i am also reading a lot of YA novels nowadays, a lot easier on the mind and very fast to read haha. my friend recommended me john green's books, so i have been reading a lot of his books, though they are all similar in how they try to be inspiring to teenagers and encourage them to not be suicidal, and to see beyond themselves and see the bigger picture of a bright future ahead.
and what with the new social site goodreads.com, i have become pretty active in the reviewing books and finding books to read thing. here's a review i just did on a john green book i just read, an abundance of katherines. all that i want to say about it is essentially here haha:
Of all the John Green books I have read, I find this book the least inspiring and least “deep” in meaning, but it has characters that I can relate to the most. Colin and Hassan are definitely my favourite John Green protagonist characters thus far.
Ok so here’s what I liked about the book: I like the main character Colin and the way he thinks. I can totally relate to all his quirks, how he thinks and how he is semi-socially awkward. I think I am a little like him myself, liking to spout random bits of trivia that others may or may not find interesting, and making all kinds of connections that only I find interesting but others don’t. Fortunately, my friends are a lot more forgiving and humour me by pretending these things are interesting, so I’m not a social pariah (yet).
I especially like Hassan and his wittiness. His way of expressing friendship and interacting with Colin never fails to make me laugh (or at least smile), and I believe that is how guys their age really hang out and have fun. I also like the anagrams and the math theorem (which is something I have attempted doing for random other scenarios before, but usually I give up after 5 minutes just because I’m not so OCD about math). I also love the footnotes, snide comments and the horribly long sentences Colin used to describe each Katherine encounter in his story at the end (as you can probably tell from my excessive use of long run-on sentences in this review).
However (yes there’s always a however), I got annoyed with Colin’s whining and wallowing in misery about how he always gets dumped, then his single-mindedness in not getting dumped and trying to make himself matter. Clearly he does not understand the real problem are his insecurities and how just by thinking he is a failure, he is making himself one! I find him ungrateful and unappreciative of what he has: he is a very smart guy with great memory who has won so many competitions and has had 19 Katherines liking him (which must say something about his attractiveness and stuff). Seriously, being able to date 19 girls is a feat in itself, and all by the age of 18! (or probably 17, since he went to school a year early…)
Then again, this is a common insecurity of teenagers, and I too have gone through that phase of thinking myself a failure when I have much to be grateful for. It is only because I have grown up and gotten past all this that I was getting frustrated with Colin. Fortunately, Colin realizes it at the end of the book – that he matters to people who care about him, and that he does not always have to strive towards being a genius when he has a lot more to offer as himself. He sure has a lot to be grateful for; he has loving parents, great friends and a bright future ahead.
Ok sorry about that, enough of the rant. Just because I like to whine in real life doesn’t mean I have to like reading about other people whine right? This book would probably annoy adults to no end, but might be intriguing enough for teenagers who are going through similar problems to those that the characters are going through. Either way, this book gets 4 stars because I love the characters to death, I love the way John Green wrote this book and I love the story, but just don’t like the excessive whining and dragginess of it all.
so...while writing this, i just treated it as writing a blog post about the book. i guess that's what i would have done before goodreads and facebook and all that came along. the many social media sites of today huh. but i still want to keep some of my thoughts here, especially this review that i find especially witty. just so that years down the road i will remember that OH YEAH i actually read john green, and this was how i felt! and make sure i don't make the same mistake of re-reading a book i thought i haven't read before (i just did that for sarah dessen, i read 'the truth about forever' thinking i haven't read it before, when it turns out i have and everything in the book just felt like deja vu haha).
