my take on the books i've read lately

It's been quite a hectic month. It seemed like the whole November has only been one veeery long workweek. There are a number of times when I felt like my body would just collapse from exhaustion or that my brain is too saturated already that it can't absorb/process any new information. Hence, I haven't had time to read books, much less blog about it. But when I do find time to escape with a book, it's like a haven.

This long weekend though is such a welcome respite. And hence, hmm..let's see how's it goes for the books I've read lately.

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book

This book must have garnered the most number of awards this year, with the distinguised Hugo Award, Newbery, Locus and Booktrust Awards to name a few. Released in September 2008, I've been wanting to get a copy of it for the most part of this year. Jonathan was thoughtful enough to buy me a copy when he bought a copy himself last October. And I loved the Graveyard Book as I knew I would. Albeit tired from work, the child in me made me turn one page after another in that it certainly took a huge amount of self-discipline to put the book down for the night so as I could go to sleep to prepare for tomorrow's work. The story was told from the vantage point of a child. And it did feel like it was being told by a kid. I had the same feeling when I was reading Lee Harper's "To Kill A Mockingbird". An attempt (storytelling from a kid's vantage point, written by a full-grown adult) where John Grisham failed in his "A Painted House". Although i'm such a yellowbelly when it comes to ghost stories, I had a great time following Bod in his adventures and misadventures. Contrary to what others said that it somehow didn't end quite right, I think the ending was just perfect; with just enough room for a hint of the book having a sequel, with more adventures for Bod. I so dearly wish there will really be more Bod adventures! And I certainly would want to hear more about Silas!!

Sidney Sheldon's Morning, Noon and Night
I loved Sheldon's books back when I was in High School and College, with "Windmills of the Gods" topping the list. Back then, I just can't get enough of the suspense and tension and that I always get the high when I guessed right who might just be the mastermind behind all the evil in the story. It was interesting to read as well how the characters are built, how nature and nurture made them the kind of persons they are. So basically, this novel was my first Sheldon read in about 8 years at least. However, I'm not really sure if this is among Sheldon's not-so-good books or that it was just me growing up and changing preferences but I found this book as shallow and predictable, with a lot of loopholes in between. Still though, I read it up to the last page and didn't think that it was a such a waste of my precious time - unlike what I felt when I was reading Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons" and "Da Vinci Code".


Neil Gaiman's MirrorMask
I'm a slow reader. It's cause I would rather take my time in savoring each scene, creating a mental picture of it, rather than devouring the book and reading it in haste. This graphic novel was really just very short and any fast reader could probably just read it in 30 minutes. I read it in almost two hours. But in those two hours, it seemed to me that I was like whisked off to dreamland, to a place where anything is possible, to a place where imagination is limitless and boundless. For me who's highly stressed, it afforded me a great escape.

I'm currently reading Ken Follet's Jackdaws, which is about some spy during world War II and a German Officer. Yes, I do read a wide variety of books. Let's see how this one goes...

The Time Traveller's Wife

I cried buckets on this book. I actually thought the book couldn't summon the emotional side of me since I read it in installment. Started reading it on my last month in Japan. However, what with the packing,I needed to put it aside. Then I resumed reading it when I got to my old apartment in Manila. However, what with the "robbery" excitement, my moving out and my getting sick, I have to set it aside again. Plus, I left it on my old apartment when I moved out hence I was forced to read other books (read "Eleven Minutes" which I've blogged earlier on and "A Hundred Year of Solitude" which I'm still deciphering why it was such a celebrated book).

Anyways, at first, the story-telling, the comings and goings of Henry were pretty ordinary and I found myself not involved with the book. Probably because I was preoccupied with other stuff as well. But as I read the other half, I couldn't help but be moved by their love story. And with how much Henry loved Clare. Leading you to think how many in this world and in this lifetime will you meet who loves the way Henry did Clare (and well, okay, vice versa).

Am looking forward to the movie which will premier come 3rd week of August - which means I may get to watch it in Davao since I will still be on my vacation then. I hope the movie won't be butchered like Harry Potter 6, though.

