Review: Danny, The Champion of the World (Roald Dahl)

The first book that I've read that got me hooked onto reading was by Roald Dahl, so I thought it was just appropriate to showcase a book by him that made a really big impression on me. Danny, The Champion of the World.

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Dahl is one of my favorite authors, and I will be reviewing more of his books soon.

• Who Is Dahl?

British author Roald Dahl worked in Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania for two years, the main setting of the second part of his autobiographical book titled "Going Solo" (I will review that book at a later date). Flying as a fighter pilot in the Second World War, Dahl got seriously injured in a crash in Libya. The first book that he wrote was titled "The Gremlins" and was written in 1943. From then on, Dahl established a very prominent career in children's books, writing notable books such as "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" in 1964 and "The BFG" (Another one I'll review later) in 1982. 

• Danny, The Champion Of The World 

The story revolves around the book's title character, Danny and how he lives with his father William, a car mechanic. Eventually, Danny realizes that poaching pheasants is one of the passions of his father. 

Together, they come up with a plan to stuff sleeping powder into raisins and feeding them to pheasants located in the woods belonging to the book's main antagonist, Mr. Hazell. After they fill in the raisins, they go to Hazell's wood and dispersed the raisins while hiding in bushes to avoid the keepers (with guns!). 

Later that night, after some negativity from Danny's dad that the plan failed, they notice otherwise. They collect a total of one hundred and nineteen pheasants. As both of them go home, Danny is declared "the champion of the world" by his father. 

• "...well written, as with all of Dahl's works."

After I read this book, I immediately had the urge to get up off the sofa I was laying on and do something adventurous. In my opinion, that is one of the main principles Dahl wants us to live by, as shown in this book. Danny, the Champion of the World shows us how exciting and venturesome our lives can be. 

This book is very well written, as with all of Dahl's works. It mainly appeals to younger readers, although methods of poaching is one of the main themes of the book. Each chapter of the book is in-depth and lively - there is always something exciting going on. Because of this liveliness, I kept on reading the book and savoured everything it had to offer... I wish I could've savoured those pheasants though. 

Remember, you can read all the venturesome things I have done around the world, from Bangkok in Thailand to Vaxholm in Sweden on my travel blog.

Leave comments down below for book suggestions for future reviews! 

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Publisher: E1S - 3:30 PM

Memories

Hello again! A couple of days ago, our English teacher gave us a few minutes to write down paragraphs on anything. Below I have written about memories.

- Memories -

We only have so much time in our life to spend on having fun and doing what we want. When we are older and have no physical ability to do what we want any more, we want to look back on the things that we have done and take a little trip down memory lane.

For the younger generation, they can share their memories and experiences in a variety of ways: photo sharing, social media and even writing a blog post. What about the older generation? Is the only way of sharing their experiences is through face-to-face conversation? 

Our memories can make us happy, sad, angry and so on. However, we have to remember that we have got past them - we are still alive. We remember them because they have been significant in one point in our lives. Memories can be and should be passed on to younger people, because when our life ends, it's over and every single memory we have vanishes.

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What are your memories? What do you think or dream about? Thank you all for reading, and I'll see you again this Sunday.

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Sigtuna's Old Town Hall (Sigtuna, Sweden)

Publisher: E1S - 9:16 PM

Where Are The Vikings?

So I was browsing the web, getting my dose of travel info from WikiTravel. While reading some stuff about Sweden, I stumbled upon this:

WikiTravel Claims That...

This part of the article claims that a lot of tourists from English-speaking nations wonder where they can see real life vikings.

Viking Keenness

I'm pleased to know that the tourists are very enthusiastic on knowing more about the old Scandinavian culture. They want to express their curiosity about the Vikings and Viking Traditions by actually seeing the Vikings themselves. 

But the thought in my mind: who in the actual world today still believes that Vikings exists?

Think About It

You don't need to be a History major to know that Vikings don't exist any more. Think about it! If I were to walk across the  Strandvägen Harbor and see a large Viking ship just passing by... With a world filled with the iPhone5s, 3D Printers and voice recognition, I would be freaking out.

What do you have to say about this? If a friend ask you where the Vikings are right now, what would you answer?

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Publisher: E1S - 3:32 PM

Why Are People So Obsessed With "Flappy Bird"?

The monstrosity's logo. from wikipedia.org

So I might not be updated, but another trend has rolled past the homo sapiens again. The apparent monstrosity called Flappy Bird is addicting and drives people to the point where they just explode with rage, or just keep playing the game for a full day because of addiction.

To be frank, I don't get it. Why are so much people are into this game? Because lots of famous Youtubers played it? Because it's drives everyone mad? Because the rage of it is addicting?

The Youtubers idea is quite valid and possible, but what if the reason was that it's enraging? Here's my opinion: how the hell can people get entertained by something that makes them angry? Like, something that makes you scream things that should get bleeped out to the heavens DOES NOT make it fun. Sure, the rage is fun to watch, but I wouldn't be wanting to experience that kind of rage. Especially a rage I get from something I downloaded for free on the App Store. And don't even get me started on the addictions excuse on playing the game. Just like Temple Run and Drinking and Vices, people also get addicted to popular stuff like this; again it's either because it's enragingly fun or their Youtube idols played it.

