I have finished reading Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. This book was a very amazing and inspiring read. Through out the book I was continually amazed by the southern people's discrimination against the black race. I can hardly believe it could get so bad on such a broad scale. A small hate group is one thing but for the whole population to be thinking that way or at least permitting it is very astonishing. As Griffin neared the end of his experiment as a black man he was switching back and forth between races and visiting the same places. I was amazed at how different the receptions he recieved were. He was the same man both times, wore the same clothes, everything was the same except his skin colour but when he was white he could go where he pleased and buy what he wanted but as a black he was treated with hostility and was very restricted. It is very sad really that discrimination like this can happen so openly and be so supported. After Griffin had published his journal and done quite a few interviews he recieved a very interesting mix of responses. He recieves many support letters, a large portion actually rom people living in the southern States. I thought that was interesting since that is where the racism is the worst, but it shows you how powerful peer pressure really is. No one wants to stick out and be the odd ball, people would rather be wrong than to be unpopular. In Griffin's own town though he is recieved with a lot of hostility and he eventually moves to Mexico so he and his family can escape this. I found the book very eye opening and educational. I would reccomend this book to nearly anyone.

I have continued reading Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. I have been very busy with school and such and have not been able to read that much lately. Hopefully tonight I will be able to go home and finish the book. I have now read to the part where he is hitch-hiking across the state. I found it interesting that he would only be able to get a ride during the night. No one would give him a ride in the light of the day. This shows how big of an impact that peer pressure really has. I wonder how many of those people acting like they did to him would act different if you put them in a non prejudiced country where people didn't care what colour you where. I also find it very sad that even when they did give him a ride they would only do it so they could quiz him about his sexual experiences. Why did they assume that just because he was black he wouldn't mind talking about that kind of stuff? They would be way too embarrassed to ask another white man about a subject like that. Why was the black man considered as more of an animal than a human just because their skin was darker? He tells us about his difficulty in finding a job just because of his skin colour. That was one thing that really puzzled me. Why wouldn't they want to hire a black person. They have continually showed that they were capable of working amazingly hard, way harder than some rich white man would. They would nearly work to death if they could give their families a better life. Why wouldn't people hire them? The only reason I could think of would be because then they would be out mixing and mingling with the whites but there are a lot of jobs that don't involve any public contact. Why were they so discriminated against? That was so wrong. I am very glad that we have came such a long ways in that department and I hope we keep on progressing.

Yesterday I started reading the book Black Like Me written by John Howard Griffin. It is a nice little book that has been easy to read. I started reading it because Mrs. Kulyk had reccomended it to me. I am now about halfway through the book and it has been a very entertaining read. It hasn't only been that though it has also been very educational. I have gained a lot of new knowledge and even more questions. I wonder if the racial discrimination at that time period was still that bad. If so why haven't I ever heard about it? I thought that they were slaves and then they were free and that was that. Oh sure I knew the transition wasn't that quick and painless but I had no clue the discrimination was still that strong in the 1950s. Everyone knew the situation wasn't perfect or even good for that matter but this book reveals a very severe and different world from the one I know. How could you live in a world like that and not hate the whole world when you were always treated in such an unfair fashion? Another question I had was how could the author submitt himself to that if he knew it was even half that bad? Isn't that a lot of pain and agony for one book? I am glad he did now because I am enjoying reading the book but was it worth it for him? Was he glad he did this? Did he ever recieve negative percussions after his book came out because of what he did? I wonder if down in the south there is any prejudice still alive to this day? Why are people discriminated against because of their skin colour. There is really no difference between our races other than out colour, what made the African American race so hated. I will have to look into these questions in order to answer them, but till then I am going to go back to reading the book. Lol.

I lost my book Black Wind so I started to read Holes by Louis Sachar. The book was written to target a younger audience and this made it a slightly more boring read. I could see all of the coming from a long ways away. This made the book a slower read because it didn't hold my attention and I quit reading several times and picked it up later. I did finish the book but it seemed to have a very picture perfect ending that made it kind of unbelievable. Why would the curse be lifted just because he found a suit case that belonged to his great great grandfather? I also wonder what happened to Zero. After they get out of the camp he just disappears even though Stanley and Zero are best friends and Zero has no one else. Where does he go? I probably would have enjoyed this book a lot more if I would have read it like ten years ago but reading it now I found it very boring and terribly predictable.

Yesterday I started reading Black Wind by Clive Cussler. I am about two thirds of the way through the book and am really enthralled in it. The book is a paperback novel and is well used. This makes it an easy book to read physically as the pages aren't real stiff and you can hold it open easily. Black Wind is written in a third person style which makes it very interesting because it tells both sides of the story so well while yet creating feelings of dislike in you toward the bad guy. It is a very good book and I can't wait to get back to reading it. I wonder how the good guys will be able to pull off a victory with things stacked so strongly agaist them? I don't really see any way for the bad guys plan to fail. Maybe it won't, I guess we will find out but either way I am sure it will be a captivating finish.

Last week I read Honus and Me by Dan Gutman. I was given the book and that combined with the fact that it is about baseball convinced me that I should read it. It is a book that is aimed at a slightly less advanced reading audience but I found it very interesting non the less. The book is fairly small and has a very simple and yet attractive cover. Honus and Me made for a quick and entertaining read. It didn't take very long to read it and easily kept my attention the whole way through. It made me think about a lot of things. In the book the boy finds a tabacco company issued baseball card of Honus Wagner in an old lady's attic when he was cleaning it out. He does some research on the card and finds out that the card is worth more than half a million dollars. He tells the lady this and she says she doesn't want to sell it because it is her last remaining picture of her son. That made me think, if something is worth over half a million dollars is it possible for it to be worth more than money to me? Many family heirlooms are worth more to you than their money value but that is usually because the object itself is almost worthless. If I had something worth that much would I would probably sell it no matter what it was. In the story the old woman is dirt poor but yet she decides not to sell the card because the picture of her son is worth more than half a million dollars to her. Would you keep something worth over half a million dollars even if it was the last remaining picture of your son? What would that be worth to you? Is something like that priceless?

On Monday and Tuesday I read Frightful's Mountain by Jean Craighead George. It is third book in a series and George has won numerous awards for various books in the series. The book is a very nice size with a good balance between big enough pages to be readable and small enough that it isn't cumbersome. I had bought the book new and had only read it once or twice since since so the pages were still very crisp making the pages easy to turn and enjoyable to read. The book is about a boy named Sam Gribley and a falcon named Frightful. I wondered what would inspire an author to write a series about falcons and so I did some research and found out that George, the author, is a falconer and has been fascinated with hawks and falcons, particularly falcons, since he was young so it was a very easy choice to write about them as well. The book itself was pretty interesting, it didn't keep me on the edge of my seat but I did enjoy reading it. It did stir up some emotions inside of me when I read it. I felt the thrill of the chase when the hawk is racing down its next meal, the joy when Frightful escapes from danger and bliss as Sam and Frightful bond into best of friends. I also felt the sorrow when three of Frightful's four eggs froze killing the baby falcons inside. I wonder why Frightful would leave her chick behind once it was old enough to fly? Why doesn't she bring it with her and teach it everything it needs to survive? Why is nature so brutal at times? But at the end of the book a new falcon came by and you learned that it was Frightfuls chick. It was nice to learn that it had survived and had grown up and was doing well. This book was pretty good and it is definately a good book to read if you like nature and birds of prey. I enjoyed reading it.