Looking for Alaska

work · in 67 videos (2007–2013)

Mentions by year: 2007: 15 · 2008: 12 · 2009: 11 · 2010: 8 · 2011: 12 · 2012: 7 · 2013: 2

Threads

The brothers' 'Battle of the Books' bit (2007) — bit, variant, 2007–2007
John asks viewers to improve the Wikipedia entries for John and his novels (2007) — ask, open (no report in 2007–2013), 2007–2007
Looking for Alaska film adaptation in development (2007) — stage, milestone, 2007–2007
John invites Nerdfighters under 25 to vote for Looking for Alaska in the Inky Awards (2007) — ask, reported back, 2007–2007
Effort to ban Looking for Alaska in Depew, New York schools (2008) — story, update, 2008–2008
John asks Nerdfighters near Depew to attend the March 4 meeting on Looking for Alaska (2008) — ask, open (no report in 2007–2013), 2008–2008
Hank's non-existent Nerdfighting Prize of the Day (2008) — bit, callback, 2008–2010
A Nerdfighter shows John a Looking for Alaska half eaten by a Hawaiian mongoose (2008) — story, tell, 2008–2008
Looking for Alaska: Lemniscaat's Dutch re-release with reader-designed cover ideas (2010) — stage, launch, 2010–2010
John asks readers to design cover ideas for Lemniscaat's Dutch Looking for Alaska (2010) — ask, open (no report in 2007–2013), 2010–2010
John: forward readers' Dutch Looking for Alaska cover designs to Lemniscaat (2010) — promise, open (no report in 2007–2013), 2010–2010
John revisits his high school, Indian Springs School, the setting of Looking for Alaska (2010) — story, tell, 2010–2010
John: how Looking for Alaska was written, revised and won the Printz Award (2006) — story, retell, 2011–2013
Penguin's lawyers cut a Millay quotation from Looking for Alaska under fair use (2004) — story, tell, 2011–2011
John points viewers to his earlier novels to read while waiting for The Fault in Our Stars (December 2011) — ask, open (no report in 2007–2013), 2011–2011

What the videos say

2007

2007-01-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: January 16, 2007 — Inspired by Hank's Battle of the Books, John stages his own as a self-declared pale imitation: the American Looking for Alaska against the Dutch edition, joined by the Danish and British editions for Europe. (00:01:40)
2007-04-05 · Brotherhood 2.0: April 2: A Day in the Writer's Life — Answering FunkyPenguin402's question about what the Looking for Alaska movie will be rated, John says the more important questions are when it will be made and when principal photography will start. (00:03:03)
2007-05-14 · Brotherhood 2.0: May 14: The Evil Baby Orphanage — John hopes people will also improve the Wikipedia entries for him, Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines. (00:02:47)
2007-05-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: May 16: Beating the EBO into the ground — John says the Looking for Alaska movie is known in Hollywood as Famous Last Words; the title is changing because, he says, the original sounds like a movie about mountaineering. (00:00:10)
2007-05-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: May 16: Beating the EBO into the ground — After a long hot day in New York City, John has spent the day reading the screenplay of the Looking for Alaska movie. (00:00:10)
2007-05-16 · Brotherhood 2.0: May 16: Beating the EBO into the ground — John thinks it is a pretty good screenplay even though it is way different from the book, and hopes the film gets made. (00:00:40)
2007-05-18 · Brotherhood 2.0: May 18: How to Write a Book Proposal — In the puppet scene, Ooby (playing John) says he had finished the manuscript of Looking for Alaska. (00:02:44)
2007-07-27 · July 27: How Nerdfighters Drop Insults — John tours his home library's sections for Hank, from Shakespeare and religions to author copies and foreign editions of his own books, fiction, YA and humor. (00:02:46)
2007-07-31 · July 31: HP, Secret Siblings, and Books — For a top-secret reason John must read the finished An Abundance of Katherines, breaking his vow never to read his books once published; he has read Looking for Alaska only in snippets at bookstores. (00:01:52)
2007-10-10 · October 10th: A Spoilerific Attack on Unicorns — John announces that Looking for Alaska is a finalist for the Inky Award, and any Nerdfighters under 25 can vote via a link. (00:03:17)
2007-10-29 · October 29th: It Just Isn't Fair — Hank instead found a snippet of John's childhood to share with Nerdfighters, of special interest to readers of Looking for Alaska: 'John Green's fifth book', It Just Isn't Fair. (00:00:51)
2007-11-15 · Nov 15: Jay-Z, the Inkys, Nerdfighteria, and Venn Diagrams! — John won the first International Inky Award, the Silver Inky, an Australian young adult literature award, and thanks his Australian readers and the nerdfighters who voted for Looking for Alaska. (00:00:39)
…and 4 more statements in 2007 (most important shown)

