Stories, Tales, and Other Things
For the past week or so, Nick and I have been reading before bed.
Years ago, we both discovered (or, I discovered and shared) the author John Green, thanks to the YouTube channel he had started with his brother Hank – VlogBrothers. To me, this story is best finished with a clever “and you know the rest,” but just in case you don’t, I’ll tell you. John and Hank agreed to – for the course of one year – not participate in textual communication with one another. They could talk on the telephone, they could skype, but they could not send emails or text messages or instant messages. Every day, they had to make a video, alternating in turn so that January 1, 2007 Hank made the first video, and on January 2 John made his, and so it began.
As it would turn out, John Green was also a pretty well known YA Author. You know, one of those people who’s books are shelved somewhere near the Harry Potters and the Twilights and the Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret and whatever else they’re shoving there these days. Nick and I both, from a thousand miles apart, went out and purchased matching copies of Looking For Alaska. We both finished in, more or less, one sitting.
Maybe it’s because John Green is an absolutely phenomenal author, or maybe it’s because his characters are extremely relate-able, but each of the books beyond Alaska I scooped up with equal enthusiasm. An Abundance of Katherines forever emblazoned in my head the concept that there are “dumpers” and “dumpees.” Paper Towns was my guidebook and companion for moving so far across the country without so much as the faintest idea what I was doing.
Then came Will Grayson, Will Grayson.
I purchased the book…awhile ago, while I was back home. I had Leslie special order it and rushed over to get it and took it home…and didn’t read it. In that time, I guess I thought Nick had already read it, but when we moved in and combined our book collections and looked at our double copies of Paper Towns and Looking For Alaska, I noted that there was just one copy of Will Grayson. So we decided to read it.
Here’s the thing about this book – it’s written in two parts. Half of it is John Green, and the other half is this guy David Levithan. It takes place in and around the various suburbs of Chicago and follows the lives of two teenagers. Each named Will Grayson, each voiced by a different author. One boy lives by the rules “shut up and don’t care,” and the other is quietly participating in an online romance. Eventually, their lives intersect completely in what turns out to be a completely enthralling tale that you literally cannot put down.
I had forgotten how nice it was to read things aloud, to connect with someone over a book. While one of the Will Graysons was describing his conversations with his internet boyfriend, we laughed about the conversations we used to have before I moved. While the other was recounting day to day high school drama, we laughed over what our high school days were like. It was fun. Reading the book was fun, the story was fun, it was just enjoyable.
The funny thing about reading YA novels is that they aren’t so watered down you feel like you’re going back to See Spot Run, and they aren’t so overdone that you wonder why the author felt it necessary to throw in a 45 point scrabble word in every sentence just to sound educated and “adult.” The story is about the story, and the characters, and the relationships between them. It’s about how the internet is “real” and how people are “real” and how truths are true and sometimes not true. And then, you know, there’s the reading in general – being immersed in a story. It’s one thing by yourself, but it’s entirely different when you share it with another person.
Have you been reading anything good lately? Do you share reading with someone else, or do it alone? Leave a comment! Lets talk books.
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