Anyways, moving on from that small tangent. The first book I read this summer was The Fault in Our Stars, by John Green. Yes, I read it because it was becoming popular, and the movie was coming out... That's very difficult to admit.. Usually I get annoyed that people read books ONLY because the movie is coming out, and not because they simply enjoy reading for pleasure.. (I think that is why I detest Twilight so much... people ONLY read the book because the MOVIE was coming out... and the movies...I digress. Never mind).
Now that I think of it... I also read Looking for Alaska, when I was in high school, and thoroughly enjoyed it. So, one can say my curiosity of finding out if The Fault in Our Stars was as good as Looking for Alaska kind of crossed my mind as I picked up the book.
A Few Thoughts on the Book
I LOVED this book. It actually made me reflect on my life. I read it in 2 days. I need to reread it again to catch those details I probably missed, but it was amazing. For me it really touched and reminded me that we need to live our lives to the fullest. We never know if we are guaranteed tomorrow. That's probably a no-brainer statement right there, but John Green wrote this book in a way that makes one see they need to live right now without being too pushy about it. But he doesn't make it seem that everything we do needs to be like a stunt scene from the Fast and Furious.
Instead, I believe, he shows us that just being OURSELVES, is a good life to live. I think this book shows us that we need to stop focusing on the material matters in our lives...like do I have the latest smart phone that's out, or worrying about how many people liked my Facebook status today. Instead of focusing on these things we need to focus being kind to each other, not judging someone by their social media page before we even have a chance to talk to them. We need to take more time to get to know the world around us in person, not through some app on a smart phone or tablet. We need to try to learn about a culture, person's beliefs, new hobby, etc. before we can say we don't like them.
A Quote from the Book
"There will come a time when all of us are dead. All of us. There will come a time when there are no human beings remaining to remember that anyone ever existed or that our species ever did anything. There will be no one left to remember Aristotle or Cleopatra, let alone you. Everything that we did and built and wrote and thought and discovered will be forgotten and all of this will have been for naught. Maybe that time is coming soon and maybe it is millions of years away, but even if we survive the collapse of our sun, we will not survive forever. There was time before organisms experienced consciousness, and there will be time after. And if the inevitability of human oblivion worries you, I encourage you to ignore it. God knows that’s what everyone else does.” ~ John Green, The Fault in Our Stars, pg 12-13
This quote may seem like the opposite of what I am saying, but how I interpret it is... That instead of focusing on the material items, and what people think of us, and etc. We should really be focused on helping make this world a better place, and helping people live the best lives they can. Because in the end, what does all the material matter mean? The human race isn't guaranteed an infinity...Who says it is? Why should we focus on just ourselves if in the end no one will be left to remember us? Why should we hide behind the technology of this age when there's a whole world to be seen and lived in person?
A Conclusion to my Rambling?
I'm probably reading too much into this book. But I think that good literature makes you think about your own actions. That is exactly what this book made me do. I suggest everyone should read this... young and old... there's also a lot more to get out of the book than what I wrote above.
~Leslie
p.s I don't own that quote or any of the titles I mentioned... These are also my OWN opinions not anyone else's.
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