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How does this book compare to others you have read?
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2. No text-talk: writing style counts.
3. DON'T YELL WITH CAPITALS!
4. Stay on topic: our purpose is to discuss literature.
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ReplyDeleteThis is a blog, not an essay, so I'm going to try to make this as clear and concise and possible.
ReplyDeleteThe thing is, I think that while this book has some incredibly unique and interesting elements, it's not actually that well written. I know that a lot of you guys really like this book, and I'm not saying that it's at all a bad book, it's just not as engaging as I would like. When I read the prologue of this book I was instantly captivated, it seemed to be incredibly well written and engaging. Once I got past the unique writing style however, I began to lose interest. There are certain parts that grip and intrigue me, but quite often I find myself procrastinating and choosing not to read the book. There are books in which I have stayed up long past midnight in order to see what happens, this is not one of those. A unique writing style and some interesting ideas will get only get an author so far. When you get right down to it the quality of the writing and the book's ability to capture and hold a reader's attention is what will really make a book great.
Sorry to contradict you Jeremy, but personally i find that this book is extremely well written. The author's interesting style appeals to me, and I for one cannot put this book down. I like the way there are small paragraphs, or "blurbs" (the bolded parts), because I find myself drawn to them. It makes the book even more captivating, and a genuinely unique read. I also sometimes find myself wondering what I would do if I was faced with some of the situations described in this novel, and I feel that it IS engaging and a good use for your imaagination. This is different than some other books I have read, that have no suspense or unique factor that pulls them away from the crowd. But I guess it just depends on your reading preferences, because everybody sees things differently.
ReplyDeleteJeremy, what exactly leads you to conclude that this book is not that well written? Can you be more specific?
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jeremy on his opinion it is not the greatest book I have read, but to me it is better than To Kill a Mocking Bird. Like he said I too have not been staying up till 2 or 3 am reading like I do with all books that suck me in. To me the book is good choice for a school novel reading.
ReplyDeleteGuys don't forget that this book also has a little bit of educational and historical part to it, which probably does make it slightly tedious in certain moments. But even though author managed to turn such difficult and grievous topics as Holocaust and Second World War, into interesting and engaging story about love, friendship and hardships of human life.
ReplyDeleteI think that this book is well written in its own way because of the content this book contains such as the bolded notes and the interesting thoughts; it's written with a bit of humour. Maybe the time period affects the readers thoughts because the timeline was set back in 1939, but the way the author has written it seems more modern, as we usually see older versions of certain words in other books. As Jeremeny already mentioned, it is a unique writing style, but not everyone will find it enjoyable. I like the way this book is written because I find the unique style more interesting than a plain, normally written book where each page is just words and more words with no breaks in between. I enjoy reading the bold notes; they don't sidetrack anything as it's related to the book and they often provide foreshadowing which makes the reader think what will happen in the later events and build suspense. Also, I've found that most historical books that I've read to be quite plain and I lose interest in them quickly, but this book keeps me wanting to read it although I don't spend all day scanning through each page.
ReplyDeleteI still haven't finished reading this book. But personally so far it is one of the most unique books I have read I mean realistically yes it might not be the best book in the entire universe, but I strongly think that it is well written and it certainly engages the readers, I mean how many books have Death as a narrator? None that I know of that’s for sure. So far I love the way the story is laid out the only thing I would change is the information on who's going to die, actually I would not change that either because that's what makes this book diverse from the rest of the books I have read before, and now that I think of it those extra little information or clues are what made me eager to read the book just so that I can find out how that particular event turns out. The thing that makes this book even more interesting is the fact that even though the book is about something as serious as the holocaust it still has some humorous parts like the reactions you get from the characters are so unexpected and random but still interesting I like the way the author laid out the dialogue, all of the characters were so diverse from one another and that made the story even more interesting. So yes for some this might not be the best book ever, but one thing is for sure and that is that it's well written and it is interesting, so far I think that the author did a great job at keeping his readers interested at least that’s the case for me
ReplyDeleteI personally think that this book is very well written, just not in a traditional way. I haven't stayed up particularly late reading it either, as I've done with a few other books before, but I think that it's so uniquely written that that in itself makes the book interesting enough to want to continue reading it. As Elvina said, there are historical elements and facts that may not appeal to some people's taste in reading, like mine. But the way the author wrote everything actually makes me interested in this subject and wanting to find out more.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading this book and though it isn't my favourite genre of novel I was extremely interested by it. This book is written in such a unique and intriguing way that it cannot be compared to anything other books that I know of. The way it seems so modern with Death interrupting you part way through a story it reminded me so much of receiving a text on my phone ,giving me important information instantly. I do agree with Elvina when she says the history did take away from the entertainment quality but I believe this is not really what this novel was meant to do. Sure it has its funny moments and some people may really enjoy learning about history but perhaps it was just written to make us think. The author has crafted a novel jam packed with all different themes, characters, historical events and a whole new perspective. I feel as if every event and every word was put there to open our eyes past the stereotypical story of the Holocaust we have viewed before.
