I teared till I slept last night after reading The Book Thief. It is one of those books I would strongly recommend because it's simply amazing.

What makes the book so special is that Death is the narrator. Beyond the theme about War and killings, it is not all about the brutality.

Death tells the story about a girl, Liesel Meminger, who learns to read with the help of her foster father in the basement of her house in Germany. Liesel was soon infatuated with books and as a result, an obsession with thievery. Books were her only possessions during the period of World War II and something she could not live without.

From illiterate to writing a book, Liesel both loved and hated words. Without words, there would not be war and death; yet without words, perhaps Liesel would not have lived. The story goes about showing how powerful words could be, and that death is just right beside us.

It is possible to guess that eventually everyone will die, even Death tells you a few pages beforehand to prepare you, but when the death of the characters really strikes, I could not help but let my emotions get the best of me. It's just too overwhelming, really.

Death is not malicious, not malevolent. Ironically, Death is exhausted by his vocation. He is tired of taking away people's lives, people's souls, especially during the aftermath of war times. It is the story of Liesel's that struck Death with a million of realizations, and one of them is that Humans are actually worth living.

Some of the quotes I actually loved:
"Even death has a heart."
"She was the book thief without the words."
"Trust me, though, the words were on their way, and when they arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would wring them out like rain."
"A last word from your narrator: I am haunted by humans."

It takes time to understand the characters and when you do, you'd wish that you could read on forever. Those characters have became a part of me and I need time to get over with it.

I think I should stop reading for awhile because fiction is messing up my life a little. Maybe I should learn to read my textbooks in the meantime to prepare for the exams before I start on another book.

Xoxo.