Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things is a collection of short stories and poetry by Neil Gaiman. The title 'Fragile Things' came about because the author feels that there are many fragile things after all. People break so easily, so do dreams and hearts.

Most of the short stories have an element of the supernatural in them. A lonely boy who runs away befriends a ghost who turns out to be his best companion, the months of the year gather around to tell one another stories, an exclusive epicurean club seeks a rare bird to feast on, you'll wonder what are the limits to Gaiman's imagination.

Reading Fragile Things is like chancing upon an old box in the storeroom, and opening it to find a host of curiosities and wonders. What a book.
9 ninja stars out of 10 .

"The History of Sexuality Vol 3: The Care of the Self" by Michel Foucault

Most people would have come across a mention of Foucault at some point in time, and I guess I'm no different. The first time I encountered this author, it was in a passing remark by my lecturer, who recommended his readings to us. However I never had the "courage" to read his book because I felt that its themes were probably of a depth I was not equal to, to understand.

Recently, on one of my whims, I picked up this book. "Care of Self" is the third volume in Foucault's "Histoire de la sexualité". [Introduction to the book at Wikipedia.org can be found here.]

I finished the book, but I confess that I struggled through many passages of it. Care of Self is basically Foucault's attempt to trace how ancient texts linked sexuality (be it physical, male-male relationships, conjugal relationships) and how it has been linked to the development of one's well-being and the value he sees in himself in the context of society, familial relationships. What comes out from this volume is therefore a thoughtful treatise on how sexuality was perceived through the ages, how it was held as essential in ancient times as a fundamental aspect to one's development of the soul, character and mind.

What makes this an interesting read for me was the fact that during my read, I was conscious at all times of how sexuality was perceived as a critical element in "care of self" vs. the modern and also slightly taboo view of sex, especially set against the modern backdrop of differing religions' view towards the topic. Foucault eventually makes reference to the intermingling of religion and sexuality at the very end, making the point that some ideas that percolated in the ancients' view of sexuality did eventually make its way into modern religion and views.

Also interesting for me is, notwithstanding the intention of the book being an attempt by the author to trace the history of sexuality, I found some ideas pertaining to self-fulfillment and conduct that was definitely worth further thinking about.

I won't say I understood everything, but I'm glad, in coming to the end of the book today, that I finished it!

Geek rating: 4 out of 5

Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

I remember what led me to my first Vonnegut book. I was at Kino (bookstore of choice) and was browsing the 'Recommended Titles' section when I saw Armageddon in Retrospect, Vonnegut's posthumous collection of stories. The picture on the back was an old man, a character who lived his life the way he wanted it to be. Someone who cared about the world, yet didn't give a fuck about many other things. That was my interpretation anyway. Take a look at the picture for yourself, then read his wiki page, and marvel at this whimsical man.

Coming back to the book, Cat's Cradle is going to be tough to summarise. I realised that as I was relating the book to my friend, and my convoluted summary did nothing but elicit a puzzled "huh?" from her. The irony is that Cat's Cradle, like all of Vonnegut's works, is written in his trademark crisp & concise style.

So....I'm going to pass on the synopsis of the book for this one. It would take me at least 400 words to get it right, and even then, you might still end up confused. Here's the wiki link instead.
I enjoyed Cat's Cradle immensely, and I'm floored by his crispier than cuttlefish writing and his fun and capricious plot. Good stuff. 8 out of 10 ninja slashes.

"The Dark Side of the Sun" by Terry Pratchett

Reading "The Dark Side of the Sun" (shortened to "DSS") reminded me of why I sworn off sci-fi in the first place. I have no patience following plotlines that revolve around different species of life form, some whose intelligence is off the charts and some who are rated sub-par.

Add a bumbling hero whose destiny was determined by p-maths (read: probability maths) but actually bucked the trend by not dying on the anointed day as calculated by his dear father, and you have a convoluted mess that's terribly hard to follow (or maybe I just refused to follow because as G likes to point out, after all I am the one who said I liked TH's Snow White & the 7 Dwarves, whose convoluteness is off the charts!), even when the book is actually not thick to begin with.

Still, it was a Terry Pratchett book, so for the parts that I managed to understand, I did find myself chuckling at Isaac, Dom (the hero)'s super-intelligent robot's smart mouth.

I checked out the book thinking that it was one of the DiscWorld series, but finished it just because it was there. For that, it comes as no surprise that my rating for this book is only 2.5 out of 5 stars.

The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King, featuring the 7 volumes:

I. The Gunslinger
II. The Drawing of the Three
III. The Waste Lands
IV. Wizard and Glass
V. Wolves of the Calla
VI. Song of Susannah
VII. The Dark Tower

As reading durations go, finishing King's series was a long time coming. I make it about 2 years since I picked up Gunslinger to the day I finished The Dark Tower, being a couple of days ago.

I won't go too much into the plot; excellent synopsis and information about the series are available here and here.

Widely recognised by the majority as King's epic series, what's less known about it is that King started this magnum opus at the age of 19 and finished it 22 years later -- almost the length of the entire writing career!

Personally, I think the entire series is a reflection of how his writing style and capabilities as a skilled writer has evolved. When I first started on (I), the storyline was simple enough, focusing on Roland Deschain and the pursuit of his enemy. Roland's ultimate quest is to see the Dark Tower (what he actually wants to do when he gets there, he doesn't know).

Along the way, "ka", the concept of destiny is introduced, and "ka-tet" - the band of gunslingers that Roland plucks from different points in history and is in a way the apotheosis of all the gunslingers that have died before them in Roland's quest for the Dark Tower - is formed. The "ka-tet" in its current manifestation comprises: Jake, Susannah, Eddie and Oy.

The concept of parallel worlds, and the one true world is also introduced further in the series. King's skill in pulling together the threads of this various worlds, and interweaving real-life instances of history into the account adds verisimilitude to a fantasy world that is gritty and takes no survivors (leastwise the faint-hearted). The many parallel worlds become battlegrounds for these gunslingers to take on the enemies that the Crimson King has sent, in his bid to stop Roland from reaching the Dark Tower and putting a stop to his destruction of the world.

By the time I got to (VII), I couldn't wait to get to the ending to see if Roland eventually fulfils his quest, that was how hooked I was on this series.

Complex, absorbing and totally satisfying, those are the few words I have to describe the book.

