The Book Thief in Read Runners

Aug 27, 2019 Kawther rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, made-me-cry-for-hours, gutting-feeling

It took me a long while to pick this book up and read it,

It was a slow read but so worth it, it allowed the story to grow on me, to get inside me and take roots,
to finally rip me open and make me cry my heart out once the story was done

I'm writing this while I'm still in tears, this beauty of these words is unmatchable and haunting
The characters made me smile, laugh and also cry, you can't think of them as anything less than real

I would recommend this book to everyone who has the patience to rea ...more

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Feb 03, 2015 Phani Raj rated it it was amazing

Shelves: owned-books, favorites

A book which has
-Death as the narrator
-Story revolves in Germany during second world war
-Girl loses his brother in the first 10 pages
- and so on

I can't think any other scenario where a book can be more gloomy. But, only later I found that I was reading one which is easily the best I read in the whole year and that too this is not from my favorite genre.

The book talks about a girl named Liesel who comes to adopted home, where she meets Papa and Mama. Then one day she realizes she is a book thief ...more

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Aug 12, 2014 Fari Manonose rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical

A beautifully written boring story.

The main themes in this book are the Nazi war, Death and Love & Regret. The kiss with Rudy...I seriously wish that had happened.

About a third into the book, I checked book reviews to see if anyone else didn’t like the book and I was so glad I wasn’t the only one who just was...you know...bored.

I liked the idea of death as the narrator, and his character was well defined and multidimensional. However, he quickly became annoying. The author did well in telling a A beautifully written boring story.

The main themes in this book are the Nazi war, Death and Love & Regret. The kiss with Rudy...I seriously wish that had happened.

About a third into the book, I checked book reviews to see if anyone else didn’t like the book and I was so glad I wasn’t the only one who just was...you know...bored.

I liked the idea of death as the narrator, and his character was well defined and multidimensional. However, he quickly became annoying. The author did well in telling an individual story in a much bigger global story and this served the purpose of showing how WW2 affected Germany as a whole and the individuals trapped on a stage set by their leaders.

Death though...seriously, at first I loved him (never thought I’d love death even if it(he?) was fictional) then he just started to release these spoilers like bombs (pun intended) and I’d experience that stupid human reflex. You know, when you see someone naked and you close your eyes even though you’ve already seen them and can never unsee them even if you try. I could not unsee his spoilers. So now every time a read about Rudy I knew (view spoiler) . Now imagine if I hadn’t put those spoiler tags...that’s what death kept doing, spoiling without warnings. It made events meant to be touching not touching, just, ‘oh well I have to go through this even though I’ve been told about it like 5 times already. So you can imagine why I hate him now. Annoying little prick.

I know this book is a supposed to be a slow moving book, well I know it now but I didn’t know it before so it really sucked reading it. I'd be waiting for the ‘EXCITING’ instances of BOOK THIEVERY!!! (-_-) (which by the way wasn’t that exciting cause I always knew before she stole a book and she stole like 4 or 5 books, which she technically didn’t steal. One she picked up, others were given to her, one she rescued from fire....what a little gangsta we have.)I mean death really made a big deal of this book thievery and that made me think it would be sooooo epic....it wasn't.

I was annoyed by the translation of statements in German to English following the actual English statement, it made me feel like the characters where saying things twice e.g. blockquote>Liesel answered quietly. “Auch Mama—also Mama.”
That gave me the nagging feeling that she literally said 'also mama' twice. If you ask me this book involved a whole lot of ‘TIME THIEVERY’. Not funny? Not amusing? Annoying? You can imagine how I felt about the unnecessary cliff hangers that involved the phrase “BOOK THIEVERY”.

