John Green - An Abundance of Katherines

Title: An Abundance of Katherines
Author: John Green
Pub. year: 2006
Pages: 229
Editor: Speak

Summary: When it comes to relationships, Colin Singleton's type is girls named Katherine. And when it comes to girls named Katherine, Colin is always getting dumped. Nineteen times, to be exact. On a road trip miles from home [..I skip this part because it tells too much of the story IMO..] Colin is on a mission to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which he hopes will predict the future of any relationship, avenge Dumpees everywhere, and finally win him the girl.

That was the last solo book from John Green I haven't read yet (that is... until he writes another one). I was in a phase where I couldn't read much, because of the work I had to do and because I was too tired and not motivated and so on. So I had to pick a book that I was sure to read fast and to enjoy. Otherwise I would have spend too much time on it and I hate that. And it worked perfectly (even if the not-in-the-mood phase is back now...).

So Colin has this awesome friend, Hassan, who takes him on a road trip to help him to get over his former girlfriend. That's a pretty good idea, if you want my opinion. But it also means that you have a lot of time to think in the car. Not that cool. But anyway, Colin end up trying to have his Eureka moment by creating The Theorem, so having time is a good starting point. What I appreciate is that even if he spends a long time mourning his relationship, he stopped just before bothering me, because Colin doesn't stay in a state of nothingness. He gets over it slowly without really realising it.

Obviously, they meet people and settle somewhere for a while, they get to do stuff that they weren't expecting to do. I really enjoyed this "we're leaving what we know for a while to somewhere where everything is different and people don't do the same stuff" aspect of the story. They get to see another point of view of the world and that makes them think about who they are and where they're going. And apparently, Colin's ability to anagram very quickly helps him doing that too.

It isn't my favorite John Green book, but I enjoyed it very much. It's funny, smart and even if some parts are predictable, you still get some surprise on the way. So, if you want to discover what happened at Gunshot in this story and how the grave of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand managed to be there instead of in Europe, you know what you'll have to do!

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John Green - Paper Towns

Title: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Pub. year: 2008
Pages: 305
Editor: Speak
Summary: Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificently adventurous Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar. So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life--dressed like a ninja and summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge--he follows. After their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Q arrives at school to discover that Margo, always an enigma, has now become a mystery. But Q soon learns that there are clues--and they're for him. Urged down a disconnected path, the closer he gets, the less Q sees of the girl he thought he knew.

I discovered this author through is vlog (=video blog) on youtube and when I heard he was a writer, I was curious to read one of his books. I liked the cover of Paper Towns I saw, so I bought it and read it a few weeks later.

I'm pleased by the ability of John Green to write a story about teenagers without falling into clichés. Each character is credible, neither too popular nor too much of a loser, as we often see it in this kind of story (and being French, I never experienced the gap between cheerleaders/footballers and isolated people, in my High School it was all about being with your group of friends). Quentin is a normal teenager who shows us the complexity fragility of relationship at his age. The writing is clever and funny, and the author as a keen sense of teenage reactions.
Plus, there's a lot of references in it, especially to Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman, which adds moments of reflexion about who is the other in front of us, about leaving, and so on. A lot of ideas that may change the way you might see things.

I like how John Green finds a way to teach all sorts of stuff while is telling you his story. I really enjoyed all the plot around "paper towns", for example. I didn't know what it was before this book and I appreciated to learn that kind of not really useful but still fun facts.

I believe this is the kind of book that can invite people to read more, because it's really easy to read, and because of it's sensibility.

Quotes :

What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.

I'm not saying that everything is survivable. Just that everything except the last thing is.

If you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all.

That's always seemed so ridiculous to me, that people want to be around someone because they're pretty. It's like picking your breakfeast cereals based on color instead of taste.

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