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How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe
by Charles Yu
by Charles Yu
When I first heard of this book and even after the first couple pages, I thought, don't we already have The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? Not so, not so.
I'm really glad my first impressions were wrong because How to Live Safely Blah Blah Blah is a book that's much different and entirely it's own awesome experience. Hilarious at times, nerdy at others, fun, entertaining, with some clever ideas, How to Live Safely is a book of introspection and introduces the serious theme of making something of yourself rather than waiting for that day to come.
The protagonist is Charles Yu himself as he deals with the very real theories of time travel. Charles has a dysfunctional family, as many of us do, and much of the narrative focuses and their relationship, which I'm guessing isn't too far off from the truth.
EDIT: I forgot to mention this when I first posted this. Maybe it was the time travel aspect alone, but I this book really reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut, especially Slaughterhouse Five. Humor mixed with heavy emotions...and then there's time travel mixed in.
This book probably deserves about a 4.5 in my book. It's different from anything else you'll read this year and I"m sure you won't regret it.
I'm really glad my first impressions were wrong because How to Live Safely Blah Blah Blah is a book that's much different and entirely it's own awesome experience. Hilarious at times, nerdy at others, fun, entertaining, with some clever ideas, How to Live Safely is a book of introspection and introduces the serious theme of making something of yourself rather than waiting for that day to come.
The protagonist is Charles Yu himself as he deals with the very real theories of time travel. Charles has a dysfunctional family, as many of us do, and much of the narrative focuses and their relationship, which I'm guessing isn't too far off from the truth.
EDIT: I forgot to mention this when I first posted this. Maybe it was the time travel aspect alone, but I this book really reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut, especially Slaughterhouse Five. Humor mixed with heavy emotions...and then there's time travel mixed in.
This book probably deserves about a 4.5 in my book. It's different from anything else you'll read this year and I"m sure you won't regret it.
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Brandon
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rated it 3 stars
Mar 01, 2011 07:10pm
You enjoyed all the introspection stuff? I thought it got a little out of hand at times and seemed to go for pages on end. I did enjoy that whole section where he's writing the very book we're reading.
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I do have to admit those pages lagged a bit, but at the same time I never thought they went on for very long, especially given the length of the book. I think my rating's more based on uniqueness of the reading experience because you're right, I didn't even put that in the review and it was something I felt should have been toned down.
