A New Experience

      I've never been much of a reader so this class's requirements are proving to be quite difficult. Today i sat in my bed, under a mound of blankets (quite womanly I know) and for the first time in a long time actually opened a book with the intent to try to enjoy it. The book I chose was "Ship Breaker" by Paolo Bacigalupi. The first thing that really grabbed my attention was the amount of references to the "Christian church". There were multiple times that they used things found in the common christian church such as the church bell to appeal to the reader's senses. What struck me as even more unusual was the the use of the phrase "Scavenge God" as if they'd created there own sense of spirituality around the job that they do, day in and day out. I'm not going to lie to you, it kind of weirded me out. Coming from a pretty religious family it was odd to read about a god that was based on the materials the people worked with every day. It was awkward in a sense but it almost became normal the further I read into the book. The main character, Nailer, reminds me a lot of myself. Nailer has strong opinions of people and whether good or bad, he doesn't really let that dictate how he acts around them. Early in the book there is a conflict where Nailer's father is ridiculed by his boss but instead of exploding, he composed himself and put his response in a respectful yet slightly taunting manner. I find that I myself have a lot of emotions, at times it feels like an overabundance of them. But those emotions, whatever they may be, usually come out as a form of humor. I learned early that if I could make fun of myself and make other people laugh, they wouldn't even bother trying because they know I'm going to do it to myself eventually. It's that sort of on the spot adaptation that binds me to this character. Hopefully more things continue to present themselves to me throughout the book that help me develop a closer relationship with the guy.