Life after Work

... after a few geek, 9-11 and heartsick posts, let's move on to a book/author-related post instead!

FREE LAUGHS!
Patrick Rothfuss (only one of the best new fantasy writers since forever!) was goofing around at the recent DragonCon with gear he'd actually bought for his g/f ... risqué pictures were taken ... and now there's a contest for best caption on Tobias Buckell's blog. Do check it out, I let loose a few LoLs myself!

FREE E-BOOK!
What's the catch? Well, it expires 30 days after you get it. And it's available for a limited time only. But hey, for those who have been meaning to read Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere", you might want to take this opportunity! Interested? Click here. And make sure you download before September 23rd! [otherwise... I *think* you can read the thing online without a time limit...]

NEIL GAIMAN LIVE!
But if you want the real thing, Mr G is doing a book tour for the soon-to-be-released The Graveyard Book, and will be in Chicagoland -- Downers Grove to be exact -- on October 2nd. Places are limited for this appearance, so you might want to find out more about how to ensure a spot if you're interested.

BOOKING THROUGH THURSDAY!
I stumbled across a weekly book-related meme that prompts a book-related post, thanks to Tina the Creative Nerd. Yay! I *was* going to participate this week, but the topic didn't spark anything too bright, so I'll hold off till next week.. stay tuned :)

WHAT I'M READING

Currently reading Lord of the Silent Kingdom (Glen Cook): It's book two of what I assume is a trilogy. It's also as slow a read as book one. Thankfully the short choppy sentences from the first book seem to have been reduced. I'm still not totally hooked, but I really like the whole concept of the Night, and that alone already has me plodding through...

Next on the list (i.e. checked out from the library already, as incentive for once I finish the above book): The first two are as a result of watching a documentary on the Tibetan Book of the Dead recently. The last one was featured in an email from Borders recently, sounded good, so I put in a request for it, not expecting it to be available so soon.

I'll be spewing out my opinion on these books at GoodReads once I'm done with them; if you share your reviews there too, give me a shout out! :)

back in February '06, I read a very interesting book: Old Souls: The Scientific Evidence For Past Lives, by Thomas Shroder, a journalist who shadows/accompanies American psychiatrist Ian Stevenson on his final two field trips to Lebanon and India. "Dr Stevenson has spent more than 30 years studying the cases of some 2000 children who spontaneously remember concrete details about dead strangers whose experiences can be documented."

Yes, I'm talking about reincarnation.

One thing that struck me about his research was, many reincarnees (?) would have some sort of birthmark that corresponded with fatal wounds that helped end their previous life. The new vessel of what had been a gunshot-through-the-heart victim, for example, might have a birthmark right over the heart, or even better, a mark on front and back of the chest for the through-and-through.

... where am I going with this? Well, for one reason or another, one of our recent Netflix rentals was The Tibetan Book of the Dead, a disc containing two 40-ish mins documentaries about this mindblowing document and how it is used/observed in the Himalayas.

I knew in general about Buddhism's frowning upon "attachments", but didn't realise just how far-reaching this mindset is, at least in the Tibetan branch. This book is read for 7x7days immediately after a person's death, to help the consciousness recognise itself and its situation, to help calm and guide it to a better incarnation, and a big part of this guidance is encouraging not just the deceased but also the mourners to let go of their attachments to each other, for these attachments will only make the journey through the death and incarnation "bardot" a lot more difficult.

The little that was quoted / narrated was quite the mind-blower - guess what's going onto my to-read queue?? :) [answer: The Tibetan Book of the Dead! and Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife]

... aaaanyways... so where was I? Ah yes, tying together the Old Souls book and the Book of the Dead documentary. One of the two documentaries mentioned briefly a monk who had been shot dead, I think it was during a demonstration? They found his reincarnation, and he had a large bruise that wouldn't go away for a very long time, that supposedly corresponded with the gunshot wound he previous self had suffered. That triggered memories of the Old Souls book from over two years ago :)

And makes me wonder...

... ... does this mean in my prior life I was shot in the butt???

p/s> while randomly Googling for this post, was reminded of this ridiculous edict: "China Bans Reincarnation Without Government Permission" ... heh, some things you *just* can't control, dudes! :)

If you've been reading me long enough, you know I consume loads of books. Sometimes I really really really get into a book or series, or author. Rarely does a book move me to tears, though. As much as I can get caught up in the tale, as much as I may occasionally relate all too well with one character or another, with the whole situation, all that jazz, I don't usually cry.

