Post 4: Book Project

The fan experience that will be provided for the readers of The Shack, is a business dedicated to customizing your own garden fractal.  This business would have the customer choose different types of floral arrangements that fit their personalities and desires.  A specialized worker will then show up to the customer’s house and produce the garden fractal.  It will be a garden that represents you and will make you feel like it is a part of yourself. Every garden will be unique in its own way, and will be a beautiful and perfect mess for whoever invests in one.

In The Shack, there is a scene where Mack is helping out Sarayu with some garden work.  The garden is filled with a bunch of random flowers of all sorts of color and sizes.  To Mack, it looks a mess.  “It was chaos in color”.  The flowers are arranged with no pattern.  Vegetables and herbs were randomly dispersed throughout the garden.  Sarayu tells Mack, “It’s a fractal from above”.  The book states its definition of a fractal.  “A fractal… something considered simple and orderly that is actually composed of repeated patterns no matter how magnified.  A fractal is almost infinitely complex”.  You can tell that Sarayu is very fond of this garden.  She takes very good care of it and has a passionate love for the garden.   After some hard work in the garden, Sarayu reveals to Mack that the garden is actually him.  The garden is Mack’s soul.  As they are working on beautifying the garden, they are actually beautifying his soul.  They are strengthening his beliefs and helping his relationship with God grow stronger.  The character and uniqueness of the garden are represented in his soul.  So the business I have created does just as Sarayu has done with Mack.  The business will customize your very own garden fractal.  The characteristics will be based on your very own personal characteristics.  However you want it to look.  The garden made will represent YOUR soul.  It will contain all of your favorite colors and shapes and it will be arranged just how you want it.  It will be your job to keep up the garden and maintain it.  The reason for that is so it reminds you that your own soul needs to kept up and nurtured.  Mack was really drawn to his garden and was fascinated by it, before he knew it was his soul.  He was almost familiar with it, like he had seen it before.  That is what the garden fractal business wants you to feel after purchasing your garden.  You will feel connected to your garden; you will feel like it is a part of you.

I think this idea will work with my book because it relates to the part of the book that may be the most impactful.  This part of the book stood out to me the most.  It was the big “ah ha” moment for Mack, and really helped him understand and strengthen his relationship with God.  This service will broaden the audience for the book because as people see the beautiful garden fractal, it will make them want to read The Shack and understand what the garden is all about.  I mean, how could you not want to read the book after seeing such fascinating garden? The garden itself will draw lots of attention to whoever owns it.  This business will keep readers involved with the book because they can always be updating or purchasing new gardens for themselves. 

Post 2: What is a book?

A book has a life of its own.   It speaks to your inner being, like nothing else can.  It reaches your soul through a variety of emotions and events that conjure your thoughts in a unique way.  It surprises you; a book can eliminate your expectations completely.  It affects every reader in a different manner, depending on their judgment of the book.  It can take you to places you have never been.  A book can take you on a trek through the pacific, or to a romantic love scene in the 15^th century.  In a way, a book is your own personal tour guide.  It shows you its marvelous features, but allows you to see them in whatever way you desire.  The book itself is a blank canvas.  It creates an image in your mind as you read, and the more you read, the better the painting becomes.  Words are merely a map, a set of directions that can take you to the edge of the universe and beyond.

A book is not a three by four inch screen.  A page is to be flipped, not swiped.  The thickness of a book allows you to feel the depth with your fingertips, unlike a cold, lifeless cellular device that is there to only distract you.  A book has memory.  It contains scratches on the binding, or wrinkles on page created by a simple tear drop from a previous reader.  If you get tear drops on a phone screen, the guy from Apple will simply tell you that there’s water damage.  A book does not have a battery.  Its light cannot simply go out, due to over usage.  A book can never be overused.  It gains value the longer it sits on the book shelf in your head. 

 

Post 1: Why I Read

If you are lucky to come across me reading, it is most likely because I have to for school. I typically only read when I am assigned an English project where I am forced to read.  But even when I am assigned to read for class, I don't always do so.  But I do plan on reading more often, that is why I took this class.  If  I am reading something that interests me, then it is a lot easier for me to read.  When I am reading something for a certain class that is not interesting at all, then I start thinking about something totally off topic from what I am reading.  I just can't seem to focus when I read.  I wish that I liked reading, because I truly think that it will make you smarter and strengthen your vocabulary.  I think that I am missing out on a lot of good stories and books out there because I am just too lazy to read.  Maybe it's because I most likely have ADHD.  I just can't focus for enough time to sit down and read a book just for fun.  But when it comes down to life or death, reading = life.