One really needs to read a good book to experience what it feels like. It is an experience that can't really be put into words. It's mostly bittersweet, the joy of having read something so alive and the heartache that accompanies the end of a good journey. There are some books, after reading, which the bittersweet feeling lingers on for days. I read one such book a few weeks ago. As soon as I started reading, the story absorbed me into its world and to be honest, I still don't seem to have left it. It was simple yet intricate, realistic (well, semi-realistic) yet in a way unreal, extremely heart-wrenching, yet heart-warming at the same time. This book was special to me not just because of the story, characters or narration but also for the language used. The lines and dialogues mentioned in the book are metaphoric, expressive and thought-provoking, all at the same time. Since I am totally obsessing over this book, I thought of sharing some of my favorite things about the book with you all. Who knows? It might inspire some of you to go ahead and read the book. Now would be the best time to mention that I don't mean for this to be a book review, it's just my thoughts on what the book means to me. I'm sure I've created enough suspense around the book itself. Time to reveal the secret! The book I'm talking about is "The Fault in our Stars" by John Green. (Cue excited squeals.)
The Fault In Our Stars was suggested to me by a couple of people. All they told me about the book was that it is a love story about two teenagers who have been diagnosed with cancer. That was all I needed to hear. The word 'cancer' put me off and gave me all sorts of doubts as to whether I wanted to read the book or not. However, the popularity of the book intrigued me. It was displayed all over, at every bookstore I visited in the last 6 months and had a 150 holds on it at my nearest public library. I finally gave in to my curiosity and bought the book last month. As we were about to go pay for the book, a girl walked up to us and said, "This is a beautiful story. It'll make you laugh and cry at the same time. I'm so happy that you're buying it!" I realized why she was so excited when I finished reading the book two days later. TFIOS is indeed a love story about two teenagers who've gone through cancer. It definitely talks about sickness, death, despair, grief and everything depressing. Yet, there wasn't one sentence in the book that made me feel depressed. It was a beautiful story, told beautifully about the harsh realities of a disease as deadly as cancer, the hardships that families of cancer patients go through, how life never comes to a standstill in spite of sickness and the beauty of little moments in life that seem to last as long as forever.
One of my favorite things about the book were the dialogues and the metaphors. Oh, the metaphors! They were brilliantly placed in the story, like little stars in the night sky, that formed constellations when you finally realized the depth of their metaphorical meanings and gave a little "Oh!" of surprise. Here are one of my favorite lines from the book; "There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and 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." This line can be pretty confusing when you don't read it in the context of the book, but what it conveys is that some moments in life are not measured by the time spent, but in how that time is spent. Some moments in life seem to last forever. They are infinities, and some infinities are definitely bigger than others. The book conveys a very strong message about cherishing those infinities and being thankful for them. Another line from the book that really caught my attention was "The world is not a wish granting factory." How true is that? Of course we are all aware of the fact and secretly wish that it were not true. However, most books written for teenagers do a pretty good job of convincing the readers that wishes do come true if you truly want them or work for them or something of the sort. What I loved about this book was its efficiency in conveying to its readers that the world is not a wish granting factory, while also showing us how to live life to its fullest even when all our wishes might not come true.
This book is full of such witty, well-thought out, metaphoric lines. Some of my other favorites are, "The thing about pain is that it demands to be felt.", "I fell in love with him the way you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once.", "My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.", “You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices." and “You do not immortalize the lost by writing about them. Language buries, but does not resurrect.” I could probably go on and on about this book, but I think I'll stop here. I wouldn't say that I read a lot, but I read a good decent number of books every month. I usually like books for their story, setting and characters. I'm not someone who is really particular about the language in books but sometimes when a good story is accompanied by amateur writing, it can put me off. However, for the first time, I've fallen in love with the writing itself. The only complaint I have about the book is that the characters appeared to be a bit 'too mature' for their age. I had a hard time believing that the characters were young adults themselves and that is why I said the book was semi-realistic.
