I’m talking about authors. Authors I love. Haha.
Which explains why I used to have the complete works of my favorite Sweet Dreams authors, Janet Quin Harkin and Barbara Conklin, before I unsuspectingly lent them away and never got them back. (Groan.) Until now, I have most of the books written by another one of my favorite young adult novelists, Judy Blume. If you look in our massive bookshelf, you will find neatly arranged in rows books upon books by the same authors: Roald Dahl, Nick Hornby, Anita Shreve, Maeve Binchy, Chuck Palahniuk, David Sedaris, David Nicholls, Haruki Murakami, Anne Tyler, Neil Gaiman, J. D. Salinger.
(Of course, I also have the complete Harry Potter, Narnia, and Lord of the Rings sets, but that’s different bcoz they’re a series, you really have to get the entire collection. I even have the complete Twilight and Fifty Shades trilogies. Shame. Haha.)
It’s like, if I find a book I like, I just have to get more books by the same author. And if the second one turns out well, too, then it quickly turns into an addiction of sorts. Before long you will find me placing orders in Fully Booked or Powerbooks for the writer’s books that I can’t find on the shelves. And I obsessively pursue these books as tho there aren’t 60 million other books that are readily available. Haha.
The most recent additions to My Favorite Authors’ Collection are the books of John Green. I started off with Looking for Alaska – and have not stopped reading him since. Looking for Alaska is award-winning and all of that, and it does remind me a bit of the voice of Holden Caulfield and the classic coming-of-age tale A Separate Peace. It had a surprise death, tho, and somehow stories that suddenly involve death leave me feeling cheated of what I feel should be the real twist and ending of a story.
That was ok, tho, because An Abundance of Katherines totally saved John Green for me. This story is too rollicking funny and smart I can’t wait to see it on the big screen, almost in the same way I could hardly wait to see how Ron Weasley would look like, and how quidditch is actually played.
So of course I ended up ordering Paper Towns in Fully Booked, and was so not disappointed when I finally got it. This one has a touch of suspense and mystery, but still for the most part about love and friendship and youth, which are after all John Green’s forte. Again, a story I cannot wait to see captured in a movie, mainly for the funny, smart, likable characters.
The Fault In Our Stars followed, and I bought it even if it was available only in hardbound, which means I had to shell out more than twice as much than if I were getting it in paperback. The reviews were that good, and I was already a certified John Green fan at this point. Besides, it was a love story, and the blurb called it ‘a smarter, edgier Love Story', so how could I ever resist, right? This is the kind of book that you take your sweet time reading – you don’t want to rush it and dread reaching the last page. You don’t want it to ever end. It’s that beautiful and devastating.
And just when I thought John Green can’t possibly get any better, he does just that with Will Grayson, Will Grayson. It’s about two kids with the same name, leading separate lives that at one point intersect, courtesy of the fabulous six-footer gay best friend named Tiny Cooper. With a character and name like that, how can you ever go wrong? I love love love this book. I want to get inside this book and make fast friends with all the characters there.
My next stop is Let It Snow. As far as I know, these are all the books he has written, so I'm hoping he will write more.
Some of the gems I learned from John Green:
“Love and truth are tied together. They make each other possible.”
“The things you hope for the most are the things that destroy you in the end.”
“You don’t get to choose if you get hurt, but you do have some say in who hurts you.”
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