Semester 1 Reflection

      I have read some very good books this semester thanks to the suggestions I see on the blogs I have commented on. I really enjoyed the required summer reading book I chose which was 'Kill Me Softly' by Sarah Cross. That book took classic fairly tales, even before they were childproofed by Disney, and modernized them. I thought it was a great story line because the author melded classic fairy tales with modern teenage lives. I loved that those two very opposite types of stories could be put together to make a very interesting plot line. Another book I read was 'Looking For Alaska' by John Green. I have loved every book by John green that I've read. This book had a very unique plot line because the resolution isn't the ending you hope for, but it makes you think about life and what you have waiting for you, and what you don't. This book takes you into someones mind and makes you feel exactly what the main character is feeling, and I think that it is extraordinary. 
     I believe that my blogging skills have improved from my first blog post to my most current one. I think my writing has evolved from just writing what the book is about, to writing how I think a character feels about a situation, or how I think the writer was hoping to grasp the reader in a certain way when writing their book. I see how a character develops throughout a story, how they act in the beginning compared to how they act in the end. My blog post's sentences flow together for a whole view on a specific topic. My first few blog posts were not the best and I think that my new posts are more intriguing, I think they pull readers in so that they want to read the end of the post, not that they have to. Every post I make I include a picture of the book's cover so that if the story wasn't that interesting to  the reader they might get attracted by the artwork on the cover. 
      I have a few goals for myself to improve my blogging in the second semester. My biggest goal is to have my posts on time, I had trouble with that this semester but I think I can improve on that drastically if I work on it. I have another goal which is that I include more quotes from books so that I can show why I feel a certain way on a topic or event. I think that I have been lacking on the quotes which I hope to make up for in the second half of the year. I would also like to work on spending more time on the visual aids that go with my posts. I always have a picture of my current book, but I would like for myself to search for videos or articles that pull the reader further into my post and feel more involved.