Looking For Alaska: Before: 136-87 Days

by John Green
Tired of his life at home, Miles Halter leaves for boarding school where he meets (and falls in love with) the impulsive and unpredictable Alaska Young. But when tragedy strikes, Miles begins to question his relationship with Alaska.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Before: 136-87 Days, Before: 84-0 Days, After

Here are links to our lists for other books by John Green: An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, Will Grayson, Will Grayson, The Fault in Our Stars, Turtles All the Way Down
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. ragtag
    disparaging terms for the common people
    Although I was more or less forced to invite all my “school friends,” i.e., the ragtag bunch of drama people and English geeks I sat with by social necessity in the cavernous cafeteria of my public school, I knew they wouldn’t come.
  2. persevere
    be persistent, refuse to stop
    Still, my mother persevered, awash in the delusion that I had kept my popularity secret from her all these years.
  3. incredulous
    not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving
    He got through the A’s before looking up and noticing my incredulous stare.
  4. indulgence
    the act of gratifying a desire
    It was an indulgence, learning last words.
  5. predispose
    make susceptible
    She had the kind of eyes that predisposed you to supporting her every endeavor.
  6. modesty
    formality and propriety of manner
    But Takumi felt no such modesty—he could, and did, eat and chew and swallow while talking.
  7. inimitable
    matchless
    And the way her mouth curled up on the right side all the time, like she was preparing to smirk, like she’d mastered the right half of the Mona Lisa’s inimitable smile.
  8. vestige
    an indication that something has been present
    A vestige from when Culver Creek was a Christian boys’ school, I figured the World Religions class, required of every junior and senior, might be an easy A.
  9. diminutive
    very small
    After my last class of my first week at Culver Creek, I entered Room 43 to an unlikely sight: the diminutive and shirtless Colonel, hunched over an ironing board, attacking a pink button-down shirt.
  10. abide
    put up with something or somebody unpleasant
    For fifty minutes a day, five days a week, you abide by my rules.
  11. unimpeachable
    beyond doubt or reproach
    She looked at me and smiled widely, and such a wide smile on her narrow face might have looked goofy were it not for the unimpeachably elegant green in her eyes.
  12. dissension
    disagreement among those expected to cooperate
    Like any good teacher, she tolerated little dissension.
  13. profess
    state freely
    As she talked, she bobbed her head back and forth to the MTV music, even though the song was the kind of manufactured pop ballad she professed to hate.
  14. aloof
    distant, cold, or detached in manner
    If I were you, I’d sit down, look cute, and be your pleasantly aloof self.
  15. ambiguity
    an expression whose meaning cannot be determined
    And I vaguely remember Lara smiling at me from the doorway, the glittering ambiguity of a girl’s smile, which seems to promise an answer to the question but never gives it.
Created on Thu Oct 17 17:04:54 EDT 2013 (updated Thu Aug 07 16:19:46 EDT 2025)

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