book-drunk

1. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - ☆☆☆☆
2. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green - ☆☆½
3. Matched by Ally Condie - ☆☆☆☆
4. Crossed by Ally Condie - ☆☆☆
5. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - ☆☆☆☆☆
6. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger - ☆☆☆½
7. The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides - ☆☆☆☆☆
8. My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares - ☆☆☆☆½
9. The Gospel According to Larry by Janet Tashjian - ☆☆☆☆
10. Vote for Larry by Janet Tashjian - ☆☆☆½
11. Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver - ☆☆☆☆☆

It's funny. This morning, I had no idea what this day would bring. I had no idea I'd be sitting here now, typing this, my fan whirring overhead, the steady whoosh of traffic in the not-so-far off distance. Changed, in some way. Dazed, in that familiar, liquid-y balm feeling.

Maybe I shouldn't be writing this now, as I'm still riding the high of endings come all too quickly, but the words are going to come out anyway. 

This is probably the best book I'll read all year. 

And that's both wonderful and horribly sad. Because it's over. But at the same time, it's not.

This morning, I never would've guessed I'd walk into Half Price Books and grab this off the shelf and buy it for 8.99 and come home and crack it open and not stop until all 470 of its pages had been read. A lot can happen in a day. (Especially if you get to live it seven times.)

Already I can feel the high curling inwards, fraying at the edges, deflating.

Frantically listing thoughts:
1. Never, ever scoff at a Young Adult book. Never deem it lesser than.
2. You know how imagination ebbs as you age? How you were once able to visualize--honestly visualize in painful clarity--every scene in a book, yet now that ability seems foreign and somehow lost? This book restored that sensation, physically put me into several settings, whisked me away; I hadn't realized this until I returned, abruptly, uncomfortably, to my bedroom when the scenes ended. I can still feel the pressing darkness, ticking clock, and carpeted stairs of Ally's basement. I can feel the numbing icy rain, the blindness of crowding trees, followed by the warmth of a vast kitchen, smooth wood floors, the full moon turning Kent's bedroom silver, Samantha lying in his sleigh of a bed as he wheeled over in his desk chair to guard her sleep. I can feel this book.
3. Not one single line feels forced or unnecessary. Not once did my attention wander.
4. Even a seemingly unremarkable scene can be made remarkable through a character's perception of his/her world and those tiny, one-of-a-kind, authentic details that make characters and worlds and scenes and novels breathe.

This book is why I want to write.