The Loss of a Lifetime

It was beyond anything I had ever read. It was not the story that was based on the biggest tragedy of the twenty-first century or the characters whom were all very convincing, no it was the style of this book, this story of a lifetime.

Literally the story of a lifetime.

The whole concept of a book is the endless pages filled with letters, words, sentences carrying the story off the page into the real world, bringing it alive before our very eyes. This book was different. It was alive, it was like a journal. Emotion poured into every corner of every page, colours blinding your sight, pages with nothing on it but single sentences, 'I'm sorry' and 'Do you know what time it is?', or even an entirely empty page. Some page were covered by one single picture, though most pages did contain the actual story. But even some of those pages had a different lay-out that the average John or Jane is used to.

Some of those pages
were written
like this.
And sometimes the letters were
so close together
that it was almost impossible to understand.
Some pages consisted of nothing but
scribbles of people testing their pen before buying it.

Does this ring any bells yet?

I'm talking about Jonathan Safran Foer's 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'

Oskar Schell lost his father when the Twin Towers fell and he is still trying to come to terms with his death. The story actually revolves around Oskar's father and the impact he had on several lifes, though he is never named as the cause of the changes the people around him made.

The odd lay-out of this book doesn't come in the way of the story, it makes the story (which is to be honest not that extraordinary in concept) better, more interesting, and you are amazed every time you turn the page.

The writing style in itself is fluent, obviously American (Oskar is a nine-year-old New Yorker) and funny.

I intend to read more books written by Safran Foer and now? It is your turn by starting to read this one. Enjoy!

Into The Wild

In the middle of my studying for my exames, I still found the time to finish reading Jon Krakauer's based-on-a-reallife-story 'Into the wild'. Since the author is a journalist, his writing style is very analytic and there's barely a hint of imagination, even if he does start to speculate he always mentions it. The story is quite gripping and makes you think about the brainwaves some people seem to have. The story tells us about the last years of Chris McCandless (I think many have heard of Sean Penn's latest movie, which is based on and has the same title as this novel) and facts about his time before he became this 'strider' (going into 'Lord of the Rings'), this wanderer.

It reads like an interesting report you can read in the newspaper. Like any good journalist, Krakauer gives us the facts, and nothing but the facts. Every now and then he gives his own opinion of what happened to Chris, he even goes as far as to compare himself to McCandless. This is different from the movie. In the movie only the story of Chris is told, but in the book Krakauer gives many more examples of men (yes, funnily enough only men seemed to have felt the need to escape society and seek out the danger in nature) having done the same thing, of whom many have never returned.

The story is also filled with quotations of famous writers like Jack London, Thoreau and other novelties. Mostly because McCandless highlighted those passages. Even though most people would say McCandless was out of him mind to try to survive in the wilderness, I don't think he was mad. He had a sensible mind (I think that's safe to say, cause he reads books like Tolstoy, Thoreau and has strong opinions of government, etc. Though somewhere I think he was just very dissapointed with life and people. I think you'll see why if you read the book).

I'd suggest you'd try it. It's not much (just 200 pages), and has beautiful parts and they sometimes just nail it. All right, that made very thing just incomprehensible, but just read it.

I enjoyed it very much.

Must Read This One

The Shadow of the Wind by Spanish author Carlos Ruiz Zafon, is another must-read book on my list. I've read it about a half a year ago and I consider it quite good. If you like to solve mysteries, this is the book for you. Mind you, the beginning is a bit slow, but after that it is a pageturner (it was for me, anyway).

The Shadow of the Wind isn't easy to explain, actually, it sound a bit boring when you try. Nevertheless, the story about the adolensence years of Daniel in post second World War Barcelona are wonderfully written. You can really see him run through the streets, hoping to find his girlfriend and the author of his favorite and most priced possesion, a book called 'the shadow of the wind'. Even though, none of the above sounds convincing I really thing you should give it a shot! It will be worth your time, and if not, well, you can't have it all.

"If you thought the true gothic novel died with the nineteenth century, this will change your mind...This is one gorgeous read."--Stephen King.

"Anyone who enjoys novels that are scary, erotic, touching, tragic, and thrilling should pick up "The Shadow of the Wind.""--The Washington Post.

Stephenie, Phillipa and Ian

Reading is another huge hobby of mine. Last summer I discovered the books of Stephenie Meyer. The Twilight-saga. I loved it! I've never been so absorbed in a book! I got my hands on it at ten at night and never stopped reading until I had finished it the following morning. It was page turning, and I seriously recommend it to anyone who needs to withdraw from their own world. It is thrilling and easy to read. Even for those whose motherlanguage is not the English language. Like it is for me.

It is a fantasy novel, though I don't think I need to explain anything to those who live in the States. The hype about the movie which came to theatres last November can hardly have gone unnoticed by anyone.
Here in Europe the craziness hasn't really gone that far, but the girls all love Edward Cullen, and my gosh, can you blame them? I do sound like such a girl, don't I? I, however, don't understand all this drama about the guy who plays Edward Cullen, Rob Pattinson. Sure, he's good looking, but he's just another human being like we all are and I think we ought to respect his privacy. This is one of the topics I can be very fierce about, but this is not the blog to expand my thoughts on paparazzi, fame and celebrities. I was talking about books.

Twilight is the best of the four novels in the saga, without a doubt. And this work of Stephenie Meyer has influenced my own writing style a lot, to my dissapointment. I don't think the author's work is bad, not at all! I love her writing and stories, it's just that I would like to have a certain style of my own. However, I'm young, and don't they say that practise makes perfect? So that's what I've got to do!

Other books I've read in 2008 were Phillipa Gregory's novels about the Tudors. The other Boleyn Girl, The Queen's Fool and The Virgin's Lover (in that order, which is the way to read, by the way) are the ones I liked. She's a maginificant writer, she conjures the world of the Tudors with quite some realism. The grandeur of the livestyle, but also the misery and worries of her characters. I'm not sure which one is my favorite. I really like Mary Boleyn, oppose to Anne Boleyn. And Hannah Green is also wonderful, I think she is one of the strongest women Gregory has written about in these three novels. Princess/Queen Elizabeth the First was all right, too, but the love story was quite sad. I think I like The Other Boleyn Girl and The Queen's Fool best because the love story is satisfying.

It is already obvious I need romance in the stories that I read.

Atonement by Ian McEwan was the saddest and most beautiful thing I've ever read. Sure, it wasn't easy, it was very hard at some points, especially when half of the book contains only several hours of a hot summers day. The Briony-parts were sometimes hell to get through, but McEwan captured the thoughts of a preteen quite good! The movie was also fantastic, Keira Knightley and James McAvoy were brilliant! And did you know the green silk dress Keira wore in that film was voted as one of the most beautiful costumes? It truly is gorgeous.
I've also read Enduring love, which was also quite tough to get through, though I managed. Yes, Enduring love is also a movie, the actors in it are 007 Daniel Craig and Four Weddings and a Funeral star Rhys Ifans. The movie is based on this novel. I've never seen it, though.

Call me crazy (many have done so), but I'm trying to read War & Peace by Tolstoi. How's that going you might ask. Well, truth to be told, I've put it aside for the moment. The names are very, very long! And it's really difficult to keep track of who knows whom and the other way around. No, I'm not going to read the cliffnotes, I want to read the story, not a summary of it.

I love historic novels, but I'm looking for new idea's. New books to read, does any one have any suggestions? Oh, don't bother mentioning Tolkien, I've tried, but I'll just stick to the movie. That's easier.