Journey to the Center of the Earth 3-D (Spoiler Warning!)

I watched this spectacular movie a day after its debut on the big screen. We also watched it in 3-D, which added to the suspense. There is also a book with the same name, which was the backbone of the plot. They even used the book in the movie!

Here is the movie's plot. =D

At the beginning of the movie, a man named Max Anderson was being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex and then stopped at a fissure in the ground that was filled with magma! He made a desperate jump to the other side of the fissure, but he didn't make it across and succumbed to the scalding magma.

In the present, Trevor Anderson's lab is about to be closed down for storage. He later went home but realized that his nephew was coming that day, so he hid his mess in his house, but there was still some clutter in the dining room.

Anyway, his nephew, Sean, was staying for a week at his house. There, Trevor showed Sean some antiques to him including a yo-yo. Trevor also took him to the lab, where Sean discovered an extra dot (indicating seismic activity) in addition to the other three dots on the screen.

The dot was in Iceland and had the same exact features as in July 1997 when Max went missing. He had enough money to buy a flight to Iceland with his spare change! They found a mountain guide named Hannah and headed for a mountain.

At the top, he tried grabbing a sensor out of the ground, but lightning was then striking close to him and as he dove inside a chamber, a lightning bolt struck some rocks and trapped the three inside!

They found two tunnels and took the one on the right, only to find themselves at a steep wall! They used ropes to get to the bottom and then found an abandoned mine shaft after some exploring. They rode on one of the carts, which led to a roller-coaster ride inside the cave!

When they reached a dead end, they went into a well-hidden tunnel and discovered that the room was filled with gemstones and minerals such as feldspar, rubies, emeralds, and--last but not least--diamonds! Unfortunately, the floor was made out of muscovite, a fragile material. The muscovite cracked like very thin ice and they fell a long distance into a pool of water.

When they finally arrived at the shore, they discovered that on the ceiling, there were many fluorescent blue birds there, making such a magnificent sight! One of the birds later served as Sean's guide.

Afterward, they found themselves in a scenic jungle and ocean. They found a message from Max stating his destination and where to go to find it. They looked at the temperature gauge and found out that the temperature was rising fast, so they hurriedly built a raft to cross the sea.

Not long after they set sail, a storm began brewing. Later, they were attacked by piranha-like fish, but they all used something to keep them away. Later during the journey on the water, Sean tried to hold on to the mast during high winds but couldn't and was carried by the wind, and in the end, Sean found himself in a sandy area.

Trevor and Hannah were walking in a forest-like area, and suddenly, giant Venus flytraps were attacking them. Hannah was getting choked by the flytraps' vines, but Trevor used his physical strength and pulled a flytrap out of the ground, causing many others to go limp.

Then, the duo arrived at the geyser that was supposed to take them up to the surface, but suddenly, Trevor decided to go look for Sean because he doesn’t want to leave him lost inside.

Meanwhile, Sean was hopping across a path of floating stones (the floating was caused by a magnetic field). After a ton of desperation and holding on when one of the stones flipped over twice, he finally made it across, but then he found himself being chased by a T-rex that was right above him!

Despite his desperation and fright, he outran the T-rex into a small den, and on the other side of the den, Trevor smashed an opening in the wall so Sean could get to the other side and away from danger.

But the T-rex burst through the wall like it was nothing! Trevor, however, realized that the floor was made of muscovite, so he devised a plan to lure the ferocious dinosaur onto the muscovite floor. Later, the T-rex fell through!

Sean and Trevor made it safely and found Hannah, who was sailing in a dinosaur jaw bone as a sailboat! They rode a very bumpy ride to get to the geyser, but missed it when their ride was out of control and landed in a fissure containing magma!

Their mode of transportation got stuck between two walls, however. Trevor found out that the wall was made out of magnesium, which breaks when exposed to fire and then tried three times to break the wall with flares. On the third try, he burst the wall which caused the dinosaur jawbone they were traveling in to be propelled upwards.