Admittedly, I also played the game a few times. I don't want to say I hate the game because I suck and my score is really bad, but... I just don't get why so much people are into it... I hope the people who also experienced this with Gangnam Style know my feelings.

It's so popular now that the creator took it out of the App Store (apparently because "He Couldn't Take It Anymore"... $50,000 per day because of ads - gone) Wow, what a twist. If you have pre-downloaded it from the App/Play Store before Dong Nguyen took it down, you still should be able to experience the craziness, that is Flappy Bird.

Remember to leave me a comment down below so that I know YOUR OPINIONS on Flappy Bird!

My friend, THE FORMAL RULEBREAKER also shared her thoughts on Flappy Bird! Check It Out HERE.

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Previous Post - Co-Authors for Main Blog. Why?

Publisher: E1S - 10:31 PM

Why Did I Choose To Have Co-Authors For My Main Blog?

If you must know, this Euan's Thoughts is my secondary blog. My primary blog is The Teen Traveller. I have been managing my primary blog single handedly from it's founding (September 2013) to February 2014. But on January 19, I announced that The Teen Traveller will have co-authors. In this blog post, I will be talking on why I wanted my blog to have co authors.

• Updated More. I announced that my blog will have non-daily posting, instead of the regular one a day posts. But with co-authors, the blog will be updated more, which is a plus for you readers, and it will make my work load less, which will be a plus for me. 

• More Thoughts and Experiences. Since more people will be writing on the blog, there will be more thoughts, opinions and experiences posted on the blog. Also, the people who'll be contributors will be my friends, so it's also a great way for us to keep in touch! 

• Thinking Of Blog Publicity. If I'm not the one single handedly working on the blog, I can work on other things regarding the blog which is not necessarily writing. This may be working on ads, promoting the blog, working on HTML or layouts and so forth. 

However, there are also some disadvantages of having co-authors. Here are some examples:

• Not As Dedicated. The contributors may be not that passionate for writing as you are, risking the quality of their blog posts. Also, different people have different styles of writing and grammar.

• Editing. Because of the not-being-as-passionate dilemma above, a higher standard of checking spelling, layout and grammar in editing becomes a necessity. The main writer needs to double-check the quality of the posts of the contributors. 

These are just some examples of pros and cons of having a multi-author blog. Nevertheless, I hope that all of you will still support me and my co-authors with the main blog! Remember, there will be more to come this 2014!

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My Main Blog

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Previous Post - First Impressions Don't Always Last

Publisher: E1S - 7:07 AM

First Impressions Don't Always Last

• Hello again and welcome to my secondary blog. If you wish to read my primary one (or if you’re a person who loves eating and travelling), please click here.

Photo from: hyatt.jobs

I think a good way to kick this second blog out is to publish a post about first impressions. But instead of saying the old-aged first impressions last saying, I’ll twist it a bit and do it the opposite.

I live in Stockholm currently, and I got to my school using the Tunnelbana, the Stockholm Subway System. After getting off at my school’s stop, I saw a girl waving at me (a classmate), right before I crossed the ticket gates. It was about a week or so when school started after the Christmas vacation and she came back from her home country.

So we had small talk and I asked how was she and her trip, and all the generic stuff people talk about when they’ve just experienced a vacation or a holiday or something. I then said that I should leave to school. She waved goodbye to me with a smile and I left. She waited for some of her friends before she left.

Honestly, I thought that she was those kinds of stereotypical “bad-ass” girls you see in those teen-topic movies, with the I just care about my friends and laughing and talking about random people attitudes from my first month in studying in our school.

I got this first impression of her maybe because of her friends and the influences that they gave her, maybe? I don’t mean to offend them if they’re watching, because they are genuinely funny and great people when you get to meet them more.

And that’s where my main point is at. Your first impressions really don’t last, just like in my case. I think people should just know more about something before judging this “something”. “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, as they say.

Remember that things can be influenced or be copied by other things. If you’ve heard Katy Perry’s song Roar and Sara Bareilles’ song Brave, you could hear some similarities (don’t know if it’s influence or copyright, though), but it still has some kind of originality in it. With the case of the songs, the originality part may be the lyrics.

That can also be true with this and my first blog. You might think that one of my blogs will be kinda boring first, but I think that you do not have the right to say that it is boring without leaving the main page. Try to read four or five posts before you make your decision. And also, any if the blogs might be influenced by some things you see from other blogs, mainly because I was inspired by those. But still keep in mind, all the thoughts are pure, real and honest.

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New Blog Posts Every Thursday & When I'm Bored! 

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Publisher: E1S - 12:00 PM

Hello.

Hi! I'm Euan Suarez, you might know me as the main author of my primary blog, The Teen Traveller. I decided to make another blog because of my passion for writing, and the urge to express my own thoughts and opinions with the wide audience that the internet has to offer.

This will not be my main blog, so please expect that I will not be posting as frequently (like daily, on my main blog) here. But nevertheless, this will also be one of the blogs that I'll be writing, editing and supervising. 

Hope you'll join me in this journey! 

Publisher: E1S - 5:52 AM