Please don't cringe when I say that I did not enjoy John Green's prized novel Looking for Alaska. I read this book expecting great things. After hearing so much talk about this book, I was hoping to be wow-ed. This book didn't like up to the hype and was a disappointment.
The plot line was shallow. Loser boy meets pretty girl, falls in love, tragedy strikes, and the rest of the novel is his whining. I think there was an attempt at a discussion of life, death, and suffering, but it was weak. Over half the book was pointless details and thoughts that Pudge had. The remainder were just the events to propel the plot forward. I was let down by the "climax" of the book. There was no build up to some important moment, but instead was just slapped down.
I tried my best to like the characters, but by the end of the book I fully hated Pudge. They are only sixteen years-old, but all of the characters were immature. It drove me mad through the entire book. I didn't feel connected with the characters. They were not relatable, they were stereotypical. By the end I was ready to shake Pudge and tell him to grow up already.
The "philosophical" aspect (if you can even call it that) was extremely repetitive and boring. "How will you ever get out of this labyrinth of suffering?" Pudge's essay that ended the book was weak. Simply by him using the word "fuck" in a final exam essay made me dismiss the whole thing as childish. He rambles, and it is apparent that this is his first major philosophical life breakthrough. It reminded me of when the movie Drive came out and everyone turned into a philosophizer over Ryan Gosling's character. Get over yourselves. It's not that deep.
My final feeling about this book is annoyed. It's thin. There's no plot to debate. There's no provoking ideas to discuss. There's no controversial situations. There's no characters to gush over. It was flat, boring, and turned me off to all that is John Green.
It always shocked me when I realized that I wasn't the only person in the world who thought and felt such strange and awful things.
Book Review | Player One: What Is to Become of Us by Douglas Coupland
Rate: ★ ★
This book less than impressed me. Player One takes place in the bar of an airport hotel. It is told from five perspectives: a woman meeting an internet hook up, the bartender, a pastor who just robbed his own church, a girl who, because of mental dysfunction, cannot feel the broad emotions of humanity, and, lastly, Player One. The entire book takes place in only five hours. Each chapter of this book corresponds to an hour with each chapter then being divided into five smaller chunks that are narrated by each character.
This book could be considered apocalyptic fiction. It takes place during an oil crisis that causes chaos, giving an "end of the world" panic to the characters. This creates tension and impulsive decisions. I felt that the story line was very thin. The events that happened didn't help move the plot forward but just filled time in the five hours of the book.
The characters were not impressive. I didn't feel connected to any of them, which is odd with a book that has multiple perspectives. There were several flashbacks experienced by each of the characters that provided more background, but in the end, I thought the characters were bland. The character development was better than the characters themselves. As the five hours tick by, each of the characters learns life lessons and discovers hidden things about themselves in this time of stress.
The majority of the book is strange philosophical ideas. There is a lot of religion talk, but I wouldn't say that it's a key factor to the book. Most of the ideas about life, death, and love are general, not a religions specific. I did not like all the philosophical ramblings. I'm sure a lot of it went over my head, but I didn't even want to put effort into trying to interpret it, which is what broke this book for me.
All in all, after my first time reading this book, I disliked it. However, I think it should be one of those books that you don't make hasty judgments on. It will be a book that I'll be re-reading in the future. I may not have liked it today, but ten years from now, after gaining a better perspective on life, I might really connect with the characters and appreciate it's philosophy on life.
I would recommend this book if you enjoy apocalyptic fiction, if you enjoy adult fiction, or if you enjoy reading philosophic books in as story form. It's not terrible, but it's not good either.
Is that all time is—our perception of quickly it does or does not pass?
02. Babylon Revisited and Other Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald
03. The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
04. Aiding and Abetting by Muriel Spark
05. Player One by Douglas Coupland ✔
06. Across the Universe by Beth Revis ✔
07. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain ✔
Recently I purchased seven books from Thriftbooks.com. I paid $30 for everything, which for seven books is a decent price. These books were all used, but still in decent shape. My favorite part about buying used books is you never know when you might find something special. In my copy of Slaughterhouse-Five I found a receipt from the El Coyote Mexican Cafe in Los Angeles from 1999. It even had the mastercard number and name of the woman, who, after googling, I discovered worked at Stanford University. It made me happy to find an old receipt from over ten years ago and learn about someone who read the same copy of the book I'm reading. If only the pages could talk...
Anyway, I highly recommend this website, if you don't mind used books that is. The prices are great. There is free shipping for the United States (other countries' shipping prices are also reasonable). And, best of all, there is no tax! Yippee for saving money!
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