Thanks Zoey for giving me this book! =)
And such a good copy at that hehe.

Eleven Minutes

It's been raining since last night. Raining hard, without letdown. If not for the good book I was reading and for my usual comfort food (tuna fried rice hehe) at home, my mood would have been as depressed as the weather is.

But anyways, to Eleven Minutes. I've heard of this probably some 5 years ago already. Although I liked Paolo Coelho's books, I was't interested with this one since I was told that it was about a very sensitive topic - about a prostitute and about sex. I felt that I wasn't ready nor was in the mood for this. The other night, while i got started in organizing files in my laptop, I saw the book and decided to give it a try. Not that I feel i'm ready now but that I remembered how friends and favorite persons really recommended this book that I decided to take a look at it.

And I was hooked. Indeed it talked about a prostitute. But an intellectual prostitute at that with thoughts that provoked you to think and rationalize as well. And surprisingly, I found myself immensely liking this book that talked about loneliness and the search for love and finding it, all set in the plot of prostitution and sex trade. I liked it so much that I finished reading the book in 24 hours, when I should have been resting because of my colds. No discipline I know. hehe.

Disclaimer though: I think this book should be read by an adult that has an open mind. =D

Missed fun, bugs and success stories

I should have been out with friends and colleagues the whole day, scouring the greater Tokyo area buying anime figures and possibly shopping at Harajuku (H&M, yeah!). For me who'll possibly be going back to our Manila office at the end of the month, this might be my last weekend for frolicking around before I seriously get started with my packing.

But lo, I woke up at 9:30am to a doorbell. I looked at the little screen showing whoever is at my front door but as I was still groggy from sleep, I didn't recognize who was at the door and just ignored the call as I thought it was just the usual weekend Jehovah's Witnesses callers. Went back to bed. Then with a jolt I remembered I was supposed to wake up early today. Then I realized it was Dougie who rang my doorbell. I checked my screen but he was gone already. Checked my phone, no call from Kitty. Turned on my laptop, and sure enough there were offline Y!M messages and on Facebook as well from should-have-been-frolicking companions. How to catch up with them? Sigh...I just might as well try to make my day as productive as I can.

I planned to get started with my packing and do my laundry. But I read "The Time Traveller's Wife" instead and had a looong nap. So no packing there. Huff.

Still groggy from my nap (this at 5:30pm), I went to my bathroom to wash my face. When I went back my bedroom cum living room, I yelped and did a tiny shriek when I saw a tiny roach lying on its back on my wooden floor. Apparently very dead. How it came about though, I have no idea. ~Shiver~ There might be other roaches lurking in other corners of my room...~Shiver~

Anyways, watched this short video from TED. Need to remind myself time and again of the formula. ^^

Spring out, Time Travel in

Just finished reading Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow. And although it's time for bed already, i'm tempted to go start my next book in line - The Time Traveller's Wife (Zoey's "happy thing" for me on my 29th birthday) - for wanting to have some feel-good story erase the depressing mood that the Spring Snow impressed on me. The book had such a sad and very abrupt ending that I flipped the last pages again and again, which I very well know contained only Mishima's profile and ads about his other books, hoping each flip would give me the epilogue with a happier ending.

Hoh well. It was interesting, the ideas and rationalizations at least. And i'm glad this book is finally finished. Read this back to back with Eat Pray Love (Kitty's "happy thing" for me on my 29th birthday) just so there'll be some diversity (?). Took some 7 weeks for me to finish this, haha! Three weeks overdue on my deadline for returning to Noge Library. heh!

I'm looking forward to The Time Traveller's Wife now. =D

Mishima's Spring Snow

After yoga and shopping yesterday, I plan to stay in my hidey-hole for the remainder of the Golden Week and hibernate with (alternatively) Yukio Mishima's Spring Snow and Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love. My stomach muscles hurt a lot today, results from the strain they got from yesterday's yoga.

