Reflection 7

In my mind, if a book is listed as a memoir or is non-fiction, it must be 100 percent true. I’m trusting that the publishers will either fact check the proposed novels, or at least do a little background check on the authors. It is up to the publishers to look into memoirs and nonfiction novels, if they didn’t then any book could really be not the whole 100 percent truth. A half-truth novel could still be a good story with good morals, but the authors shouldn’t try and make people believe they are the complete truth. Frey and Mortenson should have just told the complete truth, or made their novels fiction not a memoir. We do need genres, and we do need to label from what is fiction and non-fiction because it can mean one story is a complete fake and one story is the complete truth. Non-fiction should just be complete truth, and as readers we are relying on the authors and publishers for complete truth.

Reflection 6

When I read I like to read about true events, so my favorite genre is nonfiction. I really enjoy reading about sports stories and history. I guess I really like to learn about past history of sporting events.  I like to imagine what it would be like to be there in that special moment whether that is winning a championship or breaking a record. When I was little I really enjoyed reading magical fiction because I was really into that then. Now I hate that genre and I just think it is really weird and dumb. I think I would rather read a dictionary then read Twilight. I think labels are effective in the way that they can help you find a book very quickly, but when people label books I think they could label them wrong and make some books almost misleading. So in general I guess I have never really looked at the genre system, if I see a good sports book I would like to read I usually get it.

Book 2 Review 2 - Book Cover

The cover of Moneyball is just a close up of a black and white baseball player holding a ball signed with the title of the book in bright red. Obviously the novel is about baseball, so that is why they include the baseball and the player’s hand, but I think that there is a much deeper meaning to the cover. The way that the player is represented in black and white sort of makes me think about old time baseball and tradition in the game. The traditional way of scouting players like they say in the fourth chapter is based on five things; Arm strength, hitting, hitting with power, speed, and looks. I believe that the player being black and white on the cover kind represents these things by just showing how it was the traditional way to scout players. The bright red signature of Moneyball on the baseball I believe shows us how they are challenging what is considered traditional and normal by most Major League Baseball Teams. The color red in this dull cover just really pops off and makes the title stand out. It makes you know that what Billy Beane is doing, by getting players based on stats and money, is a lot different and stands out from any other baseball organization in the league. I would defiantly make some changes to the cover, because it is just so boring. I feel that with out the movie the book wouldn’t sell as many copies because of the boring cover. I think that maybe they could have like a statistical analysis of a player with his picture on it, or a collage of them, just like how in the scouting room they lay down all the players pictures with the stats next to them. I think that this would be a lot more colorful and outgoing, and maybe get the attention of more sports fans because they can see that the novel is about real players and it is a true story. 

Book 1 Project. Relating The Book to My Life.

            While reading The Legend of Bagger Vance, I was able to relate to it in many ways. I relate to the novel in the obvious way that I play golf, but also in a much deeper way. Often times on the golf course I find myself getting very upset and mad any time I hit a shot bad, which eventually transfers to my game going bad. When you start to show emotion and have a poor attitude you are just giving up on yourself. Your golf game always translates the way in which you act. Junah, in the novel, has many moments similar to my own on the golf course. In the novel Junah’s mystical caddy, Bagger Vance, gives many speeches to Junah telling him how your head has everything to do with how you play the game. A chord struck me very deep while reading these parts.

            Coming from a golf family and watching golf nearly everyday, I found a love for the game at a very young age. Much like Junah I would spend every dying moment on the course when I was younger, whether that was caddying, practicing, or playing. I truly believe that because of my strong love and passion for the game, it drives me mad when I hit a poor shot. It is the only the thing I can think about for the next three holes. Much like Junah on the course when things start going south, they go south fast. My head affects every shot on the course. In the novel Bagger explains how he believes one can become a truly great golfer, and it all started with having a positive mind set. He says it doesn’t matter about how you swing, but how you must trust yourself to produce that one authentic swing. Your swing. Junah throughout the novel is constantly worrying about how he grips the club, but Bagger explains that it doesn’t have to be perfect for it to work. It really reminds about golfing with my grandfather. He is the one who taught me how to swing a club when I was just four years old. Every time I get to play with him now he constantly tells me how I cant let my head get the best of me. He tells me to look at how he plays at 82 years of age. Not everything is perfect, but he makes it work.  So much like how Bagger reminds Junah that its not about being perfect but being positive, my grandfather shares his wisdom of the mental aspect of golf with me. In many ways Junah and I share the same attitude on the golf course. Junah learns to conquer these strong feeling of anger on the golf course with the help of Bagger telling him that he can’t control where the ball goes, he can only control how he presents himself on the course. After reading this book and seeing how Junah conquered his emotions to beat the best two golfers in the world I really believe that I will control my emotions better on the course from now on. Reading about how Junah succeeded makes me want to succeed in the same way. 

