Post # 5 - Overall Feelings on the Book.

After nearly finishing the book [About 30 pages to go], I do think Zusak has written a book that is high quality. If we could manage to convince the administration to put The Book Thief on the summer reading list with our "proposal assignment", something tells me people would dread Enriched English 10 much less, in comparison to reading something such as The Iliad. The blunt attitude which Death used when introducing the main aspects of the novel is what pulled me into it in the first place, but as you progress with the book, Death's ideas and input becomes less frequent. Frankly, I'm fortunate they became less frequent though. As you carry on with the book, the characterization of various people such as Liesel and Max becomes much stronger, and you can depend much less on Death to help understand their actions and intentions. Another thing that was very refreshing about Zusack's writing, is that he did not have a case of "same character syndrome." Essentially, he did not have two characters that acted the same and could barely be distinguished from one another, but that's something very common to see in books these days. The review on the cover of the book which states, " "Brilliant and hugely ambitious... It's the kind of book that can be life changing" - New York Times " might be a little bit too patronizing of the book, but it was still interesting to read.