So chapter 8 started out with Ford and Arthur in the “Poetry Appreciation” room on the Vogon ship. The book really jumps around a lot and it can get confusing but if you remember the pair had just been captured by the head Vogon. He read them some of the worse, but hilarious, poetry, and very cleverly, Arthur said it was some great writing. Sadly, it didn’t work. Very ironically, they were thrown into open space instead of having to listen to more poetry, which is exactly what Ford wanted.

According to Ford, if you hold your breath in space, you can live for thirty more seconds. 29 seconds after they were thrown in space, very coincidentally, they were picked up by the Heart of Gold, the giant ship Zaphod jacked. Some very weird stuff happened and I was so incredibly confused. The only thing I understood was Arthur lost limbs then got them back and Ford turned into a penguin. I did come to learn that the Heart of Gold is a ship developed using a hot cup of tea that can travel anywhere in the universe in the nothingth of a second. The system was called the Infinite Improbability Drive. Funny. Very funny.

So Zaphod got even crazier. The giant ship, Heart of Gold, well, he stole it. He threw a bomb into the crowd and made a run for the ship. Funny stuff! I don’t know what happened, though, because they jump around to the different characters situations. These twenty pages jumped back to Ford and Arthur. The two have now begun to hitchhike around the galaxy, and who did they get a ride from? The Vogons, rather frightening aliens who destroyed earth, and according to the guide, hate hitchhikers. The only reason they got on the ship was because of the Vogons’ cooks, the Dentrassis. These creatures love to annoy the Vogons, and what better way than to pick up a few hitchhikers??

Now the Vogons are the poor species who got beat really hard with the ugly stick. They had this really funny story about how their new sun just didn’t even bother to evolve them any farther because it was a hopeless cause, they’re the bullies. After they finished with abusing their planet, the moved on to bully and destroy other planets. They are also extremely terrible at writing poetry because, according to Ford, he would rather be thrown into space than listen to them read a poem.

There’s also this really cool thing Ford had called the Babel fish, and I just learned about Babel in CCD =). All you have to do is stick it in your ear (ewww) and it translates every language for you. I would love one of those. It would certainly make Spanish class easier.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide started to pick up a little bit, although I’m still not entirely sure where it’s going. The large yellow spaceships came into the sky, confusing everyone. It was the Vogons, who came to get rid of Earth for the intergalactic bypass. I love the irony of the fact that these huge things making a horendous noise are about to destroy Earth, and Arthur is freaking out about the fact that they are destroying his house. Ford, knowing of this attack, is prepared for travel. He has his towel, which The Guide says is the most important thing a galactic hitchhiker can have because you can use it for a lot of different things and it lets other hitchhikers know he is not one to be messed with. If someone has a towel, then it’s assumed they have everything else necessary for proper hygiene and survival, and he/she will lend that hitchhiker anything that was “lost.”

I also met the president of the galaxy, Zaphod Beetlebrox. He isn’t the real source of power, he’s only someone used to take attention away from where the power actually is, and it’s said he’s very good at his job. Only six people know that. Zaphod is a two headed, three armed “man” who is completely crazy and I love it!! Just at the end of my reading he hijacked a huge spaceship, the Heart of Gold. It makes me giggle at how the Galactic government may be similar to ours and is similar to just about everything else: you never know who really has the power.

For my next independent reading book, I’m reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It’s a pretty quick read with, in the words of my dad, “…absurd British humor in the style of Monte Python.” He wrote that on the inside cover of the book he bought me, and he pretty much hit the nail on the head with that one. It’s not my typical paranormal romance, but it’s a nice change to get me out of my genre rut.

I was incredibly confused at first, but it’s actually not that hard to understand. The first 20 pages introduce you to Ford who’s so serious he’s funny and kind of odd in an unexplainable way, Arthur who lays in front of bull dozers for fun and is Ford’s friend, and Mr. Prosser who is the descendant of Genghis Khan and is trying to tear down Arthur’s house with the bull dozers. I actually laughed out loud on more than one occasion. For instance, the exchange between Ford and Mr. Prosser for anyone who knows what I’m talking about. Ford is so serious Mr. Prosser doesn’t know what to do except take Arthur’s place and lay down in front of the bull dozer so he can leave with Ford. Fantastic! I also like that the author tells you absolutely everything you need to know about the characters (expository characterization =D). It’s another nice change to what I’m used to. If the whole book goes like this, I have a feeling I’m going to be getting in trouble for laughing out loud in the middle of class.

