sprite writes
broodings from the burrow

October 19, 2008


readathon: hour 18
posted by soe 1:07 am

readathon logoThree quarters of the way through. Second book done…

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

From the jacket: “Nick’s just seen the girl who dumped him walk in … with a new guy. What else can he do but ask the strange girl next to him to be his new girlfriend for the next five minutes? Norah would do anything to avoid conversation with the not not-friend girl who dumped Nick … and to get over the Evil Ex whom Norah never really totally dumped. What else can she do but answer Nick’s question by making out with him?”

My take: I wish I’d read this book before the movie came out and the previews gave me sufficient peeks into the characters to make me think of the actors when I ought to be thinking of the people the authors created. That aside, this was a fun read and would make a terrific double feature with High Fidelity because music features so heavily in the book. Much of it is set in New York clubs and the two main characters are punk aficionados with an appreciation for pretty much all genres.

I’ve said before that my best compliment to a character is to call them quirky. I’d say that both Nick and Norah are, even when they aren’t. They’re typical teenagers (or, at least, teens whose parents don’t mind if they stay out all night in New York City) with raging hormones and emotions, but they’re also smart kids with unusual and wide-ranging interests.

And there was a little homage, toward the back of the book, to the original Nick and Nora, which made me happy as can be. (Who doesn’t love The Thin Man?)

Love teen romances? Romance in general? Books heavily influenced by the music of the past thirty years? Stories where New York is a character in its own right? This might be the book for you…
Pages: 183


Other pertinent Readathon info:

Number of books read since you started: 2+
Running total of pages read since you started: 448+
Running total of time spent reading since you started: 15ish hours

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