Daniel asked if I wanted to read 100 books in a year with him. On top of all my regular reading.

Well when Daniel announced, to the world as it turned out, that he was going to read 100 books in one year he asked if I wanted to join him. I said yes as I tend to when Daniel announces such things. This is not to say that he does not complete things just that he tends to announce many projects and I am never truly sure which one will survive and be completed. It takes a while but you eventually realise which new project will survive the cull of the many. Luckily over the years we have been together this does not happen so often and the process is never so long as to make me lose enthusiasm. 

Once a task is on the agenda it is almost impossible to sway him. This is something I admire greatly in Daniel. It is only the time of many projects that is difficult as none really get done until there is a settling.

It was also easy to say yes to this project, as I am an avid reader. I devour books. On any topic and genre. To be sure I have favourite literary spaces but nothing much fazes me in terms of reading and I am as happy with children's literature as with biographies or scientific explorations as I am with the many forms of fiction available.

I am not as regimented as Daniel and will read one at a time in between my other reading. I am also a fast reader and finished the first one of his list, Looking for Alaska in a day. Yesterday in fact. In between Mary Stewart’s trilogy on Merlin, a manga comic (part 6) entitled The Death Note and book on solar power I am reading for work. Maintaining my own eclectic reading style while completing the task is my personal challenge.

John Green's Looking for Alaska was a perfect start as I am not entirely sure I will enjoy everything on his list. I have also read many on his list so will supplement as I go along. Starting with the unread is the first part. 

Looking for Alaska is listed as a young adult novel but I find that a good read is a good read regardless of the genre, style or intended audience. Green tackles the spectre of loss and grief in the young so wonderfully and I found myself immersed into the characters and their stories despite having little resonance to the scenarios they found themselves in. This is despite attending a boarding school, but as a Day Rat, and it was an all boy’s school lacking the sexual frisson that accompanies a mixed sex school. I now recognise myself as gay but at that time and in that school sexuality was something you pretended you did not do for fear of peer reactions. Except for making up stories about what you did with girls outside of school.

Green captures the friendship and loss succinctly and his tale is so vivid that I immediately wondered if the movie rights had been bought. They had of course but are held up in movie hell and no-one knows if we will ever see this tale hit the big screen. Funnily enough Daniel mentions in his blog that he found the trailer for the book but this turned out to be one made by a fan showing how much devotion the author has built up around this tale. For all it’s dark elements and themes the book is more fun than it should be.

It is the sort of book I immediately want all my teenage nephews, nieces and children to read and let them know they can talk about anything in the book.

It covers experimentation without being overly provocative. It explores mental illness without being challenging and it explores friendship without being overly saccharine. 

A lovely start to a lovely challenge with my lover of nearly 16 years.