Book Genres

My second book, Fight Club, fits into the genre of Thriller, and it fits perfectly into the subgenre of Psychological Thriller. I believe this because it's very thrilling with how much violence, fighting, and mystery actually goes on. It's also psychological, though, because the main character is fighting with a character that is in his head the whole time. It's very much a mind game, and in the end it leaves you with that "whoa." feeling of being tricked. It doesn't completely fit into this category, however, because when I think of thrillers I always tend to think of a murder or a kidnapping, or just a story that needs to be solved. There is nothing really driving this plot line for the beginning part of the book, and it's just detailing these weird things that happen to this odd man, so it doesn't feel too much like a thriller. When he starts to question who Tyler Durden is, however, it starts to feel more like a thriller with something that you need to figure out. You begin to think back to everything he has ever said about Tyler and wonder who exactly he is. You start to question what exactly the narrator meant when he said things like "I know this because Tyler knows this" and why Tyler told the narrator never to talk to Marla about him. It begins to drive you slightly crazy wondering about what exactly was going on and who everyone is. But being driven this crazy is a good thing because it fuels your desire to keep reading. It makes you read faster, but also closer, trying to pick up all the little details you can to try to figure it out. You begin to get an idea of what's happening, but you're still driven to keep reading father into the book. Once you get to the end and the author reveals everything, all the little details, the madness that was actually going on the whole time, even though it's exactly what you thought it was, you're still blown away.

Genre Study

I feel like placing books into genres is helpful and hurtful. Putting a book into a genre is going to get people who like that one genre to notice it and maybe read it, but people who don't like or don't often read that type of book might completely pass it up even if they might have enjoyed it. When you put a label on a book, you're just putting it in one category, even if you could possibly fit into more than one. You are squeezing it to fit into just one category, when most books don't even completely fit into one category. But putting books into genres does help people who liked one book find other books that are like it.
My favorite genre to read is mystery or thriller, because they leave you on the edge of your seat and keep you reading. You feel like you have to keep reading just to know what happens in the book. If a book isn't thrilling enough to give me that feeling that I have to keep turning the page, then I'm really likely to just put it down one day and never pick it up again. I lose interest in books really fast if they're not thrilling enough, so my favorite genre is definitely mystery or thriller.
Over the years, I have definitely changed in my reading taste. A few years ago, I was one to read all of the romantic "chick-flick" like books, but I started to grow away from that. Sure, I'll still read one every now and then, and I get more interested in a book if it's got a love to cheer for or that can be related to, but I'm not one to go looking for one now.

It's only after we've lost everything, that we're free to do anything.

Fight Club Review:
Fight Club is by far one of the best books I've ever read. It is full of action, mystery, and psychological thrills that all keep you happy and on the edge of your seat. The entire time while reading it, I couldn't wait to get to the next page, the next chapter, the next big event.
Fight Club starts out with a man who is down on his luck going to the doctor for insomnia. The doctor tells him to try natural remedies, and if he wants to see real pain he should go down to Remaining Men Together and see the men with testicular cancer. When the main character does go down to the meeting, he finds that he's able to let go and just cry, and the crying helps him to sleep better. So, he starts going to many different meetings. Eventually, while he's out on a business trip, his apartment blows up and forces him to move in with a guy he had just met, Tyler Durden. Before they headed to Tyler's apartment, they decided to beat each other up because neither other them had ever been in a fight and didn't "want to die without any scars". Eventually their little bar fight turned into a group of men that fought just to feel like something mattered. This group of men called what they were doing Fight Club. Eventually this fight club turned into a movement of destruction that was called Project Mayhem. This lead to the infamous scene where Tyler and the main character are sitting in an abandoned building waiting to watch many others blow up. The main character is done having to deal with Tyler, so he shoots himself in the jaw.
The author's writing style is very unique and interesting to read. He writes in a confusing way that eventually begins to make sense only when he gives you enough information and only when he wants it to make sense. He uses a lot of literary techniques like similes, metaphors, hyperboles, and others. It's really interesting when he writes small, incomplete sentences to enforce his point. They're really powerful and interesting to read, they really keep your attention and make the storyline flow more.
This book was also made into a very well-selling movie by the same name. Most people have seen it, and can even quote it. The movie follows the storyline perfectly, and often times directly quotes the book. It seems like it would be a hard book to turn into a movie because of all the fighting and the destruction caused by Project Mayhem, but it was executed perfectly. The characters were perfectly cast, they're exactly what you imagine as you are reading the novel, with the exception of Robert Paulson (Big Bob), who was played by Meatloaf. In the novel, he's described with the same physical attributes, but he's described as having blonde hair. Meatloaf, however, has pretty dark hair.
All in all, this is one of my favorite books, and one of my favorite movies. I would give it an A++ because it is just so great. It is very well written and has so much imagery in it. I could perfectly imagine everything that the author, Chuck Palahniuk, was describing. When you see it in the movie, too, it is exactly what he described and you imagined. It is a great read and I would recommend it to anyone.

