Happy Birthday to one of my favorite authors ever, a geek himself, Mr. John Green! And while I know that there are probably hundreds of reviews about his book, I’m still posting my own review, I don’t care, this is my first ever anyway. So get ready to be annoyed. (PS: Let It Snow is not included, I am still waiting for the holidays to read it because it is a Christmas story and now I am annoying you even more).

Looking for Alaska

“The Great Perhaps is upon us and we are invincible.”

I don’t know where I should start with this one. The Great Perhaps. This book told me about seeking the Great Perhaps, and traveling through the world of Pudge Halter, on accompanying him on his adventures in Culver Creek, is an experience I can never forget. The book follows the story of Pudge’s journey on seeking someone, whom he lost, someone important who changed his life, someone whom he could not find but badly needed. In reading Pudge’s story, we too might find our own Alaska, and after looking, we might find ourselves willing to forgive and be forgiven in return.

An Abundance of Katherines

“A retyper and not a writer. A prodigy and not a genius.”

This is my favorite John Green book. I enjoyed reading every single page of it. And Hassan Harbish, the Sunni Muslim, not a terrorist, best friend of the main character Colin Singleton, is my favorite character of all time. It is one of the funniest books I have ever read and while I am not a prodigy, and definitely not a genius, I can somehow relate to Colin, a prodigy who was dumped by his 18 Katherine girl friends. Not that I was a dumpee, myself, thank you, but Colin just so happened to like reading books (I guess it was an inherent part of him, being a prodigy) and man you should hear him talk, the boy can speak many languages, Spanish, Arabic, the likes and he can tell you in French that he doesn’t have hemorrhoids; that and the fact that he has this coolest best friend ever.

In this book, Colin struggles to create a formula for relationship predictability, and together with Hassan, they embarked on a road trip that could make this formula work. It doesn’t matter that the story involves Math (believe me I hate Math too), the road trip itself is satisfying, the kind of trip that teaches you things like that pigs don’t speak Arabic and the fact that all of us will eventually get forgotten, but that our stories will last.

Paper Towns

“It is hard to leave—until you leave. And then it is the easiest goddamned thing in the world.”

You might have thought by now that I will be tired of reading John Green’s books, but no. This “Paper Towns” book is somewhat like the story of Pudge Halter. It is the story of a boy who gathered all the clues left to him by this crazy girl friend before leaving her home and who, the boy believes, wants to be followed and to be found. But this story is somewhat different from the other book, for one, it is lighter, unlike the gloomy atmosphere you get reading Looking for Alaska (because of Alaska, I presume), and it is funnier (I like funny books, yes). However, I do find some unbelievable things in the story, like the fact that a super hot girl should fall in love with this nerd friend of the main character. Come on, it defies the forces of nature. Anyway, how Green wrote the last part of the story was exhilarating, the kind that makes your heart beat faster as you approach the end of the book. Proving his point that reading is like peeing: once you start, it is so hard to stop.

I should say one thing, though. Quentin Jacobsen should not have bothered to find that insufferable Margo Roth Spiegelman, but go on with his life.

The Fault in Our Stars

“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”

I don’t know why but I don’t like Margo Roth Spiegelman, but I also hate Hazel Grace. Maybe because I do not understand her, I do not understand her ‘imperial affliction,’ in which case I failed to understand the book. Ah well. Anyway, I believe that this is the most famous John Green book, a touching story of two souls trying to live within the bounded set of infinity that they have, racing against time, it seems, but also resigned in waiting for their time which is fast approaching, resigned to the fact that life really has its many faults.

Will Grayson, Will Grayson (written with David Levithan)

“…the rest of us are stuck fighting the fights we always fight, with no one really caring one way or another…”

I believe that “Will Grayson, Will Grayson” is not the story of the two Wills but the story of Tiny Cooper, the gay man who likes to stage musicals. It is the story of how two teens with the same name, running in two very different circles, suddenly traveled the same road and how their lives were changed by Tiny.

The style of the book is cool, John Green writing the chapter for the one Will Grayson, while David Levithan writes for the other Will Grayson, and how these two characters met is cool too. I think it is my familiarity of Green’s writing that made it an enjoyable read but I don’t find his story special. As for Levithan, well his style is different, starting with the lower casedness of his Will Grayson. His Will is a gloomy person so I did not much enjoy reading his story, but I like it nonetheless.

All in all I don’t think much of the book, maybe because I don’t like musicals, or that maybe Tiny is so gay (no offense) or that the story itself is so gay. The story has some fun side to it, but still…