Geek rating: 4 out of 5.

"On Photography" by Susan Sontag

At 20, when I was told to read one of the essays in this book as reading material for visual communications class, I never fully understood Sontag's erudite essay on photography and surrealism. Notwithstanding, it left enough of an indelible impression for me to think about it from time to time over the years, mentally categorised as one of the "books I will (remember to) read" in future.

Now, years later, having read the entire book, I must confess that I still do not entirely grasp Sontag's panoramic and thought-provoking discourse on photography. Though, for the things that I do understand, I must say that Sontag's views put forth in this volume carry a remarkable lucidity on the topic, making me "see" photography in many different lights.

"On Photography" (henceforth shortened to "OP") is not a book teaching you how to take better pictures, improve your technical knowledge of what goes into your camera etc. For that, numerous volumes abound today in the market, and they have the advantage of currency over OP to boot.

Written in 1977, OP offered a different view of photography in the modern world that to a large extent still holds true today. Below are some that I remember (& understand).

Photography as an art

In one of OP's essays, Sontag discussed photography's claims as an art form vis-à-vis painting, how whether the word "art" should be applied to a product -- the "photograph". Painting, as the yardstick for this comparison, is most definitely reckoned "art", because each artist interprets the surroundings and renders them on canvas in a vision that is entirely his. Hence the question: a photograph, can it be considered art, if 2 different cameras apply the same setting in the same light condition, with identical range, shutter speed (etc) to capture the same landscape will give you almost-identical pictures? Sontag argues that it is art, because the choice of the object (when one presses the shutter) is in fact an interpretation, even if the interpretation is rendered into image form by virtue of a mechanical device, the camera.

Photography's uses: as a ritualistic activity, as an emotional shield

The advent of the camera and its subsequent accessibility gave rise to many observations about modern society. One pertained to the ritualistic act of taking photos. For the American family, photo taking became a regular "to-do" at family gatherings, weddings to mark the occasion, the resultant photographs occupying an important place in the recounting of family history with the passage of time. This may sound obvious, but then once has to reckon with the fact that before the ubiquity of cameras, each adult probably only has one or two images of himself in his lifetime!

Sontag also mentioned that for more regimented (???) societies such as Japan (if I remember correctly), the camera became an obsession during travel, a way of mechanically clicking at the world without having to juggle or manage one's reactions of the new sights/culture/people. The mantra literally becomes: take picture. Click. Move on to next object.

Inherent in photography's commoditisation is also the phenomenon of desensitisation/ trivialisation. Photography allowed one to view, at a distance, the unusual and the suffering. The full gamut of emotions is mediated, bringing to mind, McLuhan's famous dictum "The medium is the message". The reaction to images is therefore vicarious, lived second hand, and therefore muted.

Photography as representation of truth; photography in context

Does a photograph speak true? Always? Many would think so, but stop and think, Sontag cautions. Remember the same photo that accompany news articles in the different newspapers, how different captions give a completely different take to the story?

Therein lies photography's paradox. While it can be used as a representation of truth -- think x-rays, photographic evidence at a crime scene -- it also dissembles, because a photograph can never capture the whole essence of the scene's ongoings at the exact moment the shutter was pressed. That unrecallable moment passed into history the instant the image was captured on film (or memory card as we are more accustomed these days).

Further, precisely because the act of photography focuses on an object, photographing it necessarily takes it out of context, thereby providing the occasion to ascribe whole new worlds of meaning to the photograph. The same photograph in a museum and in your photo album mean different things to you.

Paraphasing that famous phrase of Clinton, "it's the context, stupid".

If I have set down any of the above wrongly, pls correct me. I read the essays on public transport and must confess that it is not exactly the best place to read such heavy material!

For the breathtaking insights it gave me, I rate OP 4.5 out of 5 stars!

Real World by Natsuo Kirino

If you frequent bookstores, the distinct covers of Natsuo Kirino's books would surely have caught your eye by now. Out, Grotesque and her latest Real World each have an opera-white face on the cover. The faces are a little creepy, all of them seem to possess a piercing stare that would make me feel like putting the book in a place where it would stop looking at me!

Creepy covers aside, I'm a fan of Kirino. She reveals the colder and darker side of Japan in her stories, quite different from the high-tech kawaii impression we have from the media.

In Real World, Worm, a teenage boy given the unfortunate nickname due to his demeanour, murders his mother and runs away. Toshi, who lives next door, and her three friends all get involved somehow, drawn to Worm for different reasons. The story is told from the individual perspectives of the four girls and Worm. In each chapter, you learn of their frustrations with society, and how they try to cope or shut themselves off from the pressures of the world around them.

The magic of Real World was how it drew me in as well - I could empathise with the characters, however distanced or unfamiliar I was to their troubles. There were also times I wanted them to grow up and stop feeling like the world should revolve around them, a projection of how I feel about the youth in Singapore today.
Oh well, till the next creepy faced book then. I give Real World 7 out of 10 ninja darts.

Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Moist Von Lipwig, a former conman, wants to make some money.
This Discworld tale of the Royal Mint and bank really is quite funny.
The bank chairman is a pug and someone wants Moist dead.
The problem is that people rather keep their money under the bed.

So Moist replaces coins and stamps with paper notes, money you can fold.
meanwhile his fiancée unearths an army of golems made of solid gold.
The plot is great, the jokes are plenty, Pratchett is a genius with a pen.
I enjoyed it lots, the pug is called Mr Fusspots, I score the book eight upon ten!

Not a review

I have 2 lame things to say to my fellow bookwormsupergeeks bloggers, namely:

• Gary, is my memory failing me or were the 2 birds in the mast head originally white in colour?
  

• The last time Don wrote a post was in July! (Hint, hint). Haha. Just kidding. Own time own target ok? I just couldn't finish this post without addressing something to you. Just in case you felt slighted :P

"Coraline" (Graphical Adaptation) by Neil Gaiman

I bought this book sometime back when I realised that the "Absolute Sandman" series would be absolutely beyond my budget (not to mention space!) to have.

There Coraline sat in my office cupboard until last week when I had to take time off to see the doctor. From prior experience I knew that it would be a wait at the doc's, so I decided to take a book along.

I opened my cupboard to evaluate the book stash: Coraline, The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli. Reasoning that in my current state I was probably in no frame of mind to read the latter 2, I took Coraline with me, thinking that the graphics could occupy me even if the words couldn't make sense in my current sick frame of mind.

