Summer Reading Assignment: Entry One

For summer reading, I am currently in the midst of reading Looking for Alaska by John Green. You may have well heard of this novel, as it is the debut novel of the same author as of The Fault in Our Stars, which its movie rendition is currently ripping through box offices across the globe. But while that book sheds more tears than anything else, the book I am on right now is more of a gripping, entertaining read.

 Our protagonist in this book is Miles Halter, who later acquires the nickname "Pudge" for the sake of irony due to his thin, dainty physique. His existence is an embodiment of awkward, and his interests are anything but abundant. His life wasn't all that fun in his Florida public school. The only friends he had were drama geeks who didn't devote their lives to anything else but that. But then he makes the decision to transfer to boarding school, Culver Creek in Alabama, to be specific. His father had previously went there, and often times shared of his fun times there. And once Pudge had moved into his dorm room, his social and emotional life is changed forever.

Miles' roommate, Chip Martin, who bears the nickname, "The Colonel," has been to Culver Creek before. He is a more laid back, irresponsible human being who leisurely drinks and smokes, His favorite drink being Ambrosia, a 5:1 mix of milk and vodka, and his favorite drug being cigarettes. He has a good relationship with video games, and a bad relationship with his girlfriend, Sara, whom he later breaks up with.

Alaska Young is the cute, pretty, funny, attractive, fun, crazy, outrageous, stupid and emotionally unstable girl who lives two doors down from Pudge and the Colonel. She lives alone in her dorm, for her roommate got expelled for the Trifecta (being drunk, high and having someone else be in your bed with you). It turned out that Alaska had ratted her out, which made her a huge target for the Weekday Warriors, the group of antagonists in the novel. She is also the main distributor for drugs and alcohol in Culver Creek, dealing and frequently smoking cigarettes, and drinking primarily red wine. She has a boyfriend, Jake, who is a southern gun and makes both Pudge and the Colonel feel an enormous sense of jealousy.

Other side characters include Takumi, the perverted Japanese exchange student who proudly bears his fox hat upon his head, Lara, the Romanian-American who ends up dating Pudge for a short while, and the "Eagle," the strict, uptight school dean.

There are tons of conflicts in this novel, but the primary one being that Pudge, being the newbie, needs to catch up with social life at Culver Creek. You probably have already guessed the main setting, being Culver Creek. It is an older Boarding School, bearing a hexagonal-shaped campus. (and it also serves the best fried bean burritos you will ever find)

A good literary connection to this work would be something like Grey's Anatomy or any other drama/soap opera that takes place primarily in a certain setting. There are many dormitory dramas out there on television, but I'm not all that familiar with any of them.