From a corner in the library

Book Info

Name: Paper Towns
Author: John Green
Date of publication: October 16th, 2008
Synopsis: Neighbors since childhood, Quentin and Margo grew apart. He had always been in love with her, (or the idea of her, at least) but had never said anything. One night, Margo shows up at his window and takes him along with her on a Margo-like adventure. She goes missing after that, and Q makes finding her his mission, taking his friends along with him in a desperate race to find her...alive.



-John Green has become my favorite writer. He makes YA lit very interesting. I read The Fault In Our Stars last year and fell in love with the way he writes. I later found Looking For Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, but it wasn't until now that I had the chance to read Paper Towns. Let me put it like this: It was reading this powerful book which inspired me to create this blog. Nobody I know has read it, so I don't have anyone to talk with about it and since I finished it last night (Feb. 18th) I couldn't stop thinking about it.
-Two years ago I spent a year in the US, living with another family. One thing that I remember from it is that the mother of this family used to tell me that the idea of things is so much better than the things themselves. For example, we once went to a 'Christmas cookie party.' Sounds nice, right? Well, it wasn't that great. Just a bunch of moms with their kids running around, a lot of cookies on a table and terrible caroling. When we got back from it, the lady who I was staying with asked me what I thought about it, not wanting to be rude I said it had been nice. She told me what she really thought and we started talking about how the idea of a cookie party sounded nice, but the party itself sucked. Ever since I've believed in that theory. Another example, being as introverted as I am, the idea of having lots of friends and going out with them sounds pleasant... but the actual going out? No, thanks. It's something I would like to do, but it's kinda difficult for me.
-Somehow John Green managed to put some of my ideas into a beautiful story. Quentin is so much like me, he thinks about the future, he loves routine and is in love with the idea of a person.
-Two days ago, while I was having breakfast and reading this book, I started doing what I always do when I'm reaching the end of a book: decide which character I like and which I don't, so that I can decide what I want the ending to be. I decided that I didn't like Margo. I started going over why I didn't like her until I realized that, just like Q, I didn't know her. I only knew a reflection of her. So the whole book made sense to me.

-I love many ideas. The idea of studying a certain major. The idea of starting a project. The idea of having lots of friends. But when the time comes, the planning and the imagining are better.  I'm so glad that I read this book in this particular time of my life.
-Once I had discovered what the book was about, I couldn't stop relating it to Patrick Stump's song Porcelain. My favorite line from this song is "Have you ever met somebody who was perfect 'til you met them." So, yeah... I think they expose similar ideas.


Rating: ★★★★★
Favorite character: Quentin Jacobsen
Favorite secondary character: Marcus 'Radar' Lincoln
Favorite part: While I love the road trip from Orlando to Agloe, I feel that Quentin finding out the comment on Omnictionary and deciding not going to graduation and having his friends going with him is my favorite part.
Favorite quote:
“Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will… but then again, if you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all. Imagining isn’t perfect. You can’t get all the way inside someone else… But imagining being someone else, or the world being something else, is the only way in. It is the machine that kills the fascists”
Least favorite character: I'm tempted to say Margo, but part of me feels that she is special, we just don't get to see her. So, I'm going to say Margo's parents. They do seem to be very annoying.
Least favorite part: Pretty much every time Q went to a subdivision and thought we would find Margo's body. That sucked.