Reading: An Abundance of Katherines by John Green

As of late I have become fascinated obsessed with the vlogbrothers John and Hank Green. And John Green has received a lot of attention this past year for his writing. In NPR's Best YA Novel poll, 5 of his books appeared in the top 100.¹ 

Wanting to ease into his works, I was guided to An Abundance of Katherines by a friend and fellow nerdfighter (thanks!). I can see why this was a great book for me to start off with. NPR's list sums it up best:

Always being dumped by girls named Katherine, Colin Singleton, a washed-up child prodigy with a Judge Judy-obsessed best friend, embarks on a quest to prove The Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability, which will affect all of his future relationships and change his life.

I found Colin to be annoying, which, I guess, should be expected since he questions why he has only one friend and if no one likes him. On top of this, Hassan was equally as annoying to me. He constantly shot down what Colin said as "not interesting." I might be taking offense to this because I wanted to hear more odd knowledge about the Archduke Franz Ferdinand or the pupillary sphincter. Which is why I absolutely LOVED the use of footnotes in the novel. They really helped put you in Colin's mindset and made up for his whining in the beginning. Even the appendix full of the math behind the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability was fascinating for those who admittedly don't like math.²

Though technically not part of the novel, some of my favorite parts were the "about the author" page and the short Q&A included at the end. I find John Green so charming and have watched enough of his videos that I could actually hear his voice saying those things.

What really resonated with me was the following passage: "I'm full of shit. I'm never myself... I'm nothing. The thing about chameleoning your way through life is that it gets to where nothing is real... I'm what I need to be at any moment to stay above the ground but below the radar. The only sentence that begins with 'I' that's true of me is I'm full of shit."^2 3

It feels like he manages to put into words exactly what I've been feeling. Although there is no clear-cut solution to this "who am I?" feeling (if there really can be a solution to this feeling or whether there needs to be one), the mere presence of this is comforting to know that you're not alone in feeling it. Even if that other person is a fictional character.

Having finished this one, I feel invigorated to read more of his books.⁶ It wasn't the story I was expecting based on the back cover, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. The ending gave me a The Perks of Being a Wallflower⁷ feel, which I consider to be a good thing as the Young Adult genre becomes flooded with paranormal romances. Way to make YA suck less, John Green.⁸

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¹ An Abundance of Katherines ranks at No. 22. Others include The Fault in Our Stars (No. 4), Looking For Alaska (No. 9),   Paper Towns (No. 20), and Will Grayson, Will Grayson (No. 34).
² I tested out of my college math requirement and haven't looked back.
³ Green, John. An Abundance of Katherines. New York: Speak, 2008. 150. Print. 
⁴ Yes, I did just cite the book in MLA format.
⁵ For more Q&A in this internet world, John Green set up a tumblr specifically for questions pertaining to An Abundance of Katherines 
⁶ Though I am putting off reading The Fault in Our Stars because I can tell that book will make me weep like a baby. I am not prepared for that yet.
⁷ Ranked at No. 16 on NPR's Best YA Novel poll. 
⁸ DFTBA.