All in all I liked the book very much, writing, storyline and graphics.

Coraline is this young and feisty girl who fancies herself an explorer. An only child, she is sometimes lonely and feels unloved and unattended in the company of adults (which child doesn't?).

One day she opens a door in her house. Previously, the door had opened to a wall, but now it led to another world.

A world which is eerily like her own only now, her other parents are very much more attentive and she is given food which she very much likes to eat.

But something is not quite right -- a veneer of falseness tinges this new world, (this is also the part that made me avert my eyes away on seeing the graphic because Coraline's other parents have buttons for eyes. Black opaque ones where the light is reflected in them) and soon she wants to return home. To her real home. Her Other Mother refuses.

Somehow Coraline manages to return, but she soon discovers that she has to go back to the other world to save her parents, who have been trapped. Against her fears, the brave child goes back in, and eventually saves the day. Seeing past the make-believe world that her Other Mother creates, she manages to get her parents back as well as save other children whose souls were trapped in marbles by the Other Mother, with the help of a mysterious black cat. (The Other Father is but a pawn created by the Other Mother.) Returning to her own world, she eventually traps her Other Mother in a well.

Like many of Gaiman's books, the story is easy enough to understand, yet the writing is compelling to read. Graphics are lovely too, kudos to PCR. [I couldn't put down the book even after I came out from the doc's; as I walked back to my office tower I was still furiously devouring the book. I finished the last 2 pages in the office, unwilling to put it down until I had seen the ending.]

One sentence that Coraline said, when in a typical Devil's Bargain, the Other Mother offered her the world (and then some), if Coraline would but love her and renounce her world, struck me. I don't have the book with me right now, so I can't recall the exact words, but it ran something like "Who wants to live in a world where you can everything? Nobody!". Which struck me as quite true. Wants are but wishes, and if you have all of them fulfilled simply by asking for it, it's never gonna be quite as fun. It was not exactly a sudden epiphany, but it came close. Sometimes wishful thinking, has its fun bits too!

Geek rating: 4 out of 5

"Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream" by Barack Obama

I checked out this book on a whim using the office's library delivery service. To be frank, I don't follow American politics very much so I can't really explain why this book appealed to me. Regardless, it came to me while I was thinking of books to borrow, so I just went ahead and did it.

"The Audacity of Hope" (henceforth shortened to "TAOH") is a political memoir written by Senator Barack Obama in 2006. This is his second book, the first being "Dreams of my Father". As the anointed Democrat candidat in the 2008 US presidential election, TAOH now carries a heavier message and will doubtless be used as reference to Obama's political leanings.

I make no pretensions to understanding all of the book and the events mentioned therein, though I did enjoy reading it. His writing style is extremely readable, and many of his thoughts/ views are told in a simple manner. If he is really the person reflected in his book, I think he comes off as a really decent guy who is trying to do his best in the world he lives in, and who believes that public service is all the more meaningful for its ability to make people's lives better. A person who knows that decisions often reside in the gray rather than black and white, but who takes a stand anyway in the belief that he has considered the issues and its ramifications thoroughly.

TAOH is a sweeping opus touching on a variety of topics from faith, family, politics, Democrats vs. Republicans etc. Through it all, the hope and optimism he has towards all these themes come through and make a compelling read.

This book will not make you into an instant nor overnight political scientist. But read it for some insights into the man who might be the next president.

And maybe, share his world view of hope for a better world.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips

Artemis, goddess of the hunt, walks dogs for a living. Apollo, god of the sun, music and prophecies, fails miserably as a tv psychic. Aphrodite passes the time as a phone sex operator when she is not shagging any of the other gods. Powers weakened, and long forgotten by people, the once mighty Greek gods are cramped into a shabby house in modern London.

During the taping of his doomed tv show, Apollo falls in love with Alice, a cleaning girl sitting in the audience with her geeky friend Neil. He tries to charm her with poetry and song when Alice ends up hired to clean the gods' house on a regular basis. But Alice and Neil are secretly in love in each other, they are just too shy to confess. So when a spurned Apollo causes the death of Alice by mighty thunderbolt, Neil bravely travels to the underworld to save her and the world.

Gods Behaving Badly was good light-hearted fun for me, especially since it followed from a heavy read in the form of The Naked and the Dead. I breezed through it within a day, chuckling at the jokes and quirkiness of the story. It is a little predictable but which romantic comedy isn't? It plays out like a movie with the right amount of humour, drama, and feel-good factor, and sometimes that's all we need.
73 out of 100 ninja earwax missiles.

"Odd Hours" by Dean Koontz

"Odd Hours" is Koontz's 4th book featuring Odd Thomas, the fry cook and inept (in his opinion) hero who can communicate with the dead. Often drawn to places inexplicably, with ghostly companions by his side, in this book, he has to stop a terrorist plot to plant nuclear bombs in cities.

This 4th book also introduces a new female character, Annamarie, whose raison d'etre for being in the story is not revealed even at the last page of the story. (I suspect it is Koontz's way of stringing readers along for the 5th book.)

In the end Odd succeeds in his endeavour (naturally!) but really with Koontz's books one is rarely greeted with sad endings but the fun in this book is really Odd's journey as he goes about saving the world, his encounters with people, and the friends he makes.

This being the 4th Odd Thomas book I read, I really experienced diminishing marginal returns in my enjoyment. All the leading up to the actual confrontation between Odd and the villains was really Koontz's skillful playing of his adept hand at repartee between characters. While I admit he is good at what he does, there is only so much you can repeat before the formula wears thin for me.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

"The Dark Knight" by Dennis O'Neil

Foreword: As far as I remember, this ought to be the first time I have read a novel based on a film and watched the actual movie. I usually do one or the other (i.e. read the book or watch the movie) to gauge if I want to do the other (meaning read the book if I watched the movie or watch the movie if I read the book) and hitherto, I have never wanted to do both. With "The Dark Knight" (henceforth shortened to "TDK"), I did both, credit going largely to the good movie for having imbued me with enough curiousity to see how the book would turn out. Since this is the first time, I thought now's as good a time as any to do my first review of a novel-based-on-film.


