Nerdfighters!

So the other day I was getting my semi-regular Nerdfighters (1) fix and thought to myself - Why Have I Not Shared This With You? You should be mad at me. Nerdfighters is described as a place where "nerds gather and play" to "increase awesome and decrease suck." (2) The site was started by teen author John Green (more about him in a moment) and his brother. They have a blog and make fun video posts.

John Green is the awesome and talented writer of books like Looking for Alaska (a Printz Award Winner), An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns. His books are DEFINITELY for older, mature teens. But they are awesome. Seriously.

Green recently wrote an online book that you can only get to if you solve a series of riddles at www.thisisnottom.com. I haven't read the book because the riddles are wicked hard and I haven't gotten to it yet. (3) But I am loving the process and the concept. It is wicked fun. And if you look around the net you can get cheats and hints.

In a recent article for librarians (4), Green talked about the "magical moment when the space between you and me evaporates, and we are all of us making a story real together". He says that "reading is an act of translation—taking seemingly random scratches on a page and turning them into a story in your head—a book is, more than any new media, a cocreation of reader and writer." (School Library Journal, January 1, 2010). Imagine that - an author who respects the reader.

John Green's newest book is Will Grayson, Will Grayson with David Levithan. This is the story of two boys, both named Will Grayson, and how their lives come to intersect with each other. The two authors got together and decided they would write a story - each one focusing on one of the Will Graysons. Levithan chose the characters first name and Green chose the characters last name. As the two become friends they produce a high school musical (5) that tell their story. And this book - it is laugh out loud funny. And touching. And amazing.

Awesome quotes by John Green:

"Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?' In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame. Even 'lame' is kind of lame. Saying 'You're lame' is like saying 'You walk with a limp.' Yeah, whatever, so does 50 Cent, and he's done all right for himself."

"Books are the ultimate Dumpees: put them down and they’ll wait for you forever; pay attention to them and they always love you back." - An Abudance of Katherines

"What is the point of being alive if you don't at least try to do something remarkable?" - An Abundance of Katherines

"The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive." - Looking for Alaska

"So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane." - Looking for Alaska

"'Francois Rabelais. He was a poet. And his last words were "I go to seek a Great Perhaps." That's why I'm going. So I don't have to wait until I die to start seeking a Great Perhaps.' " - Looking for Alaska

"What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person." - Paper Towns

"The town was paper, but the memories were not." - Paper Towns

This is me trying to be witty and copy John Green's source notes:

1. Go to http://www.nerdfighters.com/

2. More awesome is good.

3. Seriously, if you figure it all out PLEASE let me know. I need help.

4. Hey, that would be me :) Guess that's why I read it.

5. No, not THAT high school musical.