They were going up fast due to the magma’s force and when they reached the surface, they found out that they came out of Mt. Vesuvius in Italy, which last erupted in A.D. 79!

After a rapid downhill ride, they found an Italian farmer, and with Sean's diamond samples, they were able pay for the damage caused to his vineyards, as well as get enough money to get to Canada, where Sean was supposed to meet his mother. They later went home and showed his mom the fluorescent bird he kept.

The 3-D was able to add to the suspense of the movie and my favorite pre-movie commercial for MovieTickets.com! =D

The Prince and the Pauper

This story is another adventure-filled book by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) that takes place in London. Its title is "The Prince and the Pauper".

Here is the summary of the story:

One day, a child named Tom was born into a poor family and became a pauper. On the same day, another child, Edward, was born into a rich family and became the Prince of Wales. During Tom's childhood, he read books about princes.

Many years later, he escaped from his family and ran off. He ended up at the prince's castle only to be treated badly by the guards. However, the prince allowed him to go in. The prince guided him to his room. He then ordered Tom to stay there while he went out of the castle.

Unfortunately, Tom's biological father, John, grabbed the prince. That created a mob trying to free him from John's hold. John hit one of the men trying to free Edward with a club. He later got word that he killed the man and now his family was in danger.

John’s family ran as fast as they can away from their home. Meanwhile, Tom was getting worried about Edward but did not leave the castle. He was mistaken as the Prince of Wales and was treated a lot better than in his former ghetto home.

However, they found out that he could not speak the languages that the real prince could speak. He was later assigned to take lessons. During his lessons, he also made declarations and new laws.

Days later, King Henry VIII died, so now Tom was promoted from prince to king! He made more declarations as the King of England. During the king's River Parade, however, the real king, Edward, declared that he was going to get his throne back.

There, Edward also made a friend with Miles Hendon. He soon became Edward's protector wherever he went. They were sleeping in a house when they found out that Edward had gone missing. When he went outside, one of his servants told him that a man came by who said that Miles sent him to get the boy and bring him back to Miles, which, of course, was a lie told by the man.

The next morning, Tom woke up and Lord Hertford came to him. He was then dressed by his servants. He was then led to the throne room, where Tom was going to conduct a speech. One subject was about the former king's debts. He soon found out that being a king wasn't what he was expecting.

A boy was then sent into the throne room. He was Tom's whipping boy, Humphrey Marlow. Whenever Tom fails a test, Humphrey gets whipped. Tom thought that was unfair and declared that Humphrey should not get whipped ever again.

Tom was scheduled to dine out in public on his fourth day of being a king to see if he was ready to rule the kingdom. When he looked out the window, he saw an angry mob outside. One of Tom's pages told him that the mob was following a man that was about to be executed. He then ordered that man to be sent to the castle.

When the criminal arrived, he remembered that the man saved his friend, Giles, from drowning. That criminal had been accused for poisoning. After listening to the story, Tom declared that there wasn't enough evidence to find out if the criminal really poisoned someone.

At Tom's dinner,

Gulliver's Travels

 

This book that I have read is also a great adventure book. It was written by Jonathan Swift, born in Ireland in 1667.

Here is the summary:

Lemuel Gulliver's father left his son when he was a kid, but over the years Gulliver became more independent and soon he was on a ship headed for the East Indies when a powerful storm blew the Antelope (the ship) off course.

Gulliver was all alone in the sea when he spotted a beach. A crowd of tiny people there shot him with a lot of arrows at his hand, which forced him to surrender. He was then taken to the capital of Lilliput (the island). There he met with the emperor and empress of Lilliput. Many of the residents there were astounded by his size (they were only 6 inches tall). The emperor ordered a feast for Gulliver and ordered people to make a bed and a blanket for him.

Days later, Gulliver learned the Lilliputians' language and asked for freedom. He was then checked for weapons before he could leave. The emperor held a performance with rope dancers, jugglers, acrobats and more. Gulliver wanted to do an act of his own.