For me, TDK, the book, is both less and more than the movie. It is less in that in its prose form, it naturally fails to match up to the adrenaline-pumping, visual fest, of the actual movie. It also fails to convey the Joker's bone-deep enjoyment of evil for evil's sake, Wayne's anguish, and Alfred's humour. In these, I found the movie immensely more enjoyable, profound and at times disturbing.

But TDK the book does have its strengths, and this is by and large due to the vehicle in which it has told its story. The first few chapters add more background to the story by telling the "story behind the story", the beginnings of the villains, Bruce Wayne's beginnings and how he himself increasingly realises that in seeking to deal with evil, he has to deal in the very depravity his enemies traffick in. These are things that for obvious commercial reasons, TDK the movie is unable to do. Pity, for I thought they were also the very things that would have deepened and fleshed out the movie and novel.

However, TDK the book did answer one question which was never resolved for me when I watched the movie, being how did Batman end up rushing to Dent's rescue rather than Dawes' when he had explicitly hollered at Commissioner Gordon that he was going to save the latter? (Heh, I won't tell you what transpired -- read the book if you wanna find out!)

One spoiler for me in reading the book was in knowing that Dent is not the white knight that he was made out to be, even taking into account his pre-Joker-influenced days. But I guess it also made the character more realistic and added some verisimilitude to the plot. [Seriously, no one can be that perfect a "knight", can they? (In good ol' movie plots, anyone that perfect to the outside world typically has a few dusty skeletons in his closet.)]

For some strange unfathomable reason, on finishing the book I was reminded of Yeats' quote,

"Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as much courage in entering into the abyss of himself"

Don't ask me why. Maybe Batman's feeling of isolation reminded me of Hamlet's, which was when I first came across Yeats' quote.

Taking the good and the bad, I give this book a rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer

60 years ago, American novelist Norman Mailer wrote The Naked and the Dead, a story about a platoon of soldiers on a Japanese-held island during WWII. The then 25 year old Mailer saw enormous success with the book and it has been hailed as one of the best novels about the Second World War. The platoon, part of the large American force trying to wrest the island from the Japanese, was sent on a dangerous reconnaissance mission behind enemy lines. As they fight their own personal battles, terrible fatigue and harsh terrain, Mailer splices "Time Machine" flashbacks in intervals to relate the background of various characters -the ruthless General, the brash Lieutenant leading the mission, the NCOs and some of the men in the platoon.

It took me more than a month to finish this book. In my efforts to run regularly and distracted by a rather compelling video game, I only read a few pages every night. It doesn't help that the story plods along at times, and my eyes glazed over the time machine flashbacks towards the end of the book.

I'm still scoring the book a good 8 out of 10 though. One amazing thing Mailer managed to do with The Naked and the Dead was to capture the essence of the army in its entirety. The story was fleshed out in such vivid detail that I even empathised with the cunning, cowardly and incompetent characters. Even if you are not a military buff, you will take your hat off to the tenacity of the soldiers, the strength and courage they had to summon throughout their journey, and the brilliance of the General. It really made me sit back and humbly reflect on my own experiences.

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Metamorphosis tells the short tale of Gregor Samsa, a young salesman who wakes up one day to find that he has turned into a monstrous bug. What kind of bug he turns into is not defined, but that's not important (Although I found it easier to imagine him as a giant cockroach). Gregor cannot communicate with his family as he is bugged down (haha!) by the lack of a tongue and pharynx, but his thoughts and feelings remain human. He ends up spending his days under a couch in his room, climbing the walls and ceiling when he gets bored. Previously dependent on Gregor as the breadwinner of the household, his aged parents and younger sister slowly find the means to support themselves. But as they do so, they start to become more distant and repulsed by the son/brother they once adored.

The one theme of the story that resonates the loudest for me? How people change. It's quite scary really, thinking about how people change when you tell them you want out of the group/relationship, or how cold I can be as well...I enjoyed the numerous themes of Metamorphosis, the plot and Kafka's style of writing. It makes me want to reread the story again! 8.5 ninja stars.

"Two Caravans" by Marina Lewycka

"Two Caravans" is a story told from the prospective of a group of migrant workers who are seeking a better life in UK. The story starts in a strawberry field, where they are hired to be strawberry pickers. Picking strawberries by day and staying in two caravans by night -- one for the ladies, one for the guys, and hence the title "Two Caravans" -- the group is soon separated due to a rash of events that eventually cause them to journey across England in pursuit of their dreams.

Along the way, the group separates. Three return to their homeland, one succeeds in finding his sister, two get together, two go to another city for greener work pastures and the villainous one dies in a haze of gunfire when his business associates turn on him.

Then there is Dog. I capitalised "Dog" on purpose because throughout the book he is known only by that name. Dog has his own narrative as well, and it gets quite funny because his narratives are always written in caps, in "comic sans ms font" and awfully simple, a really amusing attempt to recreate his canine thoughts. Dog eventually dies from gun wounds (from the same gun fight) while attempting to save Irina.

Two Caravans is a deceptively easy book to read. I raced through it in 3 days while reading during bus trips. Notwithstanding, there are interesting themes to ponder as well, the migrant worker's plight and search for a better life being the most obvious one, I guess. Although the novel is written in a light manner, one cannot fail to see the suffering and indignities migrant workers have to go through, from being conned by agents, paid an absurdly low wage, hardly any rights to speak of, etc.

Since this is a novel told from the perspective of the various migrant workers, the theme of relationships is also a prevalent one. I caught myself grinning a couple of times at the characters' internal interpretation of what the other party is about, with a lot of guesswork, assumption, unfounded jealousy often clouding their judgment and leading to further misunderstandings. Irina's comparison of her budding romance to the characters in Tolstoy's War and Peace never failed to crack me up.

The story ends on a happy note, with Andriy and Irina together, ready to face the uncertain world. Another journey, of sorts.

"The Big Moo & Purple Cow" by Seth Godin

I borrowed this book from Tracy; the NUS intern who's attached to PSC branch. I vaguely remember reading about Seth Godin and have always wanted to try one of his books. Anyhow, this book is ostensibly about marketing and how marketers traditionally looked at the various Ps of doing a good job a la product, pricing, promotion, positioning, etc - I'm sure you get the idea.

