

First visit to a bar: "He took the match from his teeth, struck it against his left temple, and offered it to her: Me Greck-- girl take gift of fire."

Art 101: "I soon found there's nothing quite like a knapsack at your feet with a dead baby in it to cramp your drawing style; to say nothing of trying to put pleasing marks on paper with the suspiction that the person next to you is really a fiensidh shoul in the guise of the illegitimate offspring of Popeye and Betty Boop."

If Chip's thoughts weren't entertaining enough, the people he meets lead to very interesting situations. After noticing a girl named Himillsy for the first time, he finds her drunk in the art school one night. Her giggling interests him, so he returns later to see what she had done. Every student's live model drawing had been altered in some way by Himillsy, his own drawing now having two left feet-- in his own drawing style.

In the same drawing class, they must learn to draw gesture drawings. For this, Dottie brings in her cat, who she reptitively throws buckets of water on. This is described as "a noise like a baby being boiled alive."

Himillsy, Chip's friend, has a way of making him, and the reader, laugh. In one instance, Himillsy kicks a stroller with a very realistic doll in it as a woman is walking past her and responds, "Look honey, he's smiling!" Himillsy does this despite the woman's horrified look.

I realize this isn't very analytical, but hey, it's a funny book and this is what made me laugh.

The Cheese Monkeys

"Majoring in art at the state university appealed to me because I have always hated art."
-Chip Kidd