I’ve just finished reading all of John Green‘s books, and while their main failing is that they’re basically all the same (nerdy guy falls in love with quirky, out-of-his-league girl and hijinks occur) I a) really like his writing and b) can forgive for being so one-note because his books are so much his. The things he writes about are the things he’s done, or seen, or heard about, and you can really tell that he’s present in all his books. I said on Twitter that his books are like bits of himself that have budded off into their own universes, and I think that’s about right.
Anyway, he’s written three books: Looking For Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, and Paper Towns. Paper Towns is my favorite and, I think, the best, but I’m going to be reviewing that with Alita so I won’t talk about it here. Instead I’ll talk a bit about LFA and AAOK.
Looking for Alaska is John Green’s first novel, and you can tell. It’s not as deep-thinking or as elegant or stylish as his other books, and his protagonist isn’t as likable, and generally I just felt dissatisfied. But it does try to talk about an important issue– the death of a friend and potential love-interest– and it does it without becoming trite or overdone. I liked nearly all the characters, though some where better fleshed-out than others, and the details included in it kept it from becoming cliched. I mean, how many books have you read set in an Alabamian boarding school? I didn’t even know they had boarding schools in Alabama!
An Abundance of Katherines is John Green’s second novel, and it’s more light-hearted than Looking for Alaska. The protagonist is weird boarding on unbelievable, but by the end I liked him well enough. I liked the secondary characters, too, and the love interest didn’t even annoy me with her “look how quirky and different I am!” routine, mostly because she wasn’t trying to be weird. She just kind of was, naturally, like Quentin (the protagonist) was naturally weird. It’s set in Tennessee, which was an interesting all on its own. It also made me interested more in math, which was a surprise. And the writing was more vibrant, I think.
Sunday Salon Stuff
Books read this week:
18. Dream-Weaver – Louise Lawrence [rating: 2/5]
19. The Court of the Air – Stephen Hunt [rating: 4.5/5]
20. Paper Towns – John Green [rating: 4.5/5]
21. Barefoot Gen Vol. 2 – Keiji Nakazawa [rating: 3.5/5]
22. An Abundance of Katherines – John Green [rating: 4/5]
23. The Third Magic – Welwyn Wilton Katz [rating: 3.5/5]
24. Bite Me! – Dylan Meconis [rating:4.5/5]
25. Looking For Alaska – John Green [rating: 4/5]
Books reviewed this week:
11. The Shadow Guests – Joan Aiken [rating: 3.5/5]
12. The Floating Island – Elizabeth Haydon [rating: 4.5/5]
14. Posted to Death – Dean James [rating: 4/5]
15. The Doom Machine – Mark Teague [rating: 4/5]
16. Voices – Ursula K. Le Guin [rating: 4/5]
Currently reading:
Technically I’m still trying to read Changer, but I think I might give that up because I don’t think I care what happens in the last half of the book. Same for The Hobbit. I think I might read Isaac Asimov’s autobiography instead.
January Wrap-Up
Basically I just read a crapload of books, which is what I wanted. I think my monthly reading goal is basically 25 books, which means I should have read 300 by the end of the year. And that also means that maybe I can finally get a good chunk of my TBR pile conquered, but by the looks of it the siren call of my library won’t be easy to beat.
Continue reading »
Loading ...
