It had a beginning and an ending, that's all. NOT. Looking for Alaska was an amazing book. I loved it so much that it was hard to put down. So much so that at one point I couldn't not continue reading. The book was set up so that it was almost divided. There was a before and there was an after. The before was all the moments before a huge prank occurred. And the whole book: it didn't have chapters, it was like this huge sequence. 186 days before, 33 days before. It was so cool. And it was funny, and you really got to see the main character's quirks. One of my favorite quotes was when the main character, Miles (Pudge) speaks of Alaska: his dream girl,
"But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was hurricane".He's so intense and the author does a great job writing as a teenager. I loved the whole book, and wanna know something funny? The back of the book said "Holden Caulfield lives on". That is so appropriate! If I had read this book a year ago, or even a few weeks ago I would never have been able to open my eyes to all the connections there are between the two books. Sickness! that's all I have to say. It was a book that I recommend to everyone I see now: that's how good it was.
My next book will be The Alchemist, I saw it on Ms. Bandman's shelf under one of the genre requirements I need so I picked it up. I read the blurb and it looked pretty good and asked a couple of people whether they liked it and they said they knew people who had read it and liked it so I took the plunge. So far I have read zero pages but I will! Who knows, it might just be a quick read like Looking for Alaska was.
I really like your title and first sentences because it attracts the reader...and it's true! I read Looking for Alaska during the summer and I also thought it was amazing! The quote you included really encompasses all that Pudge is feeling. I actually don't remember that particular quote, but now I think I will. It reminds me of the "lists" we were doing in class today. It's funny because while I was reading The Catcher in the Rye, I also saw that the two books connected. They're both sort of lost, just trying to find that one place they really belong. I, too, found myself reading the book for as long as I possibly could. I had heard rave reviews for it and the title of the book seemed really engaging. It met my expectations. I like how you write what book you are reading next and why. It's like a preview to your next blog entry which I think it really cool. I also think that the voice you give to your entries is very good. Sometimes it's hard to convey your true appreciation for something with type-written words, but you wrote as if you were talking to your readers. Keep it up!
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