The Book Thief
This book is in a Controlled Release!
1 journaler for this copy...
This book has been donated by its publisher for World Book Night 2012. This is a gift, from me to you, to do with as you please.
From World Book Night's website -
World Book Night is an annual celebration designed to spread a love of reading and books. To be held in the U.S. as well as the U.K. and Ireland on April 23, 2012. It will see tens of thousands of people go out into their communities to spread the joy and love of reading by giving out free World Book Night paperbacks.
World Book Night, through social media and traditional publicity, will also promote the value of reading, of printed books, and of bookstores and libraries to everyone year-round.
Successfully launched in the U.K. in 2011, World Book Night will also be celebrated in the U.S. in 2012, with news of more countries to come in future years. Please join our mailing list for regular World Book Night U.S. news. And thank you to our U.K. friends for such a wonderful idea!
Additionally, April 23 is UNESCO’s World Book Day, chosen due to the anniversary of Cervantes’ death, as well as Shakespeare’s birth and death.
From World Book Night's website -
World Book Night is an annual celebration designed to spread a love of reading and books. To be held in the U.S. as well as the U.K. and Ireland on April 23, 2012. It will see tens of thousands of people go out into their communities to spread the joy and love of reading by giving out free World Book Night paperbacks.
World Book Night, through social media and traditional publicity, will also promote the value of reading, of printed books, and of bookstores and libraries to everyone year-round.
Successfully launched in the U.K. in 2011, World Book Night will also be celebrated in the U.S. in 2012, with news of more countries to come in future years. Please join our mailing list for regular World Book Night U.S. news. And thank you to our U.K. friends for such a wonderful idea!
Additionally, April 23 is UNESCO’s World Book Day, chosen due to the anniversary of Cervantes’ death, as well as Shakespeare’s birth and death.
I love this book and have read it twice. That's why I wanted to give it out on World Book Night.
Here are my comments from when I read the book earlier.
Book Description -
Description from the cover -
"It's just a small story really, about,
among other things: a girl, some words,
an accordionist, some fanatical
Germans, a Jewish fist fighter,
and quite a lot of thievery..."
Narrated by Death, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she discovers something she can't resist - books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they are to be found.
With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.
Markus Zusak, award-winning author of I Am the Messenger, has crafted an unforgettable novel about the ability of books to feed the soul.
My comments, April 29, 2007 (first read) -
Loved this book! It deserves all the praise BookCrossers have been lavishing on it. Although this is being marketed as a young adult novel (and therefore is an easy read for adults), it's a well-written and well-rounded story written from an unusual perspective. Death is the narrator of this tale which takes place in Germany during the height of the Holocaust. His perspective makes for an omniscient narrator who sees all and tells all, sometimes giving us a glimpse ahead in the storyline. Liesel is a young girl when the story begins, being fostered out when her mother can no longer care for her. She witnesses her brother's death, and this (and other horrible events) haunts her till the end of the tale. She becomes fully involved in the terrible times as the horrors continue, and spends her most formative years, first as an innocent, but in the end as someone who witnesses the evils of mankind. We meet her friends in play, German neighbors who live nearby, and a Jew (who comes to be an old friend of the family). Death is a very thorough narrator to this tale, finishing the story well, and telling us how everyone, including Liesel, ends their lives.
I'm sorry I can't do a better review for this book. It was a quick read, and sucked me into the story from the beginning. This is the type of book that you want to read more quickly (to find out what happens) and more slowly (to draw it out and make the experience last longer) at the same time. Liesel's love of reading and books is a familiar theme to any bibliophile, but in this book it becomes her path out of a horrible reality. This is a book I could read over and over again, and I hardly ever re-read books. Perhaps later. Right now, I have too many books and too little time. But I now am inspired to read Elie Wiesel's Night, and perhaps Maus (which I recently found a copy of).
