Hi, I'm Mikaela and I'm a Heathen. *sniff* No surprise there!
I finished the book yesterday and I had lots of thoughts after having finished it.
As for structure, I think I'd just like to wade in ASAP while the memories are as fresh as possible, but perhaps we could tackle the
content and characters first, especially the character of Beth - then after that what must have especially resonated with Heath, ...and then the more movie-related issues: I.e. How do you adapt into a film something where so much of the action is people sitting over chess boards making moves...
Anyway, though I liked the book a lot it didn't make me a whit more interested in chess! (I'm not even good at Sudoku.) Reading lots and lots of books about previous chess games would be my idea of pure, boring, horrible hell.
All the more kudos to the author who manged to make this resonate with humanity and so relevant and interesting despite the chess-based action.
It is a good reminder how the human brain is wired and how intensely focused we can become about that which catches our interest and imagination and fires our physical and/or mental strengths into full
"on" mode - be it chess or marathon or discussing Brokeback Mountain.
**Slaps self on wrist**Yes, I will shut up now!