Paper Towns-tacular Question Tuesday

[John Green]

You can get the book here or at your local bookseller.

In which John answers real questions from real nerdfighters about his new novel "Paper Towns" as part of the Nerdfighter Blurbing Book Club. There are actual several more questions to be answered--look for that video Friday or Saturday. Leave your questions for week-after-next's question Tuesday in comments.

[Lucy]

I am 20 years old and I just finished "An Abundance of Katherines," which was just excellent. I've already loaned it to a friend. Paper Towns is up next John! From what I've read of your work so far, I know I won't be disappointed.

[Life's Poor Player]

You've mentioned in a few videos (despite evidence to the contrary), that you don't consider your books to be "great". While I would agree that Paper Towns isn't the next Great Gatsby, I don't think its so far from it that its laughable. What do you feel your books are lacking that keeps them from being classics? And there are certainly books I've read in English class that aren't as good as some of your novels. And that is not just on an entertainment level, but on a stylistic and analytical level as well (Dicey's Song, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Lord of the Flies are some examples). So again, what makes you think you aren't on the same bar as Fitzgerald? Do you think you can ever get to a point in your writing where you can write the next great american novel?

[Rachel]

Are the pranks you have Margo and Q pull on other people pranks you've actually wanted to do yourself? some of them would be hilarious^^ others a little scary

[DigitalFlowers]

Unfortunately, I missed the first Tour de Nerdfighting. Will you be doing something similar in 2009?
Best Wishes! XD

[Jessie]

Paper Towns was made of awesome. It makes me very happy despite the fact that it has some dark overall shadowing. My question this week has nothing to do with Paper Towns but I'm going to ask it anyway.
Sorry :(
Do you have short term memory loss? Random, yes.

[Karen]

Wow how awesome! I finally got around to reading this book and decided that it's the best book ever. Of course, I have yet to finish so don't spoil it! but hey, awesome anyways. Also realized, how at nerdfighters, we like things that are made of awesome. Margo is literally, made of awesome. That's pretty dang fabulous. Well since I can't think of any questions right now, 1. I probably need to finish the book and 2. I should probably be interacting more with my reading... oops

[Mattie Grace]

Instead of saying that you can buy Paper Towns at your local bookstore, can you please say that you can buy Paper Towns at your "local independent bookstore"? Now is the time to be supporting the independent bookstore. Two of the bookstores where I used to work in Milwaukee just closed down. While I empathize with the people at Barnes and Noble and Borders in regards to their economic situation, I think it is more important to put money into the hands of our independent bookstores.

Thanks!

[Evanne]

-what inspired you to write this book and how did you come up with the plot?
-do you think that all people create an image of the other people they know, rather than seeing them for what they are?
-was it intentional to make this book, in ways, reflecting concepts of looking for alaska and to better our understanding of the characters?

<3

[Abby]

Did you ever get a severe case of writer's block while writing any of your books? If so, when?

Which was your hardest book to write?

Were any of the characters in Paper Towns based off of people you are close to?

Where did the whole idea for this mis-imagining of people, and the non-understanding of the truth come from?

[Tenley Nadine]

If you could go back and change one thing from Paper Towns (or one of your other novels) what would it be?

DFTBA