After a reading slump, I am back in the saddle. I've been whipping through about one YA novel a day. Up first is my beloved John Green. Reading John Green is like hanging out with all my favorite guy friends from high school and college. John's latest book "Paper Towns" is about Quentin "Q" Jacobsen and the adventures that follow after his next door neighbor Margo Roth Spiegelman climbs in his window one night. John Green tells coming of age stories for the geeky, witty boy. As those are my favorite types of boys, I love everything he writes. He is crass. But he is exactly as crass as all those high school and college boys I was hanging out with, so it works for me.
My two favorite quotes from this book, (Although much of it had me laughing aloud last night. After the fifth outburst, Todd gave up asking why I was laughing.):
"Getting you a prom date is so hard that the hypothetical idea itself is actually used to cut diamonds"
AND
Boys discussing how to kiss a girl- "As far as I can tell, there are two basic rules: 1. Don't bite anything without permission, and 2. The human tongue is like wasabi: it's very powerful, and should be used sparingly."
Oh, that John Green had been writing 15 years ago so some of my former boyfriends could have benefitted from such wisdom!
On a side note, the same themes keep popping up in John Green's books. An idea that was underdeveloped in the last book becomes fully developed in the next one. I just mention it because I could see being annoyed by that. I think with Green the equation either works for you or doesn't. I don't think you're likely to love one of his books and hate another.
5 comments:
I really liked An Abundance of Katherines, but didn't like Looking for Alaska at all. Should I read this one?
I would say that this one is more Katherines than Alaska, but has elements of both. There were a few times where I just thought "ew" as one of the friends, Ben, commented on something. Try it out. If you hate it, don't finish it. I'm curious to know what you think.
I should point out that I love the boy characters and the writing of John Green. I'm not sure he's figured girls out yet, and I'm not totally enamored with his story lines, but the dialog for me is enough to overlook all other wrongs.
For me, also, the attraction of the books is all about the dialogue. Can't wait to get my hands on this one..
D- I have. You want?
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