Top 5

Holy crap!!! Semi-regular posting?! It can't be.... Well, if the cop-out that is a top five even counts.

Anywho, onward and upward:

Top 5 books read while at Princeton City Schools
1st-12th

5.) Out of the Silent Planet - Being a sci-fi nerd and a C.S. Lewis fan, I was pretty stoked to read this. However, in doing so I learned one life lesson: trilogies weren't meant to be read one at a time. Every time I think about reading the other two books, I remember I have very little recollection of what actually happened in the first. Maybe someday...

4.) Night - I still have this book tucked away in some dark corner of my room. I remember reading it in 8th grade with Mr. Pogue, the guy who, if nothing else, taught me that books are printed on paper so they can be written in, torn up, and generally made your own. To this day a good indicator of books I've actually read is to look for the one's that have seemingly gone through the washer, twice. Anywho, a powerful book that everyone should be forced to read in school.

3.) Lord of the Flies - Another Mr. Pogue read that I probably wouldn't have even opened if it weren't for two undeniable facts:
3-1.) The edition of the book I bought had cover that was about 6 standard deviations MORE badass than anyone elses book.
3-2.) Pogue sold this book as being a case study in anarchy, which is pretty much what a 13 year old boy strives for Monday-Friday anyways.

2.) Notes From Underground - I think I was the only person in the class of '07 to like this book. Dostoevsky is a hell of a writer and anyone who thinks any different can suck my thumb. It's not easy to write what is essentially stream of consciousness for half of a novel and make ANYTHING of it, let alone something that would be taught in high schools nearly 150 years later. It also makes for a hell of a book on tape.

1.) The Great Gatsby - I didn't like it much then. The book absolutely emits the feeling, taste, and smell of summer (“It was dawn now on Long Island and we went about opening the rest of the windows down-stairs, filling the house with gray-turning, gold-turning light. The shadow of a tree fell abruptly across the dew and ghostly birds began to sing among the blue leaves. There was a slow, pleasant movement in the air, scarcely a wind, promising a cool, lovely day.”) and has one of the most profound last pages of all time. It seemed like we talked about this book for a month and I'm still not completely sure I "get" it. I'm also not sure if I'm supposed to.




The best part of all of this? I still have every single one of my projects from sophomore year of high school on. I want to personally thank every teacher that realized computers weren't the devil and in doing so let me have an amazing archive of stuff that, barring something terrible, I will be able to have forever.

Yes, even the bio coloring!!



So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.