The basis premise of Purple Cow is that it's not enough just to be good anymore. You need to be remarkable, i.e., become a purple cow, if you want to get anyone's attention in this day and age. Gone are the days when you can have a good product and just market it to the hilt to ensure market penetration. Nowadays, people are so bombarded by information that unless your product is remarkable, no one even bothers to look at what you have to offer. And remarkable doesn't mean that you aim for the mean. You've to be so unique that the trend-setters; the small minority that lives on the fringe and loves new and breath-taking ideas, likes what you have. They're the sneezers who'll spread the word around and get the rest infected by how great your product is. To stay ahead of the curve without getting complacent about your purple cow product, you need to be a purple cow organisation too.

I like this book for its easy to read and simple to understand, although it could be shorter. But then its a 2-in-1, with the Big Moo part being a collection of essays by 33 of the world's best business minds on how your organisation can be remarkable. On the whole, I give this book a 7 out of 10.

Then We Came to the End

Hanzo looked down the alley nervously and quickly slipped into the darkened room. He was already waiting, his legs propped lazily on the table, thumbing a seemingly cryptic tome.

"Sumimasen sensei," Hanzo bowed, "I have come..."

"...to borrow the book?" he replied, not once looking up from his reading.

"Y-Yes."

Without a word, he flipped out a light yellow paperback from under the table and tossed it to the visitor. Hanzo caught it clumsily and looked at the title - Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

"Take care of it," he said, "It's a good book."

Hanzo stuttered, "T-thank you s-sensei. You say this novel truly captures the way people work in offices?"

"Indeed it does. It is a tale of office life in an advertising firm, superbly written in a snappy first person plural. The insights are as spot on as a shuriken between the eyes," he said with amusement in his voice, "For those who work in an office, even halfway around the world in a basement with no windows, can surely identify with the intricacies and nonsensical dynamics of cubicle culture."

Hanzo stood there blankly, caught up in the thoughts of the office he worked at, the bitching, the gossips, the over & under-achievers, the meetings....for a moment, he couldn't recall the time when he said out loud that he could never sit still behind a desk in an office cubicle. Ah the irony.

"Thanks again sensei," Hanzo bowed and made his way out. Suddenly remembering, he turned and asked, "and you will give it...?"

"9 out of 10 katana bookmarks," replied the book ninja.

Bookworm Supergeeks new look!

I hope the other geeks don't mind, but I made a few changes to the site. New banner, different font and colours. Is it better than the last design we had? Trebuchet more/less readable than Georgia? I value feedback!

"The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger

I read this book many months ago, but its one of the few books I have read twice, so it deserves to be shared. The other that comes to mind is "Life of Pi". I got reminded of the book recently as Tracy, an intern from NUS, told me she was reading the same book and loving every page of it. Anyway, the book's protagonist is Henry DeTamble, who has a genetic disorder that causes him to involuntarily time-travel. Or to put it in more scientific terms, he has Chrono-Displacement.

When the 28-year old Henry meets his 20-year old wife-t0-be Clare Abshire for the first time in 1991, this is the also same time that he starts appearing during Clare's childhood. As you can imagine, this makes for quite interesting reading, not to mention having to ignore the normal space-time continuum that normal people like us are subject to. (Its sort of like "Back to the Future", but in a heterosexual romantic context.) This is why Clare can look him in the eyes and say that she's known him all her life. Henry is unable to control when he leaves, where he goes, or how long he will be gone. The places he goes to are rooted in his subconscious, and he often travels to places he has visited or will eventually visit. There is some degree of determinism involved, but often things that happened are triggered by events in the past. Henry cannot take anything with him when he time-travels. Having to find food, clothing and shelter means that he has no choice but to learn survival skills like lock-picking and fighting, among others while he waits to go back to where/when he came from.

This is a funny and at the same time poignant book. You can imagine the emotional toll Henry's condition exacts on him and his wife. For example, he keeps going back to when his mother died during a gruesome highway accident. And after marrying Clare, they tried without success to have a child for a long time. Each time she conceives, it ends in a miscarriage because of Henry's condition. But a past version of Henry travels to the future and makes love to her and she becomes pregnant and manages to carry the child to term. And before the child is born, Henry goes to the future and meets her when she is ten and learns about some terrible truths. All in all, I rate this book a 9 out of 10, as its beautifully written without being saccharinely sweet. You'll feel so much for the characters that you experience Henry and Clare's anguish of having to deal with such a condition, lament the impossibility of a normal life for the loving and lovable couple and curse the fates for being so unfair to them.

"The Undercover Economist" by Tim Harford

Ever since I read "Freakonomics" 2 years ago, I've been wanting to read "the Undercover Economist. Partly, it was an attempt to see if I can still remember anything from 3 years of reading the dismal science in university. But mostly, I wanted to see if it can provide insights into my work and life. Apparently, reading things outside of your usual genre and doing things outside of your normal routine jolt your mind in ways that create new neuron connections in your brain. Anyway, I finally bought this using Gary's kinokuniya discount card one Sunday. But I digress.

This book, while not as wacky as "Freakonomics", is still a hoot to read. It covers everything from why the expensive coffee you buy on the way to work doesn't make coffee farmers rich to how globalisation is not as evil as some people would have you think. From the first chapter, I was hooked because while Harford doesn't say anything new about economics, his analysis makes for compelling reading. For example, he starts with the story of the lone coffee bar in Waterloo Station in the UK. The fact that it can charge S$4.5 for a cup of cappuccino is because nobody else has a kiosk next door charging S$4. The reason why there is nobody next door is because the manager in charge of leasing retail space has concluded that rather than have many coffee bars in the station, he will have only one. This means that he can pretty much dictate the terms of the lease since being the lone bar allows the operator to charge a premium. But get this; what Harford has illustrated is that scarcity is power. Of course, anyone who has some modicum knowledge of economics knows that, but how many people actually look at their immediate environment and conclude that it's at work. By the way, coffee farmers are not rich because they have no scarcity power. Coffee can be grown practically everywhere, unlike oil which occurs only in certain parts of the world. This explains why when top coffee producers attempted to set up a cartel (like OPEC - ha!) to control two-thirds of the world production, it failed and shut down. Whenever the cartel succeeded in raising coffee prices, new countries jumped on the bandwagon and started producing coffee.

