slade house

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Slade HouseSlade House by David Mitchell
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Slade House is fantastic. it is my first scary ‘horror’ book and i am just glad it didnt give me nightmares.

i appreciate how the stories were different from one nine years to the other but somehow the relation was seamless. and the mindboggling concept of soul, science and spiritual feeds my imagination that even then, i thought i would do some research about them.

i read without expectations, except for ghosts, but really, there are none so to speak, (glad about that) and with a lot of questions and wondering how and why people disappear that i made me kept on reading. by the third ‘nine year’ i pretty much understood and was so grateful that the 4th revealed so much more about the twins and how they get to be who they are. i am so grateful because i found answers to the many questions reeling in my brain. and i am mesmerized. i actually grow to love the twins, when earlier on, i just thought there were just horrible.

the third David Mitchell’s book i bought and the first to be read. i am ready to move on to his bigger stories.

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return to the pen

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i am now your ‘certified’ journal writer. not one not two but three journals. or rather planners and journals.

i have started writing since the start of december and i realised i couldnt stop writing. and it surprises me how much i have to tell from just one day.

why so many? i guess i want to separate my worklife from my personal life. i used to dumpl everything into one planner and then as the months go by, i saw that work took up more and more space for it and leaving little for my personal life. so now i have two planners. one purely for work and its like everyday there seems to be a new list of things to get done. covered the whole weekly page!

i have a little black book dedicated to my personal life, my habits, my list of things to do for home and family. i have to do this and make it a commitment to love my self more. and i pretty much love it.

i also have a daily journal that i have been writing nonstop. its a one page a day journal and hey, sometimes i have so many things to write within a day, i kind a have to stop and make it to another day.

i am also currently trying to write a journal which is more like a biography of sorts. who knows, it could be the start of something. may not be my story, but still a story to tell.

i am not abandoning my space, my virtual space as yet. i still love blogging. its just that there is more to write than just blog. perhaps this space could evolve.

reading slump

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i have just gone through a reading slump. i just found out about this term from bookstagrammer this morning. it’s interesting. i have always had a book hangover but i have never given a name to the periods when i found myself uninterested to read any book or it seems like no book seems to attract me enough to continue reading it.

and yes i had this reading slump. and usually after a book hangover.so few days ago, i keep on returning to my bookshelf, pick one book up, read the first page or a few, and put it back not interested.

until last sunday, i decided  should just give away these books away since i am never going to read them. somewhere else, just not on my shelf. i picked up Still Alice and surprisingly i thought to myself that perhaps i could give it a second chance. i did watch the movie but i simply hated it. but the book…everyone should just read the book and forget about the movie. i finished the book in two days! shows how much i pretty liked the book, and it is like a most satisfying drink of a reading thirst.

and now i am ready to move on to the next book!

still alice

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Still AliceStill Alice by Lisa Genova
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

i am glad i gave this book a second chance. i unfortunately watched the movie first few months back and decided then that since i didnt enjoy the movie, i wouldnt enjoy the book. true they say, don’t judge a book by its movie.

reading Still Alice actually gives me a genuine curiousity to understand what a person with Alzheimer’s disease is going through. unlike the movie, i could finally understand better what is going on in Alice’s mind and feel her emotions, her frustration, her anxiety of having to face this illness alone, after all, she is an intelligent professor!

i appreciated that Still Alice go through the stages or phases of memory lapse and gradually succumbing to the wills of the disease. it did make me feel this disease is more scary than cancer, because it is true, losing your memory, not recognising the people around you, losing language, it is as good as a blank walking person, seeing hearing speaking but not truly comprehending

perhaps i could now have an interest to read other Lisa Genova’s novels.

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the world according to anna

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The World According to AnnaThe World According to Anna by Jostein Gaarder
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It is sad to think that I could not enjoy this book as much as i loved Sophie’s World. and believe me, I had truly love Sophie’s World. The World According to Anna feels like as though I am reading General Paper essay on geography and carbon dioxide and of animal extinction. Something perhaps I would read and appreciated the knowledge some 20 years ago when I would be sitting for some major exams, preparing to write a fantastic argumentative essay of sorts.

It was a mismatch of themes to me. An attempt of trying to relate to One Thousand and One Night, which I could not see how it relates to everything geographical and pollution, It tries to be magical with the red ruby ring and I honestly do not buy the idea that it belonged to Aladdin. It tries to be futuristic with ‘time travel’ but I could not be enthusiastic and awed about it. It tries to be a young love story between Anna and Jonas and I ended up feeling…well, where’s the emotion? And sometimes it took awhile for me to differentiate ‘she’ of Anna and ‘she’ of Nova. The chapters felt like it came out of nowhere, the frog? the umbrella? the balloons? I fail to see the significance of each chapter. and ‘game-ification’ has to be one of the lamest idea I have heard in trying to save the world. Suddenly, somehow the story ends with a conversation with Ester. Why should that be an ending?

I have nothing to say anymore about this book. I would read back Sophie’s World many times over and still be awed or find some new information I did not notice before. Anna’s World.. it is just a drag. 😦

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i am sad to say that the past few books i read were such a disappointment. i yearn to read a good engaging and intriguing book!!

or perhaps, tis not the season for good books. perhaps i was just too caught up with work that i was not able to enjoy the reading process and bring myself into the story at hand.

perhaps i may finally indulge in purification of the heart.