There are, of course, exceptions, that prove the rule:

I do remember blinking back tears reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I think it was stuff around the burial scene that did it). Okay so if I hadn't been in LAX - or was it on the plane somewhere between LAX and KUL? - I probably would have bawled my eyes out :p

And I quote myself from here when writing about the final (haha) book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series: "I actually stopped reading about halfway thru – FORCED myself to stop, in fact, ... because I was starting to cry my eyes out at what was happening to the characters."

Heck I'm pretty sure I cried at Black Beauty and The Outsiders too, now that I think about it :-)

There might be one or two more ... :)

... but a book that totally moved me, to the point that just thinking about the book tugs at my heart and chokes up my throat, is that of people of a land banished from existence, whose name had been deleted, no one outside the area even remembered that it once had a name, while those few remaining who were born/alive prior to the "deletion" were unable to utter its name... and how a small band of such folk strove to reverse the curse, so that TIGANA could once more be said, be remembered, be honored.

If you read only one Guy Gavriel Kay book in your life, please read this one.

You can come back and tell me if you liked it or not.
I have a feeling you'll be deeply affected by it.
As was I.

As I am being affected again, now, by Ysabel. I'm only halfway through it, although I only started reading it this evening, and I'll probably be done with it before sleeping tonight (read; I won't sleep till I'm done reading!). I'm not moved to tears, it's not that kind of tale, but I am totally hooked by all that I've read in the 230pgs I've consumed so far. A juxtaposition of our modern world with that of ancient Celts and Romans, and the playing out of 2500 year old love triangle of sorts. I'm rooting for a modern resolution to this recurring pattern. We'll see....

... so ... do *you* have any tear-worthy or otherwise extremely impactful tomes to recommend? I'd love to hear about 'em whether via comments or as a full post in yr own blog (with a comment here pointing me there lah, of course) :)

(p/s this is my first try at blogger's scheduled publishing thingamajig - writing this at 10:20pm but will set it to publish at 12:05mn)

First I becaome "friends" with Patrick Rothfuss, via Facebook.

Now, I'm "friends" with Neil Gaiman, via GoodReads.

Help me, I am *so* geeking out :)

... whaddaya expect, they are about vampires! :D

I've been on a vampire-related book-reading quest recently, partly procrastination partly research to see what's "out there", to see how much of my ideas are already taken, and whether others are using said ideas effectively.

Barb & J. C. Hendee 's Noble Dead series starts off with "Dhampir", the term for vampire hunter, or more exactly, the term for an offspring of a vampire who slays vampires. Of course, our heroine doesn't know her origins/heritage but coincidentally ends up "faking" vampire hunting within the villages, swindling poor villagers out of their money and valuables as a reward for slaying a vampire, who is actually her traveling companion, a half-elf Leesil and his mysterious supernatural dog. Heh. In a way, rather typical fare. Book 1 dealt with Magiere growing weary of life on the road, and chooses to settle down in the one place where coincidentally a nest of vampires is also residing. They meet, the antagonize each other, there's a showdown, lots, and I mean LOTS of fighting (yawwwn!), then all's well that ends well.

Except that it turns out the whole thing was orchestrated by a mysterious behind-the-scenes player...

I moved on to Book 2, where the orchestrator strikes again, causing Magiere's services to be required by the closest large town which seems to have a vampire infestation. More back story trickles out, Leesil's past seems to have caught up with him, and we find out more about the supernatural dog too. We are given hints as to the motivation of the mysterious Welstiel too, which relates to history of the barely-remembered past, something about a great war, etc etc...

I'm still not "hooked" per se, but will continue with Book 3 soon.

In the meantime, I picked up Vicki Pettersson's "Sign of the Zodiac" series, Book 1 being "The Scent of Shadows". It's not actually vampire-related but I'd thought so when I picked it up. Certainly dark urban fantasy, which would be where my ideas fit in anyway.

Another tale where the main character is female, and is oblivious as to her heritage, this time that of being part of the Zodiac. Oh, and of being a mix of the Light and Shadow parts. Oh, and there being a prophecy of the emergence of someone who would be a fulcrum upon which the world would be balanced. Yeaaaaahhhh. But hey, the whole Zodiac concept is rather neat.

