Dissected: HIMYM

How I Met Your Mother. Quite possibly one of the best series to run on cable. It's the perfect romantic comedy. You fall in love with, and become a part of, the gang; at least I did. I even chuckled when I went to Saks and saw a sign that said "Suit Up"(watch just the first episode and you'll get the joke). But Ted, main character and narrator, is a hopeless romantic in his twenties on the search for love for nine seasons (it's not nearly as sappy as I'm making it sound). Usually there's at least one main character in any movie, show, or book that I can't stand or dislike but I love all of the main characters in this show. They are all pretty different and have very defined roles in the group. You grow with them til the end of the series. The fact that I watched nine years of this show in just two months might mean something. I need to get out more, get some more hobbies. But it was definitely worth it.

Dissected: Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl

The Book.
This book was really weird. I would've never read it if I hadn't heard it was going to be turned into a movie. It was just laying around my room collecting dust. I feel like I didn't really gain much from the book. It's a fiction novel, and its very anticlimatic. The main character, Greg, bashes himself the entire book. The plot is not like one you would expect: a boy hanging out with his best friend who eventually ends up falling for the dying girl. And it's laid out from the beginning that that will not be happening. I read the book quickly. It's written as a story by high school senior Greg; it felt like he was trying to reach a certain word count with a lot of irrelevant fluff, weird stuff, and him constantly berating himself. I did't hate it though, oddly. It's really unusual, and I can tell the movie is going to be really weird (probably an independent film). I guess the main character is just learning how to be a better person throughout the book. He's really scared and boxed in, and his not-so-much of a friend, Earl, pushes him to be a better, more personable person.

After seeing the trailer for the movie I think I've discovered a rare instance in where the movie is better than the book. In the trailer for the movie there seems to be bigger events taking place than in the book (ie, Greg was dressed up in the movie for an event, there was no formal event in the book). Also the Dying Girl, Rachel, seems to have A LOT more personality in the movie, she was very dry in the book and parts including her were mostly awkward. The relationship between Greg and Earl in the movie is also a little different, Greg doesn't seems to acknowledge Earl as his friend until the end of the book. The trailer makes the movie seem a lot more fun than the book, I'll end up watching the movie sometime.

Dissected: Not That Kind of Girl

Starting with the most undesirable spring break I've encountered thus far, I started reading Lena Dunham's Not That Kind of Girl, a book I had picked up, along with Fifty Shades of Grey, a couple months earlier. I have been reading this book on and off since and I just finished it what seems to be a few weeks ago (I've lost track of dates since the start of the summer). I like this book because I feel like it gives me a bigger explanation for Lena Dunham's character, Hannah, on her show Girls (which is a great show on HBO, you should check it out). She breaks the book into five interesting sections, providing countless essays about her life experiences. She doesn't suggest how you should live your life or tell tales about her success. She just bravely shows you who she is. From her stories you realize that she is very much like Hannah. This book has lowkey inspired me to start a memoir comprised of my own stories and essays. If you're a fan of Girls, or Lena Dunham personally, you should pick up Not That Kind of Girl.