Book Marathon

I have always lamented how I've got no time to read books these days. Add to that the fact that my attention span has become incredibly short. Yes, those are my excuses for not having to read anything this year. I've read some, in all fairness to me, but they're such easy reads that I think they do not count (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Spongebob Squarepants TV Companion, etc.)

But when the great long weekend of August 2011 came, I found myself with nothing else to do other than sleep and eat, so obviously, my excuses are deemed invalid. And then to my surprise, I was able to finish one book a day. Here are my shallow reviews for each, written to suit my attention span.




Third Class Superhero
This is a collection of short stories, led by the one about the title character. Some are quite good stories, but some had me struggling to read. The author's writing style is somewhat staggered and there were points that I felt like I was reading bullet points. To sum everything up, this book is a collection of stories of unhappy and imperfect people, which made it depressing and in contrast with its bright, shiny cover. Yes, I judge books by their covers. Who doesn't?

Palo Alto
Written by James Franco, I've had low expectations for this collection of short stories because, although Franco is my role model and he is known for being many things, I still think he is, above all, an actor. The first two stories proved me right because they were supposed to be in the voice of two different characters, they were written as if using similar voices and manners of speaking. But then after a few more stories, I found this collection clever and personal, with the interconnected lives of all the characters of each short story. Giving me glimpse of the lives of the youth of this California place (who are mostly unhappy, imperfect and multi-racial), Palo Alto is an interesting collection of fictional juvenile memoirs.

I am Number Four
I bought this thinking it's going to be like one of those graphic-novel-based prose books. It's not even Harry Potter. Reading this felt like I was reading Twilight. It's a high-school love story peppered with some mystical powers and mythical history. But it's mostly about the main character, Number Four, falling madly in love with the school's cheerleader who's also liked by the quarterback. The whole story was about Number Four having to move from one place to another, leaving his school and friends whenever his "secrets" were somehow revealed because the alien race after them might track and kill them like they did the first three. Why can't he just stop going to school?

Bossypants
Now this one, i enjoyed a lot. It's like having Tina Fey converse with me the whole time, with her doing all the talking and I, just nodding and laughing at times. Tina Fey is funny and witty even in writing. Although her book doesn't really have much of a point except to serve as her mini biography or perhaps a journal she wrote on the side, it's fun to read her poke fun at everything from having her face slashed to her frequent work-related nervous breakdowns.

So there. I still have two unread books with me. one's about exorcism and the other one is about fake-choking for a living. Until next time (aka next long weekend, probably five years from now)!