Last Day of Term

It is a momentous occasion: for the second time ever in my high-school career we've gotten a free period in IT! Most teachers get sick or have to go to important meetings, but in this subject there's always something to do. I have taken the opportunity to update my blog and at the same time set it down forever-until-this-blog-no-longer-exists. Yes that was a bit cynical, but it's more flippant (I think. . .self-analysis is challenging).

Today:

Life Sciences (Biology): Prepared speeches on our projects (ok, that is sorta work)

English: Tried to talk our teacher out of working, semi-succesfully. (We did take down some notes on "Jealousy in the play Othello")

Maths: Revised our work oh-so-incredibly hard.

Afrikaans: Played hangman with English words. . .of course we spoke Afrikaans the whole time.

Physical Sciences: Newton's Laws. When the truck hits the animated lamb it goes squish. (Well, ma'am said it was Newton's Laws)

IT: Updated my blog whilst experiencing a historical event!



btw . . . It's int'resting to compare this to Back to School

Books, Books, Books

There are so many excellent books out there worthy of discusion that I never really know how I can write about just one. So I thought I would just write a line about a few of the very best in different genres - and this is by no means all of them!

Fantasy

The Lord of the Rings (Tolkien)- what can I say? Brilliant! (that's the best I can say about a book) It's quite Catholic if you get into details.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Riordan)- Brilliant conception, great writing, can't wait for the sequel. The series is about a modern boy who discovers he's a greek demi-god.

The Belgariad (Eddings)- Brilliant characterisation and a good story. Without the characters it would just be a good book, as it is it's incredible.



Science Fiction

A Wrinkle in Time (L'Engle)- Brilliant! Quite different, but I empathise with Meggie. An exploration of ideas like the 5th dimension combined with a perceptive view of a geeky (?) teen.

I, Robot (Asimov)- No, it's not just a movie. Stunning book. Interesting to note that Asimov doesn't use much humour.



Christian Fiction (I'm not into romances, so these could be in the previous categories)

Dragonspell (Paul) -Excellent book, I like the imagery. It's allegorically without being syrupy. Good story.

The Cosmic Trilogy (Lewis)- Well, Lewis is probably my most respected author. Interplanetary travel introduces Ransom to the heavenly beings. It gets very dark towards the end as well as plain confusing, but has a solid story line. Very thought-provoking.

The Chronicles of Narnia (Lewis again)- I've read them about a million times, starting from age 4. They're like comfort food except good for you.



Those are the best that spring to mind now. Tomorrow I'd write a different list. I haven't put my favourite classics down, for instance. I'll extend the list another day.