So Book 1 deals with Joanna Archer's "coming of age" and coming into her powers, getting to know the Light side, and defending herself against the Shadow who want her dead. Or do they want her to cross over? Then of course she wants revenge for the death of her sister, killed by the slimy Mr Sands.

In Book 2, Joanna hunts down Joaquin, the Shadow agent who had raped and attacked her and left her for dead when she was sixteen. Of course, it's all a set-up for her to learn that the quest for vengeance shouldn't consume her such that she puts everyone and everything at risk. The tensions among the Light team who can't seem to accept her dark side gets irritating rather fast.

But again, the whole Zodiac concept is refreshing. And the fact that they exist / are fueled by comic books graphic novels - amusing, and again, different.

This read closely to what I think I'd produce. sans the romance streak, of course. ugh.

Then came this horror:

The premise is entertaining: vampires have been given rights just like humans, after all, they are just victims of a unique virus that renders victims allergic to silver, sunlight, garlic,, and require blood to survive. So you'll have the usual exploration of prejudice, of uneasy acceptance or tolerance for these newly out-of-the-coffin folk.

But premise doesn't cover for really lame characters, the main one being our heroine, a telepathic cocktail waitress who despite being able to read pretty much everyone's minds at will, is so naive - so much so that the author many times makes excuses for her (she's not educated, but wait, that doesn't mean she's stupid). And her name is Sookie Stackhouse. I'm sorry, but a name like that, you expect to be taken seriously?

Toss in a love interest in the form Bill, a vampire who was originally from Sookie's hometown, but 150 years earlier, and with whom Sookie can finally find peace of mind (or silence of mind). Turns out she can't "read" vampires, yay. The love scenes between them are just awful. I deem such passages unnecessary anyway, but these were ugh. Moving on: murders rock the community, and Bill is suspected, oh no! In an effort to investigate, she ends up on the radar of a big vampire honcho and voila some complications. Then her brother seems to have been set-up, and is arrested. And all throughout this Sookie is being all naive and oblivious and ... sigh ... let's just say I'm so glad it's over, and I'm not going to pick up anymore books by Charlaine Harris, lemmie tell ya!

Any good reads *you*'ve had recently?

Question: what's the problem with being orally fixated and totally absorbed in a book?

Answer: biting my nails. seriously, they are painfully ragged right now. all because I've found a few good books recently and have therefore done nothing except curl up and read... but I still need to keep my hands/mouth busy, hence the nail biting.

ouch :-(

aaaaaaanyways.... onwards with another book-related post.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, Kim was wondering about those who display books like trophies. That totally resonated with me, and rather than hijack her comment section, I figured I'd ramble on about it here. Of course, that was many many many moons ago. But my rambling is as equally valid now, LoL :-)

Books have always been an important part of my life, and escape from the horrid reality of daily life, to worlds of dragons, of good versus evil, of independence, of discovering and nurturing a magical ability, etc etc etc.

Growing up, in Malaysia, the whole "borrowing from the library" was something we did very rarely, because getting to the library was a huge hassle! I remember doing that only a few times in my childhood, although we did patronise the British Council's library quite a bit for a while too... overall, though, we bought most of our books. As a result, we accumulated LOADS of books. We actually had a small room in our house designated as "the library", and I was the self-appointed librarian who arranged the books in categories like "parents (i.e. boring!)", "children's (which signified ownership by my brother and me, and not necessarily "young adult" or "childrens" books!), and I'd actually put a little label on each spine "F BLY" for an Enid Blyton book in the Fiction category. If we'd had computers then, I'd have made a spreadsheet to catalog the collection! (I only did that 2 years ago, LoL!)

Moving out the big ol' house into a dinky little apartment, all of us had had the threat of downsizing our book collections a bit, but one of the dinky rooms was quickly dubbed the library, and shelves were built-in as high as they could go to store all the books (and National Geographics, and gawd knows how many years' worth of Reader's Digests!), so we could comfortably fit our books *and* have room to spare for future purchases!

And now with my parents moving into the newer apartment, which really is way too large, but hey, with even *more* shelf space, the books collection seems to be really out of control.

