Columbine by Dave Cullen

Columbine by Dave Cullen is, as you might expect, about the tragic shooting at Columbine High School in 1999. It's non-fiction account detailing the attack, its aftermath and the events leading up to it. It was written by a journalist, so it's in the pyramid format - most important information presented first and formost, everything else arranged after.

After reading this book, I found I had to give it two different scores. One for emotional impact, and one for the technical aspects and prose.

For the emotional impact, I give it a 4/5 stars. The events and emotions involved were related skillfully, but it was done by a journalist. As a journalist, Cullen is trained to present the facts in an impartial and fair manner. He purposely wrote himself out of the narrative and maintained professional distance in the writing. The story was conveyed with compassion, humanity, and skill, but the emotional distance required to render the story impartially took away some of the impact he could have given it from being an on-the-scene reporter at the time of the attack. I feel its a balance he struck well, though, and the impact was still impressive.

For technical aspects and prose, I rate it 5/5 stars. Cullen has spent ten years researching the attack, and was one of the first reporters on the scene at the time of the attack. His prose is clear and concise, and maintains interest and compassion. There were no grammatical errors that I noticed. The notes at the end of the book, and the bibliography, are especially revealing. The amount of effort and skill put into this book is apparent and inspiring.

I definitely reccomend this book to others, especially those looking to find out what really happened at Columbine, who the perpetrators really were, and the lasting impact it has had on the community. I found the section on psychopaths especially revealing.

Blargh.

I missed posting yesterday, which I feel kind of bad about, but I feel I have a legitimate excuse. See, my laptop has contracted this weird virus that means I definitely can't use it for the internet, and it's annoying to use it for anything else. It'll be at least a couple of weeks until I can figure something out and get it fixed, if I can. And I spent half of yesterday trying to figure out what the hell was going wrong with it, and the other half working on my summer homework. So there. Not my fault. :P

Anyways, I had a bit of a scare today. Remember how on Tuesday I didn't post much of anything because I was sick? Well, I'm not really 'sick' with anything, but my allergies are being a complete bitch. My forehead feels like it's caught in a vise half the time, my throat feels weird, one of my ears is stuffy, and my nose is runny and blocked up. And today I've been having trouble breathing. I mean, I was having trouble breathing before, what with all the mucus in my airway and all, but now I just can't seem to get enough air every time I breathe. It's like a constant mini asthma attack. I talked to my dad, and he says the same thing happens to him with his seasonal allergies. He also gave me an inhaler in case it gets worse.

Frankly, it gave me a mini freak out not being able to breathe like I'm supposed to. I feel better now that I've sort of gotten used to it, and I think it's gotten a little better, but it's still unnerving. I hope it stops soon.

God, I hate allergies. I hate summer. Blargh.

Anyways, I'm going to go finish Columbine (by David Cullen) for my homework. I might post a review when I'm done with it.

Ta.

I am sick.

So today we will discuss things that make me happy. Such as tea.

Mmm. Tea.

And puppies.

Mmm. Puppies.

And let's just throw in a unicorn for good measure.

Well, I don't know about you, but I feel better.

And now off to drink tea and work on my summer homework.

Ta.

I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven

My father is an English teacher, and he reads books (shocking, I know). Sometimes he really likest the books he reads, and so he makes me read them too. For my own good. Sometimes I really like them, as much as he does. Sometimes I... don't. This is one of those times.

I read this recently under the best possible circumstances (on vacation in California with a friend), so I know for a fact that my own moodiness couldn't have affected my perception of the book.

And I like the book. I do. It's just really... dense. I couldn't decide whether the prose was beautiful or frustratingly annoying, or both. It seemed I had to reread every sentence twice just to get the meaning. And while that probably says something about my own reading level, I find that I just don't care. I believe prose can be both beautiful and effortless. Fahrenheit 451, for example, took my breath away. The only reason I reread passages in it was because they were so beautiful. Not confusing or dense.

The characters, though. The characters were very well-done. And I am a sucker for a good character. Which is the biggest reason I like this book.

On the other hand, there's no plot to speak of, the prose is frustrating (though at times lovely), and the read overall is surprisingly dense for such a short book.

So I give it 3/5 stars.

It's Raining

I love the rain. I like to dance in it, and watch it fall, and listen to it as it collides with every surface. I love it.

I'm going to be doing Blog Every Day August, so this is my first post.

Unfortunately, I don't really have much to talk about, since I took a massive nap today. So this post will just be a random collection of thoughts.

I um, I read some manga today called Strawberry Marshmallow. It was cute. Though, there weren't any makeouts.

Spellcheck doesn't accept 'makeouts' as a word. Pfft.

I still haven't done my summer homework. School starts the 19th, which is about two and a half weeks. That's enough time, right? All I have to do is read a book and answer some questions intelligently. I do that all the time anyway.

I'm really looking forward to later this week, when my dad and I are doing our yearly Lord of the Rings Marathon. I can't wait to start making jokes about Frodo and Sam's 'special' relationship.

I am so done with summer. I hate the heat, and the sweat, and the sunburns that you can't seem to avoid because the sun is death.

Aaaand, that's all.

Ta.