The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks

Bookish Mardi: A Book Review of "The Longest Ride" by Nicholas Sparks 

"Trust people, until they give you a reason not to." 

- Nicholas Sparks

It's undoubtedly undeniable that Nicholas Sparks is one among my personal favorite authors. He has the most space in my shelf since I have been collecting his books as well. So when he updated his status via FB which stated that his latest novel had finally been released, euphoric I've become. It was exactly the 17th day of September 2013 when the eagerness and giddiness collided within me. It was the same day I felt I badly needed to travel from the previous school I was working going to any neighboring city which had the bookstore selling the book so I would be able to fall in line for it. However, reality sank in when a student came inside our faculty room reminding me of my next literature class. I then realized I actually didn't have the time to read it yet and considering the fact that the book on that day wasn't available yet,everything became vague. Mind setting was all I did so as for me to be able to set aside that intense flame burning within me to touch and read the book.

I kept my the feeling until months had passed, the next time I realized, it's already been December. The month of such a jocund season, Christmas. Since it's also my birth month, one of my favorite students, Janica a sophormore, asked me through her classmate as to what I would like to recieve or what book would I like to received. I made mention of it but not expecting her buying it for me. ^_^ 

Fast forward to the day I finally got the book, I was sent to cloud nine. Though I wasn't able to actually receive it on the month of December but instead of May, nine months after it was released,  my gratefulness was incomparable. Millions of thank to Janica, indeed! :)))

Book Review

The author introduces to us the story by using the point of view or Ira, a ninety one year old man who met a car accident. A man who had been holding and losing his consciousness and was about to give up living but with the help of his dead wife's presence it enabled him to survive. His wife helped him to not lost his grip of his life by making him reminisce his World War days and how they met. Therefore, flashbacking's been so evident in the story.

Photo from web 

The author does not only make use of one character's point of view, instead, four. Sparks makes use of the four main characters' insights. As you go through the story, each chapter is named after a character which signals you that, that particular chapter is that character's point of view. I find it unique, since it's the very first book I've read which has a style like such. However, if you are not following the story too well and if you are not familiar with how the author writes, you'll actually be confused, which I believe will just be diminished as you are to slowly unfold the story.

Sparks, as always, makes me love him even more by his works. Other than him being so poetic and literary prolific, his ability in writing billet-doux sensationally is one among the many characteristics  I just don't like but madly in love with about him. The love-letter writing is what I also look forward to from his books. And, as always, it was present in the novel,too. So, what more do you expect me to think? :)))

For those who love so much twists in a novel, spoiler alert!, this has none. However, it's still a good one for me since there was not much villains and the like present in the story. Hence, you'll find it great.

Nicholas Sparks,together with Ira, Ruth, Luke and Sophia taught me that we may never be able to know every single person around us, yet we are all together woven by just one Weaver. Whatever one's decision may be, will surely affect somebody else's. They have also made me realized that the most difficult situations we may be in at the present will harness the real us, making us the most brilliant diamond ever polished by trials which can make us become the better version of us. The better we become, the more we can continue making  the longest ride - our life - become ultimately extraordinary.  With this, I SALUTE YOU MR. SPARKS! *_^

Book Summary 

Ira Levinson is in trouble. At ninety-one years ols and alone in the world, he finds himself in tstranded on an isolated embankment after a car crash. Suffering multiple injuries, he struggles to retain consiousness until a blurry image materializes and comes into focus deside him: his beloved wife Ruth, who passed away nine years ago. Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by reminiscing about their life together. Ira knows that Ruth can't possibly be in the car with him, but he clings to her words and his memories.

A few miles away, at a local bull-riding event, a Wake Forest University senior's life is about to change. Recovering from a recent break up, Sophian Danko meets a young cowboy named Luke. Through Luke, Sophia is introduced to a world in which the stakes are high: Reward and ruin - and even life and death - loom large in everyday life.  After she and luke fall in love, Sophia finds herself imagining a future far removed from her plans - if the secret Luke's keeping doesn't destroy it first. 

