Reading Project

Good news! I’m still alive! *manic laugh*

Anyway, I’m aware I haven’t exactly been the most active when it comes to updating this site and producing new posts, so sorry about that.
*checks dashboard and realises last update was well over a year ago*
*panics slightly, then kicks evidence under the bed and proceeds to ignore it*

Despite that, I have actually prepared a few different pieces that I’ve been wanting to share with you all for quite some time, but between school, training, drama club and general craziness, I’ve simply never gotten around to typing them up and/or scanning them in.

Not exactly the best excuse I know, but I’m afraid it’s all I have to offer.

At any rate, the trigger that’s gotten me posting again is actually a reading project that we’ve recently started in English class.
As some of you may already know, I’m a Scot by birth, but am currently living in Germany and have been for the past 11 years (more or less).
In Germany learning foreign languages is taken very seriously and English lessons start in primary school. So most people here can speak it to a very high level or at least know enough to get themselves around, if needs be.
That’s good news for me, because it means despite now living in a different country, I can still work at and improve my English skills without getting bored. And I never feel like I’m wasting my time when I’m  in this class in school.
This year a part of the curriculum is that we should read an English youth book, analyse it and work through it and the issues it presents.

The book chosen by our teacher is ‘Slam’ by Nick Hornby.

I’ve never read (or actually heard of) this particular book before so I’m rather looking forward to it. Being a reader by nature (despite a few initial problems caused by my dyslexia) I would probably decide to live in a library given the choice. I used to read at least two books a week but due to the ever rising amount of school work I have to do, I’m afraid I haven’t had all too much time for my beloved books recently. In fact, not all too long ago I realised that all I’ve managed to read since the start of 2016 is one complete book (and two halves, but that doesn’t count)! Only one book!

To say I was appalled by this somewhat painful epiphany would be putting it lightly.

Now, while normally such a moment of clarity is supposed to lead one to change ones ways and carry on along the right path towards where one had initially wanted to go, I could hardly just drop out of school due to “otherwise not having enough time to read books”.
So all it did for me was make me feel rather miserable.

However, due to the above mentioned circumstances, I doubt there’s another student in the class who is and was as excited as I am at the prospect of our new reading project.

Anyway, where was I?
Ah, yes:

The book chosen by our teacher is ‘Slam’ by Nick Hornby.
After reading the first chapter, I can tell you that it is well written, and that Sam, the main character, a sixteen year old skater kid coming from a divorced background, is easy enough to relate to. Sam, like most of us, is driven by his passion (skating) and idol (in his case Tony Hawk) that he strives to be like or even to surpass. Especially as teens or young adults that’s something we can draw strength from when we need it.
Seeing as this is already addressed pretty strongly in the first chapter, I expect it may play a larger role later on it the book.

Another indication as to what this novel might be about is the title.

‘Slam’

That’s a rather unusual name, don’t you think?

The first thing that comes to mind for me, is the mental image of our living room door rather over-zealously connecting to its frame, after the almost diva-like departure of my two year younger brother.

The second thing that comes to mind, is the image of a person running, then something crashing into them from the side and knocking them off course.

For anyone who isn’t all that well acquainted with the word, this is its definition according to google:

SLAM

1. Verb  shut (a door, window, or lid) forcefully and loudly.
             “he slams the door behind him as he leaves”
2. Noun  a loud bang caused by the forceful shutting of something such as a door.

              “the back door closed with a slam”
3. North America, informal  prison

There are quite a lot of doors mentioned when it comes to this particular forceful movement, aren’t there?
Well, then at least it would seem our household is not the only one who lets doors unjustly take on the brunt of our anger.

By any means, I do doubt that the last definition has any bearing on our story, seeing as it takes place in the UK and not North America.

Other than that though, it does give you quite a bit to think about:

• Is Sam, in truth, a really stroppy teen who runs around causing unreasonable amounts of damage to people’s doors?
• Maybe it’s referring to one specific forceful movement later to come, a severe skating accident perhaps?
• Or maybe the collision is more metaphorical? Something that knocks him or life as he has known it, onto a completely different course?

I suppose the only way to find out is to start reading…