Friday, October 16, 2015

Paper Towns and A Cold Beer


Kendra Kelly from the BoozeHaus Blog joins us today to Match Paper Towns by John Green to the perfect drink. This is Kendra's fourth Drinks with Reads, the first being The Wave and The Deep Blue Sea, the second being Wild and The Snapple Mangotini and the third was Turn Left at Machu Picchu and the Machu Picchu Pisco. Now hold onto your hat for the fourth...


"She loved mysteries so much that she became one."

By now many of you have probably seen the movie trailers for Paper Towns blazing across your screens, but hopefully I can encourage you to read the book first if you haven’t already.  Like many folks, I first discovered John Green via his runaway hit The Fault in Our Stars and I quickly started snapping up his other novels.  Though targeted at the young adult crowd, Green’s books hit several themes that we can all relate to.  

"If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane"


Paper Towns focuses on Quentin and his unrequited love for girl next door Margo – a standard set-up for many a story, but the novel takes a turn when Margo disappears just before graduation and Quentin begins following a series of clues to find her.  Guthrie lyrics, Whitman poetry, cartography - at more than twice the age of Quentin and his buddies now, I would be hard-pressed to thoughtfully string together the pieces of this puzzle in real life which is why I probably enjoyed their journey so much.  (I’m also curious how many folks have since gone back to read the collected works of Walt Whitman…)

Since this book focuses on the underage set, there’s no better beverage to pair it with than a cold local brew, straight from the can, preferably sneaked out of your parent’s house - Ok, that last part may be a stretch since most of you reading this can now buy your own booze, but if you want to recapture your youth a bit…  And if you tip back more than one, start gluing those cans together into your own beer can sword just like Ben:


Or if swords aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other crafty beer can projects to be found on Pinterest for using up your empties 

"Nothing ever happens like you imagine it will. But then again, if you don't imagine, nothing ever happens at all"

The pure joy Ben experiences at prom is what I think we all wish we could have felt on that big night of our young lives – similar with the freedom and exhilaration Margo leads Quentin into on their night of escapades prior to her disappearance.  I wish I had been so brave at their age.  I was still wrapped up in always doing the right thing, not getting into trouble, and worrying about what others thought of me. Good on these kids for figuring it all out a little sooner than me…

"It is easy to forget how full the world is of people, full to bursting, and each of them imaginable and consistently misimagined."

PS, in case you didn’t know: John Green also runs a successful website and vlog with his brother – check out some of the work at my day job here:  https://youtu.be/uMLy-SCa0zc

1 comment:

  1. I've been taking Green juice for quite some time and it has significantly reduces the downtime and the strength of the illness. I cannot say enough good things about Green energy drinks, because even though I try to consistently exercise and eat healthy, it is not always possible.

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