Blog Post #3: Book 1 Project

“There's a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her.”

Reenact your favorite scenes from the Best Seller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn! With the new Lego© sets based off of the gripping novel Gone Girl, audiences can revel in their appreciation for the much-loved story by using their favorite characters to change the book’s story! Did you finish the book and not like the way it ended? Wish a certain character wasn’t even written at all? Use these Legos to rewrite the book how YOU wanted it to happen. Perhaps reintroduce new evidence that was not found; maybe get revenge on those who are ACTUALLY responsible for all of the drama. Get the Lego© Gone Girl sets today and end the tome the way you wish it would’ve. All this and more is possible with these new Lego© sets! Get them today!

In the book Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, Amy Dunn creates her own ending to a nightmarish story. Angry at Nick for not providing the marriage she wanted, not accepting her true colors, and finding love elsewhere, Amy builds a plethora of evidence against Nick. She carefully plans to take him down and end the marriage on her terms: her free of him and him never to be free again. By framing Nick for murder/kidnapping, Amy Dunn makes the story her won and single-handedly hijacks Nick’s life. With the Gone Girl Lego© sets, the audience has the freedom to do the exact same thing! For a small price, readers can manipulate the lives of the beloved characters and choose how they want the story to end. Brick by brick they rebuild the world that Gillian Flynn wrote of and piece by piece they have the power to change the story into something truly unique and different. The Lego© sets available are of the most dramatic and suspenseful scenes in the book, scenes that audience members have been craving to change. Lego© offers dynamic scenes such as “The Crime Scene”, “The Press Conference” “Finding the Tool Shed” and “Amy’s Cabin Adventures”. Audience members can feel free to rearrange the story and change how it all plays out, creating their own ending to an adventurous story. As Amy states in the book, “There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.” With these new Lego© sets people who loved the story can change the book and remember the way they want to, without all the disturbing moments. For instance, in our brand new set: “The Shocking News!” Change what Noelle Hawthorne reveals about Amy and instead have Amy show up at the press conference and steal the microphone away from Nick and confess her crime, starting off with: “Can you imagine, finally showing your true self to your spouse, your soul mate, and having him not like you? So that's how the hating first began. I've thought about this a lot, and that's where it started, I think.” With Gone Girl Legos, you can literally change the story completely in a matter of seconds. In the words of the Amazing-Amy, “The secondhand experience is always better.”

Lego© Gone Girl sets are a great idea. After you read a book with an ending like Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, readers wish they would have had some say in how the novel ended. With these creative toys, readers can change the story and end it the way the truly felt it should have ended.  This product could really broaden the audience for the book and other books.  Readers love to relish in their fandoms and toy around with various characters and storylines. Lego sets of various best-selling novels would not only be a great collectable toy, but a way for audience members to engage with the story in a more active way. With these Gone Girl Lego sets, us as readers can use our imagination and build on to an already fantastic story that Gillian Flynn has written.  My idea will also do a great job at getting the book more readers, as Lego© has a MASSIVE fan base made up of both adults and kids alike. My idea not only promotes fan growth, but also maintains fans connections with the book/writer. Generally, after individuals finish a book they lose contact with their love for a book and/or the author. But if there are toys that let the audience indulge in their favorite fandoms and stories, they are more likely to follow the author and their books.

Post 2: What is a book?

What is a book?

A book is a game-changer. It is a catalyst, an enzyme. It generates thinking and stimulates a change to occur within each individual as they read the texts. Books have so many positive values. And the reason they will never die, the reason we will always have books is because of their ability to enforce change upon the reader. We have become a society that is lazy. Don’t believe me? Every new piece of our technology is simply meant to help make our lives simpler, to cut down on the amount of effort we put in to achieving every-day tasks. The most beneficial quality of books? They take work.

Today, literature is shared in a variety of mediums: eBooks, audio, movies, plays, and while all these are creative (nothing shows a book’s influence over individuals like having movies and plays made form it), it’s not hard. It doesn’t take exertion. These platforms share the same story (most of the time: I’m looking at you Marvel movies) but it’s…easy. It’s easy for us as viewers/readers. We digest the information, but we get the information from the point of view of whoever changed the book into another product. Audio-books: beneficial for multi-tasking, but can we really say we aren’t influenced by the reader’s inflection, by the reader’s own personal idea of what the books should sound like when read?

True, books are old, but they have always been an accomplishment; they have always been catalyzers, promoting healthy work. But just because it is not “the-newest-hottest-thing” does that mean they are any less valuable? McDonalds. A corporation that for the longest time was on the fore-front of the fast food market everywhere. They have over a million stores in all sorts of countries, drawing in billions of dollars of business at any given moment. But let’s be honest. Are they the newest? Since McDonalds revolutionized the fast-food market, companies like Chipotle, Subway, and Chick-fil-a have entered the playing field, providing healthier options to the food we all love, fueling our desire to get (semi) decent food not only cheap, but fast.

But here is the interesting thing.

McDonalds is not suffering. Despite the rise of competitors, a change in the audiences tastes—frozen burgers to chicken burgers or burritos—McDonalds still gains business. You know why? Because they still offer what they did 20-plus years ago. Certain things promote growth. They have qualities that reproductions do not and cannot have. Originality, sustainability, and a promotion of hard-work. (Get it? Cause with McDonalds you gotta work off all the crap you put into your body!)

A book is a book is a book. It is true, Tim Parks and Victor LaValle, that they are nothing more than mass produced sheets of paper, assembly-line stapled between sheets of cardstock. But you read a book. You read an eBook. You let me know which one you get more out of. If you want to get the most out of something, you have to work for it, and books are the only option that promote rolling up your sleeve.

Maybe they are a little outdated. But books changed the game then. They do the same now. We just have to except that. It’s time to stop being lazy. It’s time to put forth effort into what we do, to not let wires and touch-screens run our lives. It is time to get our hands dirty.

It’s time to get to work.

Post #1: Why do I read?

I read to empower my mind and challenge my thoughts. When I read, I enjoy the text as much as possible. I participate in the activity to engage me in a way other than with technology. Reading, for me, stimulates the mind and fuels the many ideas that I have; it promotes conversation, thinking, and think about the world in new and challenging ways.

The most interesting characterization of books, in my opinion, is that no two are the same. Every book has a different message or goal, a different author that wrote the book for a different reason and a unique voice. Some books are meant to show you a world different than your own, while some are meant to promote thinking about the world you currently live in.

Reading also captures memories. We read to learn about the lives of others (fiction or non-fiction) and relate to them in some way. Books have been used to share stories, document events, and invest information into the mind of the reader. No matter what you read, there is some trace of the author’s identity within each and every page; the more you read, the more you discover who you are and what your identity is or wants to be.

Reading is special because it is so diverse and unique to each and every individual reader/writer. No one gets the same experience out of the activity. However, it’s the experiences, both good and bad, that keep us coming back for more. Because no matter how distant our society has become from the feel of pages, no matter how horrible the book, there will always be a desire to read. There will always be a wanting to express who we are, what we are, and why. We read, because we are human.