Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Can Cameron find what he’s looking for?

All 16-year-old Cameron wants is to get through high school—and life in general—with a minimum of effort. It’s not a lot to ask. But that’s before he’s given some bad news: he’s sick and he’s going to die. Which totally sucks. Hope arrives in the winged form of Dulcie, a loopy punk angel/possible hallucination with a bad sugar habit. She tells Cam there is a cure—if he’s willing to go in search of it. With the help of a death-obsessed, video-gaming dwarf and a yard gnome, Cam sets off on the mother of all road trips through a twisted America into the heart of what matters most.

 Going Bovine was like a drunken teenager. Crazy, reckless, fun, shockingly poignant and above all, undeniably unreliable.

Cameron is a slacker/stoner. I loved his character. I could totally relate to it. He was very Holden Caulfield-esque. Cameron basically doesn’t like anything. At all. His parents live a dull life. His dad is possibly cheating on his mom. His sister is a pod person (Read: Cheerleader) who is dating the quarterback or something like that. His best memory is when he almost died at Disneyland when he was 5 years. He loves listening to this lame Portuguese singer, just to be ironic. He sometimes hangs out in the stoner bathroom having eloquent and sensible conversation about Schrödinger's cat* and such. I’d give an inch of my hair to go to that bathroom. It sounds like a glorious place. But never mind, this is just the start of the book and it only gets better.

Cameron gets Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which is simply mad cow disease in a human. And hence, the cover.  It's genius really. Symptoms of this disease: Hallucinations, muscle twitching.

The rest of the book Cameron is either lying on a hospital bed or on a psychedelic road trip with a paranoid dwarf who loves to swear, a punk angel, and a yard gnome who claims to be a Norse God, or possibly both. It's really upto the reader to decide what is really happening.  The road trip is eccentric, they run into a jazz musician who is supposed to be dead, mardi gras folks, dumb reality-TV obsessed teens, CHURCH OF EVERLASTING SATISFACTION AND SNACK-’N’-BOWL AKA Future serial killers, physicists on the quest to enter parallel universe and much more.

This book is very surreal, very very funny, very Alice in Wonderland meets On The Road meets Don Quixote. And mostly, it begs the question, what exactly defines reality.  Till the box is opened is Schrodinger’s cat dead or alive or both? 

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat

Similar books: Paper Towns By John Green. 
Other road trip related books on my reading list: Road trip books.

It's Monday! What are you reading? #5

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a weekly event hosted by the wonderful Shelia at Book Journey. It is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between!

Ans. Several books, simultaneously. 

This book was The Shizz. 
Review:  http://oopsireadthatbook.blogspot.in/2012/05/going-bovine-by-libba-bray.html

Now, I don't really read non-fiction. Ever. But I came across this photo of a page in the book, and I was in love. Also, Jonathan Safran Foer is brilliant. 

Nevertheless, I doubt it's gonna turn me into a vegan or whatever. 

Herman Melville sure loved his whales. 

I didn't really love this one. The protag is a female and the main guy is not your typical John Green character. *sigh* But, maybe it gets better. 


Watch out for the reviews. Let me know what you are reading this week? 


P.S- My Summer Reading List Part 1 and Part 2 ( Road Trip edition.) 

In My Mailbox/ My Summer Reading List Part 2/ Stacking The Shelves/ Mailbox Monday

IMM is hosted by The Story Siren
Stacking The Shelves is hosted by Tygna's Reviews. 
Mailbox Monday is hosted at Mailbox Monday. 
This is the Road Trip list! ^^ 


When I read Paper Towns by John Green and loved it, I realised I had barely read any books about road trips. Then I read Going Bovine and it was all kinds of awesome ( Review: http://oopsireadthatbook.blogspot.in/2012/05/going-bovine-by-libba-bray.html ) , and so I am now gonna read a whole heap of books about road trips. 

1) On the Road  by Jack Kerouac

Is it kind of embarrassing that I have not read this book yet? Yes. It is. And that must be changed soon. 

2)  Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Okay well, accepted this is more of a sea voyage than a road trip book, but it's an exception I made for this book because it's about a Tiger. And, I have a soft corner ( Translation: Obsession) for the Felines. Not to mention, much like the time when you are on the lookout for the perfect Woody Allen meets Jesse Eisenberg meets Seth Cohen hyper intellectual, neurotic guy, but you get totally distracted by a super hot french musician; well, this is like that time. A Man Booker Prize Winner being much like a super hot musician. French one. Stupid analogy. Because  I'd totally prefer the dork. 

3) The Least Awesome book by John Green

I started reading. Didn't like it as much as Paper Towns or Looking for Alaska. But whatever, John Green is John Green. This book is third person though. Meh. 

4) Saving June by Hannah Harrignton

I really didn't wanna read this because I had made up my mind it was a quintessential romance book.  But then a lot of people recommended it and I heard the main guy is like a hipster-ish dude who loves Neutral Milk Hotel or something. Anyways, I remember liking the music he likes, and it is a a road trip book, and the cover isn't shabby either so whatever, I'll check it out.  

What's in your mailbox?

Check out my Summer Reading List Part 1