2008

2008-01-09 · The Return of Question Tuesdays — Asked whether his two narrators combined would make his adolescent self, John says 'kinda', but notes differences: for one, he wasn't a good student in high school. (00:02:04)
2008-01-09 · The Return of Question Tuesdays — Asked when the Looking for Alaska movie will come out, John says he doesn't know; it's not in his hands. (00:03:02)
2008-01-30 · I Am Not A Pornographer — John declares he is not a pornographer. (00:00:11)
2008-01-30 · I Am Not A Pornographer — John reports that a few people without 11th-grade children call the book pornographic, say it will cause immoral thoughts and actions in children, and want no one to read it. (00:01:00)
2008-01-30 · I Am Not A Pornographer — John defines pornography as designed to titillate and doubts any halfway normal person would find anything in his book arousing. (00:01:48)
2008-01-30 · I Am Not A Pornographer — John says the book's one frank sex scene is deliberately awkward and unerotic, written to contrast empty physical intimacy with the next scene's emotional connection. (00:01:56)
2008-01-30 · I Am Not A Pornographer — John says the novel argues physical intimacy can never stand in for emotional closeness, so it argues against vapid physical interactions, not for them. (00:02:20)
2008-02-08 · QUESTION TUESDAYS (On Friday) — John reports many people attended Tuesday's Depew school board meeting on his book, which he appreciates, but procedure let none of them speak. (00:00:00)
2008-02-08 · QUESTION TUESDAYS (On Friday) — John quotes one objector's claim that he needn't read the book to judge it, and says the analogy shows why good English literature education is needed. (00:00:36)
2008-02-26 · Best Wishes! — John asks Nerdfighters in or near Depew, New York to attend the Tuesday, March 4th meeting on whether to keep Looking for Alaska in the Depew High School curriculum. (00:01:43)
2008-04-21 · Belated Book-tacular Questions — On the effort to ban Looking for Alaska: the school board of Depew, New York, which John calls made of awesome, voted unanimously to keep it in the curriculum. (00:01:52)
2008-09-04 · Paper Towns Tour Dates! — John announces an October 16 New York launch party for Paper Towns' release with Hank, their parents, the Yeti, Maureen Johnson and other authors; Julia Nunes is floated as a 'rumor'. (00:01:12)
…and 13 more statements in 2008 (most important shown)

2009

2009-02-11 · Paper Towns Tastic Question Tuesday — Q's misimagining of Margo resembles Pudge's of Alaska; John argues that imagining someone as more than a person does them and ourselves a profound disservice. (00:01:22)
2009-04-28 · 10 Book Reviews in 4 Minutes — Hank says John, bestselling author of Paper Towns, Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines, is writing another book, This Is Not Tom, released through weekly riddles. (00:02:38)
2009-05-20 · Question Tuesday! — John explains the blank pages at the back of the Looking for Alaska hardcover: a printed book's page count must be a multiple of eight, so extra pages are added. (00:00:50)
2009-08-19 · So Jokes: Video EP — Lianne Graham's song 'Looking for Alaska' addresses Alaska: the singer hopes she has escaped 'this labyrinth of suffering', recalls Thomas Edison's last words, and is still looking for her. (00:09:08)
2009-08-31 · 100 QUESTIONS ANSWERED!!!!!!! — Asked whether he will write a sequel to Looking for Alaska, John answers probably not. (00:01:15)
2009-11-02 · NaNoWriMo!!! — John's examples from revision: Miles' obsession with famous last words in Looking for Alaska, the feral-hog hunt in An Abundance of Katherines, and the cartography in Paper Towns. (00:01:29)
2009-12-28 · How To Be a Nerdfighter: A Vlogbrothers FAQ — Hank says John is an award-winning author of Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines and Paper Towns who has won awards including the Edgar and the Printz. (00:00:49)

