My Personal Reading History

These are my top 6 favourite books/series:

• Clifford the Big Red Dog:

- Read when I was about 5 year old

- One of my favourite books as a child

- Always wanted a big red dog after reading these books :)

• Roald Dahl Books:

- Read Roald Dahl books all through primary school and absolutely loved them :)

- I particularly enjoyed 'Matilda', 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' and 'The Witches'. 

• Green Eggs and Ham:

- I liked Green Eggs and Ham as a kid because it was easy to read and I liked the illustrations and use of colour.

- I have heaps of Dr Seuss books, which helped me learn to read when I was younger.

- I liked the language of the book (rhyming words)

• Harry Potter:

- I loved the idea of living in a magical world :)

- Wish I could go to Hogwarts

- Went through a stage where I couldn't stop reading them

- The movies aren't as good as the books, but I like the first few movies the best :)

•  A Series of Unfortunate events: 

- Used to read this series at the beginning of highschool

- I liked the situations the Baudelaire children would be put in

- I never finished the series because I found it too depressing after the 6th book , but one day I hope to finish it :)

•  Vampire Academy Series:

- I recently finished reading this series

- I like the plot of the series because it was surprising and unpredictable

- At the end of each book you would constantly be guessing of what would happen in the next book, as it always ended in a cliffhanger

- It wasn'tjust the idea of the vampire world I liked, it was the relationships within the book and the storyline that got me hooked :)



Walkabout (1971)

In our Literature class, we watched the first 10 minutes of the 1971 film, Walkabout. Although we only views a small part of the film, we were able to see many clips showing the contrast between the city and the desert.

The use of brickwalls and fences in the city shows us that they don't exist in Aboriginal communities.It also shows the disconnection between the two worlds and how different they both are in comparison. The city looks overcrowded and closed in, whereas the desert is free and open.
There was a clip showing businessmen and women walking, particularly focusing on their legs, which captured the hussle and bussle of the city. In this scene there is no focal point, showing the lack of individuality and character of the city people. Everybody is so serious and impersonal, the city people populace doesn't seem all that friendly.
A scene was shown with a class of young female students doing breathing exercises. The lack of indiviuality is evident in this scene, not only because of their plain uniforms, but their robotic behaviour. We notice that the girls and boys schools are separate, shows how life is depicted in the city as an 'ideal world'. 
The great, tall buildings were used to show the mans/fathers isolation and depression, as we see later in the film he commits suicide. The buildings also show how they cut off the beauty of nature as well as sunshine (all is black and white). There is no green to be seen in the city, but hidden behind.
When the father arrives home, we see that their is no acknowledgement between family members, mainly between the mother and father, though their children appear to be quite close. They would seem like the pefect family in the world they live in, but love within it is absent.
By seeing the home the family live in, we see that they are quite wealthy. This shows how they may have so much but that doesnt buy happiness- the father is a perfect example of this.