Today I finished Mockingjay, and I wanted to cry. Katniss’s squad, led by Boggs (who I really like) began their infiltration of the Capitol. First, they step into land mines that weren’t marked on the Holo (map) and Boggs died, but before he was gone he gave the lead to Katniss. They traveled through the sewers to avoid the pods which held “surprises” inside. The sewer wasn’t much better though. There were pods down there too, and when Snow discovered they still weren’t dead, he sent half lizard half people, mutts, after them. Somewhere around eight people died, including Finnik, a former victor, who I also really liked. But Gale, Peeta, Katniss, and two others made it into the Capitol’s center.

There was a pen of Capitol children in front of Snow’s house, and gift’s began raining down to the children from what was thought to be the Capitol. But the gifts began exploding, and when Katniss’s little sister Prim (who I love)went in to help th injusred children, she was killed too!! I almost started crying. Katniss learned that it was the rebels who let the bombs rain down, and Gale was one of the masterminds behind it. President Coin was thought to be the one to send Prim to the front line (that’s what Snow told her while he was jailed). So when the time came for Katniss to execute Snow, she shot Coin instead, which I did not see coming. Katniss was spared from execution, and after awhile, sent back to 12 to live basically alone (except for Haymitch). Peeta came back too, and I ended up liking him more than Gale after finding out what he did to Prim. And the two of them lived happily ever after (almost). A lot of other things happened in between, but you just have to read the book to understand. Too many things happened to write a full summary.

I really loved this book, but the ending was a major let down. It feels like the author just gave up and didn’t even try to end it. Basically, it was Peeta and Katniss had kids, the end. Gale didn’t even come back! That was a huge disappointment. He just dropped off the face of the earth, along with Katniss’s mother. I would have been even more upset, but Katniss should have killed herself like she was planning, or Gale should have killed Peeta, or vice versa. That would have made for a much better ending than Prim dying and Coin being assassinated. I still really enjoyed the book though, which is obvious after I read it in about three days. The trilogy has plenty of fantastic qualities, but it’s a shame it was the ending of the third book that sucked because it sure left a real sour taste in my mouth.

So, I got very into Mockingjay today and read around 200 hundred pages, and a lot happened. But the main stuff was as follows. Katniss has managed to unite all the districts against the Capitol, with only a few injuries along the way, and they saved the other tributes from the capitol. I was pretty excited to hear Peeta was alive, even though I like Gale better. What he did when he saw Katniss for the first time completely caught me off guard. He wrapped his hands…….around her neck and tried to kill her. Kill her! After he proclaimed his love for her, he tried to strangle her, and I didn’t understand why at first. The doctors then discovered that while he was held prisoner the capitol had tampered with his memories of Katniss and made her seem evil and mean. So, after he’s gotten somewhat better and was sent to war with Katniss, he still hates her.

I’m actually somewhat glad Peeta hates her because that gives Gale more room. But I have a very bad feeling Peeta is going to kill him, and if he does, I’ll cry, but I’m not really sure where this is going to go in the last 150 pages. The first two books (and this one) are so unpredictable; I can’t even begin to guess. I absolutely love it so far though. It makes me want to be Katniss in some ways, but in others, not so much. I’ll hopefully have the book finished soon, but at the same time I don’t want it to end! =(

Since Katniss decided to become the Mockingjay, she made some conditions to spare Peeta and the other tributes in case the rebels won. She also made sure Prim could keep Buttercup and she could kill President Snow, and president Coin agreed with all these. When she announced it to all of 13, Coin added that if Katniss stepped out of line, all the tributes and she would be killed. So now she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. In order to save Peeta, she has to do everything Coin tells her to do, and Katniss sucks at doing what she’s told. I have a very bad feeling that the leaders of 13 are going to take advantage of this, very bad feeling.

Also, they are going to remake Katniss in order to fit the Mockingjay image. Pluratch, the organizer of the game’s and rebellion, handed her a sketch book with her new suit and many other outfits. The book had belonged to Cinna, her make over man for the games. He had drawn the outfits before he died and in anticipation of her becoming the Mockingjay. So Fulvia, Pluratch’s assistant, took Katniss and Gale to a floor unknown to them before, where they found the other 3 members of her prep team chained to a wall, bruised, and half naked only because they stole a piece of bread. Now, that seems just a little bit ridiculous and unfair if you ask me, and I would rather live in the woods than in such a controlled environment. I feel really bad for all the people in 13, and something just doesn’t seem right about everything.