He gathered the Lilliputian army and ordered a mock battle. For the grand finale, he ordered the soldiers to march between his legs. The ministers wrote a document stating the terms of his freedom. After gaining his freedom, he visited the palace and took a look inside all the windows, being guided by the empress.

Two weeks later, the secretary of a secret agency asked Gulliver to destroy the Blefuscan fleet because of a conflict that soon turned into a war. The cause of the war between Lilliput and Blefuscu was the way how to break an egg, smaller side or larger side. To them, it was a serious matter.

He crossed the 800-yard sea to Blefuscu to take the enemy fleet by grabbing ropes attached to the ship. At the sight of Gulliver, dubbed "Man Mountain", they were in shock. He cut the anchor ropes holding the ships in place and carried the enemy fleet back to Lilliput.

However, Gulliver was then charged with treason for refusing to conquer Blefuscu. Afterwards, some people in the council began to plot against him. Shortly after, the empress's apartment was on fire, and during a desperate attempt to put out the fire, he sprayed water out of his mouth, putting out the fire.

However, he did not know that spitting on palace grounds was against the law. For the misdeeds he committed, they planned to put his eyes out with arrows. Gulliver later escaped to Blefuscu and rode home after that, but another storm caught the ship near Madagascar.

He ended up in a place where he was the small person and the rest were giants. That land was called Brobdingnag. He later lived with a family who had a little girl named Glumdalclitch, and she quickly became Gulliver's best friend.

The farmer then sold him to the highest bidder. The high bidder was the queen. The farmer then granted permission to Glumdalclitch to stay with Gulliver.

A dwarf who wanted to get revenge on Gulliver (for making fun of his height) gathered the biggest flies ad sent them out against Gulliver, but they were no match against his skills as a swordsman.

On another account, a swarm of wasps entered his room through the window. Four of them were killed, but the rest escaped. He soon made one of the stingers into a trophy.

The queen made a boat and a river for Gulliver to sail in. He later found a ship to take him home, but he ended up in a place called Laputa, which was floating in the sky. There was a kingdom below named Balnibarbi. A resident named Munodi led him across the kingdom, exploring every area of the kingdom. He then went back home on another ship.

The Adventures of Robin Hood

I haven't read in a long while, but I felt that I should read another book. This time, it was a wonderful adventure that spans many years. It is called The Adventures of Robin Hood, by Howard Pyle, a Delawarean.

Here is a summary of the story:

In a peaceful English community lived a famous outlaw named Robin Hood, whose reputation was to rob the rich and donate to the poor. Over the years, he has collected more members in his band of over 140 men!

He became an outlaw at 18 years, when he argued with a group of foresters and shot the leader of a herd of deer with a bow and arrow. Afterward, he also shot one of the foresters! Unfortunately, that forester was a relative of King Henry II, who was ruling England at that time. The Sheriff of Nottingham put up a big reward for his capture.

Later, when his band was a little over 100 men, he got in an argument with a wealthy stranger. They challenged each other to a fight, and after a whole load of fighting, Robin won. He then won in an archery contest, so the stranger, named John Little (renamed Little John), joined Robin and his band of 100 men.

A messenger spread the word about Robin Hood across Nottingham, going as far as the Blue Boar Inn, where he joined a group consisting of friars, foresters, and a tinker. The tinker met Robin Hood twice, and on the second time, they fought against each other. Robin won against him and the tinker joined him, just like Little John did.

The Sheriff of Nottingham wanted Robin Hood to be caught, but he could not place a warrant on him. He met with King Henry II, and they devised a plan to hold an archery contest to entice and capture Robin Hood. One of Robin's men, however, told him that the contest was a trap. He still entered the contest, but in disguise. The rest of the men were also in disguise.

During the elimination round of the archery contest, the sheriff was disappointed because he could not find Robin among the archers competing. As expected, he got the best shot and won first prize (a golden arrow) under the clever pseudonym Jock o' Teviotdale. Later that day, the sheriff received a note that the winner of the contest was actually Robin Hood himself!

