Gus Waters does it for me

Some girls have TV heroes, some have movie heroes and being the book geek I realized I am, mine is a book hero --- you know the ones. If he happened to have been a real person, you would unagreeably agree to go on a date with him if he asked you.

I know in my heart that I have a lot --- but right now, I can only think of one:

The Fault in Our Stars' Gus Waters had me waxing romantic. Maybe it was because his life was threatened, or that the girl she loved could die any moment, but his actions, his words, had me swooning at how he exemplified kilig-inducing kind of love --- bringing a sick girl to her favorite author halfway across the world.

More than that, he was smart, he was philosophical, he was wise. It is a wonder how he attained all his quotable quotes in this book. I have a nagging suspicion that John Green, the author, have had his heart broken in many ways and many times to be able to churn out a number of heartbreak stories in this lifetime.

Sometimes I wish I could give him a hug.

“May I see you again?" he asked. There was an endearing nervousness in his voice.
I smiled. "Sure."
"Tomorrow?" he asked.
"Patience, grasshopper," I counseled. "You don't want to seem overeager.
"Right, that's why I said tomorrow," he said. "I want to see you again tonight. But I'm willing to wait all night and much of tomorrow." I rolled my eyes. "I'm serious," he said.
"You don't even know me," I said. I grabbed the book from the center console. "How about I call you when I finish this?"
"But you don't even have my phone number," he said.
"I strongly suspect you wrote it in this book."
He broke out into that goofy smile. "And you say we don't know each other.”

It was like Gus Waters was the confluence of all the wit, character, humor and humility that I have liked in fictional characters and real people in my existence. While I would like to think I am a very realistic and practical person most of the time, I couldn't help but wish there was a person like Gus Waters on this planet:

“You realize that trying to keep your distance from me will not lessen my affection for you. All efforts to save me from you will fail.”

He also knew the simplest way of melting a girl's heart, as I discovered:

“Because you are beautiful. I enjoy looking at beautiful people, and I decided a while ago not to deny myself the simpler pleasures of existence”

Plus, he was such literary geek:

“But it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he has Cassius note, ‘The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars / But in ourselves.”

What brought this on, you ask?

Last year, Fully Booked's Aimee Diego { who also blogs here} asked me to be part of only my favorite book store's campaign called What's your story?

It was mostly about what our favorite books were and why, which really felt like a traitorous stab at my library. So I did what I thought was fair --- I closed my eyes and reached for a book from my shelves and brought it with me to the shoot.

That is the subject of my little talk in the video below :) Hope you watch it!