Especially when you sit back and consider that *my* books are mostly packed away in a whole bunch of boxes... If I were to have them unpacked and displayed on shelves in Malaysia, well, let's just say the entire upstairs would be mine :-)

But I wouldn't do that, because if nothing else, those books are going to end up getting shipped here to the U.S., to become part of the collective Naranek household of books. Kosh too keeps tons of books, so whenever we do settle down semi-permanently into a house of sorts, one room will already have to be set aside just for books. And I'll have a field day categorizing them, and arranging them, and omg sometimes I can actually revel in tasks that others might find mindnumbingly boring and unnecessary, LoL :-)

But Why? you ask, Why bother keeping all these books? You've read them so give them away already! Noooooooooooo!! Because books are not just to be read once! And while I know of some people who think it's a great waste of time to reread books, I think it's a waste to NOT reread them! There are quite a few books that I have lovingly reread, over and over again (with a suitable gap between reading lah, of course)! Why? For the beauty of the story! For the emotions it whips up within me! For the inspiration, motivation,,, escape! My immediate example will always be The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I've read it at least 3 times, maybe 4, in the span of 15 years, and every time I'm enthralled all over again by the tale of "pagan" vs Christian Britain told through the voices of the females surrounding King Arthur. I'm planning on rereading Stephen King's Dark Tower series, and refreshing my memory of the Harry Dresden books I have. I've read Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum numerous times now, each time feelng slightly less stupid and getting a better grasp on the tale which includes the Knights Templar, Rosicrucians, and conspiracies so complex that The DaVinci Code reads like a children's primer.

Sure, I have others that perhaps were not as outstanding a read, but are still worthy of being kept, of being reread in the far future. After all, among the "boring" "adult" books available to me as I was growing up, there were some I enjoyed, and I'd like to think that my kids, if ever Kosh and I have any, might also get bit early by the reading bug, and get to escape into other worlds familiar to their parents :-)

So... why bother to display them like trophies? Well, I did notice that Kosh does do that - when I first moved in with him in Urbana, his books were stuffed in boxes of shelves in the bedroom but Frank Herbert's Dune series, and Stephen King's Dark Tower series were on display in the living room. He can correct me later, but I think they were there to subtly inform inform visitors where his interests lie, perhaps to spark conversation that might otherwise have gone unspoken?

For me, however, I don't tend to single out books/authors for display. I'd rather have them *all* on display, neatly, in a library of my own. I'm proud of them all :-)

At this point in my life, however, I really can't bring myself to buy (m)any more books. Hence the practical use of the library. It's fulfilled the reading need in me, and that's most important.

I'm sure I'll start accumulating more books soon enough!

I usually end up doing a pseudo all-nighter when Kosh is away on overnight call. I suppose today hasn't been much different. I did *nothing* today. Woke up achy and wasted, so all I did was snack (and snack, and snack...) and read. Finished that book I mentioned, and while it was a good read, I suspected it wasn't the book I thought it was, since it had nothing at all similar to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere - turns out I got the wrong book, LoL!

No biggie, it was still a great read and was such a funny yet sad and bittersweet account of life in Moscow behind the Iron Curtain.

I'll keep an eye out for the "correct" book at the library tomorrow - if I remember the correct title this time :-)

In the meantime - debating what book to read next. I have a "romantic fantasy" by Lois Macmaster Bujold ready to be picked up at the library, which I expect to consume over the weekend. Then what? I'm thinking of rereading Stephen King's Dark Tower series (last read in June 2005! see my post here) to refresh my memory, during which time, probably after Book 4, I'd pick up the comic book graphic novel I got for Kosh but have yet to read - I figured the tale was so rusty in my head, especially the "time zone" addressed, I'd be better off rereading first.

Of course, I was agonizing over the new Isobelle Carmody book too: the sooner I reread, the sooner I can/need to/have the excuse to get going on the ordering online vs waiting for it to hit the shores of the USA or even Malaysia!

And of course, I have like 60+ books on my very incomplete "to read" list over at GoodReads.com...

Decisions, decisions!

I really need to stop passing out after dinner.

I don't know if it's a food coma I'm experiencing, or habit/influence of Kosh, or tiredness stemming from the 4xweek evening exercise activities, but maaaan, the past few evenings have seen me out of commission for an hour or two immediately after dinner. Today was the best - woke up at 1145pm, wide awake after a really deep sound sleep. So I packed Kosh off to bed (he'd of course lain down beside me on the couch and passed out too), but was too awake to sleep.

