Post 3: Book 1 Project

Want to know how Clay was feeling when he was walking the streets of Crestmont? How about when he was sitting at Rosie’s Diner? Do you want to see the real size model of the party (you know which one I’m talking about)? Now you can. Come visit the actual size model of Crestmont Town and take a reality tour of every place you would want to see.

In the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Clay Jensen receives thirteen tapes. These tapes are from narrated by a dead girl. A dead girl that killed herself just two weeks ago. She created two sets of 13 reasons why she killed herself on tapes, each reason is a person. The tapes go from one person to the next, in order of the tapes. It is Clay Jensen’s turn to hear the tapes. Clay listens to the majority of the tapes in a Walkman and travels around the town listening to them. He visits some of the places starred on the map Hannah gave him before she killed herself. You have probably wondered how that would feel. To hear the reasons someone killed themselves… and you are one of them. No one has ever experienced that and now you can. In Thirteen Reasons Why it says, “They swap flashlight for wrench and, at that moment, I grab for the Walkman.” In the reality tour you will start at Clay’s house, receive a map of the town, and listen to the first tape, you will then walk to Tony’s house and get a yellow Walkman for the Mustang.   You will then continue your walk through Crestmont town listening to the tapes. You will be able to walk the streets of the town as you want. You can visit Monet’s, listed at E-7 on the map, and listen to the third tape where Hannah talks about Jessica Davis being one reason for her killing herself. At Monet’s you can order what you want: hot chocolate like Hannah or you can be like Clay and order coffee because he is cheap. It’s up to you. You can go to Rosie’s Diner because as the book says, “Everyone goes to Rosie’s.” You can see the cool, quirky place that is described in the book. Be sure to not go alone.  This connects you to reason 6, or cassette 3, side B. Unlike Clay, you can revisit the house where the party is at. You will be able to walk through the town how you please. The scene of the accident will be there. You can see where Clay and Hannah worked together even though it isn’t a big part in the book. The reality tour allows you to see, visit, and experience what you want to. You can follow Clay’s example and, “… I crumple it up, crushing the map…” There is no rule that says you have to do it as Clay does, you don’t have to do it as Hannah says the places in the tapes, and you can do what you want to get the experience that you want. Every three months there will be a day where Jay Asher will come and sign your copies of the book.

Thirteen Reasons Why is geared toward a young adult and probably mainly girl audience. This tour will allow more people to understand what the book is about and that anyone can read it. The tour will be advertised and will gain popularity for the book in that way and because of the Jay Asher appearances. Also, this will help the book by people understanding better how Clay feels and it may compel more people to buy the book. Fans of the book will be able to feel connected to Clay’s world and will be able to see the big and small places/events of the book. Fans will be able to stay connected with the book because people at the tour will also have read the book and so people can meet each other there. Fans will stay connected with the author because of the visits made by Jay Asher. This will give everyone a chance to understand the book better.

Post 2: What is a Book?

A book is a journey. Every book has a personality: a different way of communicating what it believes, how it feels, and what it likes. Book are like movies – each showing a new and different life.

Some people believe that books should become all electronic, that the idea of the book is what matters, not the form what it comes in. But some believe the opposite – that all books should be tangible, that the way the book feels is important. I believe both.  Joe Meno says, “… what I’ve come to acknowledge or slowly accept is that the idea of the book is more important than the actual form it takes…” But on the other hand Nancy Jo Sales says, “There’s something about that physicality of a book, the way it looks and feels and even smells…” Both people are writers and I believe that both are right. The idea of the book is very important, but so is the ability to physically turn the page of a book. Sure that the characters of a book will be portrayed the same either way, but when you are reading a book electronically you lose the feel of how a book is made and you miss how much effort is put into the book. Don’t you want the smell of that old or new book? Don’t you want to hear the sound of a page turning?  

Books are needed; you need to create the image of that character you are obsessed with not be shown what he or she is supposed to look like. Books give you the power to create images of what is happening not just staring at a screen. Using imagery when reading helps your brain (mental stimulation), but when you stare at a screen watching a movie you don’t use your brain as much. It is really exercising your brain when reading vs. just sitting and taking everything in as you would do if you were watching a movie.

Books help stimulate our brains, increase our vocabulary, reduce stress, expand our knowledge, improve our memory, give us tranquility, and learn better writing skills. Books help us with all these things without us even realizing. Movies and TV shows can’t give us all the benefits that use the brain like a book can.

We need books to take an adventure, to help our brains, and for the feel of the book.