There is a line in the book that seems to sum up the thoughts I have right now:
Yes, that is how I feel about this book. I wrote this blog post to share my love for the book with the readers, hoping that at least one of you will be inspired to read the book through this post. I'd love to hear what you thought about The Fault In Our Stars as well. I believe that sharing an amazing story is just as precious as sharing love, ideas or something that you hold dear to you and this is just the kind of book that must be shared.
The Fault In Our Stars was suggested to me by a couple of people. All they told me about the book was that it is a love story about two teenagers who have been diagnosed with cancer. That was all I needed to hear. The word 'cancer' put me off and gave me all sorts of doubts as to whether I wanted to read the book or not. However, the popularity of the book intrigued me. It was displayed all over, at every bookstore I visited in the last 6 months and had a 150 holds on it at my nearest public library. I finally gave in to my curiosity and bought the book last month. As we were about to go pay for the book, a girl walked up to us and said, "This is a beautiful story. It'll make you laugh and cry at the same time. I'm so happy that you're buying it!" I realized why she was so excited when I finished reading the book two days later. TFIOS is indeed a love story about two teenagers who've gone through cancer. It definitely talks about sickness, death, despair, grief and everything depressing. Yet, there wasn't one sentence in the book that made me feel depressed. It was a beautiful story, told beautifully about the harsh realities of a disease as deadly as cancer, the hardships that families of cancer patients go through, how life never comes to a standstill in spite of sickness and the beauty of little moments in life that seem to last as long as forever.
One of my favorite things about the book were the dialogues and the metaphors. Oh, the metaphors! They were brilliantly placed in the story, like little stars in the night sky, that formed constellations when you finally realized the depth of their metaphorical meanings and gave a little "Oh!" of surprise. Here are one of my favorite lines from the book; "There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and 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." This line can be pretty confusing when you don't read it in the context of the book, but what it conveys is that some moments in life are not measured by the time spent, but in how that time is spent. Some moments in life seem to last forever. They are infinities, and some infinities are definitely bigger than others. The book conveys a very strong message about cherishing those infinities and being thankful for them. Another line from the book that really caught my attention was "The world is not a wish granting factory." How true is that? Of course we are all aware of the fact and secretly wish that it were not true. However, most books written for teenagers do a pretty good job of convincing the readers that wishes do come true if you truly want them or work for them or something of the sort. What I loved about this book was its efficiency in conveying to its readers that the world is not a wish granting factory, while also showing us how to live life to its fullest even when all our wishes might not come true.
This book is full of such witty, well-thought out, metaphoric lines. Some of my other favorites are, "The thing about pain is that it demands to be felt.", "I fell in love with him the way you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once.", "My thoughts are stars I cannot fathom into constellations.", “You don't get to choose if you get hurt in this world...but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices." and “You do not immortalize the lost by writing about them. Language buries, but does not resurrect.” I could probably go on and on about this book, but I think I'll stop here. I wouldn't say that I read a lot, but I read a good decent number of books every month. I usually like books for their story, setting and characters. I'm not someone who is really particular about the language in books but sometimes when a good story is accompanied by amateur writing, it can put me off. However, for the first time, I've fallen in love with the writing itself. The only complaint I have about the book is that the characters appeared to be a bit 'too mature' for their age. I had a hard time believing that the characters were young adults themselves and that is why I said the book was semi-realistic.
There is a line in the book that seems to sum up the thoughts I have right now:
Yes, that is how I feel about this book. I wrote this blog post to share my love for the book with the readers, hoping that at least one of you will be inspired to read the book through this post. I'd love to hear what you thought about The Fault In Our Stars as well. I believe that sharing an amazing story is just as precious as sharing love, ideas or something that you hold dear to you and this is just the kind of book that must be shared.
P.S - My sister made the first picture for me on "Paper by 53". Check out the app, it's amazing!
The second picture is from www.betweenthelines.com.au