Ira and Ruth. Sophia and Luke. Two couples who have little in common and who are separated by years and experience. Yet their lives will converge with unexpected poignancy, reminding us all that even the most difficult decisions can yield extraordinary journeys." 

Remarkable Lines from the Book 

"I sometimes think to myself that I'm the last of my kind." -  Ira

". . . most people, when given the  choice, would do what was right, even it was hard,  and he believed that good almost always triumphed over evil." - Ira's father

"Trust people until they give you a reason not to. And then never turn back." - Ira's father

". . . despite the wonders of modern technology and forecasting, weather predictions are still fallible." - Ira

"I know I'm not going to be able to change the world, but I think it's important to try to make a difference." - Mary Kate

"The world needs a little mystery." - Sophia

"I guess people tend to put their first  loves on pedestal, and in the beginning, I was no difference." - Sophia

"No father thinks any man is good enough for his daughter." - Ruth 

"Yet experience has taught me that fate is sometimes cruel and that even a boatload of hope is sometimes not enough."

". . .when it comes to competing, it's more about learning how to choose a good pig when it's little." - Luke

"It's easy to joke when you don't care anymore. I'm not saying it didn't hurt me, because it did." - Sophia

"It was not the first kiss we'd ever shared, but in many ways, it had become my favorite if only because it happened when I needed it most, marking the beginning of one of the two most wonderful, and life-altering periods of my life." - Ira

"What I do know is that when I was sitting with you that night, I felt like God was telling me that I was doing the right thing." - Ruth

"Family is always there, no matter what, even when it's not right next door. Which means that you'll find a way to keep the connection alive. Especially since you realize how important it is." - Luke's mother

"She was always stronger and smarter and better at everything, and I think again that of the two of us, I made the better choice so long ago. I still don't know why she chose me. While she was exceptional, I was average, a man whose major accomplishment in life was to love her without reservation, and that will never change." - Luke 

"It's strange, I think, the way our lives turn out. Moments of circumstance, when later combined with conscious decisions and actions and boatload of hope, can eventually forge a future that seems predestined."

"You can still live without me." - Ruth

"What every last person failed to see was that it was not about money; it was about the memories they held." - Ira

"My marriage brought great happiness into my life." - Ira

"People plan, God laughs." 

"A truth emerges in any long marriages, and that truth is this: Our spouses sometimes know us better that we ever know ourselves." - Ira

"I'm not making a mistake. And I'm not going to get hurt." - Sophia

"I know how much you care about him. But your lives aren't just on different tracks, they're on different continents. And that meand you are going to have to watch your heart from here on, because if you don't, it's going to end up breaking into all sorts of pieces." - Marcia

"Do not worry about tomorrow until you have to." 

"I wish I had the talent to paint the way I feel about you, for my words always feel inadequate. I imagine using red for your passion and pale blue for your kindness; forest green to reflect the depth of your empathy and bright yellow for your unflagging optimism. And still I wonder, can even an artist's palette capture the full range of what you mean to me.'' - Ira

"As your husband, I can listen and hold you; and kiss your tears away." - Ira

"I loved a man who loved me in return, and this was the greatest gift I could ever have hoped to receive." - Ruth

"I know you miss me terribly. I miss you, too. But we still have each other, for I am - and always have been - part of you. You carry me in your heart, just as I carried you in mine, and nothing can ever change that. I love you, my darling, and you loved me. Hold on to that feeling. Hold on to us. And little by little, you will find a way to heal." - Ira

"With you, my life felt indeed like a fantastic adventure- despit e our ordinary circumstance, your love imbued everything we did with secret riches. How I was lucky enough to share a life with you, I still cannot understand."- Ira 

"For every day that passes is one day closer to the moment I will see you again. You are my wife, but more that that, you have always been my one true love." - Ira 

"After all, if there is heaven, we will find each other again, for there is no heaven without you." - Ira 

" . . . our reality is shaped by our perceptions. That something is good or bad only because we - you and I - believe it to be so, based on our own experiences." - Sophia 

"In other words, our opinions and our thoughts and feelings - anything we experience - need not define us forever." - Sophia