Journal 10 Noel

I think my reading throughout Holding On has been going good and I really enjoy the book. There are so many interesting stories about people that normally would not get noticed. I think I am getting better at summarizing the chapters. Even though there is a lot of different stories I can look at my nutshell and remember what exactly happened in that particular one. I think the way he writes the book reminds me so much of how my grandpa tells me stories. It is really from the persons view and I think this way of letting them tell the story lets people connect. It has that way that people can really bring memories of their own while reading. I think the weakness is some of these stories are not even a page long and they or more or less of a story. Some of these stories really go in depth but others are just not really anything. I also think sometimes David Isay writes it more than the people he interviewed.
For the two profiles I am choosing Donald Bean (Dinosaur Gardens) and Tommie Bass (Folk Doctor). I really enjoyed the Dinosaur Gardens, for some reason I thought this was a really cool and interesting story. In a way this Donald Bean reminded me of a little boy who just really wanted his childhood dreams to come true. "I always liked dinosaurs. They're large, they're big, and they ruled the world for years... Thousands of years... Well, millions of years!". In this quote he had so much excitement and just a passionate feel about this. From this profile there wasn't too much about what all is in the park or what exactly guests experience when they are there. Although the story is kinda sad because no one ever comes and he spent all that money on making the park. That part is sad but I think the park was more for him. Something different about this story from the others is it didn't start off with an interview part/ radio introduction. For the most part the rest of them do start off like that and this one jumps right into Bean's story without any background.The story about Tommie Bass is a "doctor" who is more of your medicine man and using the herbs to heal. Growing up he saw people given herbs and it working so he based his beliefs on that. He sold people herbs and they would use them but if they didn't work they would take them back and leave. Something that interested me was the peach tree leaves, I think it was interesting about giving them the leaves for sleep. I looked up about peach tree leaves and found a cite that uses them for herbal needs. Something similar to these stories is they are both very small businesses that aren't doing well and were made up. They are both side of the road places that people either stop or they pass. They are different because one spent more money on their business and the other not really and he just gathers leaves. I think they are both interesting stories.
 http://www.herb-magic.com/peach-tree-leaves.html