No major spoilers here. I'm having a hard time deciding what I can write about this book which hasn't already been said by everybody else. Normally I don't read a lot of book reviews, for books I intend to read or otherwise. For the most part all my choices are either recommended by a friend or are famous classic that I ought to have read. So it's a little weird when you're suddenly read the same book as thousands of other Nerdfighers and seeing all their thoughts on You Tube, Twitter and Tumblr. The release of John Green's last book was before I started watching his videos, so I've not experienced this before. There's a quote from Jodi Picoult on the front, "Electric.. Filled with staccato bursts of humor and tragedy". I can't sum it up any better than that except to use the same words as everybody else. Happy and sad, sad and happy, poignant and gripping. The characters are interesting and the main ones were instantly likable. I found it difficult to put down and got though it in just over two days. I'm sure as always I missed a lot of the subtext, especially when one of the character is so interested in metaphor. For me one of the most interesting parts is thinking back though John's videos over the last three years and seeing all the connections from his life. Which in some cases obviously influenced the book or in other times parts of the book coming out in videos as he was obviously thinking about it at the time. From discussions about the fear of oblivion, to fake ruins in Indianapolis, his whole trip to Amsterdam and more in between. Great stuff and it's a shame it's over now. Although of John Green's four and a half books I've still only read two of them, but An Abundance of Katherines is waiting on my Kindle so I think I might have to read that next.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
The Fault In Our Stars
No major spoilers here. I'm having a hard time deciding what I can write about this book which hasn't already been said by everybody else. Normally I don't read a lot of book reviews, for books I intend to read or otherwise. For the most part all my choices are either recommended by a friend or are famous classic that I ought to have read. So it's a little weird when you're suddenly read the same book as thousands of other Nerdfighers and seeing all their thoughts on You Tube, Twitter and Tumblr. The release of John Green's last book was before I started watching his videos, so I've not experienced this before. There's a quote from Jodi Picoult on the front, "Electric.. Filled with staccato bursts of humor and tragedy". I can't sum it up any better than that except to use the same words as everybody else. Happy and sad, sad and happy, poignant and gripping. The characters are interesting and the main ones were instantly likable. I found it difficult to put down and got though it in just over two days. I'm sure as always I missed a lot of the subtext, especially when one of the character is so interested in metaphor. For me one of the most interesting parts is thinking back though John's videos over the last three years and seeing all the connections from his life. Which in some cases obviously influenced the book or in other times parts of the book coming out in videos as he was obviously thinking about it at the time. From discussions about the fear of oblivion, to fake ruins in Indianapolis, his whole trip to Amsterdam and more in between. Great stuff and it's a shame it's over now. Although of John Green's four and a half books I've still only read two of them, but An Abundance of Katherines is waiting on my Kindle so I think I might have to read that next.
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Very interesting - it seems to me, as an outsider, that John Green is able to put into words and make sense of, life as nerdfighters see it, so that his experiences help you all to make sense of your own.
ReplyDeleteThat puts him in the same league as Shakespeare. Doesn't matter that his audience will be smaller, it is the quality of the insight that counts.