You know how it is when you finish a book that's so good, you don't feel like reading anything else 'cause you want the feel of that book to stick with you forever and it seems like no other book would ever be as good.

Finally I've finished it. And it's excellent, one of the best books I've ever read, even better than We Need To Talk About Kevin which was just highly disturbing and traumatizing. I think I'm kinda slow 'cause this book's been out for years already, and its plot has all the powerful themes of life intertwined together, love, friendship, honour, courage, fear, guilt, more friendship, set in the Afghanistan war, and it's so incredibly touching and moving and riveting I feel incomplete finishing it.

Tears rushed up to my eyes a few times throughout the story, and the way he writes is so touchy and compelling, so genuine, so real. Even though it's just a story, it didn't occur to me that it was false. The entire journey just painted itself in my mind, the feelings, the emotions, the guilt, the sadness, so unbelievably ringing and powerful.

I was stunned after I finished the last page just now, and despite my other new books I bought a week ago but haven't read, I grabbed A Thousand Splendid Suns, also by Khaled Hosseni. I bought that a year ago or so, but ignored it because it looked and sounded boring. It was even written after The Kite Runner was published - I CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED IT last time. But after reading The Kite Runner, I knew I had to read more of his work. Maybe by reading his work, I'll feel more complete, more content with finishing The Kite Runner.

I flipped open A Thousand Splendid Suns, thought about how powerful, unbelievably enchanting and sad the Kite Runner had been and couldn't read on. Put down the book and just stoned, thinking, wanting to know what would happen to everyone in The Kite Runner, hoping they would all find their happiness in the end because that was what they truly deserved, especially Hassan, who I felt the most touched by and saddened for. He was the most loyal and faithful and courageous character I've read about in a long while, one who would give up everything for a friend. All the characters in the story are alive to me now, and I can't help but keep wondering about them, which is pretty stupid cause they aren't even real.

The truth that they aren't even real is sad, because Khaled Hosseni, being such an amazing writer, has written life into them and made them real to me.

I think I won't be able to read another book for a while, because The Kite Runner is still turning over and over in my mind, the story retelling itself, the beauty and power and poignancy of the plot gripping my thoughts and telling me that no other book would ever able to replace the wonder I have for this.


"For you, a thousand times over."