2010

2010-03-20 · Foreign John Green Books and the Ultimate Concern — The Looking for Alaska line on the Italian edition's back, 'imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia', was said to John by Sarah on their first date. (00:02:04)
2010-04-03 · Will Grayson, Will Grayson — John wrote the odd-numbered chapters and David the even ones; they have worked on the book for more than five years, since before Looking for Alaska was published. (00:00:44)
2010-04-27 · Nerdfighters, They Named a PLANE After Us — The description asks readers to email cover designs for Het Grote Misschien ('The Great Perhaps' in Dutch) to John, who says he will forward them to Lemniscaat. (00:00:00)
2010-04-27 · Nerdfighters, They Named a PLANE After Us — John's Dutch publisher Lemniscaat is re-releasing Looking for Alaska ('Het Grote Misschien') and wants readers to design cover ideas; a liked idea could become the cover in the Netherlands. (00:00:39)
2010-08-06 · Looking for Alaska at My High School — John says Looking for Alaska is about a Florida boy obsessed with famous last words who leaves for an Alabama boarding school, and that he himself was once that boy. (00:00:20)
2010-08-06 · Looking for Alaska at My High School — John says the novel is fiction but its setting is not: Culver Creek is almost inch for inch Indian Springs School as it was in 1995. (00:00:39)
2010-08-06 · Looking for Alaska at My High School — John visits the concrete outcropping under the bridge over Bishop's Creek, known as the Smoking Hole both in Looking for Alaska and in real life. (00:01:35)
2010-08-20 · The Fox Hat IS REAL, but Are Zombies People? — John wears a fox hat, funny to readers of Looking for Alaska: he put something in a book and someone made it real. (00:00:00)
2010-08-20 · The Fox Hat IS REAL, but Are Zombies People? — Downstairs shelves include author copies of his own books, desert island books, lexicography, child prodigies, Mark Twain, books about death, poetry, religion and conjoined twins. (00:01:56)
2010-09-16 · Positive Pranking: The TP Edition — John says that in a Hollywood pitch meeting an executive described his first novel, Looking for Alaska, as 'Prank Academy with some sad bits'. (00:00:00)
2010-10-08 · GEEKING OUT Over Dying Declarations — John says the narrator of his first book, Looking for Alaska, is obsessed with famous people's last words, an obsession John shares. (00:00:26)
2010-10-08 · GEEKING OUT Over Dying Declarations — John reads the book's Rabelais entry, which says Rabelais' last words became more widely discussed after their use in his Printz Award-winning Looking for Alaska. (00:00:26)
…and 1 more statements in 2010 (most important shown)