Now it's 1.40am, and despite having scrambled my brains for over an hour, I'm not sure if I'll be able to sleep yet. But I'll try anyway. Tomorrow/today Kosh is on overnight call, so once he leave for work in the morning I won't see him till Saturday morning :-(

Maybe I'll be able to get further into my current read: " Metro: A novel of the Moscow Underground" by Alexander Kaletski. It's supposed to be something like Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere", but set in Moscow (i got the wrong book, LoL! still a good read tho!). The first two pages had me chuckling already, I hope it keeps up. By the way, this will be my 3rd translated-into-english book in a row. Coincidence?

geez... I've just realised I've only read TEN books so far this year. Weak.

Here they are:

January:


Click on the images to bring you to the relevant GoodReads.com page, where you can find my "complete" "review" plus more info on the book.

Of the ten above, I think I'd rate 3, maybe 4 of them as really worth reading. *sigh*

... what about y'all? Anything outstanding you've read this year?

For the handful of people aware of the existence of Isobelle Carmody: THE STONE KEY is *finally* out!! Whoohoooooo!!!

Of course, it's only available in Oz (and I assume NZ too) at the moment... so my first thought when I found out about this (via facebook - ah *what* would I do without you?) was to send an almost incoherent desperate message to Allie asking her if she'd pretty please be willing to buy & send the book over to me. After a price quote (thanks Allie!), with postage costing more than the book, and the book itself costing about $25 (it's a paperback!), and with Kosh acting as a sanity check, I decided to not pursue that course ... for a while, at least. Why?

Firstly because I found an Ozzie online bookstore that would ship the book for just slightly more than what Allie would be able to do, but at least then I wouldn't be imposing on her... secondly, I want to reread books 1-4 anyways, so I don't *have* to have it rightaway... and thirdly, by giving it a bit of time, it might become available by other as yet unidentified channels here in the U.S., or perhaps even on the shelves of Kinokuniya in KL by the time I head there in Oct-ish.

Hmmm... or Kosh'll go ahead and order it for me in August for my b/day, who knows :-)

besides... I'm struggling through my first "serious" book of the year, I'll just keep the anticip[say it!]pation stretched out even longer by not even starting Obernewtyn Book 1 until after I've tackled the three other books I already checked out and have yet to read... sometimes I really love to torture myself, don't I?

Warmth #1 : it looks like the Barisan Nasional has been denied a 2/3 majority in the newly elected Malaysian parliament. Votes are still being tallied, but it seems instead of just Kelantan (and Terengganu at one point, right?), Penang and Kedah are no longer in BN's hands. I am of course a bit concerned that it's PAS, the not-just-race-but-also-religion-based party, that's emerged victorious in Kedah... we'll see how things go over there...

Warmth #2: So over at Facebook I decided to look up some authors I like, and found that Patrick Rothfuss has a fan page and an actual group there. I fanned the former and joined the latter. And the next day, *gasp!*, I got a friend request from Mr Rothfuss! I was all geeked out that entire day :-) After all, it shows that he goes though his Facebook activity, and is acknowledging my fandom by "friend"-ing me. *grin* And just for that, I'll plug his work just a little bit more: if you haven't read The Name of the Wind yet, do pick it up, it really is a great book,,, I can't wait for Book 2 (and of course, after that, Book 3) to finally come out!!!

... another facebook- and author- related post next, stay tuned ...

1. ... about the "hot rod" photo
I suddenly remembered that joke about two dudes with tattooed dicks taking a piss next to each other, where one had his girlfriend's name tattooed on it, and asked whether the other person's "wendy" was *his* girlfriend, but no, it actually was all that showed in flaccid form of the greeting "welcome to jamaica have a nice day!" ... and so I got to wondering how "readable" "hot rod" actually was, and whether that doctor had, ummm, manhandled a sedated patient in order to get a good pic of the dick. Yikes!

2. ... about The Name of the Wind
I've been reading books with a more critical eye lately, probably the result of my intention of getting a novel out sometime in the next millennium :p I forgot to add in my gushing review of this book that I caught two errors that really shouldn't exist in a book that should have gone through numerous stages of editing. Can you believe the it's vs its mistake is in there??? Just once, but that's once to many!! And the other was something that sounds right in American, but is wrong if written, no matter what version of English you speak: there was one passage where the characters "made due with what they had" ... ummm, it's make DO, people!! gaarrrrhhhhh! Does finding errors like this annoy you?

... and on a totally different note - I am currently reading a book from Kosh's Asian Mythology class he'd taken way back when as an undergrad. So it's a "proper" book and all, published by a division of Simon&Schuster, but iccck, its quality is like that of a photo shop reproduction - only the cover gives it a published legitimacy. And I've discovered so many typos already, ugh! :p

But...

