The Giver, by Lois Lowry - I'm finally reading again

The Giver

by Lois Lowry

I was bemoaning to myself in the last few months for not reading a single book this year. But when I read an article written by Neil Gaiman on Why Our Future Depends on Libraries, Reading and Daydreaming, I finally thought it was high time I actually got a book to read.

I needed something good, but something simple and yet profound. I actually googled for "need a novel to start reading again" and found a few interesting lists. I finally decided to read Lois Lowry's The Giver. 

I was totally wowed.

I wasn't expecting much but the book has a very interesting start to it that got me going and by the time I was halfway through, I was so captivated by the plot that I was looking forward to how it would unfold. In the beginning you'd feel it almost innocuous but soon you'll see how Lowry skillfully weaved it in its brilliance of a story. 

I must add that it was a very good thing that I did not read too much into the description of the book or checked it out in Wikipedia as I sometimes do. It would have spoilt it completely if I had. 

And I realized that the story was so interesting that a movie will do it no justice. (I know there is one.) This story can only be told in a book form. Read it and you will find out why. 

It is a short book and I finished it in a little more than three hours. I was so absorbed in it I didn't want to put it down. I wouldn't say however that I am so pleased with the ending though I'm not surprised at all. It was then when I discovered it is a quartet series, and the story will continue in the subsequent books. 

This is great! There are three more books and I am reading again! And what I also got out of it was what Gaiman said and what I had hoped: it gave me stuff to think about like how I now need to think about dualism, what it is, what it means and how it could affects what I think. 

pearlie