This is a lie...

So. I finished Looking for Alaska last night before drinking myself into a stupor with a drinking game set to the Princess Bride with the guys from church. I’ve had some time to think about it, though probably not enough, and anyway I’m spilling my thoughts on the book. 

I Picked up Alaska after having several people tell me that it was their favorite book and watching lots of nerd fighter vids. Also I picked it up for light reading when i was too tired or stressed to read Ulysses, which is a struggle in the best of times. That said I had very high expectations for the book. Which for the most-part where met in unexpected ways. 

I loved some of the ideas presented in the book. The search for meaning through religion and the need for anger, selfishness, and other shitty traits to make a person more than just and idea where particularly meaningful to me. I also loved the truthful voice given to drinking, smoking, and sex acts. (The blow-job scene was almost to real for me to read). 

However, it is definitely a high-schooler’s book. Alaska wasn’t written for people that have graduated. A reader can see the shit coming before it hits the fan and the points that I expected to be truly deep, like the Great Perhaps, seemed as if they could have been fleshed out alot more if the book had been written for an older audience. 

These complaints aside, it was a wonderful book. I when I find honesty and love in books and it comes in gobs while you look for Alaska with Pudge and the Colonel. I plan on putting a sign on my door next year numbering my door 43 like the main character’s door. I want to remember that we are all stumbling to the answers that we don’t think we want constantly. To quote a certain great old wizard “Old men are guilty if they forget what it is like to be young” and Looking for Alaska forces you to remember.

I havent made a personal post all summer so I think it’s time to catch you motherfuckers up. 

I did well in school, (thank god) making a 3.76 and bringing my cumulative gpa up to a 3.55. Stoked about that. 

Summer started out rough, other than finding out my grades. I started working at the warehouse my second day back and have been working a steady weekday shift since, though my job is gone as of this next week, at least until the end of the summer when shit starts coming back to the youth camp that I work in the warehouse for. I’m thankful for the work, just not the fact that the job is so short and stressful. 

Also, living at home sucks. I hate having to act like i’m in high school. I feel like my life is back in Oxford with a bunch of people that are dispersed. My home is a particularly glorious salad that i dropped on the floor, the lettuce and tomato separated by cold linoleum tile. 

There are several good things about the summer though. I’ve gotten to see almost all of my good friends, bought a ticket to Bonnaroo, played music, got a new phone, and read. 

The most fun I’ve had all summer though is going to my best friend’s (Currie) birthday party. Currie, her college roomie (other Currie), Daniel, Amy and I all had a blast tramping around Birmingham, eating cake, and laughing our asses off. :D If there is something other than a glass of whiskey that is going to save this summer it’s doing stuff with them again. (the three that live here at least.)