Yeah, finished in a day, because it may be past midnight but I have not gone to bed yet.

At first, I was very put off by this book. I mean the premise sounded a lot like Looking for Alaska: girl brings boy out of his shell, girl disappears, boy wonder if she commits suicide. Even worse, the MC was a carbon-copy of the MC of the last book I read: boy who has had a life-long crush on his childhood best friend that he hasn't spoken to in ten year or so, boy's best friend is sexist and obsessed with getting laid, girl shows up again and shows interest in boy who is sure this means they're meant to be. Just, ugh.

But it was so much more than that! The mystery of where Margo disappears to is interesting and I never really felt like Quentin was being an idiot for going after her, she clearly wanted to be found. And then, when he figures out all the clues and goes on a roadtrip ... that part was GREAT. It will be great on screen.

...damn. Does this mean I have to go see a movie based on a John Green book? I try really hard to hate that guy, but shit, dude can write. ( )

So far this is the 3rd John Green book I've read this month. I've discovered a pattern, strong willed girl, not so sure of himself boy. boy spends too much time analyzing girl. profound life lesson. The end. Cute storyline just not to read back to back. They definantly young adult. ( )

definitely a must read ( )

Metaphors. Metaphors everywhere. ( )

Light and brisk.
I loved every minute of reading Paper Towns. I've never read anything by John Green before but I knew he wrote YA fiction, therefore I did not expect that it will engage me this much. I absolutely loved how unpretentious it is, and that in its use of simple language, it delivered greater meanings than one would think. The whole time, in my head, I imagined it as a combination of all the quirky indie films I've watched (I mean, the gang DID listen to The Mountain Goats!) so maybe that played a huge part in me liking it. There were funny bits, and geeky bits, and goofy bits... and they were all perfect.
Also, I'd like to read 'Song of Myself', the very long poem by Walt Whitman, since it was referenced so many times in the book.

I'd like to quote some bits I liked:

"Leaving feels good and pure only when you leave something important, something that mattered to you. Pulling life out by the roots. But you can't do that until your life has grown roots."

"Did you know that for pretty much the entire history of the human species, the average life span was less than thirty years? You could count on ten years or so of real adulthood, right? There was no planning for retirement, There was no planning for a career. There was no planning. No time for plannning. No time for a future. But then the life spans started getting longer, and people started having more and more future. And now life has become the future. Every moment of your life is lived for the future--you go to high school so you can go to college so you can get a good job so you can get a nice house so you can afford to send your kids to college so they can get a good job so they can get a nice house so they can afford to send their kids to college."

( )