Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist

Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

I’m not going to do a full “review” on this since I read it instead of listening to it, but let me say this. I read it in less than 24 hours, and I loved it. Loved. It.

Some random thoughts:

• I love how, unlike many other YA books I’ve been reading lately, they didn’t bother to explain all the bands, movies, and other allusions, even when teens are likely not to know who/what they’re talking about. Excellent. That’s how books should be.



• Of course every girl wants a guy to write a song for/about her (especially if he’s cool and cute)! Poetry is a little more iffy since there’s a greater chance for badness and cheese.



• Norah likes Lucinda Williams. I totally saw her in concert like three weeks ago (LW, not Norah, as Norah is a fictional character).



• Do you hold hands by intertwining your fingers or do web-to-web? Discuss.



• Norah said she can pass the Pepsi Challenge just by smelling. I totally said the exact same thing when I took it in 7th grade at Splashtown! And let me just say how bogus it is that they use that to say that people “prefer” Pepsi in taste tests. People are not identifying which drink they like better. They’re trying to identify Pepsi because if they do, they get a (stupid little) prize like a Pepsi koozie (which then serves as more advertising for Pepsi, if people actually use it and not throw it into a junk drawer).



• The RWA needs to nominate this for their best YA book because if this doesn’t “guide” teens towards adult romances, I don’t know what will. The almost-sex scene is so totally like (but yet better written and hotter and more explicit than many of) the ones I read in romance novels.



• When Norah was describing how Tal wanted her to be more political, more Jewish, more vegan, more kosher, etc., I kept thinking of “Whatever” by Guy Forsyth. This should have been in the playlist, as this is an excellent and utterly perfect song. (Admittedly, it's probably not Nick and Norah's style, though.)



• Despite the fact that I liked the characters a lot, I don’t know if I’d like them as much in real life. Or at least, I think they (especially Norah) might get on my nerves because they are music snobs. I really don’t like people who get all snobby about music and, like, only like “underground” music. I don’t like all music or all kinds of music, but I’m not a snob about it. However, I know we’re all snobs about something (at least one thing, if not more). One of my ex-boyfriend’s friends is a total restaurant snob. We couldn’t go eat somewhere one time because it wasn’t “unique.” Other people are snobby about movies. If I’m being honest, I think I’m probably snobby about fashion sense. I mean, people should have some.*

* Kind of fun story: I was at the mall in San Antonio and I was walking behind this girl and guy. The girl was wearing jeans tucked into these suede boots that had fur on top of them and a stringy cut up tank top and a beret. I was thinking, “Uggh, that looks so stupid and I bet she thinks she looks really great.” Then a little later, my brother says, “Hey, Paris Hilton is in Hot Topic.” I go over to look because I don’t believe him, and guess what she’s wearing.