Brian Greene, The Hidden Reality

Well, the first twenty pages were interesting to say the least. The first chapter held promise by clearly stating a basic summery of Einstein's Theory of Relativity and finishing off with describing what he will cover in the chapters following. The part that I read of the second chapter was informative by clearly stating how the space time plane fits into relativity. later in this chapter he will decide how space time and other devices will form together to create Endless Dopelgängers, the title of the chapter.

180-end of book

In this last section of Around The World in 80 Days, the party manages to finally gain passage across the Atlantic Ocean. The reluctant captain is not taking them to their destination so money helps persuade him, they also end up buying the ship because they run short on coal from their intense feeding of the fire, they then use parts of the ship as fuel as it is mostly wood. they return discreetly and wait for the time to make their appearance. Jean makes a startling discovery that they actually had lost a day due to the time changes and so they race off to gain the prize destroying several carriages in their way. they make it on time and all is well.
for some reason Mr. Fogg and Aouda decide to get married and so life goes on.
I enjoyed the book although I felt that it was a bit dry in several places and some of the decisions were not the best.

Pages 160-180

The party of travelers meet Colonel Proctor and play a game of cards with him on the train. They get into a disagreement and insults pursue, they are going to settle this dispute by a duel between Mr. Fogg and the colonel. as soon as they are going to duel a band of Sioux Indians attack the train. Due to a courageous act that saved the train Jean gets held captive. Mr. Fogg goes to free him thus missing the train. Fix procures a sledge, a cart that is sail driven that is used when a train is not able to be used. They have to make up 8 hours to catch the steamer to Liverpool.
The circumstances of the duel were, in today's thoughts, meaningless but this shows how important the duel was in that society. It was the difference between living in shame for the rest of your life or being a figure of high esteem.

Pages 140-160

Mr. Fogg and Jean are now on their way across the US on a train. they have some minor setbacks but nothing to dramatic so far. and set back was a giant herd of buffalo are in the tracks. Jean is freaking out because of this. some other ones include going over a swollen river on a bridge that is not safe and stopping at a few stations for supplies.
I felt that Jean was very annoying in this section of the book, one, he freaked out because the buffalo were in front of the train and he thought that the engineer could do something about it, second, he was rejecting the idea of going over the bridge even though it was their only option! I felt like his methods of weighing what should be done and what shouldn't is not normal.

pages 120-140

Jean, aboard the ship Mr. Fogg was supposed to be on, needs to find something to eat. He uses his singing talent to gain some money and he hooks up with this acrobatic circus to gain a passage to the US. While he is doing an act he spots Mr. Fogg on the ship to America, at any rate he destroys the act. Later Fix tells Jean that now they are on American soil he can not arrest Mr. fogg so he will help them on their way to get to England. I felt that Jean's idea of turning himself into a traveling entertainer was smart, I also felt like the idea of traveling with the circus was wise as well. When he destroyed the circus act though I felt that he was wrong for this, it would have been better if he had waited and went to Fogg at a better time.

100-120

so obviously Mr.Fogg misses the ship to Japan, this of course leaves him in a pickle. So being resourcefully as he is he gets aboard another ship and makes it just in time to get on the ship leaving for the US. Jean ends up on the original ship and seeing that his master is not there he automatically blames himself for the inconvenience. During this whole episode the tention is mounting due to the fast acting and negotiating of Mr. Fogg and the captain of the ship Mr. Fogg is on. I felt that this made the book a lot more interesting. I also thought that Jean was to critical of himself, things like what he had experienced can almost never be stopped.

Pgs 80-100

So Jean is starting to be more cautious about Fix. He noticed that he followed them everywhere. They eventually make it to Hong Kong, but are delayed by a storm. Fix is wanting them to stay for a few days so he can get a warrant on Mr. Fogg, so he talks to Jean while he is going to tell his master when the next ferry will leave. Fix tells him about the robbery but Jean is not obliged to betray his master, so Fix drugs him with opium so he can not tell him when the ferry leaves in turn they miss it. I am starting to like Fix more than Mr. Fogg at this point, I feel like he is more trustworthy due to his ideas and ways of dealing with Mr. Fogg. Jean is a bit to ignorant of the facts in my opinion and Mr. Fogg is to self centered.

