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recommended reading

I got started on my summer reading list yesterday, even though it is not technically summer, nor has school ended for me. But it seemed silly to start reading something not on my list when my list is so long, just because I still have to go to work tomorrow. So, I have embarked on Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Jonathan Safran Foer).

While I am less than one hundred pages into it, I already want to tout this book. I love language and a well-turned phrase resonates with me. Already, this book has caused many such resonations.

From the lips of his nine year old narrator: "Anyway, the fascinating thing was I read in National Geographic that there are more people alive now than have died in all of human history. In other words, if everyone wanted to play Hamlet at once, they couldn't, because there aren't enough skulls!"

Talking about loving spending time with his father, "Being with him made my brain quiet. I didn't have to invent a thing."

Foer is also so creative! He uses his nine year old narrator to voice all of those crazy things you've thought about but would never suggest because now you're an adult and adults don't say those things.

"Sometimes I think it would be weird if there were a skyscraper that moved up and down while its elevator stayed in place."

"There are so many times when you need to make a quick escape, but humans don't have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so what about a birdseed shirt?"

And he uses his narrator to deal with existential questions, "Just because you're an atheist, that doesn't mean you wouldn't love for things to have a reason for why they are."

Start with his first book, Everything is Illuminated. You can borrow my copy. I still haven't fully wrapped my brain around it. But I will buy his next book in hardback.

Labels: books

posted by CP @ 4:05 PM 2 thoughts