An Abundance of Katherines

by John Green

Book Overview

"Will slip equally well into a pocket as a Christmas stocking." - The Wall Street Journal, "What to Give," holiday gift guide. Introducing Penguin Minis #1 bestselling author John Green like you've... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0142410705
• ISBN13: 9780142410707
• Release Date: October 2008
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 1.17 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.2"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Oh, I just love John Green

I'm a huge John Green fan, despite the fact I'm in my mid-20s, I continue to read his novels even though they're YA and supposedly "too young" for me. But, John Green doesn't just write flippant, empty little books, they're all usually very heavy, and so well-written it sometimes leaves me reeling a bit. He has a way with words that just astounds me sometimes, and I find myself having to stop and savour something he's said, reading it over and over because it just sounds so lovely or important. And this one? This one might be one of my absolute favourites. It's not nearly his most polished (and considering the quality that says something about how much he's improved) and it seems quite short since it's not quite 300 pages, but it was well worth the money and time put into it. The characters are wonderful, even Colin at his most frustrating, the story is great, the moral he ultimately teaches us is great, and all of the technical math stuff (I can't imagine the research put into it, or just, how smart someone has to be at all to write a book about a know-it-all prodigy who's a wealth of obscure information) is well-informed and detailed. I enjoyed every bit of it and will most likely read it again. If you've never read a John Green book and are looking for where to start, I'd say this isn't bad. I'm working a bit backward, so maybe my opnion is skewed since I started with The Fault In Our Stars and fell in love with his writing instantly, but I really do think this is just a fantastic little book. (My only complaint is, well, my copy is messed up. There's a printing error, a quite severe one that made almost a whole page, front and back, unreadable. It didn't stop me, obviously, and I wish that I could have read it just because I could've missed some lovely thing he wrote, but I wasn't lost because of it. I just felt maybe I should still mention it, though.)

Another favorite

This book was really good. I couldn't put it down. I immediately fell in love with the characters and especially Colin's intellectual jokes. The characters were very realistic and understandable. It's just another book of John Green's that I'll add to my pile of undeniable favorites.

If you loved Paper Towns or Lookin For Alaska, read An abundance of Katherines! THIS IS JOHN GREEN IN ALL HIS GLORY! I must say that it started a little slow, but once you get into it you'll be like omg i love this! In my opinion, Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns were better than the book but how can you top those books! Just read An Abundance Of Katherines, you won't regret it.

Perfect for the reader within us all

Of course, if you really are a math nerd, it doesn't take long to fall in love with Colin, our dear hero. He's a geeky, nerdy, anagram-loving high school graduate, waiting to start his college life. The outline is simple: Colin's been dumped. He's depressed. Quirky, hilarious best friend Hassan declares that there's only one thing to do - road trip. That's how Colin ends up in a hole in the wall type town, working alongside Hassan and a girl named Lindsey, who essentially is the reason they even stayed in town. Lindsey is an interesting character, normal, and intelligent, something Colin doesn't really expect when they first meet (he sees her reading a trashy magazine and assumes he's dealing with someone ignorant and stupid). Colin meanwhile becomes obsessed with creating a formula that accurately portrays his 19 failures with Katherines. The story thus progresses. If there's one thing that's great about "An Abundance of Katherines", it's that there's something for everyone. Math nerds will love the concept. Teens will love the characters. Adults will love the humor. Or just everything, because it's fun to love. It's a great book, one that will suck you in from the first moment and keep you until the end. Funny characters and interesting situations keeps this book moving. Perhaps this is more appropriate for teens, who will let some minor issues go more easily (the ending was nice and good, but not as incredible as the rest of the book...). Even so, adults will be just as able to enjoy this fun, funny, enjoyable book. (P.S. The footnotes are probably the best part)

An Abundance of Charm

The moment I finished, I wanted to rush out and give this novel to all my reader friends. Unfortunately, it is just too good to do that with - John Green deserves every one of those friends to buy it for themselves. Green, the Printz Award-Winning author of Looking For Alaska, has definitely succeeded in his sophomore effort - Katherines is a charming mix of interesting characters, thought-provoking prose, and laugh-out-loud moments. Such a combination reads like a brilliant hybrid of J.D. Salinger-esque emotion with all the sideways humor of a Christopher Moore novel. The major success of the book is neither its emotional arc nor its spot-on humor, but the characters themselves. Every single secondary character, no matter how minor, is drawn perfectly - there isn't a cookie-cutter in the bunch. Colin Singleton, the protagonist, is even better: an endearing mix of tremendous brain power, introspection, and a healthy dose of social awkwardness, makes him completely sympathetic to the audience. As an avid reader of all genres and a YA writer, it is rare that I come across a book that truly wows me anymore, but An Abundance of Katherines succeeded. The 2007 Printz Honor this book just received is well earned, you won't regret this read!