And my second read, August 9, 2009 -
I think my experience with this book definitely improved with another read. The first time I flew thru it, eager to suck in Liesel's story. I missed out on a lot of the relationships and lost track of some of the minor characters and how they fit into the story. Although I remembered loving this book, I had forgotten how wonderfully descriptive Death is as a narrator. He jumps around in time as well, which I don't think I was as aware of on the first read. This time, being familiar with the story, I was able to follow the tale better as the narrator skipped around throughout time.
A wonderful story, told by a unique narrator.
Here are my comments from when I read the book earlier.
Book Description -
Description from the cover -
"It's just a small story really, about,
among other things: a girl, some words,
an accordionist, some fanatical
Germans, a Jewish fist fighter,
and quite a lot of thievery..."
Narrated by Death, Markus Zusak's groundbreaking new novel is the story of Liesel Meminger, a young foster girl living outside of Munich in Nazi Germany. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she discovers something she can't resist - books. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever they are to be found.
With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, Liesel learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.
Markus Zusak, award-winning author of I Am the Messenger, has crafted an unforgettable novel about the ability of books to feed the soul.
My comments, April 29, 2007 (first read) -
Loved this book! It deserves all the praise BookCrossers have been lavishing on it. Although this is being marketed as a young adult novel (and therefore is an easy read for adults), it's a well-written and well-rounded story written from an unusual perspective. Death is the narrator of this tale which takes place in Germany during the height of the Holocaust. His perspective makes for an omniscient narrator who sees all and tells all, sometimes giving us a glimpse ahead in the storyline. Liesel is a young girl when the story begins, being fostered out when her mother can no longer care for her. She witnesses her brother's death, and this (and other horrible events) haunts her till the end of the tale. She becomes fully involved in the terrible times as the horrors continue, and spends her most formative years, first as an innocent, but in the end as someone who witnesses the evils of mankind. We meet her friends in play, German neighbors who live nearby, and a Jew (who comes to be an old friend of the family). Death is a very thorough narrator to this tale, finishing the story well, and telling us how everyone, including Liesel, ends their lives.
I'm sorry I can't do a better review for this book. It was a quick read, and sucked me into the story from the beginning. This is the type of book that you want to read more quickly (to find out what happens) and more slowly (to draw it out and make the experience last longer) at the same time. Liesel's love of reading and books is a familiar theme to any bibliophile, but in this book it becomes her path out of a horrible reality. This is a book I could read over and over again, and I hardly ever re-read books. Perhaps later. Right now, I have too many books and too little time. But I now am inspired to read Elie Wiesel's Night, and perhaps Maus (which I recently found a copy of).
And my second read, August 9, 2009 -
I think my experience with this book definitely improved with another read. The first time I flew thru it, eager to suck in Liesel's story. I missed out on a lot of the relationships and lost track of some of the minor characters and how they fit into the story. Although I remembered loving this book, I had forgotten how wonderfully descriptive Death is as a narrator. He jumps around in time as well, which I don't think I was as aware of on the first read. This time, being familiar with the story, I was able to follow the tale better as the narrator skipped around throughout time.
A wonderful story, told by a unique narrator.
This was one of my favorite releases for WBN 2012. I was inspired to stop at this farm market I pass nearly every day, and to leave a copy hoping someone will make use of it. I explained to the lady that I spoke to that I was hoping people would read it who need to improve their English or reading skills. I told her about the story, a bit about World Book Night, and I think she was very pleased to have the book, and promised to pass it on.
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Hello and congratulations! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing -- maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (it's free!) Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels - You'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!
To the finder of this book:
Hello and congratulations! You have not only found yourself a good book, but a whole community of booklovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. I hope you'll stick around a bit and get to know BookCrossing -- maybe even make a journal entry on this book. You may choose to remain anonymous or to join (it's free!) Feel free to read and keep this book, or to pass it on to a friend or even set it out "in the wild" for someone else to find like you did. If you do choose to join and journal, then you can watch the book as it travels - You'll be alerted by email each time someone makes another journal entry. It's all confidential (you're known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address), free, and spam-free. Happy reading!