The sheriff sent 300 constables against Robin's band, but they all hid. The constables searched for a week and found nothing. However, a member of the band, Will Stutely, was captured when he tried to get some news. Robin's gang all went to Nottingham to rescue Will. The sheriff's men and Robin's men fought against each other until Little John threw a sword at Will so that he could free himself.

Robin asked a butcher if he could replace him for a day. The butcher agreed. Robin charged only a penny for meat with a three-penny value. Some of Robin's men and the sheriff ate together without the sheriff knowing that Robin was near him. After dinner, they stripped the sheriff of his money.

Later, Arthur-a-Bland lost to Little John and then he agreed to join Robin. They met a gentleman who they fought against, but because Robin recognized him, the gentleman, renamed Will Scarlet, joined Robin's band. They found a minstrel who was deeply troubled. After comforting him, he joined the band by the name of Allan-a-Dale.

They sent off to find the Friar of Fountain Abbey, so Allan-a-Dale could get married. But without knowing, Robin found himself fighting the Friar of Fountain Abbey. The friar sent out his dogs against him. Will Scarlet later explained to Robin that he was actually fighting the friar himself.

They were now heading to Sherwood to explain to the friar about Allan-a-Dale's dilemma. Next, they headed to the church for Allan-a-Dale's wedding, but it appeared that Ellen o' the Dale was going to marry Sir Stephen of Trent, so the bishop said that Sir Stephen was not Ellen's true love. Ellen's father wanted Sir Stephen to marry Ellen, but Sir Stephen objected. Robin gave Allan-a-Dale gifts while he forced the bishop to hand over his gold chain and give it to Allan-a-Dale.

The next day, a page was sent by Queen Eleanor to inform Robin that there will be another shooting contest. There were 800 people competing for first prize (50 pounds of gold coins, a silver bugle, and ten gold-tipped arrows). The bishop then exposed the identity of four men in Robin's band.

Then, the ten best archers competed, and then Robin Hood and another man named Gilbert faced off against each other, because all three of their shots hit dead center. Robin won the grand prize, but the page, whose name was Richard Partington warned Robin about King Henry and how he would track him down.

That night, Robin's band was warned by Richard that the king has sent men to arrest him. Sir Richard passed by and agreed to take Robin to London for his safety.

A stranger named Guy of Gisbourne came after Robin and held an archery contest. As usual, Robin won, but Guy of Gisbourne was going to fight Robin, and he did. But Robin had killed him, and he was unhappy that he killed two people so far. He did not want to kill at all.

The following day, King Richard, the new king after King Henry had died, was visiting Nottingham. King Richard wanted to meet Robin Hood in person mostly because of the zany adventures he has gotten into. He later met with Robin during a banquet and paid 50 pounds of gold money. Robin later got into a fight with King Richard and whoever wins gets the money (50 pounds). King Richard defeated Robin, unlike all the other men.

The next day Robin, Will Scarlet, Little John, and Allan-a-Dale rode with King Richard.

For many years, Robin did not return to Sherwood Forest, but eventually Little John and Will Scarlet left. But years later, King Richard was killed in a battle, only to be replaced by John.

Robin Hood came back to Sherwood Forest and declared that he would become a yeoman once more. Everyone in his former outlaw band came to the scene.

But later, King John sent Sir William Dale to go look for Robin. When he eventually did, his men and Robin's men fought against each other. Robin later got injured. Then, in front of Little John, he would shoot his last arrow. That would be where Robin's grave would be.

The End

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

I chose this book to read, and it is written by one of the most famous authors of all time. The book is titled The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. It is filled with adventure and continues from the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Like all the other books, it is filled with adventures. 5/5!

I suggest you read on if you want to know his adventure.

At a house in the southern states, Huckleberry Finn is living his daily life of waking up, eating meals, doing chores, and spelling words. However, he is tired of all this.

