February 1, 2013
10:30-11
Water for Elephants
Pages: 1-13

The book starts off with a prologue that is the memory of when a man worked in a circus and something goes horribly wrong and all the animals escape and start running amuck and the man tries desperately to find a girl and an elephant. He finds the girl however she picks up an iron stake and hits a guy in the back of the head inevitably killing him. The man reveals that although his has happened long ago it still haunts him and he has never told anyone. After this, the book redirects to the present where the same man is in an old folks home and is 91 or 93. He forgets and explains how the aging process begins when you hesitate to remember your age during your 30s and it turns into you forgetting words, forgetting what you went upstairs to get, getting your children's names confused, forgetting the day and finally forgetting what year it is. He isn't satisfied with his life in the home and wants real food as he still has all his own teeth. Some people gather to look out the window and he goes to see what they're all staring at. The circus is in town and it gives his heart a lurch. At supper, the other people are talking about the circus and one guy claims to have used to give water to the elephants. The man, Jacob, says that this guy is lying and they get into an argument where the impersonater falls and Jacob is sent to his room to finish his dinner there. The nurse however, gives him some of her food and he is happy. It is also revealed that he is being tormented by ghosts of his past.

I was not expecting the narrator to be elderly or that he would have witnessed a murder. Also, I predict that the next chapter will go further into his past.

I read well today because I have been waiting a while to read this book and was excited to start it which motivated me to read better than I would have.