The Mini Book Club continues with myself and BFF!

January's selection is The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, of which we had already decided upon at the beginning of December.

Here's an interesting exchange between me and BFF:

BFF:  I think it would be fun to finish this book and then go watch the movie and then discuss both.  What do you think?

Me:  (thoughtfully)  You know, when I first chose to put this book on my 'To Read' list and then officially bought it, I didn't really even know there was a movie.

BFF:  Even though the top of your paperback says, "Now a major motion picture"?

Me:  (pouts)

BFF:  Because I totally believe that.

Me:  I live under a rock.

BFF:  You really didn't choose this book for Book Club because it got made into a movie?  The trailers are really good!

Me:  I don't like doing that.  Rushing off to read a book just because it got made into a movie...  Even though I've done it before.  It feels like something my brother would do.  You know, following trends and hype.  Like, I got tired of everyone asking me whether I've seen The Hunger Games movie, and then a lot of people I know went to read the book after they saw the movie; like they wouldn't have paid attention to the book at all if a movie hadn't been made.

Like when my friend went to start reading the second book of Lord of the Rings after she saw the first movie...  Or something like that.

BFF:  There's nothing wrong with that.

Me:  It feels like over kill.

BFF:  You're a book snob, aren't you?

Me:  I might be a book snob.

But, yes.  It's true.  I have some snobby quirks about books that I will admit to.  For instance, I have a pet peeve about buying books with the movie cover on it...  And yet, I can't quite pinpoint why it is that I feel that it's wrong.

And I also admit that I live under a rock, because while I knew that the book was being made into a movie a while after I bought it, and while I actually saw the movie cover version of the paper back in the store when I bought my non-movie cover version... I never connected that The Book Thief was made into a movie recently.

I totally live under a boulder in a cave or something...

But back to the book.

I'm enjoying what I've read so far.  Mainly, I'm loving the natural, effortless wittiness of the narration, despite the dark and serious nature of the story itself.  There's a sardonic, dark humor quality to the writing that makes the story stand out really well.  Because otherwise, I'm not sure if I would find Liesel's back-story so compelling.  I mean, her life thus far has been sad and full of tragedy, and it really makes you think, but that time period was a terrible one known in history -- in a text book, you don't feel the pain and the sufferings, and you don't really see the problems.

But The Book Thief doing a great job so far of bringing the story, the time period, the characters, the melancholy... all of it alive rather vividly.

And, of course, there have been some moments already where I've felt some "FEELS".  I can't wait to finish it so that I can have a discussion with my BFF about it.  This will definitely be a winner as part of my 2014 Reading Challenge (and the first book I read this year as well)!