ReplyDeleteMany of the people above have commented on how the novel is well written because of the way that it is so unique. I'm not disputing that by any means, I love what the author has done, and I love the idea of death as a narrator.
ReplyDeleteI think I probably could have used a better word choice than well written, what I was really evaluating was how captivating it is, and really, that's something that is mostly a personal opinion.
I'm not sure how most of you read books, but when I start reading a good book, it might as well be a movie, I get sucked into the action and I usually find time to read it in a number of days (or hours) no matter how busy I am. This book has had some great points, and I really don't think I could point out any particular thing that's wrong with it, I just know that I haven't been captivated by it yet, and that's how I judge if a book's incredible or just "good".
One last thing: As I mentioned before, most of you posted about how you like the uniqueness of the book. If you ignore the "death blurbs" and if you focus solely on the narrative, how does it stack up to other books you've read?
Although i do too agree with everyone that this book is well written, i do also agree with Jeremy on the fact that it's not amazing. I mean at the beginning it does seem really interesting and unique for the reason of death narrating, but as i keep reading i find it loses your interest. Like some of you said when you have a book thats really interesting, you can't stop reading and i don't find this book is one of them either. I kind of debate back and forth whether i should read it or not sometimes. Maybe if death would've shown is character a bit more like during the actual narration of the story, i think it would've been more interesting. Just to see his side of a situation, would let you see more of his perspective. I also like how the author combines real historic events with fiction. I find this makes the book seem real and you can imagine what it was really like during that time. Though, the fact that death is the one narrating is unreal and couldn't happen. So, combining him narrating with historical events is different and let's you imagine that maybe death does have a job like that. If he was real.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with Jeremy. I don't actually think that it is that well written. The author's choice of words make some parts not flow properly. I find myself having to re-read sentences because the first time I read through them, they don't seem to make sense. Some parts can also really get dull, especially when Death talks. He often repeats himself and just uses different words. I also think that Death uses "big words" when it's not necessary. Over all I think that this is a good book, I like the plot, but it's not one that I would want to read over again.
ReplyDeleteWell put Jeremy.
ReplyDeleteThe writing style only got Zusak so far with this book. He's terrible with words in my opinion. I don't know if Zusak used all the fanciest words he knew to make himself feel better about his own vocabulary, or if the purpose was to make the readers feel smart with polysyllabic words whose meaning is only half appropriate for the context. Regardless, I'm not a fan. Decent story, but I'll fall asleep reading this one every time...
I think Markus Zusak is a very unique author its the only word i can think of to describe him. I have never read a book which has side notes in it and extra stuff to help you understand whats happening in the book. Its not like there just a crazy mess in the book, it is all organized and well presented. I also like how he tells us whats going to happen before it does it gets the reader to want to read more and find out how it happened.
ReplyDeleteI just finished reading the book last night, and I do have a confession to make... I couldn't put it down.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to seem like a hypocrite, I really did have issues with large sections of the book, but I absolutely loved the ending. I'm not going to take back anything I said, and I'm not entirely sure if I would recomment this book to a friend, but I have to say that I believe the ending of the book (not to give anything away) makes all of the dull bits worth trawling through.
