Looking for Alaska

Confession: I am a nerdfighter. And it is not really a confession because confessions are things you're slightly ashamed/embarrased/otherwise of, right? Well, I AM A NERDFIGHTER!!!!!!!!!!!! That was just a statement- not a confession. Some may ask, what is a nerdfighter? Urbandictionary.com defines "nerdfighter" as:

"Nerds who fight, usually against popular people. This term originated from the videoblog Brotherhood 2.0. John Green, one of the two participants in the videoblog, noticed a game called Nerd Fighters at an airport. Eventually, the viewers of the videoblog began being dubbed nerdfighters."

Of course, I don't necessarily agree with such definition but it was the only good one. We don't fight: we decrease world suck by doing things like recycling and donating money, and making the nerdfighters hand-symbol-sign-thing. We also eat peeps, listen to wizard rock and buy books by John Green. So, in nerdfighter fashion I went to the bookstore today and bought "Looking for Alaska" by John Green.

I was rather discouraged by the bookstore (Borders). I only had $35. I wanted a book (either Darkly Dreaming Dexter, the second Captain Alatriste book or Seth Rudesky's Broadway Nights And on a side note, this Borders seems to lack gay fiction that is not erotica) but you know, the times of cheap bookstores (like Walden Books) are now past us so I had to dish out $15 for a book. Which doesn't seem like much, except I wanted to buy 3 milkshakes and also, I don't get paid for another 9 days. So the choice was tough. Coldstone Creamery milkshakes are REALLY GOOD you guys. But then I remembered John Green.

Oh, what a savior John Green is. I searched for any book by him: I landed in the Young Adult section. Of course. I am really slow, I forgot he writes YA fiction. Incidentally, I always feel rather awkward looking in the YA section. I am 18 and, while I love YA books, English teachers frown upon it. And it also looks really geeky when you're reading something that is almost clearly a Teen book. But anyways, They only had one book: Looking for Alaska. I was hoping for An Abundance of Katherines but I'll take what I can get. Besides, it was only $7.99. That is my kind of price. So I bought it.

Not that I had any doubt that it was going to be good- I just wasn't sure it was the kind of book I wanted to be reading. I've always been a little lax in my reading taste so I want to up my standards and look more educated. But Looking for Alaska is rather fascinating. The excerpt in the beginning of the book (is there a name for that thing?) kind of caught my attention with this line:

"I hope you didn't bring the Asian kid along thinking he's a computer genius. Because I am not."

That was the single greatest line I have ever heard. That's when I decided that I was totes getting this book. In short, Miles (aka Pudge) goes to boarding school in search of his "Great Perhaps". Is it bad that I'm not really sure what he means by that? In my eye, a great perhaps could be... a purpose? This better not be a commonly-used phrase or I am going to be pissed and feel really stupid. And I could go into greater detail or you could just Wikipedia that shit. So, the book is split into two parts: Before and After. And each section within each part is headed with a countdown (or countup). Example, it begins with "one hundred thirty-six days before" and it counts down. What the heck is it counting down to?! It's so intriguing. Right now I am at "one hundred days before". I'm slightly nervous. What's going to happen? Is it what I think? I think it's... well, I don't want to say in case I'm wrong. I'll tell you if I'm right, when I find out.

In conclusion, go buy John Green's Looking for Alaska so we can all find out what happens!!!