Reading and Crying

Five minutes ago I was sitting alone on the Purple Couch (the famous Purple Couch that resides in our den and has survived the worst of the Pipitone Wars). I was reading and crying. I was reading The Book Thief.

I had heard great things about the book but hadn't read it, probably because it is a Young Adult novel. Although some of my very favorite books are classified as Young Adult, I generally have a slight bias against books in that genre (I don't really know if Young Adult can be a genre because it encompasses different genres, I think it's just a classification). Yes, I admit to being biased. I admit that I don't like to hang out in the Young Adult section of the book store. I think it's because of the Twilight assumptions that are made about a teenage girl browsing the Young Adult section. Also, although there are some amazing Young Adult novels (John Green, Sarah Dessen, not to mention the one I just finished, and many more), there are a lot of Young Adult novels that are more akin to Gossip Girl than to Tolstoy (Tolstoy being a writer of classic literature with depth a little more significant than high school drama). I'm a horrible person for this mostly unsubstantiated and unfair prejudice. But books like The Book Thief make me see the error of my ways.

A book like The Book Thief should not be classified at all. It should be required reading for all ages and reading groups (with the exception of young children who are a little to vulnerable and also not up to the reading level the book requires). Tomorrow I fully intend to give the book to my best friend to read. And I don't do that normally. My reading is personal. But this book needs to be shared.

This book made me cry. For the last fifty pages I was not quite sobbing but there was a steady stream of tears falling down my face. Now, I am no robot but I can say that I have never cried so fully because of a book. Tears might well up, my throat might become sore in anticipation of tears, but never have tears steadily streamed down my face. Except for this book.

It was a great book.


In other unrelated news, my computer is dead. It just stopped working. I am on my family's desktop right now. Luckily, next week my grandmother is buying me a MacBook for a graduation present. It's weird not being on my laptop all day. But the silver lining is that I am reading ten times more. It's amazing how taking away that instant access to a computer has changed my daily life. I read for six hours today. Normally I read for just one. I think I like this new way of life.



Reading: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Listening: Pomp and Circumstance (I can't remember the composer right now...He's British and he's mentioned in the novel Howard's End. It's going to bother me that I can't remember his name.)
Today we had 3 hours of graduation practice. Tomorrow another three hours. The day after that and the day after that, 3 hours each. Why do we need 12 hours of graduation practice? Because my school loves it's traditions and they have to be flawless. So we have to have 2 ceremonies and both are ridiculously intricate. 12 hours of Pomp and Circumstance.