This is my all-time favorite book.  I, also could not put it down, but not because there were epic cliff-hangers or fast-paced story.  The charascters are very well developed and create an insatiable need to find out more.  Jonathan Safran Foer is my favorite author, not only because he has amazing story-telling abilities but because of his clever diction and syntax blended with an interesting format.

Foer is a literary master, and everyone should read this and “Everything is Illuminated”.

With such an intense subject, this book had the potential to come out entirely wrong. I was pleasantly surprised when I started to read this, because I immediately fell in love with the main character and the story. It wasn't fast paced, but I couldn't put it down. I was drawn to the mix of innocence and intellect that Oskar brought to the novel, and the mix of a past story added to the book's depth. This definitely has become one of my favorite books.

A friend recommended this book a couple of months ago. The story itself may sound boring, it's not very thrilling at all; but the writing is just brilliant - it's fun to read and very witty written. The emotions while reading this book go from very funny to absolutely sad. I love this characters in this book that are well developed, especially Oscar. Foer often jumps into the past and back which may be a bit confusing in the beginning, but this make the book even more interesting to read.

Foer uses easy words that are also understandable for an English speaking intermediate. But the way how he uses the words is astounding. One of the best books I've ever read. I can highly recommend this book.

 I read the first chapter of A Brief History of Time when Dad was still alive, and I got increadibly heavy boots about how relatively insignificant life is, and how compared to the universe and compared to time, it didn't even matter if I existed at all.  When Dad was tucking me in that night and we were talking about the book, I asked if he could think of a solution to that problem.  “Which problem?”  “The problem of how relatively insignificant we are.”  He said, “Well, what would happen if a plane dropped you in the middle of the Sahara Desert and you picked up a single grain of sand with tweezers and moved it one millimeter?”  I said, “I'd probably die of dehydration.”  He said, “I just mean right then, when you moved that single grain of sand.  What would that mean?”  I said, “I dunno, what?”  He said, “Think about it.”  I thought about it.  “I guess I would have moved one grain of sand.”  “Which would mean?”  “Which would mean I moved a grain of sand?”  “Which would mean you changed the Sahara.”  “So?”  “So?  So the Sahara is a vast desert.  And it has existed for millions of years.  And you changed it!”  “That's true!”  I said, sitting up.  “I changed the Sahara!”  “Which means?”  he said.  “What?  Tell me.”  “Well I'm not talking about painting the Mona Lisa  or curing cancer.  I'm just talking about moving that one grain of sand one millimeter.”  “Yeah?”  “If you hadn't done it, human history would have been one way…”  “Uh-huh?”  “But you did do it, so…?”  I stood on the bed, pointing one of my fingers at the fake stars, and screamed: “I changed the course of human history!”  “That's right.”  “I changed the universe!”  “You did.” “I'm God!”  “You're an atheist.”  “I don't exist!”  I feel back onto the bed, into his arms, and we cracked up together.