Thursday, November 3, 2011

The Lover's Dictionary by David Levithan

I grabbed The Lover's Dictionary off the shelf because I've enjoyed the other books I read that Levithan coauthored. I really glad I did. I was not disappointed.
Rather than one cohesive novel, the story is told bit by bit through words one might find in the dictionary. And rather than it being the story of two people, I felt it was the story of their relationship.  Sometimes you are reading about the beginning and sometimes you are reading about later parts. I kept making notes of words I especially liked to share with you but I started to mark almost every page. I'm going to share two words out the dozen I marked.
woo, v.
I told you that it was ridiculous to pay thirty dollars for a dozen roses on Valentine's Day. I forbade you to do it.
So that day, when I went to pay for my lunch, what did I find? In my wallet, thirty singles, each with roses printed on it. I imagined you feeding them through your color printer. Oh, the smile that must have played across your face. I had to ask the woman behind the counter to take a quick picture of my own smile, to send it right back to you. page 201
 I was sitting next to Tai when I read it and aww-ed. Tai asked what made me do that so I shared that passage and he agreed that it was sweet.
buffoonery, n.
You were drunk, and I made the mistake of mentioning Showgirls in a near-empty subway car. The pole had no idea what it was about to endure.
There were plenty of these adorable little stories. Which made it incredibly be hard to put down. I kept saying oh, just one more page. Most of the stories were just one page.  It was so easy to read so I read it in a day.
I highly recommend The Lover's Dictionary. It's short and adorable. Others who shared their thoughts on The Lover's Dictionary: The Broke and The Bookish, Read in One Sitting, WalkieTalkie Book Club, Imperfection Is The New Pink, and The Written World.

6 comments:

  1. I absolutely LOVED this book! I wrote a review as well but David Levithan is one of my favorite authors of all time!!

    http://www.imperfectionisthenewpink.com/2011/01/book-review-lovers-dictionary-by-david.html

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  2. It was a charming little book, that's for sure! I also wrote about it, in the midst of a few others!!

    Happy reading!

    http://walkietalkiebookclub.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/books-catching-up-with-myself/

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  3. the two snippets you shared with me had me smiling and the second one laughing!!

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  4. I've never read a book by David Levithan, but this might be my first. I've been following the book's twitter feed, and it's absolutely engaging. Glad to hear the book as a whole is worthwhile too!

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  5. Oh, I'm glad to see you enjoyed this one! I was all set to love this book and just thought it was okay. My teen read [some of] it and loved it. It's more a series of insights to a relationship than an actual story. I think I'm more the whole story-type.

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  6. Thanks so much for the mention. :)

    I really enjoyed this one, and found it quite moving. I'm not sure that I'd enjoy Levithan's latest, though, as it seems to be very heavily focused on form and format and less on story.

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