20. 12/10/09 Paper Towns by John Green (305 pages)

I bought this book a long time ago based on my love of An Abundance of Katherines. Using the end of high school as the basis for the story is kind of trite, and the wild, fascinating girl that Quentin loves is pretty much John Green's thing, but I liked it a lot anyway. Its a good mystery with a satisfyingly unsatisfying ending. At the very end of his senior year, Quentin sets off on a wild goose chase to find the girl he loves, and in the process gets to know a lot of people he had never spoken to before and Learns Lessons About Himself and Life. I liked the way the changing relationships (and Walt Whitman) illustrated the idea that people are rarely anything like we imagine them to be. Quentin was a tormented nerd who it turned out people thought was attractive, cool etc...It was unlikely, but not impossible, and a refreshing change. It felt a lot like growing up and realizing that your teenage years weren't really what you thought they were at the time. It was good, but I still like An Abundance of Katherines the best, although I may be biased.