It has come to my attention that I really enjoy reading. It's like I was put on a default setting to involuntarily respond to any literary recommendation, "Oh, I don't read," and move on with my life. I didn't spend an abundance of time reading, true, but I have always enjoyed books. I just didn't want to take the time to read them. Now that I have all this free time to anything, and a spirit of adventure, I've picked up my old habit of indulging in great literature. I think I have one man to thank for that. John. Green.
When I got to middle school and teachers started assigning me books to read I lost interest in the magic of a great novel. Reading wasn't cool anymore and neither was writing papers. The whole meaning and purpose of books was forever lost, or so I thought. Have you ever just read a book and when you finished put it down and then picked it up to read it again? Have you read something that beautiful? If not, you're not reading the right books. Additionally, you will lose hope in the writers as a whole.
Until you read a book that restores your faith in humanity, and literature. John Green. He is a literary genius. I've made it my summer mission to read every single book that he has written. First, The Fault In Our Stars. From the moment I opened it and read the first line of that very first page, I was hooked. He is able to say something so profound that is followed by a subtle, hilarious truth. The only way I have been able to describe that specific novel is as heartwarmingly heartbreaking.
Second, Paper Towns. Although this novel is widely different from TFIOS, I am still amazed at how well this man writes. His characters are given so much life that I can't choose a face I have seen in real life, my brain is forced to create an entirely new, just as real image. As I read and enjoy the story, I am witnessing each characters life with a front row seat. Not only does John Green captivate you with his language. He is able to incorporate such beautifully profound truths that most people are thinking but can't find the words to say out loud. For example, it's easy to get caught up in being prudent and making sure your prudence has prudence. This is what John Green has to say about living for the future.
"Did you know that for pretty much the entire history of the human species, the average life span was less than thirty years? You could count on ten years or so of real adulthood, right? There was no planning for retirement. There was no planning for a career. There was no planning. No time for planning. No time for a future. But then the life spans started getting longer, and people started having more and more future, and so they spent more time thinking about the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future-you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to college so they can get a job so they can get nice house so they can afford to send their kids to college."
What he is basically saying is that the future is already here although it hasn't happened. It is already controlling our actions. Not necessarily a bad or good thing, just a truth about what going on in the world. I sometimes forget that in the midst of the fiction there is a man, and that man probably believes at a percentage of what he is writing. That man actually thinks such profound thoughts and that man wrote them down for the world to see and that just warms my heart.
Thank you, John Green, for writing good books and having deeply profound thoughts. But most of all thank you for restoring my love for reading, my faith in humanity, and for making me just all out happy! I know this won't be the last time I enjoy your books. Third, Looking For Alaska.
