From the Bookshelf of 2015 Reading Challenge [Closed]…

The Book Thief

Markus Zusak

Discussion: . Week 1: More Than 500 Pages

Why we're reading this: Great for weeks 1, 3, 13, 40, and more!
[close] Great for weeks 1, 3, 13, 40, and more!

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. Week 1: More Than 500 Pages

* Week 1: Introduction
By Jessica · 102 posts · 1093 views

last updated Aug 11, 2015 02:06PM

* Week 1: Progress Post
By Jessica · 100 posts · 421 views

last updated Nov 06, 2015 06:29AM

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What Members Thought

Apr 23, 2014 Marija rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: author-male, favorites, read-in-english, borrowed-from-library, read-in-2014, pub2005, historical-fiction, stand-alone, over-500-pages

When I finished this book I was crying and that's enough explanation. It's just heart-wrenching good. ...more

7 likes · Like · see review

Jan 01, 2015 Michelle rated it did not like it

Praise for The Book Thief
"Poised to become a classic."
"Beautiful and important."
"Exquisitely written and memorably populated."

Is that so? I would love to read an exquisitely written, memorably populated, beautiful and important book that is poised to become a classic but I fear someone is playing a very cruel joke on me because the book I read was not very good. I'm very confused. This book is so venerated that, if I didn't dislike it so entirely, I'd feel compelled to re-read it just to see wha Praise for The Book Thief
"Poised to become a classic."
"Beautiful and important."
"Exquisitely written and memorably populated."

Is that so? I would love to read an exquisitely written, memorably populated, beautiful and important book that is poised to become a classic but I fear someone is playing a very cruel joke on me because the book I read was not very good. I'm very confused. This book is so venerated that, if I didn't dislike it so entirely, I'd feel compelled to re-read it just to see what the fuck I'm missing.

What we have here is the story, as narrated by Death, of a cute little foster girl called Liesel Meminger. Liesel goes to live with a poor family in a small village around the time World War II begins. Like most poor people, uh, they're poor. And things that typically happen to poor people happen to them (like trying to stretch the food). But they take in a Jew. And they hide him. And they pretend to be good Nazi-loving Germans because it is advantageous. They go to book burnings. Liesel likes books. Liesel steals a book from the burn pile. Then she steals more books. There's approximately 200 pages of wordy filler nonsense that does nothing for the story before, BAM! something awful happens. And you really want to be shocked and deeply effected by it but... you've been aware of it and prepared for it since page one so you're kind of just like, fuck it, who cares?

It took me for-OMGITISNEVERGOINGTOEND-ever to read this book. The writing style is disjointed. It is gimmicky. It is distracting. There are these little bullets of stupid information just sprinkled in throughout the story. They rarely add anything useful to the narrative so, instead, they seem to exist to just piss me off. If that's not annoying enough, stay tuned, 'cause the narrator is an asshole who likes to casually drop spoilers in just in case you're not having a hard enough time pushing yourself through this book. Also random German words. The characters don't do much to redeem this for me. You spend most of your time with Death, who is kind of just there to narrate in his very annoying way and is never really developed, and Liesel who is really nothing special as far as heroines go. The supporting characters are borderline cliches. The kind papa, the stern mama, the awkward best buddy, etc. The setting was dull as dirty dish water. I'm sure that was a bit intentional - a poor family in pre-WWII Germany probably isn't meant to be a lively bunch, but the whole thing was unraveling in my head like a black and white movie. There was no magic here. Nothing wondrous or captivating or colorful. Nothing particularly memorable. Nothing that is going to make this a timeless classic that I re-read over and over. It was just an underwhelming waste of time. There is a wealth of very excellent YA Holocaust/WWII books that are infinitely better and I'd probably urge anyone interested in this to look elsewhere. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2015 Veronica rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2015-reading-challenge, favorites

This was an amazing book, very well written and moving. Death as the narrator was a great choice and have something extra to the plot. The characters were well formed and I found myself rooting for Liesel to triumph. The relationships between her and the other main characters (Papa, Mama, Max, Rudy) show the impact she had on each of their lives. I can't wait to see the movie now. Definitely recommend this book. ...more

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