Introduction

Before you begin reading, I have just a few words to say.

Firstly, this blog far from represents the entirety of the material that I have read this year, as I'm sure is the case with many of these blogs; I merely selected the best literary works of my reading year to review and display here. All of the entries on this blog are posted on books, which naturally rules out all of the fanfiction, webcomic, magazine and article material I've read; it is not even a comprehensive list of all the books. Just a friendly disclaimer.
Secondly, the entries' dates bear very little relation to the actual date of borrowing or completion. Being the lazy student I am, I often put off writing entries for months after finishing a book. Please disregard the dates as largely irrelevant. It will spare you some puzzling.
And thirdly, as blogs tend to work, the oldest entries are at the bottom, and because my entry count seems to be unfortunate in this way, there is exactly one entry on the second page. Just to ensure that you don't miss it. I recommend you begin reading from the oldest entries up, to gain a more accurate perspective of my year in books; after all, they always say one must put themselves in someone else's shoes to truly understand that someone's experiences.
Finally, this div, the one containing the posts, happened to block my artist's signature, but for future reference, the art on the right is mine, and I reserve the rights to it. It's getting kind of old now, that particular piece of art, seeing as I drew it sometime at the beginning of the year, but it's worth a mention nevertheless. Just so you know I'm not violating copyright laws.
Thank you for reading, and enjoy.

Friday, 5 July 2013

Me Before You | Jojo Moyes

You know that feeling that a particular book is haunting you and begging to be read? One that seems to follow you into every bookshop display and library shelf? Well, I got that feeling with this book. I first spotted it in a Whitcoulls Top 50 display last year, on FPS camp; the next Whitcoulls I set foot in, it was there, and on the 'recommended reads' display in the school library, too. The latter event was when I finally gave in and borrowed it. I'm not precisely one for romance, and this book neither took me in with its plot, nor touched me in some deeper sense, but I thought it was a valid reflection on life and purpose and spoke eloquently on a prominent contentious issue featuring today: euthanasia.

 Lou Clark, the principal narrator of this story, is immature, somewhat shallow and perfectly content in her purposeless life, in whichever job she can find and stuck in a loveless relationship, at least in the beginning; Will Traynor was self-centered and insufferable. Will's accident confined him to a wheelchair with dead legs, limited use of his arms and hands, pain and a hopeless life that he wants ended; Lou loses her job, and is hired as a caretaker to Will. The characters here were never extremely likeable, for me, as you can probably tell; the storyline was a little too shallow. However, I appreciate the depiction of the way they both grow and develop with the interaction with each other, Lou learning to dream in Will's company and step out of her comfort zone and Will learning to love and care for people other than himself. The steely undercurrent that traverses the fluff on the surface is the most intriguing thing about the book: does someone have the right to end their own life instead of suffering pain? Should they, considering all those who love them and would give anything for them to live? Is there anything that can replace what they've lost, that can make life worth living again? What if there isn't?

 This book has been enormously well received by the general population; I can't set foot in Goodreads without seeing rave review after rave review. Personally, this book somehow missed the target by a few hairs for me, but I can still agree that it was deeply moving and carried a surprising profundity that is so rarely found with romance novels (Twilight, I am looking at you), which made the whole story more meaningful. Euthanasia is an issue on which people are extremely divided, not without reason; this book delivers a truly relatable and touching message about euthanasia without seeming an opinion. That still takes skill, however much I dislike the protagonists.
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