One day, after his dad locks him in a cabin, he breaks out and finds a pig. He cuts it and blood rushes out. He uses this blood to trick everyone that he was murdered. He teams up with a runaway slave, Jim, and hides from the search party looking for him.

They went into a cave and live there for a few days, but after the water level rises four feet, they find a raft and sail up the Mississippi River to the Free States. They met a lot of people and tricked them into believing something else.

After weeks of sailing, they dock at the town of Cairo in Illinois. He lets Jim go at this town, but he comes back once in a while. They meet a duke and a king that Huck and Jim talked about earlier. The duke and the king put on a show and collect gold coins along the way.

Huck sneaks into a ship under the name George Jackson. He meets with a boy named Buck and has even more adventures. Buck explains about the long-lasting feud between his family, the Grangerfords, and a rival family, the Shepherdsons.

They meet William, a man who is deaf and mute, but Huck didn’t know what the hand signs that William was making meant.

After many more events, Jim, the runaway slave, was now a free man. Huck finds out that his dad and aunt died. However, this story doesn’t have a bad ending, like the previous deaths suggest.

The Most Beautiful Mathematical Formulas

With around 50 formulas, this is a must for future mathematicians. 5/5!

Part 1: Powers of Numbers (Form. 1-2)
This very concise part explains about the powers of numbers (any number!) Also, it explains that (x^n)(x^m) = x^(n+m).

Part 2: Tri., Rect., Squ., and Cir. (Form. 3-10)
This part contains the innovative geometric discoveries. Things such as the areas of geometric figures, the rediscovery of the Pythagorean Theorem, and equal proportions in which rearrangement of areas of a square doesn’t make a difference.

Part 3: Angles (Form. 11-15)

This section talks about the proportion of the sine of an angle to its cosine. Also, it explains how the number pi (3.1415926535897932384626433832795...) is approximately 355/113, despite the fact that pi is irrational.

Part 4: Quadratic Equations (Form. 16-18)
It explains the Golden Ratio used in quadratic equations, the roots of a quadratic equation, and imaginary numbers. This is again a very concise part.

Part 5: Logarithms and Exponentials (Form. 19-28)
It describes the discovery of logarithms, how to find logarithms, the number e, that number raised to real and imaginary power, and that e to the i*pi power=-1.

Part 6: Series of Numbers (Form. 29-34)
This is probably one of my most favorite sections in the book. It has paradoxical equations, such as ½+¼+1/8+1/16..., the Fibonacci Sequence, permutations, 1+2+3+…_+n= n(n+1)/2, and more.

Part 7: Objects in Space (Form. 35-39)
This explains the theories about 3-D figures like cubes, spheres, pyramids, and prisms. It contains the formula of the surface area and volume of a sphere. It also has Euler’s Theorem: the faces on a 3-D figure -the edges + the number of vertices (corners).

Part 8: Whole and Prime Numbers (Form. 40-44)
This is probably my favorite section out of the entire book. Lagrange’s Theorem explains that any number is the sum of four squares. More topics are the facts that prime numbers are indivisible except for itself and 1, the Goldbach’s Conjecture, stating that every even number (except 2) is a sum of two primes, and Fermat’s Last Theorem.

Part 9/10: Chance/ Today and Tomorrow… (Form. 45-47, 48-49)
These two sections are so concise that they can be summarized in one whole piece. It has the chance of winning the lottery, Pascal’s Triangle, betting on roulette, the binary system, and the book-ender: the concept of infinity.

I hope you find this book somewhere and enjoy it! That’s all for now!

An Inconvenient Truth

Today, I will review the book that would surely change the minds of global warming skeptics, An Inconvenient Truth, written in 2006 by the former Vice President of the USA, Al Gore.

This book has fascinated me tremendously about what is going to happen in the next century, and how we can prevent that from happening.

It explains a lot of interesting facts about global warming and its effects on our planet. It first talks about the changing Earth and what caused this transformation. The cause is not natural, but reflects our indifference towards our own planet by the sorry ways we treat our environment. These ways include the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, and, most importantly, greenhouse gas (primarily CO2) emissions. It also explains how global warming occurs.

