So many times, people will ask me "what kind of music do you listen to?" or perhaps "what kinds of books are your favorite?" And every time I get asked these questions, I find it very difficult to answer them.
You see, I am one of those people that just likes what I like; there is absolutely no rhyme or reason to it at all. In terms of music, I can quite literally be listening to a rock song with heavy metal elements in it one minute, and listening to a relatively quiet and melodic tune the next. I am also this way with books and films. For me, what makes a good book or movie all depends on the interest and complexity of the plot, how the characters interact with each other (and how well the actors do in the case of a movie), and many, many other factors come into play as well.
The bottom line is that the genre of a song, book or movie is not what makes me like it or dislike it. It has to not only hold my interest, but has to make me feel something as well. So, I guess if this short little blog post has any purpose, it's this: don't let the genre of something hold you back from having a new experience. Maybe you purposely have not given a new band a listen to because they are of a certain genre that you typically hate. Or maybe that new book you got for a birthday gift is sitting on your bookshelf right now, collecting dust because you think you hate science fiction books. But why not give something new a try, and put its genre aside? Maybe you'll hate it, but you'll never know until you try! I know that some of the best music I've listened to, books I've read and movies I've seen have come out of me simply being adventurous with wandering outside the lines of the genre's that I thought I liked best.
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Book Review: Reality Check
This past week I read the suspenseful young adult novel Reality Check, written by Peter Abrahams. I mainly decided to read this book simply because I love the Echo Falls mystery series, which is also written by Abrahams. So I figured, why not give Reality Check a try?
First, let me give you all a brief overview of the plot of this book, without giving away any spoilers of course. The protagonist of the story, Cody, lives in small-town Colorado, plays football, and has a girlfriend by the name of Clea. His girlfriend ends up getting sent to a private academy in Vermont, and around the same time Cody suffers a football injury and can no longer play. After realizing that his girlfriend Clea has gone missing in Vermont, he drives there in order to search for her himself. Once in Vermont, he realizes that there is much more than meets the eye to Clea's disappearance.
Overall, I thought that this book was pretty solid. The first 100 pages or so I found to be a bit slow, and it took the main plot of the book awhile to get underway. However, the pace quickened significantly once Cody reaches Vermont and begins to look for Clea. In terms of the mystery part of this book and trying to figure out who did what, I expected early on in my reading who would turn out bad, so to speak. In other words, there were really no surprises for me at the climax of the plot. However, I still really enjoyed this book and was thoroughly entertained by it.
In conclusion, I would not say that this is a must-read page turner of a book, but I would most likely recommend it if you have the time and are a big mystery/thriller/suspense junkie like myself.
Author: Peter Abrahams
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
First, let me give you all a brief overview of the plot of this book, without giving away any spoilers of course. The protagonist of the story, Cody, lives in small-town Colorado, plays football, and has a girlfriend by the name of Clea. His girlfriend ends up getting sent to a private academy in Vermont, and around the same time Cody suffers a football injury and can no longer play. After realizing that his girlfriend Clea has gone missing in Vermont, he drives there in order to search for her himself. Once in Vermont, he realizes that there is much more than meets the eye to Clea's disappearance.
Overall, I thought that this book was pretty solid. The first 100 pages or so I found to be a bit slow, and it took the main plot of the book awhile to get underway. However, the pace quickened significantly once Cody reaches Vermont and begins to look for Clea. In terms of the mystery part of this book and trying to figure out who did what, I expected early on in my reading who would turn out bad, so to speak. In other words, there were really no surprises for me at the climax of the plot. However, I still really enjoyed this book and was thoroughly entertained by it.
In conclusion, I would not say that this is a must-read page turner of a book, but I would most likely recommend it if you have the time and are a big mystery/thriller/suspense junkie like myself.
Author: Peter Abrahams
Genre: YA Mystery/Thriller
Pages: 330
Year Published: 2009
My Rating: ★★★☆☆
Friday, July 18, 2014
How I Find My Favorite Songs
Everyone has at least a small handful of songs that they just love to listen to, myself included. But, can you remember how you first started listening to those favorite songs of yours? I feel like for me, there are two ways that I can get hooked on a specific song. I either listen to it once somewhere and BAM, it's my new obsession, or more often than not I have to listen to a song a few times before I even start to like it.
