Delirium

My reading habits, as of late, have been sorely lacking and it is rather disgraceful for someone who is known as a serious book reader. My attention span as suffered severely at the hands of my college experience – and the break I have had from it. However, I have spent the past few days pouring back into my books and, once again, rediscovering my love for books. So, without further prolonging, my latest read:

Delirium, by Lauren Oliver – this is a novel that has long been sitting among the hundreds of books in “to-read” list. Even after purchasing it on the spur of the moment while spending some time in the book store, it sat on my book shelf with a book mark slid behind the first two or three pages – and it sat there for months. I admit, I was not thrilled by the first couple of chapters, and so it rested on my shelf as I put other books before it. However, I have had a lot of time on my hands recently, therefore deciding that once and for all I would read this book – a part of the sorely overdone dystopian genre. I confess, I have gotten pretty tired futuristic novels whose protagonist is a emotional teenager living in a government  controlled society, power abusers, and “dark secrets”… Although Delirium was all of these things, it was also surprisingly engaging, touching, and entertaining. After getting past the first few mundane chapters, I became thoroughly invested in this book – a long over due read. There were obviously a few things I did not approve of, however, I will definitely be finishing this trilogy in the near future (because, of course, it is a trilogy – as all of these books are), despite my recent endeavors to get back into the classics. Though I think after this thriller, it is time for something with a little more depth – perhaps a re-read of Pilgrim’s Progress? I think, yes.

– Readers Anonymous 

P.S. One of my favorite passages in this novel:

” I’ll tell you another secret, this one for your own good. You may think the past has something to tell you. You may think that you should listen, should strain to make out its whispers, should bend over backward, stoop down low to hear its voice breathed up from the ground, from the dead places. You may think there’s something in it for you, something to understand or make sense of.

But I know the truth: I know from the nights of Coldness. I know the past will drag you backward and down, have you snatching at whispers of wind and the gibberish of trees rubbing together, trying to decipher some code, trying to piece together what was broken. It’s hopeless. The past is nothing but a weight. It will build inside of you like a stone.

Take it from me: If you hear the past speaking to you, feel it tugging at your back and running its fingers up your spine, the best thing to do – the only thing – is run.” 

– Delirium p.176, Lauren Oliver

Lauren Oliver – she knows how to write expressions of love that touched me… and it takes a very humble me to say such a thing, non-sentimentalist as I am…