I also made a diagram on Paint in my computer explaining how this happens.

As we go on, we see the effects of this climate change by looking at comparisons of past and present pictures of places such as the Swiss Alps, Glacier National Park in Montana, and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. The snow and the glaciers have partly, or even completely melted, making a clear difference in the pictures.

The impact of global warming at the North and South Poles is explained as well, stating that parts of those areas are showing unmistakable signs of global warming. Chunks off the western Antarctic shelf have broken off from the huge continent made of ice. Natural species, such as the emperor penguin at Antarctica, or the polar bear of the Arctic, are facing certain extinction unless we are able to reverse these effects.

Because the sea level might rise 20 feet if Greenland’s entirety or the eastern Antarctic shelf had melted, maps might be redrawn, especially in the case of coastal areas. New York City’s Manhattan streets might be underwater if that happened, and so would major world cities like Miami, Amsterdam of the Netherlands, Calcutta of India, parts of Bangladesh, and most of the low-lying Oceania.

Global warming can cause infectious creatures/carriers (along with their diseases) to spread to areas previously a “Do Not Enter” zone. Take the West Nile virus in the US, it completely spread through the Lower 48 in just 5 years. Also, the season for most animals to hunt has changed.

With all this, you may think it’s impossible to reverse this effect. But you CAN. It won’t be immediate, but we can do it, but only if we don’t keep on doing these things.

Facts to know:

The USA is the area that produces the most CO2. Our Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) use has dipped from 1987 onward, preventing new ozone holes from forming.
Two advanced countries haven’t ratified the Kyoto Protocol yet: Australia and the USA. Many US cities, however, are abiding to the Kyoto Protocol.

This transfers a message throughout the reading world: global warming is devastating, but with cooperation, global warming can be reversed.

The Wind in the Willows

My 14th book that I have read, continuing my reading marathon from last Tuesday is The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. It is filled with the adventures of four animal friends, going from one part to the next. 5/5!

Here is the summary of the book:

During spring cleaning, Mole decides not to clean his house and decides to go outside and breathe the fresh air. He greets the Water Rat, who is rowing his boat. The two decide to have a picnic near the Wild Wood, a place where a good mix of animals live. After the picnic, Mole tries to row the boat, but he doesn’t have much success.

Over the next few months, Mole has learned how to row the boat. The two decide to meet Toad, who is very rich and lives in a mansion named Toad Hall. They ride a horse-drawn cart, but soon, a motorcar zips right by them, causing the cart to tip over.

After this incident, Toad pursues the thought of driving a car. After the incident that leaves Rat angry at the driver, Mole wanders into the Wild Wood and gets chased into a hole in a tree. Rat soon finds him and the two stay at the Badger’s home in the heart of the woods.

The atmosphere was soothing as it melted away Rat’s and Mole’s chills from the cold, snowy weather. Mole and Rat decided to go on a hike, but shortly returned to Mole’s house. A group of field mice carolers spent the night at Mole’s house.

After that, the Badger joins the two to go to Toad Hall to settle his obsession with cars. However, Toad’s cleverness makes the three go to the village, allowing him to escape. He later steals a car and was apprehended and in the process gets one year for stealing a car, three more for careless driving, and fifteen more years for arguing with the police.

The judge sentenced him for 19 years, but he immediately rounded it off to 20. The jailer’s daughter became Toad’s caretaker. Together they hatched a plan to escape to disguise Toad in the caretaker’s aunt’s washing clothes. He snuck out of the jail and quickly boards the last train of the day, only to find that a police train was in hot pursuit of them. Both escaped without harm and Toad finds a barge, but a rude comment from the other passenger causes him to get off.

He rides his old horse and gets six shillings and all the food that the gypsy he met had to offer (all this in return for his horse). Toad sees the car that he had stolen. He offers to drive, but rude comments from the two other men causes him to drive carelessly again.