I'm bringing up this topic because recently I have been introduced to a new artist that I've never heard of before, called Foxes. I am specifically speaking about her new song "Glorious," and the first time I heard this song I didn't mind it, but it was not a song that I was planning on going back to listen to again in the near future. However, for some reason I did, and it gradually turned into me listening to this song multiple times and it getting stuck in my head all day yesterday. It's just so interesting that a song you don't think you like all that much can morph into one of your current favorites.
However, I've also listened to a song for the first time and love it from the get-go, as in the case of Ellie Goulding's song "Lights." I heard that song playing on the radio way back when it was first released, and it became one of my favorite songs at that moment. So, how do you typically find the songs that you love? Do you just have to listen to them once and you're hooked, or do you need some time and the repeat button to realize what an awesome track it is? Let me know!
Saturday, July 12, 2014
Movie Review: The Way
A couple of days ago, I checked the movie "The Way" out of my local library kind of randomly. It had been recommended to me a while ago, but I had never gotten around to actually watching it. So when I figured out that my library had it on DVD, I figured why not give it a try?
Before I get into my opinions of this movie, let me first give you all a very brief overview of its plot. Basically, the son of an eye doctor has an accident and dies while walking the Camino de Santiago trail. His father (the aforementioned eye doctor), travels to France to collect his sons body, but eventually decides to carry his sons ashes to the end of the Camino de Santiago. Throughout his journey on the trail, he meets other travelers who are all walking the trail for different reasons, and he undergoes a lot of personal growth and realizes what life is really all about. This is of course a very brief summation of what occurs in the movie, but hopefully any of you who are unfamiliar with the plot of The Way can now understand the general gist of it.
My overall impression of this movie was a good one, but not a great one. Overall, I really liked the plot of The Way, and I think the overall message that it's trying to get across to viewers is a really inspirational one that's lacking from a lot of movies today. However, all of this was not enough to launch it to the next level for me. Many of you know the feeling after watching a great movie; you walk out of the theater just thinking about what you watched, maybe blown away by some aspect of it, and you just cannot stop thinking about the movie for several days afterwards. This was not one of those movies for me. As soon as the end credits began to roll at the end of The Way, that was it for me. I don't want to make this movie out to sound bad, because it wasn't. It just lacked that magic spark that some movies have, and frankly there were certain parts of this movie that seemed a little slow and, for lack of a better word, bored me a bit.
So overall, I would probably not recommend this movie. If it's been on your "to watch" list for a while, maybe it's worth giving a chance. You very well may like it a lot more than I did. There is a lot of potential behind this film, but it just lacked the energy and uniqueness that makes a movie great.
Oh, and a total side note, but this movie has a really good song by Coldplay in it, called "Lost." It may be worth listening to if you're a Coldplay fan.
Rating: PG-13
My overall impression of this movie was a good one, but not a great one. Overall, I really liked the plot of The Way, and I think the overall message that it's trying to get across to viewers is a really inspirational one that's lacking from a lot of movies today. However, all of this was not enough to launch it to the next level for me. Many of you know the feeling after watching a great movie; you walk out of the theater just thinking about what you watched, maybe blown away by some aspect of it, and you just cannot stop thinking about the movie for several days afterwards. This was not one of those movies for me. As soon as the end credits began to roll at the end of The Way, that was it for me. I don't want to make this movie out to sound bad, because it wasn't. It just lacked that magic spark that some movies have, and frankly there were certain parts of this movie that seemed a little slow and, for lack of a better word, bored me a bit.
So overall, I would probably not recommend this movie. If it's been on your "to watch" list for a while, maybe it's worth giving a chance. You very well may like it a lot more than I did. There is a lot of potential behind this film, but it just lacked the energy and uniqueness that makes a movie great.
Oh, and a total side note, but this movie has a really good song by Coldplay in it, called "Lost." It may be worth listening to if you're a Coldplay fan.
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 121 minutes
Release Date: October 7, 2011
My Rating: ★★☆☆☆
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