I'd have to agree with what Elvina said above about this novel being for education purposes just as much as for entertainment. I don't find this book to be the best written novel I've ever read, but i think that Zusak did a good job of portraying true facts. I have yet to experience a moment where I didn't want to put it down or kept reading it for hours, but it's not a book that i dread reading.
ReplyDeleteSorry if I cut off anyone who was still posting on the last topic, but here's something that I think fits quite well here...
ReplyDeleteWe all know that Suzak has a really unique writing style, but what about it exactly is unique? One thing I personally thought was interesting is the way he likes to personify words. This is basically making words seem as if they ware human. There are many sentences like this, such as "the words went and kneeled before the bed" or on page 522 "The question came back at her and tried for another surge at the front door. It made it only halfway, landing weakly on a couple fat floorboards". The way that this is worked into the story can be a bit confusing at times, but I think it adds a lot more than it takes away. The reason I like this is that these words paint a very colourful mental image. We normally see words as just bunches of letters, but when they are described this way we catch bits of the feelings and intonation behind them, which gives us a much broader and more emotonal view of the scenes taking place.
---"which gives us a much broader and more emotonal view of the scenes taking place."---
ReplyDelete*emotional* (sorry)
I also found that the ending of this novel was very satisfactory and interesting. All the loose ends or details that I was wondering about throughout the novel were tied up, and I better understood some concepts.
ReplyDeleteAlso, agreeing with Jeremy, I found it quite interesting how Zusak made his words and phrases have human-like qualities. It gave the reader a further explanation as to what was going on, because there was a lot more detail to be found than some other books I have read. It was easy to imagine what was happening, because the text allowed me to paint pictures in my mind, and I think that helped me understand and appreciate the story and Zusak's writing style even more.
I thouroughly enjoyed reading The Book Thief, because it was interesting and engaging to read and it actually made me think about what was happening during the times the book was set. The characters were well described and developed, there were some very prominent themes to be found, and overall, this was just an amazing book to read.
Something that I have noticed a lot in this book is that the author uses a lot of metaphors, and other ways of describing things. For example, the author doesn’t describe many feelings, but instead he decides to describe the images, using colours. On page 297, when Max is fighting the Führer in his dream, a bruise begins to form. Instead of describing how Max is feeling, he says this: “He could feel the bruise turning yellow and blue and black all at once,” (page 297). I like that we can have the image, but I would also like to know how the character is feeling.
ReplyDeleteAnother instance where he uses colour to describe something is when he described the clouds. “Soft, coal-coloured clouds beating like black hearts,” (page 309). I like the image we get from the coal-coloured clouds, and I think that Zusak does a really good job of describing the sky here.
One metaphor that I found was on page 294: “Mamer was a barrel of a man, with two small bullet holes to look out of. His teeth we like a soccer crowd crammed in,” (page 294). We get a good image of Mamer, especially with the metaphor of his teeth being like a crowd.
Zusak also uses a simile to describe the horizon, and he says it’s like setting glue (page 309). This was a little bit hard to understand though, because I’m not totally certain what setting glue would look like, but the image I get, is like sticky glue sitting wet on paper.
The last simile that I found is describing a big cloud coming in on Liesel’s town. Liesel describes it as a single giant cloud coming over the hills like a white monster, a white beast with a grey heart, (page 322). The image I get from this is a big fluffy, hairy cloud slowly riding in to a small town.
I really like Zusak’s choice of words when he describes images like this.
I think that the dominoes on the front of the book represent the Jewish people, how they are all standing together in a row. The finger on the front would represent Hitler as hes killing all the Jews its like pushing them over, like the dominoes. All of them will fall/die.
ReplyDeleteAlso the finger could be representing death if not Hitler. Death describes in the book that he collects all the peoples souls, so when all the dominoes/Jews are knocked down he has to go and collect all of their souls. I think the Author picking dominoes and a finger was an excellent representation.
