Glittered top: Topshop | Necklace and belt: Forever 21 | Pants: Uniqlo | Shoes: Pedro
I only like two kinds of books. First are those that sweep me off my feet. They leave me with big thoughts to consider
and ponder on the moment I close the covers. Often, they leave me in tears as
well. Then there's the kind of books that works into me slowly. As I read
chapter after chapter, I don't notice the punches that land on me. It takes a
few minutes upon its completion to realize that, hey, I'm practically bruised
by words so nicely put that I feel my vocabulary has just undergone overhaul.
The Book Thief falls under the second category.
Writing book reviews is not one of my
expertise; although it's fair to say that I'm not an expert at anything (just
yet). But let me try to sum up what the book taught me in a paragraph. Firstly,
I read it because events that took place during Nazi Germany's reign greatly
fascinate me. Secondly, the novel's narrator was an interesting choice. And I
think a story that took place in one of the defining moments of our history
cannot be told by anyone but by someone who has been the busiest during those
times - Death. The most reverberant idea that the book left me is that, there
is power in words. A person who can win a crowd with only words at his disposal
has power within him far greater than he initially thought he has. Plant a
viable image in others' minds, constantly tend to it, and the sapling will grow
sturdy, and eventually multiply. This is how Hitler did it. Perhaps Book Thief
wasn't as despairing as Thomas Keneally's Schindler's Ark which became the
basis of Spielberg's masterpiece Schindler's List or Jodi Picoult's The
Storyteller but it was this novel that made me see it wasn't always Hitler's
guns and armies that killed millions but his words which he successfully
planted in his followers' minds. He only had to choose the right words and he
got a nation who was ready to annihilate another in response to their Fuhrer's
call. On a lighter note, I had a quick German-speaking 101 but mostly the words
that retained in my mind were saumensch, saukerl, and arschloch.
There's joy in stumbling on words and
phrases that we do not normally come across with. So as is often the case, the
movie version didn't completely capture the essence of the book.
unfortunately the last time I read many book was in my childhood :( now I just don't have time for that anymore. and it's sad because I actually love reading! I hope there will come time when I can read as many books as in my childhood. yeah, I was a true bookworm then :P I think you're lucky you can read all those books and learn from them!
ReplyDeleteMaiken,
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