Reads

(source, editted)

I'm reading One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest now and I tend to read aloud (okay, whisper) to myself in a Southern accent. It's fun for awhile. Then I get tired and thirsty.

Last week, I finished reading The Great Gatsby and One Day. It's quite crazy because one of the characters in One Day was reading The Great Gatsby, and another was reading Nabokov's Lolita which I want to read later. 

Coincidences.

I kinda miss reading funny romantic novels, they're harder to put down.

Overall, it's been a crazy week. Already.

peace & love

starshines.

I got me a few more books recently, I couldn't help myself. BookXcess was so awesome.

from top to bottom:

Jane Austen - Persuasion

Lewis Carroll - Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland

Jimi Hendrix's Biography

JD Salinger(!!!) - The Catcher in the Rye (!!!!!!)

Paulo Coelho - The Winner Stands Alone

Eleanor Catton - The Rehearsal

Paulo Coelho - Brida

Preeta Samarasan - Evening is the Whole Day

And I got to completing another letter to be posted to another friend of mine :)

I'll be posting it tomorrow and I'm guessing it will only arrive in one to two weeks. Snail mail in all its glory.

front

back

This means it's time to start working on another letter to another dear friend. (smiley face)

P.s: About the devastating tragedy in Japan, it is really painful to watch on the news the effects of this ghastly disaster. I pray the people get the help they need. It's not worth much but I wish I could do something. For the precious lives lost, may they rest in peace. Such horrible things happening, these days.

peace+love, friends.

That's Better

After a good talk with the boy, I'm feeling much better so right now all I'm going to do is live in the present. 

In other news, I just finished reading Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart last night (due to my inability to fall asleep). It is...different. As the title suggests, there's not much mystery about how the book will end, but the interesting part is the journey towards the end of the book, for sure. It's set in the near future (first in Italy, then New York) and chronicles a 39-year-old man, Lenny who falls for a 20-something Korean-American girl, Eunice Park. This book is read through the diary entries of Lenny and the conversations (something like emails and chat sessions) of Eunice with various people. Yup, interesting.

Sadly, in the near future, the younger generation's intelligence level is at a disturbing level. They don't read books, at least not printed publications. Everything's digital, no one can live without the digital device Shteyngart refers to as an "apparat" (It has all your details in it, and can calculate a lot of things including your lifespan, finances, and believe it or not: f**kability. hilarious). It's funny but scary when the younger generation don't know how to spell common words and have not heard of most important literary works in the past. 

Besides a sad love story, there's also mayhem in the political side, what might (or could?) happen to America and probably the whole world. 

It was an enjoyable read definitely, because you just need to know what happens next.

{thanks to Jolynn for lending this to me xx}

Currently listening to: furniture's album. It's gonna be worth my money.

peace+love

Oscar Wilde's Lord Henry

{21 Jan 2011}

Yup I'm reading 3 books at a time. There's Anna Karenina, Man Gone Down, and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Sue me. So I was reading Dorian Gray today and I came across this part (I'm only in the second chapter, mind you) where Lord Henry is talking to Dorian Gray and messing up Dorian's mind in the process:

"...And beauty is a form of genius - higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is (....) like sunlight, or springtime. It cannot be questioned. (.....) Ah! realize your youth while you have it. Don't squander the gold of your days, listening to the tedious, trying to improve the hopeless failure, or giving away your life to the ignorant, the common, and the vulgar. These are the sickly aims, the false ideals, of our age. Live! Live the wonderful life that is in you! "

I edited this excerpt because the original text is way longer (hence the dots in between sentences) and also I wanted to highlight the main point of his 'speech': Embrace your youth before it's too late. And this kind of stuff always hits me because I always have the feeling of not living my life to its fullest (yet).

|image from we love typography, via nevver|

peace+love

To keep me going

This short excerpt is exactly what I need to motivate myself to run. More than I am now.

"...This is going to be a good one. I have no internal organs, only gears, which drive steel-spring legs and suction feet that grip the road and release. I'm like some high-tech primordial machine."

-Man Gone Down by Michael Thomas.

Song stuck with me at the mo: Bruce Hornsby's The Way It Is.

peace+love

{21 Jan 2011}

Lust

{my idea of Lolita}

"Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Le-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta."

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

As quoted from a VenusZine writer, Summer 2010 issue:

"The single best opening paragraph in the history of anything. Read it."

I'm just waiting for the day I get it from the bookstore. Then I can at least check off one thing from my long list.