Anyways, to Spring Snow. I'm liking it actually. Though of course what i'm reading is the English translated version, it's so full of words; so heady with flowery words that I tend to read slowly so I can make a picture in my mind of what it was trying to portray. This book is so heavy, so welling of thoughts and ideas that I can't help but stop reading at one paragraph or another to mull about things, to reflect on what has been said in the book.

The book inspires in me a question though. This book is considered as one of the major novels of Japanese literature. And really, IF the author's characters in the book reflects the real thoughts of young men at that time, one would marvel at how deeply their 18 year olds think and philosophize at that time. Makes me think how mundane were my thoughts were at that age. haha.

Browsing about reviews of the Spring Snow in the internet led me to a site showing me that this book had a film adaptation last 2005 - and with Satoshi Tsumabuki on the lead role as Kiyoaki Matsugae! yay! haha. Gotta have a copy of that movie. =P

seize the day!

So happy that today, I somehow seized the day.

It was actually not all bed of roses. There were disappointments and a couple of stuff that broke my heart. But then I guess it just boils down into counting the happy things that came your way....

First off, I finally had a booking for two to Cirque du Soliel's Zed Show next saturday!! Thanks to Taisuke for taking the trouble of booking for me (took him one hour, yikes! plus the time it took him to accompany me to the konbini to pay for my tickets).

Had a very nice dinner with Kitty as well at Ottoya.

Last Tuesday, during our team's milestone party a.k.a drinking spree, I recommended O. Henry's The Last Leaf to Taisuke. And this evening, whilst walking home, I recounted to Kitty the story of the last leaf - one of my favorite short stories of all time.

Heard of it first from a song when I was in elementary and I cried at that time. Then when I read it again during high school, I cried buckets. And even earlier, when I was recounting it to Kitty, I couldn't stop the tears from pouring. And then just now, wanting to be certain I recounted the right story, I looked it up the internet. And sure enough, as I read the story, I was crying buckets again. bwahahaha.

Gotta sleep for now. For tomorrow, we'll be seizing all the chance we can get with the sakura season as well. =D

odd case

Another set of musings from Eat, Pray, Love has got me to thinking about stuff and how I so totally relate to it. That even now, though I have my hometown where my family lives, still, I couldn't point a place where I can say my "home". I kept a slot in our apartment back in Almanza for the past 3 and half years while I'm overseas. But it's not a home; it's my sleeping quarters.

To quote Gilbert, "I'm wary of the danger that if I drift about this world randomly for too long, I may someday become The Family Flake". An oddball.

I feel like my heart is bleeding with the thought of leaving Japan in a month. And even now, when there's still 26 days left, I am sad already. Chastised myself earlier though. As, by focusing on the sad part, you would get to miss the little happy moments in those precious 26 days.

So earlier this morning, I decided to seize the day and make the most of what I still have left.

But still, I know I wasn't able to.

wants and loves

First off, we had a lovely sunset today. That different kind of orange tint that's oh so delightful I can almost lick its deliciousness.

Second off, I need new pants. My size 0 GAP pants is loose already; suffice it to say that ALL of my office slacks needs to be overhauled. I've been having breathing problems, some shortness of breath, whenever I eat more than usual hence I've been cutting rice intake. The feeling's great (!!) albeit I didn't realize that I'd be needing to buy some new wardrobe.

Third off (this is what you get when you're a chickadora and you get to spend the whole afternoon, walking around town, ALONE), I think i'm fast becoming a semi-vegitarian. When I entered my suki meat shop (Kind's Meat) in Bando, my nose crinkled at the smell of raw meat; almost making me gag. I had to hurry buy my ration for the week and go out the door before i do gag. What I read in Eat, Pray, Love didn't help as well - "Eating meat is eating the fear of the animal on the moment of its death". So goodluck to me later on with my Adobo dinner.

So, to real business.

I never am one to plan ahead. I tried planning time and again and yet, almost always, something else happens to thwart me from my plans. And usually, that something is so much better than what I had anticipated. And so I choose to just be caught with the moment, and decide later on on my course of action when the moment forces me to decide. Well of course having this kind of attitude had put me in tight spots a number of times already. But once I get past the tight spots, the experience gets more exhilirating, more memorable. It's sort of like smelling the flowers while you walk about the garden. Enjoying the moment. Basking in in the present.

