The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Perhaps you, meaning my classmates, are a bit tired of me talking about this book since I've done it a couple of times now... but for Aidan I will tell him, and you who bothers reading this post, why I like this book so much.

It really isn't that special if you think about it (it takes place during WWII in a poor family in Germany who takes care of a little girl), and it's about 500 pages long so I don't claim anyone for not even starting to read it. But for some reason, not sure exactly why, I've read it twice.

The first time was last summer, almost a year ago now, mostly because I didn't have anything to read. My father had already read The Book Thief and said it was incredible, so I though why not give it a try? It might as well be good. I guess it was just a lucky coincidence we had two copies at home since my mom was eager to read it as well.

We were traveling to Turkey for three weeks a couple of days later so, by purpose, I saved the book for the flight and trip. Right after we boarded I began to read. And then I couldn't stop. As I said it's not a very extraordinary story, and most people doesn't really get interested when they hear about it. But almost everyone who has read it can agree on that it truly is high quality reading.

That was the first time I read it. In the beginning I discussed it a bit with my mom but after a while I noticed I was so hooked that I was always at least twenty pages ahead of her and she was always about twenty magazines ahead of me instead. While I sat in the shadow with my book, she sat in the sun with newspapers and magazines. I guess she chose to dedicate that trip to the pool and interviews with famous people. But then again, I don't blame her. And she usually reads a lot of books at home.

The second time I read it was this winter. We had a school project about WWII and I took the opportunity to read the book again, though I thought it might be easier to focus on the history now that I already knew the book. Not really. I found myself exactly as fascinated by the characters and the simple story about the family in Germany as I'd been the summer before.

I guess there's just something that catches my interest in reading about how a "normal" life survives and handles difficult times even though they have to go through lot's of terrible happenings. I think this book will always be with me and I'm sure I'll read it again cause for some reason, don't know why, it feels a little bit like I'm a part of that family and that reading the book feels like jumping in to a second, rectangular home.

Elsa Br