Mole and Rat attempt to find Little Portly, a child that always runs off. They find him between one of the hooves of a beast with a melodic pipe. Rat meets the Sea Rat and he tells Rat his voyages at sea. Rat was highly interested as the Sea Rat told his stories.

Toad is shocked that weasels and ferrets had taken over Toad Hall. Rat tells him about the invasion and how some of his friends disguised themselves and snuck in (such as Mole dressing up in a washwoman’s suit). Toad is angry at all this and wants to get even with the weasels and ferrets.

The four sneak into the house through an underground secret passage. They took the weasels by surprise and fended off the entire weasel and ferret troop. They had invited many friends to a party at Toad Hall the next night. Rat told him not to be boastful in order for the party to be a good one. The animals wanted him to do so, but he simply said no. They thought that Toad had gone through a change (and a good one, too)!

A Pocket Guide to WEATHER

Today, I take a break from the 5-day fictional marathon and focus on a non-fiction book, continuing my reading marathon. The book is called A Pocket Guide to Weather. It covers all things from climate change to types of precipitation to disastrous weather to the future climates. 5/5!

Section by section, here are the summaries:

Section I (11 pgs.)
This section is about both weather and climate, but mostly climate. It explains the nine different climates of the world: tropical, subtropical, temperate, arid, semi-arid, Mediterranean, mountainous, sub-arctic, and polar.

Section II (59 pgs.)
This section is the longest out of all of the sections in this book. It explains the global weather patterns, clouds, seasons, and the types of weather. Further detail of those subjects gives us topics such as warm/cold/occluded fronts, the jet stream, air pressure, the water cycle, types of clouds, and precipitation in all forms (rain, snow, hail, fog, etc.)

Section III (21 pgs.)
This section explains about weather patterns, but this time these are local patterns. It contains explanations of continental and maritime climates, oceanity, altitude, winds, pollution, and wind chill. The last pages are about animal adaptations to different types of environment such as the temperate, polar, arid (desert), and tropical environments.

Section IV (36 pgs.)
This section explains about violent types of weather. You can already think of the topics right now. To check yourself if you’ve covered the types, these extreme types of weather are thunderstorms, hurricanes/cyclones/typhoons, tornadoes, waterspouts, floods, heat waves, droughts, bush fires, and snow-related weather (avalanches, blizzards, hailstorms, etc.)

Section V (10 pgs.)
This may seem the shortest section in the book, but it is not. Anyway, this section is about weather opticals.
If you don’t know what I mean, these should help you, Mirages, rainbows, coronas, auroras, and haloes all count in this chapter.

Section VI (15 pgs.)
This section is about the history of weather and also the beliefs of ancient peoples about weather. Descriptions include the invention of the Celsius scale, beliefs about weather gods, Robert Fitzroy, early weather devices, 20th century weather devices, and weather involved in warfare and the performing arts.

Section VII (17 pgs.)
This section explains today’s weather forecasting methods. Subjects of this chapter include the usage of radar and satellite, thermometers, barometers, anemometers, monitoring precipitation, and the broadcasting of weather forecasts.

Section VIII (8 pgs.)
This section is by far the shortest section. It explains about how people use and manipulate the weather. Topics include cloud “seeding” and how people use the weather using renewable resources. Breaking down into the renewable resource topic, we get the use of sunlight, water, and air for energy. Of course, almost everything in life has a downside. The section explains the impact of the usage of these methods of energy.

Section IX (11 pgs.)
This section explains the climates of the past. These topics are simply the Paleozoic/Mesozoic eras, the Ice Age, the “Little Ice Age” and the Milankovitch Cycles.

Section X (30 pgs.)
This section was the most interesting to me because this explains the future climates. It explains climate change, El Niño and La Niña, acid rain, CFCs, more storms, heat waves, global dimming, and disease spreading due to global warming. All of them can happen (and some of them have already happened) if we keep using fossil fuels and adding to the greenhouse effect. This is the most appealing to me because I don’t want the world to be affected severely by global warming.