Pg 60-80

While on the portage to the next train station, the guide and the 3 men come across a religious place, while observing the camp they notice that there will be an execution/sacrifice/ burning alive of a woman. They act and are able to get her out of the camp at the very last second. because on this when Mr. Fogg reach the temporary destination of Calcutta he is arrested and taken to court where he replies guilty and pays bail instead of the one week in jail and the fine. During the trial Jean falsely accuses the priests of the sacrifice in a pagoda in Bombay itself, he learned about these temples in his unwelcome tours he had conducted himself with his curiosity. This in turn frees the woman of the priests' grasps. I felt like these pages were the most interesting in the book so far because of the action planning and tying in all a lot of the information given earlier. I also couldn't help but feel intrigued why the group had delayed their travels slightly to help someone that was for all they could tell was participating in a foreign religious ceremony.

pages 40-60

While in Bombay Jean gets very curious and gets in a bit of trouble. They get on the train to go to Calcutta and meet a friend of Mr.Fogg. this man is Sir Francis, and he distinguished himself in the last Sepoy revolt. He too is going to Calcutta. they get mostly there when the train stops because there is no more track until a city close to Calcutta. The train was advertising from Bombay to Calcutta and no one was informed they would be traveling 50 miles to get on the other train. Mr. Fogg buys an elephant and hires a guide and they set off.
I felt that Jeans curiosity of the cultures was very immature and it could have cost Fogg his bet. I also find it interesting how he wasn't informed that 50 miles of track was incomplete and he would have to find his own way across. luckily he had two extra days to spare.

20-40

The two men depart and make it to Paris and then through some more cities until they get to the Suez Canal. Mr. Fix, the detective working on the bank robbery case, believes the robber is Mr. Fogg due to his passport ID given when Jean tries to find where he can get it visaed. they then set off for Bombay with Mr. Fix on there trail. Jean also likes talking to Mr.Fix which is even more deteriorating of Mr. Fogg if he is the bank robber.

I find this book to be very intriguing in the way that you are believing Mr. Fogg is the robber but then you change your mind slightly when Mr. Fogg is talking, but then it goes back to your previous opinion.

I personally feel that Mr. Fogg is the bank robber because he is said to have a vast fortune, but no one knows how he got it and he has a bunch of fresh bank notes that he is carrying.

Jules Verne, Around the World in 80 Days

Mr. Phileas Fogg, being the main character, gets a servant called Jean. While talking about a bank robbery with the other people in the Reform Club, the club that he is associated with, he gets into a bet that he can not go around the world in 80 days. The stakes are relatively high at 20 thousand quid. Jean and Mr. Fogg then depart for there epic journey against the clock.
I felt that the first 20 pages of this book and first twenty pages of the Pickwick Papers are somewhat parallel in the way they both show the boring lives of rich Englishmen of the time period.

The Pickwick Papers

During the first 20 pages of the Pickwick Papers you learn several things. The main characters of the book are Mr. Pickwick, a bald man with round glasses the is the founder of the Pickwick Club, Mr. Snodgrass, Mr.Tupman, and Mr. Winkle who are all members of Mr. Pickwick's club.
In the first twenty pages the book is rather uneventful. of course in most of Dickens's novels, you have to read at least 40 to 70 pages to get a firm understanding of the book. As far as I can digest, Mr.Pickwick is traveling and is writing down everything that is in anyway unusual. He gets into a fight because someone thought he was taking the numbers of a cab.
I find I don't have a very distinct opinion. I feel like Mr.Pickwick's note taking is not very normal along with the fact he only has a brown paper bag for his luggage, but everything else about him is semi normal for a wealthy person of that time.

rangers apprentice book 9 pg. 80 to 101

This is a very innovative part in this book. While Halt and Will are tracking Tennyson they discover a Scotti raiding party of 15 - 16 men that are after livestock. They switch their gaze to this and then do some scouting and find which farm they are raiding along with knowledge of previous raids they gather when they will attack. They go to the farm and set a stampede on the Scotti saving the cattle. Then they set off to intercept and dissolve Tennyson's plans.
I thought that the comparison of the Scotti and Araluen culture in this section was very interesting in the way of making a profit. The Scotti steal and sell where the Araluen raise livestock to sell at market. I felt that the characters showed some of their capabilities at quick planning and how well the rangers corps can handle simple problems.

Rangers Apprentice19 to 39

So anyways, the main thing that went on in these pages were very interesting. in the first pages Halt decides to sabotage an effort by the outsider cult to destroy some ships. the outsiders are directly related to an other religious group that claims to protect different villages from these outsiders and of course it is for self profit. after taking there money they leave and set the outsiders on them. ( you learn this later in the book). this is very effective on the gullible townsmen who have a king that is very lazy.
mixed in was Will teaching several young apprentices some tactical training and how to hone there archery skills.
I felt that these pages were , as I stated, very interesting unfortunately I could not help myself and read the whole book so next week will be some part of the 9th book

independant reading

Again, I am to blog about several pages a week and say several things about them to make it seem like I read the pages. My first book I shall conquer is the 8th book in the Rangers Apprentice series. I have read all of the other ones up to this point but I never was able to find the time to read it but now that it is mandatory that I read a book that is not exactly a physics textbook I feel that this will be promising.