... trudging through the pages, I've had one eye-opening tidbit jump out at me: did you know that Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, was an incarnation/avatar of Vishnu (according to Hindu beliefs)? And that Vishnu had reincarnated in this person in order to lead disbelievers of Hinduism into destruction? Yes, those who reject the caste system, the Hindu system of gods, etc, are on a path to destruction, courtesy of Vishnu.

There's something totally wrong about that.

... and on another note: I attended a function yesterday that involved exposure to some sanskrit and hindi... and was amused at a few more words I recognised from Malay, AND rituals I think were (are?) used to "worship" the Sultans/royalty... as much as today's politicians and narrow-minded religious people don't want to admit, Malays were Hindus well before they were Muslims, and the language (and culture!) shows this history. Recently, over the past 10 - 15 years, there's been a movement to use Arabic words because they are "Islamic". How short-sighted. Never any pride in history, only shame. What a shame.

Again, there's something very wrong with this.

It's the same mentality that had the centuries-old statues of Buddha in Afghanistan destroyed, ainnit?

*sigh!*

Anyways. So, I wanted to list some Malay words I recently rediscovered as being of sanskrit origin, unfortunately my memory is failing me right now, so all I can share is this:
gajah = elephant

I still think it's cool.

During one of my very random blog surfing, somewhere somehow I stumbled upon a blog by author Patrick Rothfuss, admittedly an author I'd never heard of, but he seemed to have a sense of humor that leaked through in his posts that I liked, so I blogrolled the site and proceeded to drop by occasionally, lurking,,,

I delurked the other day, and that prompted me to hunt down his book in the library. (That's right, singular. His second book is due out April 2009 according to amazon.) It wasn't difficult to keep his name in mind, it's so close to my Chemistry advisor's name, Mr Sulphur himself :-)

aaanyways... so, back to Mr Rothfuss. Picked up The Name of the Wind. And was hooked.

I love it when a book does this to me!

I finished it in less than 36hrs.

On one hand it's a typical fantasy tale, but on the other hand, it's told in a slightly different style than usual. I love it when the tale is not told in one simple timeline, I love it when information is fed in bits and pieces then elaborated on a bit further along in the tale, I love starting the tale in last third of the story and getting the first part of the tale told while we get hints of what the "present" looks like, so that the anticipation of getting an explanation of why the world seems to have turned between "then" and "now" is slowly appeased, while the foundation for a final battle is being laid. And what's with the whole Kingkiller thing, that's not explained yet... :-)

Did you get all that?

Nevermind... just take it from me, if you're looking for a new fantasy novel to sink your teeth into, try this out. Of course, if you don't want to have to wait years for the next installment, then put this on your t-read list and look him up again in a few years' time :p

... ...

for those who celebrate - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

and for the rest of us - HAVE A GREAT REST-OF-THE-YEAR!

This is an excerpt of the Author's Note at the beginning of Sara Douglass' "The Nameless Day", Book One of The Crucible series.

Her name is not unknown to me, although I had yet, until last night, read anything by her. But wow. This book has sucked me in. I've always liked the play between Good and Evil, especially when this is brought about by flawed characters, when it is proven time and time again that absolute black or white is no way to view the world, that we are all various shades of grey. This promises to be such a one.

And the reason I've reproduced part of the Author's Note? To highlight how a few simple sentences can help me understand one aspect of history so much better than a ton of history books. And how this in turn helps answer an question that's always been on my mind : who the f**k do/did the British/French/Spanish/insert other colonizing power) think they are/were to go around the world colonizing the world and shoving everyone under their rule with absolutely no thought for the peoples already living in places like the Malay peninsula, the Indian sub-continent, North and South America... how on earth did these people get so arrogant? Why? ... and so, with a few sentences, Sara Douglass has provided me with some food for thought, and a (small) wish to learn more about this period of world history.

So last night I started on the book, and was at page 82 when Sleep insisted I cater to her demands. When I turned to switch off the light, I realised it was 230am. I love it when a book does that to me! :-)

So my plans for today? Some NaNo-ing, then more of The Crucible!

