All the President's Men take two...

I'm not liking the way this book is written. Third person throws me off a bit and there are so many people that Woodward and Bernstein are going after. Also, when either Bernstein or Woodward are talking there are no quotation marks, which slightly annoys me.

A difference from the movie: "The two fought, often and openly. Sometimes they batteled for fifteen minutes over a single word or sentence." In the movie I didn't see or feel any of this hostility. They seemed to get along fairly well. But I understand what they're going through, it's hard to share such a big responsibility with a person. I can sometimes be the same way.

It makes me excited to read this book. All the President's Men illustrates the difference good journalism makes in America as a free society. If it weren't for Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein the Committee to Re-Elect the President would have most likely gotten away with all of their shenanigans. There are other cases of course where this has happened like Nellie Bly in the late 1800s who pretend to be insane to get into an asylum and expose what really went on behind the doors. (If you've heard of a good book about her experience, I'd love to read it.) It's sad that people rely less on newspapers these days. I feel like people can say anything online and get away with it, but if you work for a credible news source you have to be credible yourself.

You would think that I'd be done with Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but I'm not. It's always been one of the hardest ones for me to get through. It's like one of the Triwizard Tournament Tasks itself. Like Harry I just keep putting it off because I've got my own classes to do work for, Yule Balls to attend and Rita Skeeter to avoid. If it was up to me though, I'd probably snuggle up and read under my down comforter everyday instead of dealing with the outside world. Wouldn't that be lovely?

So I have managed to read some of it, in fact I read a chapter on the Metro this weekend. I just haven't gotten around to the act of sitting down for a good two or three hours and just getting those hundreds of pages out of the way. The thing is, I don't want to think of it as something to get out of the way, I'd rather it be a pleasurable experience.

To rehash what has happened since I last discussed this book: I think I left off with a mad rant about Rita Skeeter around the time of the first task. Harry got through the first task, the Unexpected Task (aka. The Yule Ball), the second task and to top it all off Rita Skeeter is no longer aloud on the grounds of Hogwarts. Somehow however she keeps reporting on the going ons of the school's faculty, students and the tournament. The kids have yet to figure out how... Now, I know that I've spent a lot of time talking about Skeeter before, but I'd just like to point of that she could never write for Carpe Diem. NEVER. We would never publish her, she doesn't even write journalistically or attribute her quotes correctly. There's something wrong with her and her Quick-Quotes Quill and I don't understand why the Daily Prophet would put up with such a nuisance. Tisk tisk.

Well, Snape's just called Harry a big headed brat for the gazillionth time. While reading Skeeter's article aloud. I wish Snape would just get over himself.

I'm thinking that between now and Thanksgiving break I'll finally have finished this book at my own relaxing pace.

All the President's Men

Last year for Scribbler as an assignment besides writing and designing the magazine we were told to watch a movie about journalists... there are several. I stuck with All the Presidents Men because I remembered when the identity of Deep Throat was revealed in 2005. My dad had always pushed the story on me, telling me it was something that I MUST watch/read. So last year I watched the film. This year, since I am going to Washington D.C. over the weekend, I figured what better to bring then my dad's taped copy with pages falling out. After all the book was written by two writers for the Washington Post and I am going to Washington D.C. for a journalism conference.

It started off as just a break-in story. The headquarters for the Democratic National Committee had been broken into. No foul play or anything. Just some people who had a lot of money appeared to have broken in. Bob Woodward, follows the story to the court where he finds out that one of the people that broke into the building works for the CIA. How fishy is that? Someone that is supposed to ideally catch criminals, or intercept Russian intelligence is breaking into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee.

So far I enjoy this book. The investigating reminds me of In Cold Blood and Lucky. At the moment the book is a little hard to follow, perhaps I'm just anxious about the trip... But, there are a lot of names and places and it's very fast paced. I find it interesting that even though this book was written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein it's written in third person instead of first.

ginger

One of my favorite nonfiction books in my possession would have to be The Redhead Handbook. I received it as a birthday present from my mom a couple of years ago and have read it several times since, most recently this weekend.

Not only does The Redhead Handbook tell me that I should make sure to wear enough sun screen when I go out each day but it traces the roots of redhair back to the days of the Roman Empire. A Roman people named the Picts were the first to record any evidence of people having redhair. The Picts lived in the area now known as Scotland. It's funny because a lot of people think redhair is an Irish characteristic, which makes since I guess, Scotland and Ireland are close enough together but today 13% of Scotland's population has redhair.