This book is a must for those who are learning about weather, but you can also read it for enjoyment.

Here’s a way more precise rating for this book: infinity out of infinity!

Books

So far, I have only read 10 books out of a collection of around 30 books (even though they are not the only books I have read). Those 10 books were (the most recent at the top):

Journey to the Center of the Earth- Jules Verne
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow/Rip Van Winkle- Washington Irving
Peter Pan- J. M. Barrie
The Time Machine- H. G. Wells
Moby Dick- Herman Melville
The Call of the Wild- Jack London
Oliver Twist- Charles Dickens
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer- Mark Twain
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea- Jules Verne

I enjoyed every single book, except for two of them. It’s a 1 in 45 chance that you’ll guess the two.

Now for the summaries.

Journey to the Center of the Earth

In the mid-1800s, a professor named Otto Liedenbrock, brings his nephew, Alex, to Iceland to try and reach the center of the Earth. Hans Bjelke, their guide, goes with them as they embark on a spectacular journey that involves intense heat, rapid currents, and real-life dinosaur-era creatures. It ends when they are forced out by an eruption that lands them in Sicily, to the south of Italy. They return home, and Alex marries his love, Gretchen.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow/Rip Van Winkle

Ichabod Crane, a schoolmaster in Sleepy Hollow, tries to win the heart of his love, Katrina Van Tassel. But his rivals, Brom “Bones” and his gang, try to humiliate him and marry Katrina. One night after a party, he returns home, only to find the Headless Horseman, the legendary ghost of a Hessian soldier from the Revolutionary War, chasing him out of the thick forest! He tries to outrun him on his horse, Gunpowder. But Gunpowder’s saddle slips and he is not able to hold on to his horse. The Headless Horseman flings his ”head”, which is kept at the right of him, to Crane. It hit his own head and later, Ichabod Crane, dies. Brom Bones ends up marrying Katrina, and laughs whenever he hears the Crane story.

In a New York settlement, near the Catskill Mountains, Rip Van Winkle goes exploring and finds three people bowling. He drinks something beer-like, and falls asleep for 20 years. He wakes up, confused about the new atmosphere. He later finds out that the colonists have won independence against the British and formed a new country, the United States of America.

Peter Pan
The Darling family kids, Wendy, John, and Michael, find Peter Pan in their room as they go to Neverland, a place that only exists in imagination. They embark on many different adventures, but most of all, they fight the pirates, led by Captain Hook. Wendy, John, and Michael use clever tactics with the help of Peter to take down the pirates and return to the real world.

The Time Machine

A man claims to have made a time machine, but other men do not believe him. However, the Time Traveler travels to the future and discover that the human race had split into two groups, the Morlocks and the Eloi. At one point he loses his time machine and goes on a long search for it, looking in bushes, near trees, and in ancient buildings. He finds in inside a pedestal with a winged figure on it and returns to the present day.

Moby Dick

An ordinary man joins the crew of a whaling ship, the Pequod, and finds that the captain of the ship, Ahab had a grudge against a large white whale named Moby Dick because he lost a leg against him. His crew had took down many whales on their journey, but Moby Dick sank the ship. Many of the sailors drowned, but a few of them survived.

The Call of the Wild

Buck, a wolf-like dog from California, is taken to the freezing northern lands and becomes a sled dog. The dogs ran many miles and suffered from tiredness and hunger. Some of the dogs died. But not Buck. He had great endurance, and he even killed the strong leader, Spitz. Buck replaced him as leader. But after many miles, three dogs remained. Buck ran away from the pack because he had heard a wild wolf’s “call of the wild”. The native people are afraid to enter a specific area because of abnormal wolf tracks created by Buck’s spirit.

I will say my piece on the last 4 books on the list next time. However, I can tell you that all 10 books are great stories to read, and that you can picture each in your mind. That is why these books are enjoyable.

Sneak Preview: The next two books that I will read might be Alice in Wonderland, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. There will be updates about all the other books as I read them.