I'm not much of a young adult literature fan. While I do love books, I think of that genre to be mismatched to my age. So it's weird why on one payday, I found myself clutching this book, Between Now and Ever After while I left the checkout counter of supermarket -- that's despite of the fact that the books of David Levithan and Lauren Oliver is still waiting to be read and released from my bookshelf.
Pop Fiction books are published by Summit Media mostly for teens. You're surely asking what does this have to do with a 30-year old, workaholic geek. My main reason for getting this book was because I wanted something away from the hardcore titles (read: thick novels) and true enough, this was far from being stressful to read. Instead, this was a simple, light, feel good book composed of five short stories about everyone's favorite subject: LOVE.
I have yet to finish the book (two more stories left). As of this writing, I am on the third story but, this little book has bits of love wisdom in between which can sound simple but when you think of it hits right on target:
- True love is worth the wait.
- Dare to fall in love because life is too short to wonder what could have been.
- Make your move before the moment passes. Because in the end, you'll just regret the decisions you waited too long to make.
- If you have chemistry, then you only need one other thing: perfect timing.
- Sometimes, the hardest to let go of is the one you never really had.
Did I tell you that this book is fit for a 16 year old? And reading this one makes me go back in time about how the feeling is to be 16 again.
*Note: This is the first among my long overdue posts. :-D
Despite being a bookworm, chick lit is a genre that is actually the least on my list of "to reads". My first try with this kind of literature was in 2009. While the normal demographics for these types of books are people in their teenage years, I, at that time was already 24.
You read that right. 24.
It was because of the books published by Summit Media (the company responsible for your favorites, Cosmopolitan and FHM) that I got hooked on reading such books. Every once in a while, when I have the chance, I tend to get a title or two that's an absolute feel good read. And who would have thought, when you least expect it, in a certain page, one can find words of advice that are indeed two cents worth of sensible pieces of advice. in the four years that I've been a reader, I've found a few from the following titles that I've devoured on:
FROM THE BOOK VINCE'S LIFE BY VINCE TEVES:
"No matter who the girl is, no matter what the girl says she wants, she wants flowers."
FROM TABLE FOR TWO BY MARLA MINIANO:
“When you think about it, everything is fleeting. Every second of every minute of every hour. The race and the rush and the choices and the chances. The love that grazed your fingertips, possibilities that brushed past you on your way to work or play or save the world, a happy ending you may have believed in with a faith beyond anything you could have imagined you were capable of.”
"How many people find each other everyday? there are a thousand possibilities, a thousand ways that could've led her to someone. A thousand chances for her to meet a good guy, and to clear up some space for him in her life, and maybe fall in love with him."
FROM VINCES LIFE: GETTING OVER ANDREA BY VINCE TEVES:
"What’s love? It’s like Fireworks. You know how fireworks are always a surprise? It was like that. Everything was magical, and just when I thought it couldn't get any better, it always did get better until I thought I would explode from joy. And then it was over.”
But if you think, those books are just all about the mushy things involving boys, puppy love and crushes, when I tried flipping back the pages of the first chick lit book I have read, Marla Miano's
Every Girl's Guide to Boys, These lines caught my eyes when i reached the last page:
"People hurt you, and lie to you, and take you for granted, and treat you badly, but eventually you learn to forgive. You learn to forgive because you have your own shortcomings and imperfections. you learn to forgive because life is too short to be bitter and angry.
You learn to forgive because it is the only way you can move forward."
It is now I realized, I never thought how powerful such lines could be, it would eventually make sense in my life four years later.
