John Green Fan
About a year ago, my friend suggested that I read something from John Green. (Yes, Kelsey, that was you. I should probably have an entire post devoted to you and your book recommendations. I cannot thank you enough.) I picked up Looking For Alaska and read the entire thing in one day. I moved on to Paper Towns, and realized that this John Green guy had something. A something that made me want to read more of his books. A something that made me borrow every single one from the library and then wait for his next one to be released.
You might wonder what that something is, and I do find it difficult to articulate. But I will try to do so in the event you'd like to become a fan of Mr. Green.
1. John Green is an author with an intellect that shines through. His writing is not only thoughtful and provocative, but it is chock full of good vocabulary. I have, on occasion, been forced to pull out the dictionary when reading one of his novels. The word usually looks familiar, but the true meaning is something I have long forgotten. (Don't worry, I haven't aged so much that I can't get the contextual meaning. But sometimes, I want to know the real definition. Plus, when I was little, I often liked to just sit and read the dictionary, so these days, pulling out the dictionary gives me a brief whiff of nostalgia.) When you read one of his books, you might need to pull out other reference material as well, considering he often quotes other people, texts, or subjects with which you might not be familiar. Cool.
2. John Green is a nerd, in every sense of the word. In fact, he and his brother established a website about 4 years ago that brought together a community of nerds, a bunch of creative and unique people, as they say. They termed this community Nerdfighters. If you have any interest, go check them out here. While I don't know the man personally, he probably is what our principal likes to call a learner: Someone that wants to learn from each situation and will help others learn as well. Let me tell you. I learn from John Green, on multiple levels.
3. John Green usually puts math into his novels. Math! Let me say that again. Math! If that doesn't scream dork to you, I don't know what does! Part of the reason I loved An Abundance of Katherines (and I may have posted about this before, so sorry for the redundancy) is that John Green actually worked a formula into the book. The main character, Colin, had loved a number of Katherines. All of those relationships failed. Colin subsequently came up with a theorem that he used to predict the outcome of relationships. If you want to see the equation, go here. It is quite impressive.
4. John Green creates complicated characters, both male and female, that usually are strong characters. I love characters with grit, feeling, and intelligence, and almost all of his characters are built that way, with a little quirk thrown in. The dialogue that spews forth from his characters mouths makes me laugh, cry, and think, and if someone can do all of that in a book, I am hooked.
I just finished The Fault In Our Stars. If you haven't read it, you might want to stop reading now. If you think you might want to read it, but don't mind a little bit of spoiling, then you can continue.
In short, Hazel Grace Lancaster has terminal cancer. She meets Augustus Waters, an osteosarcoma survivor, at support group. In that first meeting, Augustus admits that he fears oblivion. He says, "I fear it like the proverbial blind man who's afraid of the dark." (p. 12)
I was intrigued by his fear, for some reason, and then bowled over by Hazel's response. She said,
Over the course of the book, both of these young lives are changed. The characters are rich and the dialogue doesn't disappoint. The math is subtle, but present. I found myself laughing at moments, and then feeling bad about laughing at someone that has a terminal disease.
I'd love to give you more quotes from the book, but I hesitate to do that, as then I'll spoil all the fun. But I am going to share with you one more little section. This part came up about 5/6 of the way through the book, and touched me greatly. I can't give the details as to why or when this came up (and it might seem obvious, but then again, there might be a twist here), but Hazel says the following:
P.S. Anyone that can fit in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock into a story is all right, if you ask me. Tasha, are you interested now?
You might wonder what that something is, and I do find it difficult to articulate. But I will try to do so in the event you'd like to become a fan of Mr. Green.
1. John Green is an author with an intellect that shines through. His writing is not only thoughtful and provocative, but it is chock full of good vocabulary. I have, on occasion, been forced to pull out the dictionary when reading one of his novels. The word usually looks familiar, but the true meaning is something I have long forgotten. (Don't worry, I haven't aged so much that I can't get the contextual meaning. But sometimes, I want to know the real definition. Plus, when I was little, I often liked to just sit and read the dictionary, so these days, pulling out the dictionary gives me a brief whiff of nostalgia.) When you read one of his books, you might need to pull out other reference material as well, considering he often quotes other people, texts, or subjects with which you might not be familiar. Cool.
2. John Green is a nerd, in every sense of the word. In fact, he and his brother established a website about 4 years ago that brought together a community of nerds, a bunch of creative and unique people, as they say. They termed this community Nerdfighters. If you have any interest, go check them out here. While I don't know the man personally, he probably is what our principal likes to call a learner: Someone that wants to learn from each situation and will help others learn as well. Let me tell you. I learn from John Green, on multiple levels.
3. John Green usually puts math into his novels. Math! Let me say that again. Math! If that doesn't scream dork to you, I don't know what does! Part of the reason I loved An Abundance of Katherines (and I may have posted about this before, so sorry for the redundancy) is that John Green actually worked a formula into the book. The main character, Colin, had loved a number of Katherines. All of those relationships failed. Colin subsequently came up with a theorem that he used to predict the outcome of relationships. If you want to see the equation, go here. It is quite impressive.
4. John Green creates complicated characters, both male and female, that usually are strong characters. I love characters with grit, feeling, and intelligence, and almost all of his characters are built that way, with a little quirk thrown in. The dialogue that spews forth from his characters mouths makes me laugh, cry, and think, and if someone can do all of that in a book, I am hooked.
I just finished The Fault In Our Stars. If you haven't read it, you might want to stop reading now. If you think you might want to read it, but don't mind a little bit of spoiling, then you can continue.
In short, Hazel Grace Lancaster has terminal cancer. She meets Augustus Waters, an osteosarcoma survivor, at support group. In that first meeting, Augustus admits that he fears oblivion. He says, "I fear it like the proverbial blind man who's afraid of the dark." (p. 12)
I was intrigued by his fear, for some reason, and then bowled over by Hazel's response. She said,
"There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you." (p. 13)Hazel continues later on the same page with:
"And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that's what everyone else does."Many people would have thought, who is she to say that? But not Augustus. He replies with a cool, "Goddamn, aren't you something else."
Over the course of the book, both of these young lives are changed. The characters are rich and the dialogue doesn't disappoint. The math is subtle, but present. I found myself laughing at moments, and then feeling bad about laughing at someone that has a terminal disease.
I'd love to give you more quotes from the book, but I hesitate to do that, as then I'll spoil all the fun. But I am going to share with you one more little section. This part came up about 5/6 of the way through the book, and touched me greatly. I can't give the details as to why or when this came up (and it might seem obvious, but then again, there might be a twist here), but Hazel says the following:
"I am not a mathematician, but I know this: There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more numbers for Augustus Waters than he got. But Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful." (p. 260)If that paragraph doesn't make you stop and think, then I guess maybe you won't like John Green. But for what it is worth, I hope you do.
P.S. Anyone that can fit in The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock into a story is all right, if you ask me. Tasha, are you interested now?
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