One of my favourite writers of all time, since the glorious age of 17, has been John Green. I wish I had some big semi-romantic story of how I fell across his books in a small independent book store in the Northern Quarter, and that the movie of The Fault in Our Stars broke my heart because it was, in parts, such a deviation from the book, but that would be an utter falsehood, hocum story.
I was told to buy Paper Town by a friend of mine named J, who is beautifully obsessed by it. She would have lent me her's, but the idea of letting out of her sight was too much. I understand that more completely than most people do. To her mind, it is the most perfect of John Green's books. Though I enjoyed it immensely, it is not mine. For me, The Fault in Our Stars was like suffering loss at the hands of a paperback, and the only more perfect version of that loss was the very rare occasion where a film is somehow on par with a book. Taking out one almost insignificant character made that film beyond anything I could ever imagine. Who am I kidding, I was a mess before it even started! Still, not my favourite. No book he can write will ever be what An Abundance of Katherines is to me.
I'm currently sat watching Paper Towns, and wondering why they decided to make this book into a flipping movie. I'm over half way through and I'm not as enthralled as I was with the book, however having the actor who played Gus in there even for less than thirty seconds did make me die a little bit on the inside. In a good way.
My biggest fear now is that they will try and find a way of making An Abundance of Katherines into a movie, but part of me wants to see that. Part of me wants to see the part when the graphs are sketched in chalk across the screen with the film still playing in the background slightly out of focus, I want to see what they make of Katherine the Many. I want to see them bring it to life and tell the story in a whole new way, so I can fall in love with it all over again. But I don't want them to destroy something that made sense to me with so much ease.
I owe a lot to Paper Towns. It was the emotional band aid that made it okay when my life fell apart and I couldn't make it fall back together. Because some people need tears and Malteasers the way I need books. The film, I know, would not have been enough.
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