This was a beautifully written book though i'll give it that. A beautifully written, intricately plotted boring story. It’s not that i'ts not good. I just didn't like it #MyOpinion. When I read I mainly focus on the plot, emotions and characters. So if all these are slow in developing, even if that is the intent of the author...I tend to then dislike the book. I guess I’m not much of a sophisticated reader since I love Twilight but hate this. But I just go with what I like, and a lot of the times I like what everyone else my age likes. What critics consider crap, and I consider gold. To sum it all up, I felt that this was a long book whose events I felt could have been covered in like 80 pages. Peace!
...more

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Jul 31, 2014 Zara rated it it was amazing

feel such a strong connection to the characters especially to papa

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Jul 22, 2014 David rated it it was ok

Shelves: books-i-own, summer-tbr, thanksgivingtbr

Why didn’t I read this “modern masterpiece” (yes it is a masterpiece) earlier? Perhaps I thought that is would be similar to all the other books with thief in the title – The Lighting Thief, The Thief Lord, etc. etc. Or maybe because it was another book on World War II (although now, I think that is another reason to read the book). Or maybe because it was on the lengthy side (over 500 pages according to my edition). Whatever the excuse, I have read it now, and I am glad I read it. It is books l Why didn’t I read this “modern masterpiece” (yes it is a masterpiece) earlier? Perhaps I thought that is would be similar to all the other books with thief in the title – The Lighting Thief, The Thief Lord, etc. etc. Or maybe because it was another book on World War II (although now, I think that is another reason to read the book). Or maybe because it was on the lengthy side (over 500 pages according to my edition). Whatever the excuse, I have read it now, and I am glad I read it. It is books like this that makes me so excited and happy that I love reading. Good job Marcus Zusak, good job.

The characters and their interactions were so hilarious. Or maybe it was just the fact that the whole book was narrated by a rather interesting character (I won’t spoil). Or maybe it was Rosa. Or maybe everyone in the story. You know what? I am just going to tell you that The Book Thief was amazing, with a great cast that was so well connected. The only “real” problem I had was with the main character, Liesel. After reading To Kill a Mockingbird, my expectations for a main character were raised. Unfortunately, as those of you who have read the book will know, Liesel is not exactly what you will call a “personality flower”. You won’t fall in love with her, but rather her story, and I think that is a clear and significant distinction. Every character in this book has problems, issues from their past, but none of them really have distinct “personalities”. Their actions are shaped by memories, not motives, and although this is certainly not a bad thing, I was not completely onboard. On the other hand, the setting was incredible, near flawless. The World War II Germany might be used a lot, but there is a reason it is used a lot – it is home to so many memories, so much suffering, and so much history of the human race. It is like a vessel in both time and space that contains our regrets, our sorrows, and the thin sliver of human stupidity we call hope. And I love it. Hope keeps us burning, like an inexhaustible fuel, and it never lets us down. Hope is abundant, but only to those that are willing to fight for it.

The writing was probably the weakest point, although it is still good, decent writing. I just felt the narrator (hint it is not Liesel) was not “interesting” enough, and parts of the writing did seem borderline bland. Of course, I am not saying that we should endorse the sensationalism and exploit the sadness of war with wrought-out “sold” emotions, but I am saying that I personally felt like the writing could have had more spark to it.

The plot was quite good, although I did not like epilogue as much (I felt like Zusak cheated the readers by wrapping the story a little bit too nicely), as it did not fit with the rest of the book, but then again, the epilogue is 8 pages out of 550, and the rest of the book is certainly worth it.

Yes, The Book Thief has its flaws, and its demerits, but then again, a masterpiece (in my opinion) is not perfection. A masterpiece is something done extremely well that it redefines our view, and also our expectations. It is a milestone. Perfection is simply the end – it implies that there is no improvement, there is no more – essentially, the end of the end. Instead, a masterpiece encourages us to go further, to keep on trying, because it is not the end, but rather, the beginning of something beautiful.

Overall: B- (76.8/100) OR 3.84/5 Stars

Character/Setting (30%): 3.8

Writing (35%): 3.8

Plot (25%): 3.6

Enjoyment (10%): 4.7 ...more

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