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godreamIt seemed like the sort of book that actually does lend itself to reading all at once while curled up and quiet. And everyone I know said it was a great book and that I'd like it, so I read it. (The "everyone I know" strategy of choosing works sometimes and not others. I still don't get what all of you see in Napoleon Dynamite.)
I liked it, I think. I'm betting just about all of you who bothered to click on the cut tag have already read it, so I'm not going to bother summarizing. I enjoyed the style of the book -- I thought I was going to have trouble buying into the "dear friend", but it worked, and the very calm narrative voice -- I want to say "objective first person", which seems like an oxymoron, but. Striking and lovely and all sorts of positive adjectives, and lots of lines that I would have dog-eared or copied down except it wasn't my book and at the moment it seemed much more important to keep reading.
I'm reading amazon.com reviews, because for some reason I can't put my opinion out there without reading others'. One review says, quote, "If I were him I would talk to a doctor or something because boys are not sopose to have diary's", which makes me sort of sad. (As did the number of kids who start off with "I never read, but...") Lots of people say "everyone can relate to this book", in spite of the few reviews which insist "I found nothing to relate to here". Lots of five star reviews, a significant number of one-star reviews. Which is interesting, to me.
Note: at this point it is nearly three AM, which is when (like clockwork) I start making even less sense than usual. Just a warning.
The copy I read belongs to my stepsister Denise, who's a year younger than I am and very different in many ways. My younger sister (thirteen, and probably drawing more from Denise's influence than mine) has Denise's copy in her room, nestled on a little shelf with half a dozen of my books and a few others of Denise's. It's interesting that this is a place where all three of our tastes overlap. There's a few words written on the inside cover and scribbled out thoroughly in blue marker, and I sort of wonder if it's a note from someone who gave her the book, what they were thinking when they gave it to her. I suspect some of the people who've told me I'd like it thought I'd see myself in the protagonist; yes, though maybe not so much as I saw some people I know. (Partly because I'm (obsessively? naively?) straight-edge. Partly because I'm not that observant. Partly... I don't know. Hm.)
Anyways. The thing about me reading books about high schoolers (brace yourself for navel-gazing) is that I always end up taking a moment and blinking and wondering. I don't watch much TV but I'm good at taking what I see with a grain (or a shakerful) of salt -- I'm never quite sure to what extent I should do that with this kind of book, whether to react like: "how unrealistic" or "oh, so that's what everyone else was doing on friday nights when I was at home reading or whatever". Of course the answer's going to be a mix of those, obviously, but even now that I should be long since over that curiosity it's still there. :P OK, meaningless self-indulgence over now.
I liked it, I think. I'm betting just about all of you who bothered to click on the cut tag have already read it, so I'm not going to bother summarizing. I enjoyed the style of the book -- I thought I was going to have trouble buying into the "dear friend", but it worked, and the very calm narrative voice -- I want to say "objective first person", which seems like an oxymoron, but. Striking and lovely and all sorts of positive adjectives, and lots of lines that I would have dog-eared or copied down except it wasn't my book and at the moment it seemed much more important to keep reading.
I'm reading amazon.com reviews, because for some reason I can't put my opinion out there without reading others'. One review says, quote, "If I were him I would talk to a doctor or something because boys are not sopose to have diary's", which makes me sort of sad. (As did the number of kids who start off with "I never read, but...") Lots of people say "everyone can relate to this book", in spite of the few reviews which insist "I found nothing to relate to here". Lots of five star reviews, a significant number of one-star reviews. Which is interesting, to me.
Note: at this point it is nearly three AM, which is when (like clockwork) I start making even less sense than usual. Just a warning.
The copy I read belongs to my stepsister Denise, who's a year younger than I am and very different in many ways. My younger sister (thirteen, and probably drawing more from Denise's influence than mine) has Denise's copy in her room, nestled on a little shelf with half a dozen of my books and a few others of Denise's. It's interesting that this is a place where all three of our tastes overlap. There's a few words written on the inside cover and scribbled out thoroughly in blue marker, and I sort of wonder if it's a note from someone who gave her the book, what they were thinking when they gave it to her. I suspect some of the people who've told me I'd like it thought I'd see myself in the protagonist; yes, though maybe not so much as I saw some people I know. (Partly because I'm (obsessively? naively?) straight-edge. Partly because I'm not that observant. Partly... I don't know. Hm.)
Anyways. The thing about me reading books about high schoolers (brace yourself for navel-gazing) is that I always end up taking a moment and blinking and wondering. I don't watch much TV but I'm good at taking what I see with a grain (or a shakerful) of salt -- I'm never quite sure to what extent I should do that with this kind of book, whether to react like: "how unrealistic" or "oh, so that's what everyone else was doing on friday nights when I was at home reading or whatever". Of course the answer's going to be a mix of those, obviously, but even now that I should be long since over that curiosity it's still there. :P OK, meaningless self-indulgence over now.