But don't get me wrong, time and again, I do feel the need and praticality of planning. With planning, you get to know where you're heading and what you need to do to get to where you want to go (not just in short trips but life in general). Hence, when the situation calls for it, I do plan.

My RFA will be up come end of April and every now and then, I thought of what I want to do should I get to be extended or if they decided to let me rest for a bit and have me packing my stuff for Manila.

Wants. On that field, I have a lot though. I have lots of it that I utter one of it almost every hour of my waking day (or even in my dreams haha). Some shallow, some so deep and so deeply ingrained that I can almost feel it oozing out of every pore of my body. For those wants (I'd call it heart's desires), I rarely share it for fear of spoiling it the moment I utter a word of it. There are times though when I wanted to shout these desires to the world; so then the world could conspire in making this desire come to fruition.

(whew, this blog's taking quite so long!) And here, i'm gonna share some of those shallow ones...

1. I want to learn a new language.

So then, what language?

French is the one language that I have often considered as like music to the ears. And I would love to learn it to feel its velvety texture on my lips, on my tongue, as I utter the musical notes, myself.

But France is not the one place that I'd like to go to. It's one of the places I want to go to but certainly not the first one.

I want to go to Italy. Really really really want to go to this place that I can almost feel the desire oozing out of me and smell it in my sweat. haha.

So I want to learn Italian. For starters, I just borrowed "Italian for Beginners" from the Noge Library this afternoon. Let's see how it develops...

2. I want to learn to cook gourmet food. But first, I have to have a big kitchen to work on. But then again, if you really want to learn, small kitchens wouldn't be a hindrance.

3. I want to learn how to bake. There's lots of stuff/gadgets available in 100yen...

4. I want to learn how to drive.

5. I want to go practice bikram yoga and go to the yoga center driving my own car. And then have some relaxing tea after, with a book at hand.

6. I want to take some time off from work and really work on doing something new; something pleasurable.

I want, I want, I want. This and more....

issues

A few pages into "Eat, Pray, Love" and i'm hooked. (thanks for this Kitty). It's so timely to be reading this. As I am on a search, myself.

As I walked my way home in the rain earlier, with a cup of Tully's Cafe Mocha (supposedly their couples special for Valentine's-White Day), I thought of things of old, things of new, things of yet to come. It was already 8:30pm but I still can't decide whether I'll eat, much less where to eat. I thought of not eating but my stomach seems to have a different opinion. Hence when the train got to Bandobashi, I just decided to buy Oden (quick bites dipped for some time already in some special steaming stew available in any konbini).

But I met some friends and colleagues on the station who was heading to the same apartment as I am and we chatted animatedly on our way home about the status of projects in our company that I totally forgot to drop by at the konbini. When we started to part ways, it was then that I remembered that i'm going home to my pad without food in tow. No dinner yet at 930pm. They were so gracious to invite me to join them though. And surprisingly, despite the current mood I was in, still, I had a great time. And had a (at least) brief respite from troubling thoughts that I've been having.

The whole day, despite the numbing pain in my abdomen, I have to have a clear mind to address issues at work. Half of me wants to complain about work but half of me chastices the other half for wanting to complain. Haha, a split personality indeed.

The Wedding

Haha, I now feel like my eyes' all puffy, with tears just on the brim...blame it on Nicholas Sparks' "The Wedding", haha.

It's the holidays, and what with all the parties being over and done with (there's only the big New Year party left), I've nothing to do but read, watch movies/dramas and sleep as late as I want as my friends whom I always hang around with are on homeleaves right now.

My day started at 2pm (the previous day ended at 5 am this morning though..haha), ate my sausage lunch whilst watching "Goong". I finally forced myself to take a bath so I could go out, catch the beautiful sunset (believe me, sunsets on a clear spring/autumn/winter here in Japan is truly breathtaking!), take my coats to the dry cleaners, take a stroll, look for sparklers/party poppers for our New Year party, and enjoy a cup of coffee after withdrawing some money from the ATM.

