I think I've already mentioned at one point that I realized about a month ago that I'm doing a pretty bad job of keeping up with my reading goals for 2014. I thought I was doing pretty good...but then I actually looked at the numbers and I'd only read like 14 books out of 40, and it was the middle of May at the time. I definitely (always) want to keep my personal goals in check and see them for what they are - personal goals, for me and no one else - but I would like to at least step up my game if I need to. So I sat down with a hand drawn calendar and sketched out my new specific monthly reading goals, making sure to include plenty of books from my 94-book challenge and from other sources to even out my total 40 book goal. It's not all set in stone, and it definitely isn't something I'm holding myself to like a law; it's just a guide to make my guessing game a little easier each time I finish a book, and to keep me motivated when I'm in the middle of a book.
After rereading The Fault in Our Stars, the first book on the list for this month is Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. I've never seen the movie and obviously hadn't read the book, and yet it surprised me how little I knew about the basic plot once I started reading. Henry and Clare are happily married and living their lives together in Chicago in the 1990's and 2000's, but Henry's rare ability to travel through time has made their relationship anything but normal. He can't control when he leaves the present and he can't control where he shows up, causing all kinds of chaos for the people in his life. Henry travels mostly backward in time, visiting Clare at earlier moments in their marriage, earlier moments in their dating relationship, and earlier moments in Clare's childhood. For her, Henry has always been a part of her life as he comes and goes at varying ages and she patiently waits until she's old enough and their lives converge in live time.
I'm not gonna lie: it took me a while to get in the groove of the time travel concept. I thought it seemed pretty straight forward until I started actually reading and Henry jumped from age 43 to age 25 to age 32 and Clare is 5 and then she's 14 and then she's 33 and then she's 26...and keeping up with what's "real life" and what's a time travel....and to make it even slightly more confusing the book isn't written in much of a chronological order so you're bouncing around even more than Henry and have to remember what you've read already that might relate to what you're reading now. It would probably be impossible if not for the fact that the author tells you the exact date and both Henry and Clare's ages at the start of each scene, but a lot is still left up to your memory as you fit together the puzzle pieces of their lives. It took a while but I did kind of get the hang of it eventually. I liked this book a lot; it kept me pretty engaged throughout the whole thing (which, by the way, was way longer than I thought it would be) and it's definitely written in a way that makes you hungry for the pieces of their puzzle that are alluded to but left out till later in the book. Mostly, throughout the whole thing I just kept thinking about how much it would suck to have Henry's unfortunate "gift."
It was a good read, and I definitely enjoyed it. I will say though - just because I always feel like I have to - it's definitely an adult book with adult language and scenes. Just so you're warned.
No comments:
Post a Comment