After reading this book I wasn’t really sure what I thought about it. I really liked most of the book, but then I didn’t think that it was that great of a book. I kept switching opinions about it, and I think that’s kind of interesting. I enjoyed having a different characters perspective of the book, which would be death. Although, I didn’t feel like Death made it as different and unique as I thought he would make it.
ReplyDeleteI also found it different that Zusak based the book on the life of a German family during the holocaust. This is because books about the Holocaust are usually in the perspective of a Jewish family. It just shows you that Jew’s weren’t the only ones who were affected by the holocaust. Even though there are many aspects of this book that I like, I also found it quite boring in some parts. I found the book to be slow sometimes and often would carry on an explanation that could be easily summarized. This didn’t totally ruin the book, I mean it did help in some way or another.
So, overall I enjoyed this book and I’m glad I read it. Not too sure if I’d ever read it again, but it is one of the better books I’ve read. On the cover it says “It’s the kind of book that can be life changing”. For me this didn’t really change my life, maybe for the reason that it’s fiction.
@ Jeremy (your first post)
ReplyDeleteI deffinetely think that you have some good points.
For me I find that the book was deffinetely uniquely written. It is "differant" than anything i have ever read mainly because of Marcus Zusak's writing style. At first the book seemed really interseting when iwas learning about all the characters and the narrator (death) however later on in the book the pace deffinately went down hill and the book at that point was not interseting for me to read.
I agree with you on both those points Jeremy. While reading I could never quite tell if I “liked” the book or not. Yes, there were some interesting aspects, like having Death as a narrator – and a very different Death than we’re used to seeing to boot! – and his unusual choice of words, but were these unique aspects enough to justify the overall dullness of the story? The beginning, as Jeremy pointed out, was incredibly riveting. (If it wasn’t, I might have given up part way through, with no promise of better storytelling to come.) And the ending was absolutely fantastic, heart-wrenching and well-written. I couldn’t stop reading! (And reading and reading and reading...) However throughout the main chunk of the story, there were plenty of ups and downs in terms of both excitement and literary ability, though in my opinion more downs than ups. Despite my “meh” opinion of mid section, I adored the ending.
ReplyDeleteI also completely agree on the excellence of the personification of words. By personifying words and giving them an action, Zusak gives the reader a far more meaningful understanding of what the mood was, focusing more on how the words were said than what the words were.
@ Jeremy
ReplyDeletei don't think you should have blogged that you didn't like the book. Just because the book is sometimes slow at parts, that doesn't mean that it can have an exciting climax. For me, I wasn't intrigued at all at the middle of the book but once i hit the ending i just could not put it down. That usually doesn't happen to me.
I would say that this has been the first book that when i started reading, mainly when i was getting to the end, i could not put the book down. The climax and falling action was written so well and i liked the introduction too. This book is very different than any other book i read mainly because of the point of view and the unique writing style of the author. I would say, without a doubt that this novel was well written.
ReplyDeleteI kept thinking about Max after he avoided death that day he marched along side the other captured Jews. I had expected him to die but as always Death had many surprises, therefore I waited for Max to return to the story and I was greatly happy he found his way back to Liesel. However, I did not like how Zusak left us to determine for ourselves whether Liesel will marry just anyone or will she marry Max? I wondered because though he was older, the years wouldn't be as dramatic as she got older. He was in his twenties when she was in her teens. Just a thought I had.
ReplyDeleteI believe that even death has a heart. This especially shows when hes talking about how ironic it is that Rudy finally gets a kiss from Liesel but yet only once he's dead does this kiss get laid upon him. Death feels bad for the little guy. Even though they were good friends Rudy still had quite a crush on Liesel they're friendship was too important to push that crush to much further. Death understood this and felt some sorrow knowing that one of the kids life dreams was achieved after he had a chance to live it. I find that its like a little love story thrown into this advanced story of tragedy and triumph!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this book it feels like it was meant for educational purposes. The reason why is because it has a lot of Historical events and life lessons. This book was perfect to use in the classroom, even though its a great book that some people would read out of school just for the experience.
ReplyDelete