Wanting to have some privacy and to limit chancing upon somebody I know in Starbucks Kannai and to try out a new coffee flavor, I chose to stay at BadAss Coffee Shop. It turned out a good decision as the Hawaiian songs and later some Jack Johnson songs was relaxing and sooo sets the mood...to emote..hehe. The Kona cafe au lait laced with banana was somewhat weird; but it was sweet and it somehow fitted in with the mood.

Though I know, ideal guys could only be found on a Nicholas Sparks novel, still, I can't help but be melodramatic and be a hopeless romantic as I read the book. I started reading the book since the other night, but I just could not read it straight, as I find my eyes welling with tears every now and then. haha. There was this one part of the book where Wilson was recounting when he first realized he was falling in love with his girlfriend (who was to become his wife). Having read the last sentence of that chapter - "I knew what it meant to finally fall in love" - I have to stop reading and look up so as to keep the page from getting wet with a fallen tear. I had to look up to keep those darn tears at bay.

Having had finished my coffee (Can't afford to be sentimental in the coffee shop haha!), I left the coffee house and hopped my way home.

Maybe, my ideal man is still out there and that he just doesn't exist within the pages of a novel. Extra wait, Extraordinary, as a reading in Didache once said...

Fragile Things

As big a fan as I am of Neil Gaiman, i'm reading his "Fragile Things" now the way I'd eat my favorite dish, savor it to the last morsel and eat it at a slow, painstaking pace. I was having fun reading his introductions on each of the short stories included in the book when I came towards the end of his introductions.

Mr. Neil Gaiman, please allow me to quote your book as thus:

"As I write this now, it occurs to me that the peculiarity of most things we think of as fragile is how tough they truly are. There were tricks we did with eggs as children, to show how they were, in reality, tiny load-bearing marble halls; while the beat of the wings of a butterfly in the right place, we are told, can create a hurricane across the ocean. Hearts may break, but hearts are the toughest of muscles, able to pump for a lifetime, seventy times a minute, and scarcely falter along the way. Even dreams, the most delicate and intangible of things, can prove remarkably difficult to kill."

Yes, hearts may easily break but it's strength lies on how it can move on after having dealt with a smattering blow...

Stardust

Neil Gaiman has enchanted me again.

I was sooo caught up with his book I was able to finish it in less than a week's time.
Hehe, quite slower than the average reader but if you'd seen me with a book, you would agree with me that this time, im fast.

It was like i myself am under a spell, with the way he wrought his fairy tale. Just a warning though. Albeit the book wasn't graphic, I was near belching my stomach out on some scenes,hehe

But it-is-a-good-book. =)

"It will happen; if you just believe. You might just be the first star who have fallen who made it back to the sky".

Assumptions

The Wheel of Time was no match with the songs played in Coffee Bean.

From reading Perrin's first Trolloc "battle" as Two River's leader, the romantic songs enticed and made me introspective yet again. Sipping on my Tea Latte and staring at a distance, thoughts in turmoil, I saw past a guy standing another girl idling with a magazine as she sipped on her own mug. The sight brought a small smile on my face as I thought, "there, there is an ally"...alone and emoting with a little help of the coffee shop's ambiance.

The small smile I had was still on when the guy blocking the view moved away, revealing a guy sitting beside the girl I was looking at earlier.

A guy happily taking pictures of the girl even though the girl wasn't paying him any attention. A guy so taken with his girl that he was staring at her lovingly when he's not taking her snapshots.

Head shaking and with a bigger smile on my face, I got back to reading how Faile got the better of Perrin.

No ally, after all.

Alone again, naturally.

Getting On...

Still groping for my long-lost appetite, I forced myself to eat lunch. Ordered chef's tuna at Coffee Bean, which was malansa by the way, and enjoyed a white-chocolate latte (which made me felt like gagging) for almost two hours while reading my latest craze - A Wheel of Time book.