====
a little addition: so much for my plan to support physical/local bookstores. So in September I placed an in-store pick-up order for a Dark Tower-related comic book oops I mean graphic novel, Stephen King commissioned and approved, covering Roland's early years. It was due out in October sometime, so I "iou"ed Kosh, b/c this was going to be our 1st year anniversary present from me to him. The bookstore was supposed to call me when the book arrived. A little later I checked back and saw the release date had been moved to November sometime. Fine. So now it's the second half of November, and I finally remember to check amazon.com for details, and whaddayaknow, it's been out since November 7th! And no, I got no phone call from the friggin bookstore. Too friggin' bad, dudes, I'll just go ahead and get it from amazon for almost $9 less than what I was willing to pay y'all.
/end bitching mode.

Saw the movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix [much better than expected, and does more justice to the book it's based on compared to most of the other movies out].

Just re-read Book #6.

Going to re-read Book #5 now.

Perhaps Book #7 will be in my hands by the time I'm done with that.

In the meantime, I'll be away from the blogosphere. [I do have to pack for my trip,,,]

Ciao!

okay okay so I know you "read" otherwise typing this would be of no use... but do you read-read, as in books? Have you signed up for your good reads account yet? what are you waiting for?? go sign up! Share what you are reading / have read / have on your to-read list. Rate the books. Give reviews. Loads of fun stuff! Go sign up here, then add me as your friend. Or email me [see on my profile page] and I'll send you an invite! Why am I doing this? Because I wanna expand my network there, *and* I'm always on the lookout for more/different books/authors to read.

Hope to GoodRead ya soon!

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y
P A U L M c C A R T N E Y!

For the longest time, June 18th was a special day simply because it was Paul's birthday. Another significant milestone occurred around June 18th 1990: I left for studies in the U.S., free of all shackles of family and society. Around June 18th 1995, I started my reluctant journey back to Malaysia to start work. Both significant milestones made all the more significant because by no conscious planning of my own, they were remembered, were made significant because of the date they shared.

And on June 18th 2007?

No, nothing of significance going on, really.

Will watch last night's tape of The 4400's season premiere. If the show were real life, I'd be one of those willing to take that 50:50 risk of death and inject myself with promicin in order to develop an ability of some sort, an ability that would help bring humankind to the next level of development, of evolution.

Will attend a writing workshop this evening, just a one time thing, exploring the scifi/fantasy genre. I'm not throwing myself into pursuing any writing career or anything. yet. just getting a feel, looking for some prompts to get me to write in a more focused manner than what is required for a blog. see what comes up. I know I can write. But can I sustain it, polish it, refine it to a publishable level? And in what field? Just because I enjoy fantasy doesn't mean I can produce it. I have many stories to tell about me, but any memoirs, if ever produced, I could never allow to be published until certain people are no longer around to feel threatened/offended by its contents. perhaps they can be transformed into fiction, with a dark twist? i have some ideas running around, I'm not willing to commit myself to anything yet, though. Maybe I've learned my lesson at the wrong time, LoL!

Will continue to devour Sebastian: this book has so much depth to it, perhaps unknowingly? Will have to look at other series by this author to determine that. in the meantime, I am throughly enjoying the exploration of the necessity for Dark to exist, for it be in balance with Light... yes yes a topic explored in pretty much all fantasy tales, but this one puts it in the context of worlds that respond to your heart's desire, and we all know our hearts resonate to both Light *and* Dark forces... I still have to tell myself it's *not* a romance novel - whaddaya expect, though, that droolworthy cover is yummy!

/peace out

TV+Movies:
Who is Cletis Tout?
Recommended by Netflix, and, surprisingly, very enjoyable! Kosh and I burst out laughing at so many things; we both appreciate choppy/screwy timelines and interruptions in the narrative flow - and this has loads of both - which added to the enjoyment. Just go watch it :-)

Nanny McPhee
Mary Poppins meets The Sound of Music, with a soundtrack that reminded me for some reason of The Nightmare Before Christmas. Another thoroughly enjoyable movie, with only the CGI donkey that really marred the tale.

[added June 18th: had slipped my mind earlier]
Next Stop, Wonderland
A romantic comedy that's not sappy or oozing with sugar coating, starring no names I recognize, and very endearing. The scene between mother & daughter, each with her own take on reality was breathtaking. Lots of humor - understated. Go. Watch.
[/end add]

The 4400 - new season starts tonight on usa: I *so* can't wait! I'm pro-promicin myself - how about you?

Robot Chicken's 30min Star Wars special is on tonight too! Don't miss it on [adult swim]!

