Recommend a book you want to share with us
1). Why do this book worth recommending and reading?
2). What do you learn from this book?
3). You can share your reflection, ideas, or anything else about this book to us.
Topic contributed by Alfee. Next turn is Martin.
Last week I just finished reading the detective novel: The Lost Symbol. That is a fantastic story written by Den Brown. You guys must have read his other works. First reason I want to recommend the book is that he is good at telling stories in a very suspicious and unexpected way. For example, in his previous work the angles and the demons, the nice guy in the beginning became the criminal murderer in the end of the story. In his story, you can not believe who is innocent just because he or she has done something seems to be good. There is no absolutely good guy or bad guy. The second reasons I want to recommend the book is that his story is always combined with the mysterious parts of American history. He has succeeded to capture the audiences’ curiosities. For instance, in The Da Vinci Code, he used the paint of the Da Vinci to imply that the Jesus was married. That used to cause the big discussion in the religion. Then this time, the Lost Symbol is talking about the old organization of the America: Freemasons.
回覆刪除The professor Robert Langdon starts another adventure to solve the most difficult riddle in the world. I will not tell the story here, if you want to know more about it check out the novel!
The book I would like to share with you is The Kite Runner. I do believe some of you may have read it. Therefore, I will mainly focus on what I have learned from this book.
回覆刪除In a glorious afternoon in Kabul, the skies are bursting with the exhilarating joy of a kite-fighting tournament. After that day's victory, one boy's fearful act of betrayal makes the lifelong regret in his heart. Amir and Hassan thereby go on the diverse road in their life. In a divided country on the verge of war, their friendship likes a fragile kite is going to be torn apart forever.
If I was Amir, did I forsake my best friend being attacked in order to protect myself? In my point of view, I would just flinch from the difficulty and keep myself out of the mess. Everyone's heart always exist an evil intention which takes side with us to be spineless, abominable, and selfish to view the matters. In most cases, I would just let it be and did not take other people's feelings and opinions into consideration. For these reasons, misunderstandings and quarrels came into being as wel. Consequently, I do admire Amir's courage, after 20 years of living in America, he returns to the perilous Afghanistan to face the secrets that still haunt him and take the last daring chance to set things right.
Here goes a vague question, "Everyone always hope other people's forgiveness after doing something wrong; however, if today's victim is you, do you forgive them?"
I would like to recommend "The Forest and the Trees" by Allan G. Johnson. It's not a fiction but a sociology book. Unlike most of the sociology textbooks, "The Forest and the Trees" is a reader-friendly book that shows the way how people normally see themselves and the society they are in-volved in. With simple examples, Johnson gives readers a very different way to see the relationships between "trees" themselves, and also the relationships between "the tree" and "the forest."
回覆刪除The reason that I want to share the book with you guys is that after reading the book, I surprisingly found out that things are not the way I thought. For example, when we talk about "symbol," we of-ten think of a logo of a company or the sign next to the street plate. But in fact, everything can be a symbol. I mean "everything." The pink door of the female restroom is a symbol. Even the sentence “I need to use the men's /ladies' room”is a symbol. How come? In Sociology point of view, a symbol is something that can trigger a certain interaction or reaction. Hence, if we take a close look around us, we might find out that actually there is nothing that is not a symbol.
The main purpose of the book is to give the reader an overall picture of Sociology. However, I think the book should be recommended to not only students major in Sociology but everyone. This is be-cause we are all one of the member in the society. And it is important for people to understand how our mind works, how the society works, and how government works. The book teaches me to use a brand new way to analyze the difference between cultures and the relationships between people.
Judy Chou, Eng FJU
Dear Martin,
回覆刪除It is true that Dan Brown is a brilliant writer. I enjoy his works, too. I haven’t read “The Lost Symbol”but I believe that it will be another great piece of work just as you described. I like Brown’s “The Da Vinci Code”so much that after reading the novel, I went to see the movie. However, the movie was just not so good compared to the book. Just like the famous novel written by J. K. Rowling, the “Harry Potter”, I think most of the stories are ruined when people adjust them into movies. I do appreciate the hard work of the director and the crew members to make the scene come true. However, the imagination of the story is spoiled by the time the scene come into my mind. Therefore, I am the one who will either read the book and refuse the adapted movie or see the movie and refuse to read the book. :p
Anyway, I’m looking forward to read Brown’s latest work. Thank you. =]
Judy Chou, Eng FJU
Dear Alfee,
回覆刪除I’m so glad you mentioned “The Kite Runner.” I love that book very much. I think the author Khaled Hosseini is very good at telling stories. His second novel “A Thousand Splendid Suns”is also a very meaningful novel. Just like how you feel, after reading “The Kite Runner”I couldn’t stop but wondering whether I will do the same thing as Hassan did. I think indeed that everyone hopes to be forgiven from their fault. However, people don’t always give mercy on others. I once heard that a couple had a serious fight, and the young lady ruined the young man’s expensive camera by immerse it into water. The camera was originally worth thirty thousand something but worth only a few hundred after its “shower.”Of course the young man was totally mad about her and swearing that he would never forgive this evil woman. After a year, the young man had gone through his impulse and negative emotions. He then recalled how nice and considerate the young lady was. And then the couple was back together, even much closer than they used to be. What I’m trying to say is that I think it is possible to forgive someone; it’s just the matter of time.
Thank you for sharing the book. =]
Judy Chou, Eng FJU
Hello, everyone, I am Doris of FJU, the instructor of Judy and Joe. I am really happy to see the project got started here for this semester!
回覆刪除Doris
Dear Martin,
回覆刪除I do agree with you Dan Brown's works always bring excitement and mysteries to his readers. We often can not help but keep concentrated on the story line. In most cases, we would rather sacrifice our sleeps to completely finish certain chapter. Only by doing so can we put down the heavy stones within in our minds. However, in my point of view, I do consider his lately works do not meet his previous standard for his works gradually become commercial. And the adapted movies of his works also make me feel disappointed. In fact, I relatively love his early work like "Digital Code".
Dear Judy,
回覆刪除After your recommanding of " the Forest and the Trees," I think I well have lots of interests in checking it later. The phenomenon about the symble is quite interesting. Also I agree with you that movies will always destroy the imagination to the stories we read. For example, Sirius in the movie Harry Potter is not as handsome as I thought. HAHA~