Thinking that I may be a bit overstaying already, I headed out to the mall's library and started going about with my mission. I planned to go library hopping and search for WoT's Book 3 as im halfway finished with Book 2 already. While riding to and fro in the train, I was so glued to the book that more than once, I found myself gasping when I realize i've already arrived on the station i've been meaning to go or when I realize, I was already two stations away from my intended stop. Haha, talk about presence of mind. ;)

And Oooohhhh, I just loooove the libraries here in Singapore. In almost every station here, a library can be easily seen; with community libraries situated right within malls or the regional libraries set apart in another building, often than not, several storeys high. Oh, think about the books those buildings hold...Looking at the collection, I always think of these libraries as a cornucopia. Some library buildings are so sossy, they have fountains inside, a Cafe (most often than not, Cafe Galilee) and a music lounge where you can get to privately enjoy a selection of music through a panel of buttons right beside your oh-so-comfy chair while enjoying a good book.

On my second library stop, which was a regional one, there was an exhibit on the ground floor. There, I oohhhed and ahhhed with the little kids guided by their parents; I care not if i'm a bit too old for the crowd..hehe.. There was this "Seeing Colors" panel where three discs were mounted on the wall. On the discs were just patterns of black and white but then when you get the discs to rotating by pushing the start button, you get see red, brown, green and blue on the discs. I giggled as I identified the colors on the discs...Hehe, yeah, so easy to please, am I? But then again, it's rare to have the Little Marj with me again.. My favorite though was the "Frozen shadow" exhibit wherein you put your hand on a phosphorescent surface inside a triangular niche. Facing you, is a digital counter and at the count of 5, a camera-like flash goes and lifting your hand, you can see an imprint of your hand on the phosphorescent surface that looks like your shadow. Weee!! I got so ecstatic with it, I tried it several times; never minding the little ones trying to peep around me and waiting for their turn..hehehe..

So, from one library to another I hopped on...but..sniff..I couldnt find my Book 3 as it was out...Well, I can actually see from the On-line catalogue if my book was out on loan , but I just kind of liked the idea of library-hopping.hehehe..

Not intending to go home empty-handed, I bought instead two of my favorite stuffs before I hopped myself back home...

Little Tidbits

Im now reading an epic novel and it seems quite interesting,
although there are still a lot of stuff i dont know
as it is a sequel im reading.

This isnt the magical fantasy book ive been reading earlier.
Ive ditched that one already as the heroine was infuriating.
(don't ask me about it).

Anyways, the epic novel im reading tells of beautiful, ageless-faced Aes Sedai.
And that to become a full pledged Aes Sedai,
they must be able to control their emotions and what they feel,
inward and outward. Through the training they have,
they can psyche themselves to not feel the wintry cold,
to show grace under pressure and to not fall in love...
Interesting ne?

I have also learned of the ko'di which one of the famous warriors have been using.
From what i gather, it's like super-advanced yoga (if there ever is one).
With ko'di, you can envelope yourself in its "force field"
and thereby cut yourself from extreme cold and from other prowerful feelings like
anger. As was said, going to battle when angry is ultimate foolishness
as it makes one go rash with decisions and thereby is tantamount to
digging your own grave.

I'm just on the 32nd page actually (hehe) but ive been learning a lot,
even chancing upon really meaningful food-for-thoughts
(im weird alright..finding lines to internalize when im just reading an epic..hehe)

Timeline

It has been a long time since i've read a book that so caught me up like the one i'm reading now. Haven't seen the movie of this book written by Michael Crichton but I have a feeling I'll like the book better than the movie.

I find it funny whenever there were scenes when the leads are running/fighting for their lives and I find myself short and out of breath...=)

The book is not really of the romantic sort but as tales of handsome knights were recounted, I just couldnt help but remember my elementary-school-girlish dreams of meeting my knight in shining armor, ready to sweep the damsel in distress off her feet...hah!! Now, i'm old enough to know the reality..=)
But then on the other hand, I think I grew up too late and my knight might have married already, who knows!

But then again, who knows, I might meet a chivalrous, handsome knight soon...=)
(yeah i know, i gotta wake up from this dream)