Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Every Holy Week, I always find myself bored and moping around, looking for things to do and places to go. Last year, Singapore kept me fully occupied. This year, I was left with six whole days (including the Araw ng Kagitingan holiday) of doing nothing and struggling to amuse and entertain myself.

Which means I read a new book (after re-reading most of my old ones).

It's hard to find a book that instantly gets you emotionally invested that you finish it overnight. Between the two of us, my sister and I have managed to fill at least four book shelves with books from every genre. After college, I gravitated towards the stress-free chiclit books for when I want to relax after work. I'm thankful my sister has managed to keep the balance with her "pa-deep" collection.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was a difficult book to read, emotionally speaking. You can feel Oskar's despair and confusion with every turn of the page and I always closed each chapter with a heavy heart, wishing he'd find his dad alive and well.

I just found out there's a movie adaptation but at the risk of disillusionment, I think I'll pass 'cause I have no idea how they'll do justice to the brilliance of the book through film. I think I'll just read Everything is Illuminated, another by Jonathan Safran which my sister highly recommends. But first, I must get through Clash of the Kings before they air the third episode of Game of Thrones.