I especially like the chapter about globalisation entitled "Beers, Chips and Globalisation". Here, he reminds us of the familiar term "comparative advantage", which basically says that countries (like individuals) should do what they do best. When a devloped country comes under supposed attack from a developing one in that the latter can offer cheaper labour; what is actually happening is that certain industries feel the pressure. And this pressure is really telling the country that its better doing more of the other industries than those which are feeling pressured because it has comparative advantage in the aforesaid industries. There is no risk of developed countries losing everything to developing ones for imports need to be paid for by exports, i.e., the former will always be good at something that it can sell to the world to buy imports. And the evil that globalisation could bring upon the world is more myth than fact. For example, there was concern that companies in rich countries will set up shop in poorer ones and produce with scant regard for the environment. But this is not supported by empirical evidence. Take China for example, pollution level has actually gone down since the 1980s when it opened its doors to the world. Historically, countries have imposed more stringent laws to regulate pollution as they develop. But I think my elucidation is a tad wanting, so you're better off reading Harford for yourself. Obviously, my comparative advantage does NOT lie in explaining economics in easy-to-understand terms.

PS: I rate this book 7 out of 10 for an interesting read that gets you thinking that economics may actually matter in the real world ; )

"Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett

Equal Rites is the 4th -- or 5th?? -- Pratchett book I read of the Discworld Series. It is a slimmer than usual volume, but with the characteristic satirical humour by Pratchett.

In brief, the story is about this dying wizard who has travelled far and wide to pass his magic to a child who is the 8th son of a father who is also the 8th son among his siblings. Complications ensue when, in typical male fashion of assuming whatever the wizard says is true, the father brings said future wizard to the dying wizard, gets the rites of passing the magic done, before discovering that the baby is actually a girl. As Esk (short for Eskarina) grows up, it becomes increasingly difficult to deny the gift she was given at birth. She journeys to the Unseen University and eventually becomes the first female wizard admitted into its hallowed halls.

I can't really put a finger as to why I didn't enjoy the book. Perhaps it was the state of mind I was in (speed reading in a subterranean clinic while waiting your turn before finishing the book sprawled on the couch, all the while feeling miserable has a way of doing that), or maybe the story line just wasn't as catchy as the previous TP Discworld books. Certainly there was humour; but the exploits of Esk just didn't have the same punch as TP's usual subversive retelling of events.

I read the back cover introduction expecting TP to explore the feminist theme in an innovative way, but the actual telling fell short: Esk eventually gains admission into the university by passing herself off as a servant and by some stroke of luck she saved a neophyte wizard from the bad guys. The Archchancellor of the University relents, and history is made.

Quite predictable, and therefore disappointing.

Geek rating: 2 out of 5

The End of Mr Y by Scarlett Thomas

I rather enjoy relating how I picked up some of my books. It could be a teasing hook written on the back cover, a compelling idea, an admired author, an eye-catching design...or in this case, black pages.
Yah, isn't it cool? The pages of the book are stained black at the edges. My girlfriend took a look at The End of Mr Y after I paid up and asked me,"You bought it cos the pages are black right?"

Was it so obvious?

As frivolous as the reason I purchased it may be, The End of Mr Y is no walk in the park. It is a compelling read, as much as I feel that author is trying to fuck with my mind at times.
(what was I to use -'brain fornication'?)

The story goes like this: Ariel Manto is doing her PhD in Thought Experiments, and is particularly enamoured by the works of this eccentric Victorian scientist Thomas Lumas. His last novel, The End of Mr Y, is extremely rare and Ariel is over the moon when she comes across a copy of it. As she delves into the story, Ariel discovers a recipe for a special formula that allows people to enter the Troposphere - a metaphysical dimension made up of the individual's thoughts and lets the person enter the thoughts of others. Love, sex and adventure follows, all the ingredients needed for an exciting and enjoyable ride.

The cranium copulation bit comes when Ariel and her friends discuss quantum physics and philosophy. Some of the ideas from people like Heidegger, Samuel Butler and Edgar Allan Poe had me scratching my head at times and wishing I had Google at my side.

Quote? I was hard pressed to find one that wasn't too cheem and nothing really struck me...so, not this time.

All that said, The End of Mr Y is a worthy read, especially if you like an adventure with a dose of scientific and philosophical musings.
7 out of 10 kusari-gama.

Two Caravans by Marina Lewycka

When I walk into a bookstore, 7 out of 10 times I'll look for a light-hearted & funny book. Life is already too serious, so 'heavy' reading is something I do only once in a while. Anyway, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian was good, so I looked forward to Two Caravans, the second novel by Marina Lewycka.

Two Caravans tells the story of a small group of migrant workers working on a strawberry farm in England in search of a better life. The male workers stay in one cramped caravan, and the women bunk in the other. One day, a particularly crazy event that involved the kidnapping of one of the girls and an enraged farmer resulted in this ragtag group of friends escaping in one of the caravans. In their search for the kidnapped girl and another line of work, they meet all sorts of people and get exploited by some really unscrupulous characters along the way.

The quotes on the cover of the book proclaim that it's a funny story, and though it is at times, there's some serious and disturbing commentary on the plight of migrant workers and work practices in England. It made me wonder about the foreign workers here in Singapore and also what a McNugget is really made of (the gang end up processing chickens when they leave the strawberry farm). Two caravans has a much bigger cast than Tractors - Ukrainians, Poles, Chinese, an African and even a dog. Because there is a little back story to almost everyone, there is less character development and so the characters are not as likable as, say, Papa from Tractors. But you gain interesting insight into Eastern Europe (especially Ukraine) as well as the lesser known effects of capitalism and globalisation.

I shall endeavour to quote my favourite lines from the books I read from now onwards. Here are 2 memorable ones from Caravans (not quite quote-worthy, but it did leave an impression):

How can love be perfect, when people aren't perfect?

There's a special sadness at the end of a journey. For it's only when you get to your destination that you discover the road doesn't end here after all.

Book ninja rating: 7 out of 10 tessen

"The Screwtape Letters" by C.S. Lewis

"The Screwtape Letters" (henceforth shortened to "TSL") is the second book I read by Lewis with religion as the theme. Unlike "Essays on Christanity" where Lewis wrote from the standpoint of the converted, TSL is a wittily-contrived book whereby Lewis adopted the persona of a character from Hell in the shape of Screwtape. The latter is a high-ranking servant of the Enemy (i.e. the Devil) and TSL is essentially a collection of letters written by him to his nephew, Wormwood, a neophyte tempter who is trying to convert humans to the dark side.