2011

2011-01-17 · Cheating Cheaters of Cheatery: The Amazing Story of Brazil's Cotton War with the U.S. — John says Brazilian Nerdfighters petitioned Brazilian publishers to publish Looking for Alaska in Portuguese, and it worked. (00:00:00)
2011-01-21 · Looking for Alaska Five Years After the Printz Award — The most important moment of John's professional life came five years ago, almost to the day: the call saying Looking for Alaska, his first novel, had won the Printz Award. (00:00:16)
2011-01-21 · Looking for Alaska Five Years After the Printz Award — John wrote the book at night and on weekends for three years with constant help from his friend Ilene Cooper, one of his bosses at Booklist and an author, who read about a dozen drafts. (00:01:07)
2011-01-21 · Looking for Alaska Five Years After the Printz Award — The book wasn't called Looking for Alaska until John's friend Keir Graff came up with the title, for which John says he paid him two dollars. (00:01:14)
2011-01-21 · Looking for Alaska Five Years After the Printz Award — When Penguin bought it, the book wasn't about a boy who memorizes famous last words; much of what readers like, from the Great Perhaps to the labyrinth, came out of the revisions. (00:01:34)
2011-01-21 · Looking for Alaska Five Years After the Printz Award — About four years in, John had a finished manuscript, but it would be wrong to say he wrote the book: Ilene, his editor Julie Strauss-Gabel, his wife and others all wrote parts of it. (00:01:52)
2011-01-21 · Looking for Alaska Five Years After the Printz Award — The Looking for Alaska each reader reads is not quite like the one anyone else reads. (00:02:41)
2011-08-26 · Will He Kiss You? Am I a Muggle? It's Question Friday. — John says Sarah has contributed tons to his writing: the line 'imagining the future is a kind of nostalgia' in Looking for Alaska, the pranks in Paper Towns, and hugely to The Fault in Our Stars. (00:03:05)
2011-08-31 · How to Become An Adult — In early 2002 John brought Ilene 40 single-spaced pages; over the next two years she worked with him to turn them into the novel that became Looking for Alaska. (00:02:32)
2011-08-31 · How to Become An Adult — John says Ilene is the only reason Looking for Alaska exists, he has a job writing books, and there is Brotherhood 2.0 or Nerdfighteria. (00:02:46)
2011-11-22 · Old Man Narrates Young Girl — In 2004 Penguin's lawyers decided the character Alaska quoted too much of an Edna St. Vincent Millay poem; fair use allowed only two lines and John couldn't afford to pay the estate. (00:02:06)
2011-12-23 · There Will Be NO SPOILERS!!! — John does not want the book spoiled for anyone; even Looking for Alaska, almost seven years old, should not be spoiled, since thousands bought it this week without knowing what it is about. (00:00:53)
…and 11 more statements in 2011 (most important shown)

2012

2012-01-10 · The Fault in Our Stars — John says readers won't feel out of the loop without Looking for Alaska: unlike Harry Potter, his books have nothing to do with each other. (00:01:30)
2012-06-06 · The Dangling Rope of Terror: It's Question Tuesday — Asked about Looking for Alaska being banned from several Tennessee high schools, John calls it bad: such bans used to make him really angry, now they just make him sad. (00:00:40)
2012-07-20 · The Universe is Weird: A Song — Hank tells John that, after 385 weeks on bookstore shelves, Looking for Alaska was on the New York Times bestseller list for the first time last week. (00:02:52)
2012-08-28 · In Which the Candle Dies — John says Looking for Alaska's original cover had only smoke; bookstore chains objected to cigarette smoke, Penguin confirmed it was, and so a candle was added. (00:00:00)
2012-08-28 · In Which the Candle Dies — John shows the new box set, designed by Karen Kavett, with hardcovers of Looking for Alaska without the candle, the new Paper Towns design and Nerdfighter a private person's Katherines design. (00:00:29)
2012-08-28 · In Which the Candle Dies — John says he always sort of hated the candle and has spent seven and a half years proud of the book but hating it, so its removal is great news for him. (00:00:29)
2012-10-16 · Burning Peeps, My OTP, and Velociraptors: It's Question Tuesday — John says the box set comes out on October 25th, with a limited edition in which both The Fault in Our Stars and Looking for Alaska are signed; link in the description. (00:01:43)
2012-11-06 · Terrible at Frenching: My Spicy Summer Camp Story — John jokes the school board election is the most important because it decides whether Looking for Alaska is banned from classrooms; there he is a one-issue voter. (00:00:55)
2012-11-27 · Nerdfighter Book Recommendations: A Gift Giving Guide for Nerdfightastic Readers — For Looking for Alaska fans, John recommends E. Lockhart's The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks for the boarding-school parts, and A.S. King's Everybody Sees the Ants and Gayle Forman's If I Stay for the other parts. (00:02:26)

2013

2013-01-16 · An Evening of Awesome at Carnegie Hall — John says after years of bad stories about a chaplain like himself, he wrote Looking for Alaska, about grief, and An Abundance of Katherines, about not being special. (00:51:58)
2013-10-29 · Perspective — Two weeks later John went back to Booklist, and within six months handed his mentor Ilene Cooper 40 single-spaced pages of what became Looking for Alaska. (00:02:38)