For the first A to Z challenge post, I'm profiling a book that always ranks among my top five when people ask for recommendations. Oh, who am I kidding? I steer conversations so I can recommend this book. I've only read it once, though. Hilarious as it is, it's also too personally painful to reread constantly (in contrast, I've read the Hunger Games series five times).
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
Genre YA
General premise After being dumped for the nineteenth time by a Katherine (no, not one girl playing with his heart – nineteen separate individuals named Katherine), Colin realizes it's now or never: this summer (the summer after high school graduation) is his last chance to go from child prodigy to adult genius.
Page 7 quote
Prodigies can very quickly learn what other people have already figured out; geniuses discover that which no one has ever previously discovered. Prodigies learn; geniuses do. The vast majority of child prodigies don't become adult geniuses. Colin was almost certain that he was among that unfortunate majority.
I remember shedding tears when it registered that I was too old to be a child prodigy at anything, never mind genius. I wish I were joking.
Anyway! Colin allows his high-octane friend Hassan (who is all sorts of awesome) to talk him into going on a road trip. They’ll both get what they want: Hassan avoids college for another year, while Colin works on a math theorem for predicting whether a relationship is going to end and who is going to end it. And yes, there is math in the book. But this is math about relationships. Math with real-world applications. The sort of thing we wish we'd been learning in Algebra II.
Hassan can't decide whether Colin's problem is being dumped or "the genius thing", but Colin sees them as different aspects of the same problem. As he laments to Hassan (also on Page 7), "I'm a total failure in case you haven't noticed. I'm washed up, I'm former. Formerly the boyfriend of Katherine XIX. Formerly a prodigy. Formerly full of potential. Currently full of s***."
Ah, teenage angst.
Colin's the kind of kid who, while sitting in a bathtub, recalls his four-year-old self reading about Archimedes for the first time (I was about five when I discovered the Greek myths, but I think we can all agree Herakles and Archimedes aren't exactly on the same intellectual level) and running to his mom to declare that he wanted a Eureka moment, "the way another kid might have expressed longing for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle."
In case you can’t get An Abundance of Katherines right this moment, I’ll start you off with the first lines:
Anyway! Colin allows his high-octane friend Hassan (who is all sorts of awesome) to talk him into going on a road trip. They’ll both get what they want: Hassan avoids college for another year, while Colin works on a math theorem for predicting whether a relationship is going to end and who is going to end it. And yes, there is math in the book. But this is math about relationships. Math with real-world applications. The sort of thing we wish we'd been learning in Algebra II.
Hassan can't decide whether Colin's problem is being dumped or "the genius thing", but Colin sees them as different aspects of the same problem. As he laments to Hassan (also on Page 7), "I'm a total failure in case you haven't noticed. I'm washed up, I'm former. Formerly the boyfriend of Katherine XIX. Formerly a prodigy. Formerly full of potential. Currently full of s***."
Ah, teenage angst.
Colin's the kind of kid who, while sitting in a bathtub, recalls his four-year-old self reading about Archimedes for the first time (I was about five when I discovered the Greek myths, but I think we can all agree Herakles and Archimedes aren't exactly on the same intellectual level) and running to his mom to declare that he wanted a Eureka moment, "the way another kid might have expressed longing for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle."
In case you can’t get An Abundance of Katherines right this moment, I’ll start you off with the first lines:
The morning after noted child prodigy Colin Singleton graduated from high school and got dumped for the nineteenth time by a girl named Katherine, he took a bath. Colin had always preferred baths; one of his general policies in life was never to do anything standing up that could just as easily be done lying down.
