Looking For Alaska, by John Green

What is this madness? I seem to be on some sort of blogging roll this week. Maybe the new year has provided me with lots of blogging power. No, that's actually very incorrect. I would not be writing a post today if I hadn't just finished reading the incredible book that was "Looking For Alaska" by John Green. I really want to write a detailed review right now but anyone who stumbles across this review hoping to find a good book to read won't appreciate me giving anything away. There is no greater evil in book reviews than spoilers but I think the term "book review" is generally understood to apply to something a person consults to find out whether or not a book is worth reading. So here goes nothing...


I'll start by saying there's so much more to this book than meets the eye. I found, upon finishing the book, that it felt more meaningful to me than I ever thought possible when I first picked it up. It's enormously shocking, wonderfully deep and very unique and I recommend it to adults as well as all teenagers. Yep, all teenagers. I'm not going to rule out certain people within this age group because I believe all teenagers will enjoy this book and hopefully will think a lot after reading it. Lastly, I am sure teenagers who read this will learn something new from this book. And I'm not making that last statement to distance myself from the typical teenager stereotype and try to imply that I know everything there is to know, rather I feel as if I, personally, have learnt from this book and that others can too. Now, I don't want to put you off "Looking For Alaska" by going on about "learning" too much because no teenager wants to be told "read this book because you will learn". That's way too much like school. 


This is what I am saying. 


Read "Looking For Alaska" if you love to think and reflect 
Read it if you want to read a decent YA book 
Read it if you like admiring an author's skill when they use a technique which blows you away
Read it if you don't see why a novel can't be funny and sad at the same time
Read it if you want to do yourself a favour...basically 


Trust me, you won't regret it! OK, I think that's all I can say without spoiling the plot. So good day, internet and I leave you with a random, non-spoiling quote from the book. 


"Imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia ... You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you'll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present." 

2011 Resolutions

I've always kind of found new year's resolutions to be pretty pointless. Most new year's days, when I was younger I would always assure my parents that my new year's resolution was to keep my room tidy. It was usually a half hearted promise which I kept for a month of two and then forgot about as the year stretched on. But as I've grown as a person I've found that I can be proactive about resolutions. I can make plans and then follow through with them. I feel as if I've spent too many years of my life, not exactly wasting my time but telling myself or other people all these "grand plans" for life and yet never actually doing anything towards achieving them. Anyway, as well as becoming more proactive, I've also developed a love for lists. *Awkward Pause*

Anyway, the point is that on the eve of 2011 I wrote a list of my new year's resolutions which I do intent to keep or at least try to the best of my abilities to keep. Actually, some of them are more goals than resolutions but you get my drift. I wasn't intending to post this list on my blog initially but  someone suggested that I do and I kind of want to make up for my last post which I feel is a bit weak, kind of vague and confusing so here goes...

My List of resolutions and Goals for 2011 

1. Learn to knit
2. Read at least 25 books that I HAVEN'T already read
3. Have another reread of all my Harry Potter books, in order
4. Post at least one of my Harry Potter spoof songs on my YouTube channel ;)
5. Make better videos and only post ones that I am genuinely proud of 
6. Start editing my NaNoWriMo novel 
7. Start writing my new story in the summer
8. Get a summer job
9. Exercise more
10. Achieve at least two A*s in my GCSEs 
11. Don't forget people's birthdays 
12. Record more of my ideas on paper
13. Stop disregarding my hair
14. Make a pecan pie
15. Take more artistic photographs
16. Do BEDA (Blog every day in August) 
17. Give up sweets and chocolate for lent
18. Make a better Project For Awesome video 

Sorry if that list bored you. I plan to write a blog at the end of 2011 letting you know how my resolutions went. I'm planning to incorporate my 25 book goal in to the YouTube project I'm going to be involved in this year, WritersOnTheWall, which should be fun because I'll be able to involve more people in this challenge, of sorts.  I may also blog about any books which make a particular impression on me, if I get time so watch out for that. Oh, also, if this post was a little too sensible and you want something a little more stupid regarding new year's resolutions then check out my video. 

"Purpose" Problems

The other day, Christmas Eve in fact, I was walking to the shops in the snow with my dad and he asked me "What is the purpose of your blog" to which I replied "I don't actually know". 

When I started it up I obviously did it for a reason which was because it looked like fun and it seemed like a good way to practice writing as it's one thing writing at home or for an essay to publishing it on the internet where potentially anyone can see it. So, basically, I thought it seemed a logical step for me to take to develop my writing skills. However, I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking when I chose the title for my blog; FreyaFlobster's Funky Thoughts.

Sure, FreyaFlobster is my youtube name and I basically added "funky" to the title because I liked the alliteration. But now I'm faced with the challenge of writing some posts which actually contain "funky thoughts". I mean I do think of funky things frequently, anyone who has the misfortune to be a part of my R.S group knows only to well. My friends and I make up the rather controversial table where we voice open discussions about how the potential risk of OIL leaks may increase when more than two people live in the same house and whether criminals should either be made infertile or have the word "criminal" tattooed on their forehead instead of the proceeder currently enforced. But this is the problem; I always think of awesome things to blog about at the wrong times, for example when I don't have internet access or any time to write.

OK, I've gone off on a tangent now. What I really want to talk about, hence the title, is purpose and whether or not we really do things for the purpose we think we are. I know this sounds like a religious type debate concerning whether or not fate exists but it is not. I mean that when we decide to do something for a specific reason or maybe for several are we REALLY doing it for that reason/those reasons. It is true, I think, that sometimes we, as people, don't really know what's going on in our brains. Do we really know why we do things and what we want and what we need? Simple decisions we make could be fueled by underlying feelings of frustration, longing or even love and hatred that we don't even know are there. Or we do but not to the extent that they manipulate a lot of our decisions. I'm struggling to come up with an example which isn't too predictable or mundane *sigh*.

So, purpose, purpose, purpose. After I finish writing this post I'm going to contemplate doing my maths homework. But why? Because my teacher told me to? Because I don't want to get in to trouble? Because I want to learn? Because that is what is expected of me? because I don't want to let my parents down? Because I think it will benefit me in the long term? To be perfectly honest I don't know.

P.S. If anyone, due to some crazy impulse, actually read this post don't worry if you don't understand it and think it's a lode of rubbish. You're probably right!!