Checking in

Hey all!

How is everyone going with the book? Loving it? Hating it? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Below is one of my favourite parts of The Book Thief, so I thought I would share it with you all.

"How about a kiss, Saumensch?"

He stood waist-deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking. In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them."

This part, especially, touched me. Because is there any love sweeter or more poignant than a love that is never realised? That is never spoken about between the two? Instead it hangs in the air, making the world a little bit brighter for both of them.

But I do so wish that Rudy had gotten that kiss before it was too late.

honest book-covers

Forgive me, please, that this isn't relevant to our current book.

But I thought this link was kind of funny. And that maybe fellow bibliophiles would enjoy it.

xo

opening up

This is, perhaps, one of my favourite quotations from The Book Thief (and don't worry--it gives nothing away!)

"I have given you two events in advance, because I don't have much interest in building mystery. Mystery bores me. It chores me. I know what happens and so do you. It's the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest and astound me."

In parts, I fell a little in love with the honesty and the open-ness of Zusak's narrator--it had a freshness to it and, more than that, an identification. I liked that--I knew where I stood.

just checking in

I finished The Book Thief today--and I won't go spoiling it--but I have to say this: a book has not broken my heart quite like this in a very, very long time.

Have you started reading it yet? If so, what do you think? (And if not, please don't worry. We have a long time ahead of us).

If anybody is in any way as excited as me about this whole thing--this whole act of reading, reviewing and gossiping together--please, won't you tell your friends? It would be great to get as many involved as possible.

Happy reading!

Let the Reading Begin!!!

Hello my fellow book club-ers. I hope you had a lovely weekend! The first book that we are reading is ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusak, which I must confess I have read before numerous times. But it is a wonderful book and I hope you all love it as much as I do!

We were thinking that we would do one book a month, though are happy to change the time-frame if you think that it is too long/short.

So, here’s a little synopsis of the book that I found (without giving too much away!):

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier,
and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger and her younger brother are being taken by their mother to live with a foster
family outside Munich. Liesel's father was taken away on the breath of a single, unfamiliar
word - Kommunist - and Liesel sees the fear of a similar fate in her mother's eyes. On the
journey, Death visits the young boy, and notices Liesel. It will be the first of many near
encounters. By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single
object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left there by accident,
and it is her first act of book thievery.

So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing
foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the
mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish fist-fighter in their
basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.

The Book Thief is a story about the power of words to make worlds. In superbly crafted writing
that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most
enduring stories of our time.

From http://www.dymocks.com.au/ProductDetails/ProductDetail.aspx?R=9780330423304

Now let the reading begin! Keep an eye out for the fantastic metaphors he uses throughout the story.

As I said, if you have something to say about the book as you are reading it, feel free to write a comment under the most recent post, or email me at happylookingkid(at)gmail(dot)com if you would like to do your post in this blog.

Enjoy!

early apology

Forgive me, please.

I am having a little--read: quite a lot--of trouble with Blogger. And I am far too computer illiterate to know how to format this blog nicely without it. So the background might change a lot in the near future. But we'll get there, I'm sure.