By turns gloating, counselling, and offering advice, Screwtape endeavours to teach Wormwood how to successfully tempt his designated victim through the machinations of pride, envy, despair to turn from hope, love, community and family. In the last letter, Screwtape eventually turns on his nephew, who had let his victim get away.

From a purely 'read-for-interest' standpoint, the book's an entertaining and easy read, inducing many moments where I smiled to myself on reading Screwtape's advice to Wormwood to exploit the circumstances to profit.

Rating: 4 geek points out of 5 (witty, provoking, satiric!)

"The Beautiful & Damned" by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Like "The Great Gatsby", "The Beautiful and Damned" is a novel about America and explores social themes like decadence, morality, relationships, marriages, and american society in the 1920s.

The foreword explains that this novel is largely autobiographical in nature, modeled after Fitzgerald's own relationship and marriage with Zelda Fitzgerald, and is incarnated by the 2 protaganists Anthony Patch and Gloria Gilbert, in the novel. Anthony is the heir presumptive to a large fortune which he thereotically will come into after the passing of his grandfather, the great reformer Adam Patch. In my opinion, this expectation of coming into a fortune is to be his undoing, as he flits from one meaningless existence to another, never seriously making much of his life. In his wastrel existence, Anthony is the very antithesis of Adam Patch -- the latter a self-made, rigid man driven by his passion to reform and annihilate the excesses of society -- and he embodies all the very destructive elements that his grand-pater is striving to overcome.

Throughout his life, Anthony lives for the moment. One day he meets Gloria and the two fall in love before eventually getting married. Sharing a common love of parties, booze and spending money, Anthony and Gloria also abhor responsibility and go to great lengths to avoid thinking about it, even if it is to their very detriment. In the first few years of their marriage, they spend beyond their means, make wrong investments and whittle away what little money they have, always postponing accountability to the next day.

Matters come to a head one day when Adam Patch walks in on one of their numerous scenes of dissipation, and in his death, disowns them without leaving a sou to their name. Not surprisingly the couple decided to contest the will. The outcome of the legal battle was to last a few years, with Anthony leaving to go to war in the interim. At the close of the story, he cuts a sorry figure as a character fully in the grip of alcohol addiction. Just in case you are wondering, he did win the lawsuit, but I think it matters little.

Frankly I wouldn't go so far as to say I enjoyed the book, which for me is a trifle too long. Then again it could also be because I was never partial to American Literature -- notwithstanding the fact that I probably have this genre to thank for for my exemplary English grade in school -- with its melancholic, "one-hero straining to find his own identity in the midst of society" type of moralising.

Be that as it may, I do think there are areas of interest that have the capacity to set one thinking within this book. At the broad level, the depiction of American society in the jazz age with its wastes, excesses and a society's search for a moral conscience is one; one can also look at the relationship angle and either explore the richness of how Fitzgerald has portrayed the inter-relationships of the characters or how art has closely mirrored this fictional world by comparing Anthony and Gloria to his own relationship with Zelda. Further, one can also enjoy the particular genius of Fitzgerald in skillfully combining out-and-out hedonism and cowardly inertia in one character. The latter is the mould I am inclined to see the story cast in, and because of that, my reactions towards the book are ambivalent. For Anthony is not the prototype of the proverbial hero, but neither is he a villain. He is simply a flawed man with his weaknesses thrown into sharp relief by being cast as the main character in this book. To top it off, there is no closure at the end of the story, merely a sad figure of a man who seems destined to continue living out the rest of his days as an empty shell.

Depressing.

Geek Rating: 3 out of 5

A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian by Marina Lewycka

Nadia Mayevskyj's 84 year old father has decided to remarry, and he has gotten his two daughters into a tizzy. His bride-to-be, Valentina, is a 36 year old voluptuous gold-digger from Ukraine and she's out to get her claws on what little fortune 'Papa' has, along with an easy visa to the UK.
Nadia and her older sister Vera put aside their longstanding feud to unite against the blood sucking Valentina. They try all ways and means to stop the marriage, but in the end...the marriage went ahead. (It only gets funnier after that)
The cheeky old man at first enjoys having a young wife to grope and feel, all whilst he starts to write a book on the history of tractors, but Valentina's ridiculous demands start to make Papa think twice about his lust-driven decision. Her bullying got so fearsome that it made him perform involuntary excretion in his trousers more than once.
I bought Tractors cos I figured it'd be a funny book. It definitely is, but it can be insightful and touching as well. The author weaves in the struggles of Nadia's family in Ukraine , and the dark days spent in a labour camp during WWII. All in all, it makes for a good read! 7.5 out of 10 ninja darts.

"The Ladies of Grace Adieu & Other Stories" by Susanna Clarke

The book contains a collection of eight short stories revolving around magic.

(To be frank, I am rather at a loss for what to say next about this book.)

Aside from the first story "the Ladies of Grace Adieu", I found precious little to enjoy about this book.

I reckon that's due to the short story form, in which too little of plot and storyline is developed for me to term it a satisfactory reading. Two stories carried faint echoes of stories I have read/heard before, further diluting the novelty factor for me.

Still I ploughed through the book. Finishing it, I found little to recommend, save to say that if you are the type who just wants to read for a short span of time, and expect that your next reading of the book will be very much in the unforeseeable future, then read this book, because the short story and independent stories will stand you in good stead.

Geek rating: 2 out of 5 stars

"Norwegian Wood" by Haruki Murakami

From the introduction on the back cover, Norwegian Wood ("NW") sounded very much like a love story, but it is so much more. It is set in 1960s Japan, and is told from the perspective of an adult Toru Watanabe. The story is told in flashback fashion, sparked off by Watanabe serendipitously hearing the song "Norwegian Wood" being played one day, a favourite song of the girl he loved, many years after the events happened.

The gist of the story goes something like this: Watanabe's best friend Kizuki committed suicide when both of them were 17. His life changes forever after that. He became somewhat a loner. Gradually he found himself falling for his best friend's girlfriend, Naoko. But Naoko is psychologically scarred and unable to reciprocate his feelings. Sometime later, he meets this vivacious girl, Midori, who is everything Naoko is not. He is drawn to Midori, but is unable to forget Naoko. Even as he sets about resolving things, one day he receives news that Naoko had committed suicide. The story ends on a open note as he tries to call Midori...

