The History Of Love

I love a good story, thus among the things that I really passionate about are books, movies, poems and songs. 

I've read many books, watched lots of movies and listened zillion of songs. Many of them inspired me, enhanced my knowledge and widen my perspectives.

One of the book that I considered as one of the best book ever written is "The History of Love" by Nicole Krauss. My mother recommended this book and lent me hers. She told me that if I want to know how meaningful a first love should be then read this book. I haven't experienced first love though maybe that's why she wanted me to read it. so I can be more thoughtful and give love a more meaningful feeling. 

The History of Love: A Novel is the 2005 novel by the American writer Nicole Krauss.The book was a 2006 finalist for the Orange Prize for Fiction and won the 2008 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing for fiction.

Synopsis:
Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother's loneliness. Believing she might discover it in an old book her mother is lovingly translating, she sets out in search of its author.

An excerpt from the novel was published in The New Yorker in 2004 under the title The Last Words on Earth. (From: Wikipedia)

Across New York an old man called Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer. He spends his days dreaming of the lost love who, sixty years ago in Poland, inspired him to write a book. And although he doesn't know it yet, that book also survived: crossing oceans and generations, and changing lives (From: goodreads.com)

Some of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”

“She was gone, and all that was left was the space you'd grown around her, like a tree that grows around a fence. For a long time, it remained hollow. Years, maybe. And when at last it was filled again, you knew that the new love you felt for a woman would have been impossible without Alma. If it weren't for her, there would never have been an empty space, or the need to fill it.”

“What about you? Are you happiest and saddest right now that you've ever been?" "Of course I am." "Why?" "Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.”

“To paint a leaf, you have to sacrifice the whole landscape. It might seem like you’re limiting yourself at first, but after a while you realize that having a quarter-of-an-inch of something you have a better chance of holding on to a certain feeling of the universe than if you pretended to be doing the whole sky. My mother did not choose a leaf or a head. She chose my father, and to hold on to a certain feeling, she sacrificed the world.”

Beautiful isn't it? 

Trust me you should put this book on your reading list. 

I know. Some may say my reading is too serious, hard to be understood, old, or maybe boring.

don't get me wrong I love manga and comic books too, but I love many other genres like this one.

Honestly, I consider myself an old soul. Growing up I've been  surrounded by literatures, movies and songs influenced by my parent and I enjoyed so much. Me and my parent are so close, and they felt more like my best friends than parent. We discussed almost everything, and the discussions are mutual and fruitful. I am lucky I know, most kids my age don't have relationship like mine with their parent. 

Even now that I've grown bigger and explore more things I have already established interest on certain genre that match my personality and I'm not afraid to be seen differently than other kids nowadays. my old soul is old enough to realize being different is not bad at all.