Fun, funny, and not "chick-lit" at all!

John Green has done it again! An Abundance of Katherines is lighter than Looking for Alaska, but the characters are just as engaging and the action, in some ways, more believable. Colin, the lovelorn prodigy; Hassan, the chubby, devoutly Muslim but also devoutly modern and lazy sidekick; and Lindsey, keeper of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's grave and heir to the local tampon-string factory/dynasty--they're all the kind of characters you can't get enough of. And the humor is the kind that will make you laugh out loud in the middle of the library and have to apologize to the librarians and the guy next to you who is researching the effect of a burgeoning cetarian-based economy on the Federalist/Anti-Federalist debates of the late 1700s and would not read a young adult novel if his tenure depended on it. One thing, though--this book is as good a "roadtrip/buddy movie/high school males bonding" book as I've read in a long time. So why does the cover scream "chick lit?" Note to publisher: get new marketing department. Note to male readers: ignore the cover and buy the book.

smart and funny

From third grade through his senior year of high school, Colin Singleton, child prodigy, has dated nineteen girls. All of them have been named Katherine (anagrammed in the rake; ie, her tank), and all of them have dumped him. Not for the same reasons, and not in the same way. Katherine XVIII dumped him in an email, for example. And K-19 dumped him immediately after graduation. Now, faced with a Katherine-less summer, Colin and his best friend, Hassan, decide to take a road trip. They are short-stopped in Gutshot, Tennessee, home to Archduke Franz Ferdinand's grave, with a job offer. Since there are no Katherines in sight, only Lindseys and Katrinas, the two boys settle in for the summer to interview textile workers, and, in Colin's case, come up with a mathematical formula for predicting the end result of a romantic relationship -- his Eureka moment. Layered with fun and funky characters, anagrams, formulas, flashbacks, and footnotes, this complex yet easy-to-read novel is not only compelling, but one of the smartest novels I've read in a long time.

Courtesy of Teens Read Too

If you had the opportunity to devise a theorem that could correctly predict the outcome of a romantic relationship, would you do it? If it worked, would you use it? Can it even be done? This is the problem plaguing Colin Singleton, recent high school graduate, nearly-former child prodigy, hopeful genius. Colin, you see, has a significant problem. He falls in love quite easily, which in and of itself isn't such a bad thing. The fact that all of his loves, nineteen of them to be exact, have been named Katherine can even be explained away by some form of twisted scientific method. What can't be explained, though, is why Colin has been dumped by all nineteen of those Katherines. When he's dumped by the love of his life, Katherine XIX, he finds himself in a bad place. He can no longer call himself a child prodigy, since he's graduated from high school. He's not a genius, because he's never come up with anything that will change the world. There's an empty place inside of him where his latest Katherine's love used to live, and he doesn't know what to do with himself. Until Hassan Harbish (Muslim, but not a terrorist) devises a way to get Colin out of his funk--a road trip. With no destination in mind, the two set off in The Hearse, Colin's car, and go where the road leads them. Where it leads them is a small town called Gutshot, Tennessee, where Colin gets the urge to see the supposed grave of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It's also where the two meet Lindsey Lee Wells and her mother, Hollis. Not to mention where they get to live in a giant Pepto Bismol-pink house on a hill, interview employees of a factory that makes tampon strings, and eat Monster Thickburgers at the local Hardees. It's also the place where Colin decides to finish the Theorem of Underlying Katherine Predictability. Assign numerical value to different variables, plot it on a graph, and you'll be able to predict how long a relationship will last--and who will be the dumper, and who will be the dumpee. Except Colin forgot some pertinent information, like chance, and distorted memories, and the fact that love is never predictable. As Colin and Hassan learn a few things about life in the small town of Gutshot, we get to follow their journey of learning to grow up, to make a name for yourself, and how to matter as a person. I loved AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES, even more than Mr. Green's previous book, Looking for Alaska. That book won the prestigious Michael L. Printz award, and I won't be surprised if this book is nominated, as well. This story is funny, poignant, and informative. For example, if I hadn't read AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES I would never have known that: 1) Fetor hepaticus is a symptom of late-stage liver failure where your breath literally smells like a rotting corpse. 2) The junior senator from New Hampshire in 1873 was Bainbridge Wadleigh. 3) There is absolutely no scientific proof that drinking eight glasses of water a day will improve your health. 4