Just One Day, Gayle Forman

All throughout these years of acquiring reads, fascinating or not, I have developed this habit of reading several books by the same author, especially if I find the first book I’ve read quite interesting. If I Stay wasn’t exactly an exhilarating read for me, but Just One Day? Oh boy, where do I even start?

Let me put it like this: reminded me over and over how sweet, bitter, painful and splendid it is to fall in love and be in love. In its own way.

So yes, I finished this book in just one sitting. Aside from proving that falling in love in one day is possible, it also introduced Shakespearean plays to me properly, something that I haven’t thought of before. Maybe I should read Shakespeare too.

Shakespeare and his works are to be respected, no doubt about that, but I have NEVER read any of it. You see, I came from a high school that didn’t even discuss Dekada ’70 and I was always under the impression that Medieval lit is something for the bourgeois. The closest thing I got to Shakespeare was DiCaprio, for heaven’s sake. Anyway, Gayle Foreman talked about Shakespeare in this book in the most romantic kind of way and maybe, just maybe, I’ll start watching silent movies too.

I’ve always heard that this is the most romantic city in the world, except maybe in some places in Italy. I’ve never been out of the country, let alone these places. The thing is, after knowing more about Paris, the more my curiosity arises. What makes the city the most romantic place in the world? The theatres? The after-dark art appreciation? Or maybe the simple fact that blatant PDAs are not only condoned but admired by the Parisians? Anyway, whatever the reason is, perhaps the best thing to do is be there myself. It must be the thought of being in Paris that you would feel oh-so-romantic and want to fall in love.

One of my friends says that the worst thing that could ever happen to a girl is to fall in love with a one-night stand partner. Okaaayy, I can’t speak for myself on that, as I personally don’t agree with one-night-stands (but I don’t have anything against people who do it). But I do understand Allyson’s [main character] feeling of being incomplete, of not finding out what happened with Willem. The feeling of not being able to have proper closure, or even a proper goodbye could really leave us with all the what if’s the world could have. There’d always be questions nagging at the back of your head that you’d itch to go out and seek the answers to. A lot of things could have happened, had they parted the proper way. I admire Allyson’s courage in taking charge in finding him, to know what really happened, if Willem did really leave her, and if that one day was just a memory that she could never hold on to.