Gotta get me a bird seed shirt.

So I guess this is turning into a Book Blog. I have been using Goodreads.com to keep track of all the books I have been reading lately. So far, in 2009 alone, I have read 10 books. Last year, I read a total of 8 books the entire year. Crazy how much more time I have to spend on reading since I am not really working at the moment. I love books.

Anyways, the most recent book I read was Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safron Foer.



I never read Everything is Illuminated, but I probably will soon. I really loved this book for so many reasons. It is told mostly from the perspective of a very smart, very scared, very curious 9 year old boy. I love stories told from kids perspectives, probably because I really don't remember how I felt about stuff when I was a kid. But what I liked more than Oskar's story was the story that was woven in about his grandparents. How they met, how they felt about each other, how they felt about love, and life, and how they lived. Another thing I liked about the book, is that there were photos thrown in here and there. I wish more books had photos. Not of people but of places and images that invoke a feeling. My favorite little story that was told to Oskar and Mr. Black was from a woman who never left the Empire State Building. The picture posted in that section was just so perfect, it made me feel as if I was there with them, hearing her story. Most of the book made me sad, just because it is a lot about loss and almost all of the characters are grieving, but I also laughed a little, and just really enjoyed every page. Most of all I think this book made me realize that I need to appreciate a lot of the little things I tend to overlook. Not an easy task.