Review - An Abundance of Katherines

I'm don't think I've ever been more astounded at how an author can tell similar stories so differently. John Green, your Super Nerd status seems to be getting out of hand, but I think it is down to having Super Nerd friends, too. I am insanely jealous.

See, I just finished reading An Abundance of Katherines, Green's second published book. My friend gave me a loan of it on Sunday night while in a mutual friend's kitchen, over 80km from my house, which is a whole lot closer than the loaner's house. We stayed for the night, we left the next afternoon, and I started reading the book. It's Wednesday, now. I read the book between adverts on television last night. It was very hardcore stuff.

So, you've read the back catalogue of John Green; how does this compare to everything else by him?
(Dude, that was tame...) I won't lie; this was my least favourite of John Green's books. This may be attributed to how tired I am reading it. However, I will point out that "least favourite" does not mean that I did not love the book. In fact, I could barely put it down. I just found that I enjoyed the stories of Q and Pudge a whole lot more than Colin's story. It wasn't that I didn't like Colin, I just liked the ideas behind the other books better.

Eh... why?
Yeah, this kind of comes down to the fact that I found I was too much like Colin, sometimes. Okay, I'm not a prodigy child and I haven't dated nineteen Katherines (it's in the blurb, it's no big spoiler), but the whole word thing got to me. Okay, so he's more or less terrible at coming up with words in the right order; rearranging words is more his speciality. I write, but I can't anagram too well. And I'm quite bad at remembering new words.  That's just one of the things. I don't really want to get into the rest.

Weirdo...
Very much so. But seeing similarities made it difficult, because I kept thinking of all these weird things in my life. Still, he was an interesting character. His anagramming and his learning and all the languages that are used in the book are all remarkable, and I'm certainly not capable of any of it.

So, what did you actually think of the book?
Brilliant. Simply brilliant. I loved the idea of a guy who only dates Katherines. And there was a road trip. I like road trips. John Green is great at them. There was also a wonderful scene that showed the power of dialogue, that I won't go into too much because you really have to read it. It's not exactly what was said that makes it a great scene, but how John Green writes it. You'll understand when you read the book (by the way, you have to read this book).

Will you keep on reading John Green's books?
Pope says yes. (Sorry, God College joke).* I have one more to read before his next book comes out at some stage in the future; it has a female protagonist, but that's all I know about it. Until then, I'm left to read Will Grayson, Will Grayson and that'll be it for John Green. Then I'll have a sad. But anyway, that's a bit of a way to go. I have college in five days, so I may not have time for personal reading. But yes, I will continue reading John Green's books; just not immediately.

*Incidentally, John Green also studied Religion and English at college! I jumped around excitedly when I found that out. It was a fun coincidence, not a matter of choice; I hadn't even been watching John Green's videos on YouTube for very long (if at all) when I chose what course I was going to do in college. Also, Pope says yes is a twist on a joke, Pope says no, which Ferris Bueller came up with.