Outside Reading Reaction

My Reaction: I have many feelings about Fever Pitch some of them are good, but some are also not good. I personally don’t have a personal connection to this book. Although I do play soccer I really didn’t connect to it. This book made me feel like it was a soccer report, that all he was going to do was report about the games he saw. Then as he got deeper into the book, he told about how it really helped him connect with his father. And then again he started to just talk about the games. One connection I did make with this book was that Nick and his dad with soccer are like me and my dad with hockey. I feel that this book was not a book for me. Although I also feel it was well written, it just didn’t fit my kind of reading style. This book also made me feel that Nick didn’t really ever connect with his dad, sure they had the soccer games to watch together but that was really it. In the book he talks about how when he was with his dad and sister they didn’t really talk or go anywhere, until the football game. And right now that’s how this book has made me feel.

Week 5: Summary

This section of the book was in my opinion.... boring, there was no action no connection. But Nick did go to games as usual.
-Arsenal v. Manchester
-Arsenal in "confrence championship"
they go on and on. This section was also only 20 pages which is in opart why i myself didnt find it interesting. Nick is still in college, working hard at Cambridge. Now that he and his girlfriend have been broken up for a while, he has a lot of free time spent on other things like... watching Arsenal and keeping upo with them. He talks about how he hasnt been able to because of his relation ship, ill keep posting though....

Week 4: Part 2

Summary:

In this section Hornby basically explains more games. But one significant event would be that He and his girlfriend split up, also that in the midst's of all this he starts teaching in a London school.

Week 4: part 1

-"But I do have other, more reliable, and probably more meaningful memories. I remember the overwhelming maleness of it alll- cigar and pipe smoke, foul language (words i had heard before, but not from adults, not at that volume), and only years later did it occur to me that this was bound to have an effect on a boy who lived with his mother and sister..."(141).

*This is significant to me becasue it shows an example of how Hornby uses memories and reminisence to add to the feeling and describe the event. This is important to the book because he is using it to describe his feelings during the game.

-"I got lost around this time, and stayed lost for the next few years. between one home game (against Coventry) and the next (a midweek game against Manchester City), I split up with my girlfriend..."(130).

*This was important to me because its the only situation in this section where her mentions an event other that a soccer game. It is important to the book because with all this football watching he has had a lot going on and this was saught to be significant.

The Diving Bell and The Butterfly

Jean-Dominique Bauby tells a sad but inspiring story. This story has really mad me think, his word choice and ways of describing his emotions, and thoughts. In the end I felt like the book punched me in the face. A favorite quote of mine form the near end of the book would be when he is telling about Mithra-Grandchamp:

“Frankly, I had forgotten Mitra-Grandchamp. The Memory of that event has only just come back to me, now doubly painful: regret for a vanished past and, above all, remorse for lost opportunities. Mithra-Grandchamp is the women we were unable to love, the chances we failed to seize, the moments of happiness we allowed to drift away.” (p.94)

This quote emphasizes my feelings. It describes everyone at some point in life. How theres something that slipped away form us earlier, those moments we didn’t capitalize on, or those feeling we never expressed. This opened up my eyes, because I feel that he is exactly right. But you don’t want to let those opportunities fly away, that we all need to live life for what we have now and what we can do, and sometimes people just don’t realize until after the fact. The books ending also made me feel a little sad. This might possibly be because I already knew that he died a few days after his book was published. But the feeling I had was also because throughout out the story, he had a wandering mind with endless possibilities, the only problem is was unable to act on a lot of them because of his body. I think that if he would have recovered he would have done somtihngs and changed some things that he had or hadn’t done when he had the opportunity, thus referring to the quote again. This book had many affects on me, these were the ones I thought most important to me.

Week 3: Part 2

Nick Hornby Bio:

DOB: April 17, 1957

Parents:???

Location: Redhill, Surey, England.

First Book: Fever Pitch (1992)

Back gorund: Horby is a graduate from Cambridge University, He has one son; Danny, who is autistic. He becam married in 1998 to Virginia Bovell. Later on Hornby and Virginia became divorced.

Carreer Accomplishments: Fever Pitch was written in 1992, he wrote this book about his obseeion with the Arsenal football club. It won the William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, and becam a hit move in the England. Later on here in the U.S. a version of the movie on the Boston Red Sox baseball team was made. He is a well known essay writter and novelist. some of his more famous novels include: High Fidelity, About A Boy, and How To Be Good.

Books Into Movies: Fever Pitch, High Fidelity, About A Boy.

Where is he now?: Nick is now living in Maidenhead England, he is still divorced and not remarried. His newest novel come out on October 16, 2007.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Hornby#Personal_life

Contemporary Writters: http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth51

Fever Pitch Spark notes... (p.1-120)

So far Hornby has separated the chapter with titles of games. Some he watches and some hes at, eahc thought some how realated to his life with his father.

Section 1: (p. 1-40)
-Staged in England Hornby as a boy

-He tells of his parents being divorced and haveing a weak reltationship with his father

-he talks about he first live futball game. this is especially significant because it helped him reconnect with his dad, it has given themsleves somting in common.


- Another significance would be that when he was at the game he discovered that he tohught the people there were truely hateful of some players or he thought that meybe they were looking for some1 to blame of get angry at.


-Throughout the rest of this section he basically tells about the games, such as Swindon Town v. Arsenal, Brazil v. Czechoslovakia...

Section 2: (p.41-81)
-Hornby continues about the games he watches, including the ones that he is at with his dad.

-Nick talks more about his infatuation with Arsenal. *The main focus of this section

-A huge part of this section would be the game of Arsenal v. Ipswich, because now he was older,more grown, and now he would be in a different seating section, where "only the most vocal" and loyal supporters could sit. He sonciders this significant because its been so long since he started his futbol obssesion.

Section 3: (p.82-122)
-This section was slow moving and not very interesting.

- Somnthing significant would be that during this section he has applied toCambridge University.