Book Covers

There are two covers that are used for this novel before it was made into a book. There is one cover for the paperback edition, and one cover for the hardcover book. The paperback version is just a fist that is placed in the center of the cover with red stripes placed over it. The author, Chuck Palahniuk's name is placed at the bottom of the page in very large and very bold letters, and the title, Fight Club, is placed in the same large, bold font at the top of the page. I feel like the creator of the cover did this to show that the book is mainly about violence, but it's also got some crazy mind-games going on behind it. The fighting aspect is shown with the fist, and the brain games are shown with the interesting pattern of the red lines across the whole cover. I like how the creator put the title and the authors name in the same size, because it kind of shows one of the main themes in the book: how everyone is just as significant (or worthless) as everyone, that we are all the same "trash of the world". I believe that this cover helped market the book more towards the men who are drawn to the fighting aspect of this novel.
There is another cover that was released only on the hardcover version of the book. Not as many people have seen this version as have seen the paperback one. When the movie was released, they rereleased the book with a cover that related to the movie so that it would get more publicity.

Adapting My Book

Fight Club has already been made into a very famous movie that has been seen and quoted by millions. But I'm sure the director had a hard time adapting many of the Project Mayhem scenes. It must have been hard to create as much destruction as was portrayed in the novel. Project Mayhem was created to make things fall apart and to make people question things around them. When they blew up big buildings, that must have new hard for the filmmakers to recreated and adapt onto the screen. I'm sure it was also a challenge to portray the end scene when the narrator shot himself to try to rid himself from the harmful words of "advice" from Tyler Durden. One part that I think would be okay to cut would be web the narrator imagines the airplane crashing. It's not completely relevant to the main story line and only shows how far-gone the main character is and leads up to a Project Mayhem project. I think it would be very important to keep the minor character, Bob, because he later on is participating in the Fight Club and in Project Mayhem. Another important scene that shouldn't be cut is web the narrator's apartment blows up. Although that might have been hard to recreate, it was major scene in the book that set up the narrators fall to destruction.

What is a Book?

A book is a fortress. A book is a place to turn to when you've got nowhere else to go. Books are there to help you when you're feeling sad, lonely, confused, anything. When you turn to a book, you're usually going to do one of two things: you're either going to forget about your problems and get absorbed by the book, or you're going to see that the characters always solve their problems one way or another and you'll realize that your problems can be solved too. Books are somewhere to hide away in, somewhere to get lost, and somewhere to live out any life you want to. When you read, you begin to feel like you are a part of the book, inside it even, so you live out what is happening in it. You can feel and see and smell everything that the characters do. I believe that a book is a fortress because they are somewhere to get lost, where all of the problems of the world melt away, and where you don't have to answer to anyone.

I don't believe that an e-book is the same as a hard cover book because it's not. One is on paper and one is online. That is the only way that they differ, though. Inside of the cover are still the same story, the same words, and the same message. The magical aspect of books is in the words that make them up and it has nothing to do with the medium it's delivered in. It doesn't matter if a book is typed out and printed on paper, or if it's displayed on tiny pixels, because in both cases it's typed out and delivered to you in some form. The smell of a book is something that a lot of readers look forward to; in fact there is even a perfume that is made to smell like an old book. It doesn't take anything away from the book, however, if there isn't that musk between the pages. Someone's e-reader might be wrapped up in a leather case and they get that classic leather musk every time they take their book out. It all depends on the reader's preference, but it's not okay to judge someone on their choice of form it's displayed in.

What makes a book Non-Fiction?

I think that for a book to be considered Non-Fiction, it should be mostly true. At least 90% of it should be factual and true. There are a few exceptions, though. I believe that if an author is writing something that is "historical non-fiction" or something along those lines, then they shouldn't be allowed to add anything. If you're portraying someone else's life, then you should have to stay 100% true to the facts, because anything you might add could be seen as slanderous. If it's a non-fiction book about someone like Lincoln who has passed away, then you shouldn't be able to add anything to it that isn't proven fact, because there is no way for him to defend himself or call you out for lying. If it's a textbook or something like that, then you should also not be able to add anything that isn't proven to that, because people will use that to back up things that they are saying. If you put something that isn't true into something that people will reference, then it shouldn't be considered non-fiction. If anything it should have to say that it contains your own opinions in it.
However, if you are writing a personal memoir, then who cares if you add information that isn't completely true? If it makes it more interesting to read, and it still stays mainly true, then I see no problem with embellishing a little.