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September 13, 2005

I, too, don't want to wait until death to seek the Great Perhaps

I know I've been posting a lot right now, but I really need to share. I just finished reading a wonderful book. Wonderful enough that, even though it's in hardcover, I'm going to keep. For me, that says a lot.

The book is called Looking for Alaska, by John Green, and I found it via the livejournal of a literary agent whose journal I'm stalking. She did a Q&A with the author, which prompted me to read the review on Amazon which convinced me that I MUST read this book.

It's one of those books that's terribly quotable. Every paragraph seems full of infinite wisdom, and though I only found one quotation short and self-explanatory enough to make an away message, I wish I could highlight the book to death.

It's also one of those stories where you're not sure whose story it is... I'm a sucker for books and movies where the narrator is not necessarily the main character. The beginning of this book certainly makes it seem that way, but by the end, I think it was the narrator's story after all.

Right now, too, it really spoke to me. My great struggle in the last few months has been about taking risks. I used to be an emotional risk-taker, but something in me stopped and ran for cover. As the book says toward the end, I made myself a box in the corner of the labyrinth and pretended it was home when really I was just as lost as ever. I have been wondering, lately, how to become a risk-taker again. How to become, in fact, a bigger risk-taker than I was before. Wondering why I am so focused on control. The book didn't have answers -- no good book should -- but it certainly supported my questions. That's what I look for in a book.

Most of all, it was the kind of book you can't read sitting up, because you need to be close to your pillows and blankets. Everyone should go read it.

"I wanted to be one of those people who have streaks to maintain, who scorch the ground with their intensity. But for now, at least I knew such people, and they needed me, just like comets need tails." -Looking for Alaska

Posted to Books at September 13, 2005 12:01 AM

Comments

Posted by: Devin at September 13, 2005 04:26 PM

Posted by: Rebecca at September 14, 2005 01:18 AM