The book also looks at the well known people with redhair. Cort Cass, the author of the book claims that there is speculation that Adam (as in Adam and Eve) had red hair because the Hebrew word for red is Adom. The list goes on to include Judas, Nero, Eric the Red, Christopher Columbus, William the Conqueror, King Henry VII, Elizabeth I, Napolean, Oliver Cromwell, Galileo, Van Gogh, Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson, Jesse James and seven U.S. Presidents. The Handbook also brings up the famous that have dyed there hair to get the color.

The Redhead Handbook is always a fun read for me. It's full of facts, but Cass manages to make me laugh aloud when I read it.

the book

I didn't know what I was going to write about for my final blog of this blog grading period. I'm at an awkward stage between books if that makes sense and I just wasn't sure what I would write about. I finished a book on Sunday and have picked up Goblet of Fire again. I'm not very far along since when I last left off, and all I would have done was whine about Mad Eye/Barty Crouch, though I might save that for later because I really do find that interesting...

Until just now, since that last sentence I felt that I didn't have much to say about Harry Potter right now, though now I do, but I don't want to talk about it so later then. Okay, back to what I was trying to get to eloquently as possible... Tuesday night I couldn't sleep so I picked up the book closest to me which was on my desk, next to my bed. It was the Bible. It been there since the night I'd studied for the unit test when you said to familiarize ourselves with Genesis chapters 2 & 3. I picked it up and opened to a random page, in one of the four gospels, either Matthew, Mark, Luke or John, I don't remember which and started to read some parables.

The seemed much shorter and much less detailed than the ones you read from picture books or perform as skits in Sunday School class when your little. For example the story of the good samaritan, I remember when I was little I remember that there was a man who had been beaten horribly and robbed by bad people. A priest passes him and doesn't do anything, a soldier passes him and doesn't do anything. But then a regular person passes him. Gets him clothes, cleans his wounds, gives him a place to stay, along with some money. In the Bible somone just asks Jesus a question and he answers it with this story and at the end says, "Who do you think will have the everlasting life?" Perhaps it's the absence of pictures, or a room of 10 year olds popcorn reading, or a dramatic skit complete with a plastic sword for the soldier, that makes it seem smaller when I read the tiny paragraph in tiny print in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John...

I flipped ahead a good bit to the next gospel to compare, because all four gospels are supposed to tell the story of Jesus from what I understand. And they were, some parables were worded differently, or a bit longer or shorter, but over all they were the same, everything Jesus said was typed in red.

The story of the Good Samaritan reminded me of one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite television shows West Wing:

"This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out.
"A doctor passes by and the guy shouts up, 'Hey you. Can you help me out?' The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on.
"Then a priest comes along and the guy shouts up, 'Father, I'm down in this hole can you help me out?' The priest writes out a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on
"Then a friend walks by, 'Hey, Joe, it's me can you help me out?' And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, 'Are you stupid? Now we're both down here.' The friend says, 'Yeah, but I've been down here before and I know the way out.'"

And being reminded of West Wing reminded me of an episode in which President Bartlett played by Martin Sheen attacks a religious radio personality. I'll put a link HERE so that you can CLICK and WATCH it. (And here what I read next in the Bible.) You probably won't get to watch it in the school building unless you are away from the YouTube blocking shield that surrounds the school.

Anyways... I had a good time reading the Bible that night. I'm not a regular reader, but from time to time I crack it open. The thinking involved definitely wore me out enough to go to sleep.

But my question is, what do you call it. Fiction? Nonfiction? You could say that the contents of the Bible are made up. But I think that it's definitely, at least an account of the times and area. But I think if I were to call it anything I would call it literature... I can't think of many books, that have survived as long as this book. And bible meaning The Book in Greek or Roman, or whatever they say it is. I would compare it to The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. When I was trying to be a smart looking person when I was little I would always go to the Classics/Literature section and Ben Franklin would always be there even though it is an autobiography there for nonfiction, there's just something about it that puts it in the classics/literature section, the same goes for Origin of Species etc.

There's really so much more I could say, but I've said a lot and I'm honestly too tired to say it and I have to be at Agnes Scott at 6:45 tomorrow morning, so I'll stop here.