Books:
In a spurt of Dune/Arrakis/Rakis-related reading, I've made my way through the last three of the original series by Frank Herbert. Wow. There's so much depth to the books, even as I could barely wade past so many places where Herbert seemed to be mired in words words words words words words and words: there were so many pearls of wisdom, so many lessons to be learnt, if only one could just. get. beyond. the. friggin. words. Worthy of a reread, in about 5 years or so ;-)

next books in line to be read: the first two books in Anne Bishop's Ephemera series. Sebastian & Belladonna. I was intrigued by the premise of different "landscapes", worlds of both Light and Dark, connected by Bridges, "created" by Landscapers, but travelers needed to "... travel lightly: because what you bring with you becomes part of the landscape."

Blog Updates:
so I've played around with the sidebar a bit more... hidden most of everything within those collapsible bars [now a better shade of green]. Still need to study the coding to finetune [i.e. CLEAN UP!] the inconsistencies in font type and size... grrrrrr!

Well, my book-reading progress for 2007 has been a bit on the slow side: I'm only on my 11th book for the year.

My reading has come in spurts. I had that period where I was consuming one book after another. Then I had books that had called out to me in the library, that had gotten checked out, that languished on desk for a month! The borrowing period is three weeks. Late fees. Ugh.

I have been rather busy and distracted lately. Procrastinating on French homework, having lots of fun in the oral [heehehe] comprehension class. Investing a lot of time on spewage that might end up as memoir fodder if I choose to really buckle down and *write*. Anticip[say it!]pating this past weekend's official celebration of the wedding we'd had last September ["NOW it's official!" said so many of the attendees]. Dealing with the overabundance of photos. Picking out good ones. Thank you cards. Koash was recently on a week's vacation too, in addition to having been on a relatively regular schedule and able to knock off of work by 6pm, so we had more real together time. Of course today he starts on another rotation, and is already on-call so I won't see him till Saturday noon. Ugh.

The busy-ness is winding down [for now]. This past weekend was that mental shift from spring to summer, a summer that is trying to break through the haze of clouds I see as I gaze out the window. I need to decide whether I'm going to attend a wedding in Malaysia in July, a family reunion in Switzerland in August. Because these would take priority, I won't be signing up for another round of French classes, neither will I explore other writing class options. Until I know my schedule.

And until then? I think I'll be picking up more books. Preferably I'll read them too, LoL! Not that I have a specific target or anything! But I *do* have over SIXTY items in my to-read list. And it's only going to get longer, I'm sure! Time to get cracking on looking for specific books from this list when at the library, instead of going solely by laying my hands on whatever jumps out at me!

Remember how I'd kept track of my reads last year? This year, I'm going about it a bit differently, thanks to the invite I got to join Good Reads [thanx, Eden!]: since I didn't see a limit to the number of books on your virtual bookshelf [for Library Thing it's only 200!], I went ahead and signed up. I'm not going to retroactively capture books I've read, but will use it for at least this year's reads. I can rate and review my books as well as see who else is reading what. If you wanna join, just sign up, or email me your email addy and i'll invite ya.

Also, if you've been paying attention, you'll know that I've been contributing book reviews in spurts [there's that word again!] over at Fun With Dead Trees.

There'll be overlap between the two. I'll probably whip up quick reviews at Good Reads, then hunker down with a more coherent/thought-out review for FWDT. Although knowing me, I may end up getting too lazy to produce a "proper" review! We'll see how it goes...

What am I currently reading?
The God Emperor of Dune [Book 4 of the Dune Chronicles]

maybe it was the excellently warm day [high of over 70F!]...

... or that I totally aced a French test [75/80] **

... ... or that I'd blogged about books recently...

whatever it is, yesterday I dropped by the library between L trains... and the other times I'd visited the library and just looked around for anything appealing, nothing jumped out at me.

Yesterday?

SIX

Yup, six books made their way into my hands.

And only one of them I'd consider really "my" style / genre, so I suppose it's exploration time!

So, in case you're interested, here are the six that clamoured "read me!"
** oh, were you wondering about the French test? Yeah, I signed up for French classes at the Alliance Francaise early this year, just to get me out of the house and to put my brain to a bit of work. Kinda expensive for what amounts to perhaps 2.3 months of weekly classes, but it's nice to have all that rust flaking off, fer sure! Will probably go for another session that starts at the end of the month, to keep it going. :-)