Author: Ellen Degeneres
Pages Read: 1- 241 (all)
The first thing that captured my attention was the witty
back cover of the book. It is so much more silly and personal than most, using
irony for comedic purposes. Ellen stated that she’s uncomfortable with “nice
quotes from fancy people” on her cover because she doesn’t “believe in cheap
tricks like that.” I loved how she
filled the space with her own quotes, which were all cheesy compliments to the
reader instead. I was laughing and already hooked, and I hadn’t even opened up
the book yet!
Once I did, I wasn’t disappointed. Ellen managed to cover so
many topics about life, giving insight and inspiring me to focus on what I deem
to be important, instead of getting sucked into the views of society. The best
part of it all was that she managed to incorporate humor into the whole thing.
What I really enjoy about Ellen is that she is just generally so funny without
taking things too far. Her humor (and book) is appropriate and caters to
everyone, and in my opinion, she doesn’t cross the line like many other
comedians tend to. I think that this is why she is so successful and has been
around (and has stuck around) for so long.
Woops, I’m a little off topic. Anyways, Seriously, I’m
Kidding… was a wonderful easy read and whooshed right by! They say that
laughter is the best medicine, and I can truly relate to this after having read
the book whilst not feeling well. It put me in a great mood, made me giggle,
and most importantly, left me with a positive outlook on things. (Thanks
Ellen!)
As far as being goofy goes, one of my favourite
chapters was “How to Be a Supermodel.”
Writing Reflection - Newspaper Blackout Poetry:
I really enjoyed the Newspaper Blackout Poetry. I’m not much
of a writer, therefore having someone else’s words as a canvas made it much
easier. Starting from scratch is always a scary thing for me (often referred to
as the “white paper syndrome”) so there was some reassurance in already having
something to go off of. The first poem came to me quite easily, as did the
second. The third one was quite a bit more time consuming though. This may have
been because I knew that I’d have to connect the three poems with an evident
theme in the end, and had that weight on my shoulders while trying to create
the last poem. Either way, it was completed eventually and the theme came
together quite nicely. Thinking back to it now, I probably shouldn’t have been
so worried about the main topic since there are infinite possibilities and options
for it.
I found that some articles I could work with much more
easily than others. For example, politics related articles were difficult to
use because of the vocabulary. Surprisingly, I ended up using one or two sports
articles though. I found that they had more emotional words. When I was out of
luck in finding a word that fit my poem, I had the option of searching for
individual letters, which could make any word I like when combined. All in all,
I enjoyed the freedom of Newspaper Blackout Poetry because it wasn’t
overwhelming for me. Instead, it felt a little bit like a puzzle to search for
letters/words and make sense of it all.
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