Fun fact

In Iceland, books are exchanged on Christmas Eve, and you spend the rest of the night reading. People generally take their books to bed along with some chocolate. How cozy and wonderful does that sound? 

(More fun facts: Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country, and new books are typically published only during the Christmas season—the frenzy is called Jólabókaflóð, or the Christmas Book Flood.)

The Goldfinch

This books gets such polarized reviews in Goodreads, which makes it interesting. I like it when a book gets lots of 1 star and plenty of 5 stars; it makes me curious and wonder why people are so divided about it. I don't understand why a lot of people are complaining about the length of this book, which is nothing compared to Murakami. At least Donna Tartt kept it flowing, unlike Murakami who likes repeating stuff that are his gems (moon, classical music, sex, etc). 1Q84 is 1000 pages long... hello???!! So nope, Donna Tartt is not "Dickensian". Whoever labelled her that, they haven't gone through the pain in reading Murakami.

I like this book for a couple of reasons. First, the language. It's so easy to read, yet the author crafted the words beautifully. I wonder how she did it. Second, the story is simple but at the same time it drags you in that it becomes really tense at times. And of course, the New York setting adds on the beauty. I was brought uptown and downtown together with the characters; it felt as if I was really there. Third (and probably the strongest reason on why I like this book), when I read this book I was Theodore Decker. I love having this feeling and only a good author can make it happen. To be able to feel a character's emotional roller-coaster is a bliss. The more vivid, the better the experience is; and The Goldfinch gave me a fabulous ride.

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Page 28 of 771

I was fascinated by strangers, wanted to know what food they ate and what dishes they ate it from, what movies they watched and what music they listened to, wanted to look under their beds and in their secret drawers and night tables and inside pockets of their coats. Often I saw interesting-looking people on the street and thought about them restlessly for days, imagining their lives, making up stories about them on the subway or the crosstown bus. ... For years, I'd turned those strangers over in my mind, wondering who they were and what their lives were like....

The above caught me by surprise as that's who I am exactly. Donna Tartt described this weird side of me as Theodore Decker. If someone could describe this so vividly, I guess I am not that abnormal.

Page 219 of 771
I'm so glad that I found this book. The story glides like butter and I love how beautiful (yet easy to read) the sentences are.

Page 559 of 771
... that my adult life I'd been privately sustained by that great, hidden, savage joy: the conviction that my whole life was balanced atop a secret that might at any moment blow it apart. 

I don't know why but I really like this sentence. I read it again and again, probably more than 10x.

Page 611 of 771
... it was really, really hard. Practice, practice, practice... I'm sure you've heard plenty of it too, that positive-thinking crap that it's so easy for teachers and physical therapists to dole out - "oh, you can do it!" "we believe in you!" - and falling for it and working hard and working harder and hating yourself because you're not working hard enough, thinking it's your fault you're not doing better and working even harder....

I can relate to this, Pippa. It's just how life is.

Page 692 of 771
Worry! What a waste of time. All the holy books were right. Clearly 'worry' was the mark of a primitive and spiritually unevolved person. ... All things fall and are built again. ... Consider lilies of the field. Why did anyone ever worry about anything? Weren't we, as sentient beings, put upon the earth to be happy, in the brief time allotted to us? 

And yet, I worry all the time.

Page 745 of 771
Good doesn't always follow from good deeds, nor bad deeds result from bad. Even the wise and good cannot see the end of all actions. 

Page 770 of 771
We can't choose what we want and don't want and that's the hard lonely truth. Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it's going to kill us. We can't escape who we are. 

I totally agree. We can't escape who we are, and all the good and bad of ourselves. I guess self-acceptance is the key - recognize ourselves first and then we can deal with the world. What others think about us doesn't really matter.