(photo, edited, courtesy of ann h.)

peace+love

Obsessing over... [Vol. 2]

{random: cool photo of John Lennon back in the day courtesy of Sense & Sensibility, via Daydream Lily}

Books! Not something new, but I've suddenly bought 4 books and a magazine in 2 days *gasp*. Spent about 90 bucks altogether. I'm so excited, I've never done something like this before, and I feel really free and more in control, more confident and I can't wait to do more new things. I don't know what came over me, really. I just felt like buying a book. It's been a year since my last bought book, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, I'm one of those people who whine and groan about the prices of books being too high, because really, they just are.

Anyway, here's my bought list:

1. Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk (awesome edition, cheap, 29.90)
2. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (steal - 9.90)
3. The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde (quite a steal, 20.90)
4. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoevsky (super steal! 8.50!)
5. frankie Magazine (!) (killer ex cos it's Oz-imported: 29.50)

And here's my to-read-more-when-I-can list (mostly just the authors):

• another Dostoevsky book
• Haruki Murakami's works
• To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude
• F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
• Capote's books
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
• Ian McEwan's books
• Nick Cave's 2 books so far.. (yes, the Nick Cave!)
• Flaubert's Madame Bovary
• Anaïs Nin's Delta of Venus
• Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
• many more Classics, as much as I am able to handle :)

Yup I've suddenly gotten into classics. Notice also that I do still consider the price of the books I buy, only because I would do anything to save just a little bit more money. But I feel lucky that I could actually find these awesome books with my budget :)

Even so, this made me think of buying e-books instead, but then again, the feel of paper and a good cover doesn't come close to reading a book from a screen (ugh). I know, I know, e-books are more environment-friendly but c'mon, the books are already printed, I might as well get them, right?

At the moment, I'm supposed to be reading my Tolstoy (Anna Karenin) and Ian McEwan's Amsterdam, but I've gone and started reading Fight Club. Oh dear..I think it's possible to read 2 books at once, but three? I think I have to decide to let one book go for now.. Thank God for the holidays.

p.s: Photos will come later! (cos I'm that excited that I actually wanna take photos of my new babies, hah.)

peace+love

Where The Wild Things Are

{credit: here}

Or 'Where Imagination Comes To Life' but I guess Where The Wild Things Are does it. It is, after all, adapted from a book by the same title by Maurice Sendak so who am I to change a movie title. Anyway, I think Spike Jonze did a terrific job at making this movie. Though, I haven't read the book yet. I just love the colours, mostly muted. Earthy colours. And the story. I've yet to figure out the underlying meaning of it. Definitely a good watch. love love love it.

Just Read: The Kite Runner

It's been a while since I last read a good book. The Kite Runner ended the dry spell. It's a really heartbreaking story. But it was very very well-written. Only one thing was a little confusing.. the timeline. Maybe I wasn't paying enough attention. But it's very very very minor, really. You'd be more interested in the story and what happens next than the year.

and Just Watched: The Kite Runner movie (which was badly adapted)

The movie really wasn't necessary, if you asked me. Anyone could have imagined a better movie than this. I was basically disappointed. I didn't shed a tear. The script or screenplay was bad. This is apparent to me because I was crying like a baby reading the book. But I guess not all books are meant to be adapted and most books are always, always interpreted badly.

peace + love

When We Were Young

I just found this hiding in my adolescent journal, and thought I would share it here to show how bad at writing I was. I miss it, though.

The Streets

In the city
Where everything happens
The streets are packed with people
businessmen, lawyers, beggars,
and me.

The streets. . .
comprise of the park and great buildings
The park. . . a peaceful place
The buildings. . . a busy place

It's funny to know that two different places
can get along well
Even though criminals from the streets
commit crimes in the park,
these two places can actually get along. . . well

In the city
Where the streets live in,
Where the beggars live in,
Where the people live in,
and me.

I love the streets,
And those busy people and beggars,
The park and the great buildings,
I love the streets.

haha. This was heavily inspired by the book series Fearless by Francine Pascal (of the Sweet Valley series fame). The series made me fall in love with New York and that was what I had in mind while writing this sad excuse for a poem. Oh by the way, this is my FIRST EVER poem :)
so maybe I should cut myself some slack(?)

click on this photo to be treated to a piece of feel good music :)

Actually I have to say I was very much influenced by this series. I kinda got all of the books EXCEPT for numero uno. Which kinda sucks. I used the main character's (Gaia Moore) name for my email and stuff. Freaky. I kinda wished I could be her. Kick bad ass and be cool. Oh I was maybe 13? haha good times.

peace and love