Outside Reading: Day 2

For my second "day" of reading, more like second post, I am nearing the middle of the book. In my last post I mentioned the struggles between Sam and his step-dad. These issues grow increasingly intense as the book goes on. I personally find this section intriguing because of my own struggles with family members, particularly with family member’s medical issues. Such as in the book, Sam has Tourette's Syndrome, like me, and his hypocritical step-father has OCD, like a family member of mine. Sam’s relationship with his step-dad has begun to worsen; beginning with violence, beating Sam’s mother, to the forcing Sam to pay rent. The last section I will summarize is what happens after Sam is told he has to pay rent. A man known around the town as being a crazy old coot, offers Sam a job and room & board. This is a plus because the money gained from the old coot wasn’t enough to pay for rent in Sam’s own home. I find this all interesting even though much of it was negative. Sam’s step-dad forcing him to pay rent made me wonder what was going to happen next and added action to the book. I enjoyed the progression of events throughout the book so far; Sam has a bad event occur, has a small positive thing, then even more intense bad events. At first Sam is resistant to the old coot’s offer, event though he knows its his only choice. One thing that also makes it hard for Sam is that his real father was friends with the old coot, and this old coot character, insists on calling Sam by his real name, Jack.