Reflection 5

Boring book covers make people not want to read their books. I am one of the people who will pick up a book based on the cover then check out what it’s about.  If a book has a boring or stupid cover I will most likely not want to read it, or it will strongly effect how I read the book. For instance when we had to read Grendel for class the first thing I noticed was the dumb cover. It was a dark brown cover with weird print. After seeing the cover I really did not want to read it but because of school I had to. This made me go into reading Grendel with a bad attitude, which in return made me hate the book the entire time reading it. I like covers that are intriguing and that draw your eye. A good book cover will certainly make me pick up the book and take a look to see if it is worth reading. I really like the book cover for my book number one, The Legend of Bagger Vance. It drew my eye because it was a golfer in the mystical darkness with a light focused on his swing. Itdrew my eye and made me want to read it.

Book 2 Review 1 Movie Adaptations

Moneyball thus far has explained a few major things. In the preface, Lewis really explains what risk Billy Beane took in 2002 with the Oakland A’s. I think that they should include a brief scene in the movie just to explain how much of an underdog the A’s were. They should have a scene in which they say the Oakland Athletics’ had the least pay roll in all of baseball at forty million dollars. That is one third less than what the New York Yankees’ was in 2002. I think that those basic facts would just give a good little background and really show the movie viewers how much of an underdog the Athletics were. The next scene I would put in the movie would be in chapter one when the first scouts find Billy Beane. The scouts didn’t know who the sixteen year old kid was at first, but by the end of the combine every scout in the major leagues would know who Billy Beane was. He really became a legend in my eyes after the combine. They should show the scene in which Billy dominates the sixty yard dash at 6.4 seconds. It would show what a force he was. The next scene I would make sure to include in the movie would be when Billy started slumping but no scout really paid attention to the numbers. It just shows how scouts can make mistakes in drafting. Anyone could have predicted Billy wouldn’t be a good pro. It said in the book that he had dropped from batting .500 his junior year to .300 his senior year. However the scouts didn’t care, they still drafted him in the first round of the 1980 MLB draft.  

One specific part I would cut out would be explaining back stories on some of the older scouts. So far throughout the book they haven’t even mentioned them since the back stories on people like Grady and Erik. I don’t think it is necessary to include that if they are making it into a movie. Another part I would trim down, but not cut completely out, would be the business aspect in chapter two. They could just go through and dissect maybe like two players; however they do several saying that they have to go through 680. I feel like it just slows the plot down and makes it a little boring.

Reflection 4 Book to Movie Adaptations

Eric’s Best & Worst Adaptations

These are some of the movies I’ve seen that I either really enjoyed or hated, mostly based on how much they were able to represent the book.

Best:

Harry Potter

Harry Potter was a great movie when it comes to special effects and character choice. It displayed everything in the books that I thought was important.  The characters were depicted in the movie exactly how I imaged them while reading.

Hunger Games

The Hunger Games was a great film adaptation because of the way they showed the futuristic utopian setting. While Reading this book it was hard for me to imagine the setting, but while watching it was easy!

Glory Road

\I really enjoyed watching Glory Road, so I decided to read the book. Glory Road was a great adaptation because of its historic significance; it portrayed what it was really like for six African Americans to play on a team in 1966.

Worst:

The Greatest Game Ever Played

When my dad came home with this Mark Frost novel telling me how great it was I zoomed through the 400-page book. When I saw the movie later that year I couldn’t even believe it was truly the same story. I think it was mostly because Disney made the film marketed towards younger kids.

                                                      Moneyball

Moneyball is a good movie, but it is an awful adaptation from the book. The book really is mostly about the business side of baseball and a lot of numbers; in the movie they added a character (Jonah Hill) just to add a little plot line.