 

 

authors to read

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you know in all of my reading years, i have not read books by some of the wellknown fantasy authors. i have always loved David Eddings’ and Mercedes Lackeys’ fantasy series and i have been lucky enough to grab hold of them in chronology. although, i admit, i pretty much stopped reading fantasy after knowing Tolkien. i felt like no other fantasy books/ novels could match up or sustain my fantasy thirst such as Tolkien. Maybe because i tend to love elves, fairies, and beautiful castles more than just war and magic.

i really have to expand my reading, the authors, at least.

some authors i hope to read some day:

1. Terry Brooks (i know, i know, how can i (self proclaimed fanatasy reader) have never read the Shannara series, right? it’s just that i like to read series in chronology and i can never get the Shannara series, from the library, from the first to the next series)

2. Stephen King
don’t scream at me yet. i just thought i am not ready to read any of king’s horror. that’s all. nothing personal.

3. Robin Hobb
I see his books a lot out there but the urge was never to pick his book. maybe the titles with assassin just doest give me that pull. im not a violent person.

4. Nora Roberts
Oh i have read hers before but i simply lost interest. Maybe i could give her another chance.

5. Enid Blyton
I miss Enid. i really do. i grew up reading her magic trees and my imagination soars and livened up by the illustrations that we usually see in her books. i love Enid. and you know what. i really don’t mind going to the children’s book section of the library and hog all Enid’s books one day.

6. JK Rowling
hmmm yup. don’t scream please. i know the hype. i know the love people have towards the harry potters series. i think its been a decade already. but honestly i have never touched any of harry potter in book form. never. just because those times, you have to queue and rush with the crowd just to get one copy of her book. so i wanted out of mainstream. but i did, watch the movies. i can very well say i am quite the harry potter fan, when it comes to the movies.
but now that the series …books and movies form…have so called ended (for the time being i guess, coz im hearing of more harry potters coming up?), i have the sudden recall of hei, i would love the own the series and read it to my child some time in the future. no child should be deprived from reading harry potter just because i’m not into them. but i am clever now. i will only buy the series when i like a particular edition.

so there you go, some project there. that can probably last me the whole next decade of reading!

the giving pouch

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i have this sudden idea and urge to materialise and work on something. i got this sudden idea when i was trying to donate to a mosque donation tin, and i was scrambling and searching for some coins in my bag. at that moment i thought why dont i have a coinbag or pouch for these loose changes so it will be easy for me the next time i want to donate something.

i know it can be any other bag or pouch or purse right? but its the concept of always having a pouch with you, separate from your everyday cash that you bring to work or for your groceries, a special bag to remind yourself to always fill it up and always have spare change to be able to donate to the next person who is selling tissues or the next blind uncle singing a great song. i personally have always liked having that chance to donate to whoever i see, but sometimes i dont always have enough cash. and i believe we should always be prepared because there is someone out there who probably need that dollar more. i always put aside some coins (i have a separate piggy bank that i put in any coins leftover for the purpose of one day, i could give it away)

this could also promote charity, i hope, probably a good way to teach children the value of money. or even for us adults to be reminded the significance of donating or the word we always love to use nowadays, infaq or simply ‘derma’ in the malay.

oh gosh, in my mind, i could see those pouches and coin bags, with nice designs such as Charity, sharing is caring, or simply giving and then a nice tag to it to reiterate the concept and purpose of the pouch or bag. i could sew it first maybe? get some nice fabrics and patterns, sew it and sell it? it.could grow into a social enterprise? i could probably commit a portion of the sales for a charity project.

ooh im beginning to love the idea. now. how to materialise it? how do i go about it?

everything i never told you

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Everything I Never Told YouEverything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I seen this book around in bookstores and many times i contemplated to buy it. I was lucky enough to stumble upon it on my recent visit to the library and borrowed it. i am glad i just borrow it instead of buying! i did not fully enjoy it. it felt like i have read the storyline before, nothing fantastic about it. i read through it with such dread partly because it is, quite a depressing story, perhaps as intended by the author.

it’s about a family of mixed marriage, about death of a daughter and how its loss affected the family. ultimately about a family so engrossed with personal expectations they fail to see the signs of a troubled teenage girl. in the end, i only have a soft spot for Hannah, the youngest sister and how the family – father, mother and an elder brother, completely dismiss this little girl’s need and emotion upon her sister’s death, each family still engrossed and selfish with their own feelings.

the book goes back and forth from the present and the past, or days leading to the death of the girl, Lydia. the characters are all abit cliched. a mother who actually ran away, to continue her studies, which i find preposterous because why can’t she just talk about it with her husband, who is a professor, someone who would appreciate learning and education. how stupid the idea is, and eventually, the mother running away for weeks would be the cause of Lydia’s distorted understanding of the need to please her mother and lead the child to grow up trying to be what her mother couldn’t be, completely losing her sense of self. a father who does not know anything about parenting and losing out to temptation to a teaching assistant, on the night of her daughter’s funeral nevertheless, who also, despite being asian, lost all sense of asian values.

i understood the pain Lydia went through. but towards the end, i was just thinking, why the heck did i even pick it up and read it. maybe because the story started with the knowledge that Lydia died so that is pretty much the ending we are moving to, so there is no mystery to it. i probably would appreciate it more, perhaps even be surprised by the ending if the story started with what it intended to have, a ‘simple’ picket fence family who just wants to live an honest life, but ended up with a tragedy.

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the jungle book

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The Jungle BookThe Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

i took up the book because i was reminded of my childhood where i remembered enjoyed reading the children’s version of The Jungle Book which mostly tell the tale of Mowgli and Bagheera, Baloo and Shere Khan. Just that i realised i never read the original story by Rudyard Kipling. but reading this original took quite a toll on my imagination because i am not a fan of animalistic stories. i only stayed on through Mowgli because there is human element in the story.

in any case, this is considered a classic and if i were to read it for some literary review, i am sure there are many layers of issues and meanings behind characters and events.

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