If you are curious about the book, can check out the book at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_Wood_(novel)

I generally make it a point not to read books translated from their native languages into English, thinking that I would not be able to appreciate the language and poetry of the original author. Notwithstanding this book made for good reading, if only because Murakami's thoughts and interplay between the characters were very vividly sketched out. (Kudos, I guess, to the translator too).

While I don't know if Murakami's portrayal of the zeitgeist of 1960s Japan was accurate, the characters' despondency, attitude towards life were deeply moving. A general sense of helplessness pervades this book, from the futility of education, the mindless seeking of casual sex, the randomness of life and the many suicides/deaths by different characters. One feels for the characters as they grope around in their own personal hell and try to live their lives with dignity, and sometimes choosing to end it. I remember being rather moved by how Watanabe posthumously realised that in Hatsumi's death, they had lost something quintessential and rare.

On finishing the book, I must say I was rather affected by it, and even thinking about it a few days after, it still retained its capacity to spur one to think further about growing up angst and life. For that, I term it a good read, because I haven't been this enthralled by a book in a while.

The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It's funny how I came to buy this book...I first read the back cover of it at Kino when it was placed in the Recommended section. The description intrigued me, but I wasn't too sure if I wanted to buy it. So I left.

But after that, I couldn't quite forget the book...To say that it was haunting me is a bit extreme, but I guess I just had a niggly feeling that it would be a good read. I made up my mind to buy it. Problem was, I couldn't remember the title nor the author. Just that the book cover was brown, and it was a book on WWII narrated by Death. Sheesh.
Anyway, I finally found it months later at Kino once more. I'm really glad I bought it. What a wonderful book it's turned out to be.

Death, the narrator, tells the story of young Liesel Meminger, the book thief. She lives with her foster parents in a small town in Germany during the war. Liesel is a very endearing character. As you make your way through the book, she seems like someone you'd know personally. A curious girl with a love for books. A strong-willed girl with her own fears and insecurities. A girl with a beautiful heart who dearly values family and friendship.

Though the story centres around the life of Liesel, it is Death's side commentary that stands out. I would imagine Death to be an impassive and unfeeling entity. One that does not need emotion, why be bogged down by such a thing when his job is simply to take away the souls of humans who have died? Yet in many instances, I'd feel a breath of sadness blow across my skin every time Death speaks of the atrocities of the war. Implicitly, he remarks in cold honesty the folly of humans and the savagery of the conflict.

Even Death could feel the sky turn grey with sorrow.
Words from an outsider never rang so true.

Is 10/10 too much? I wonder, cos it makes the book sound like it's perfect. But at the moment, I don't think I can award anything less.

Read to Luxuriate

This is not a blog post per se -- yes, I know I've been remiss -- but just thought to share one of the nicer quotes about reading I've come across recently:

"We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate".

-- by Henry Miller, an American writer and painter (1891-1980)

Nice. Gives a whole new dimension of meaning to the phrase "luxury read".

And way more impactful than the recent books I've been reading. I'm really up against a dry spell. Hopefully the drought breaks soon.

Over and out!

The Gum Thief

Woo. This one has been in draft version for some time now. I actually finished The Gum Thief by Douglas Coupland during CNY. I was pretty much out of action that time due to a bad cough and cold so I had more time to catch up on some reading.

The Gum Thief is about the story of Roger, a middle-aged office supplies store worker, and Bethany, his young Goth co-worker who is having some sort of identity crisis. It's told in the form of diary entries, which Roger and Bethany exchange with each other. They drift by with the mundane tasks of stocking pens and paper in the store aisles, while writing to each other and discussing their thoughts on life, death and love. (They are not romantically involved, if you were wondering.) Roger shares with Bethany about the shit that has happened in his life, which is a way of self-reflection for him. And along the way Bethany fell in love with a boy, which turned out to be a bad mistake.

I was initially excited to get into Coupland's latest work since Jpod, but I'm rather disappointed with the book. I don't really know if it was because I was sick when I was reading it, but quite often I found my eyes glazing over the characters' philosophical musings, a hallmark of Coupland's writing. This time it seemed a little trite, a little stale, and a little too self-indulgent.

The back of the book describes The Gum Thief as a 'wise, witty, and unforgettable novel'. Unfortunately, the book tries to be wise and witty, but only ends up being forgettable.

3 out of 10 nerf ninja darts.

"The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

This is my first time reading one of Hosseini's books, which by the way was a gift from a good university friend of mine. The book is about 2 boys growing up in Afghanistan in the 1970s; one the son of a rich man, the other the son of the rich man's servant. It's a beautiful crafted story set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed; first by the Russians and subsequently by the Talebans. It details how the 2 boys, Amir and Hassan, became like brothers as they grew up motherless and how they took part in kite-flying contests, with Hassan running after kites that were cut, hence the title. But more importantly, its a tale of betrayal by Amir, who though born of a noble and honourable man, had trouble living up to his father's strength of character. In the end, he let Hassan down and this caused him so much anguish that he lied to evict Hassan and his father from the household they had served for so many years, so that their presence would not weigh on his conscience. Amir and his father eventually fled to the US where he became a writer and married an Afghan lady. But a call from one of his father's old friends harkened him back to the land he grew up to fulfil a task that would afford him redemption for the wrong that he committed. Without giving the plot away, there are 2 kinds of wrongs; one of commission and the other of omission, and what Amir did was the latter.

I like the book for Hosseini writes beautifully, evoking emotions and detailing events with dexterity. Its quite amazing how he juxtaposes the idiosyncracies of the Afghan people with their courage and strength in weathering war and destruction. Its a funny yet thought-provoking book, asking hard questions about why some of us don't stand up for ourselves, let alone for others, and how every wrong exacts a price on your life that you'll have to pay, sooner or later. That unless you've the moral courage to face up to your wrongs, no matter how hideous they may be, you'll never be able to make peace with yourself. On the whole, its my best read this year so far, and I give it 4.5 out of 5. I can't wait to read Hosseini's "A Thousand Splendid Suns".

"Microserfs" by Douglas Coupland

Microserfs (link to Book Ninja's earlier posting on this book) is the second book I've read by Coupland. The first I read -- being JPod -- was a real hoot, a real laughter-a-page type of book. In comparaison, I found Microserfs darker in terms of mood.

The only word that currently comes to mind when I think about this book is "randomness". The story is told from the perspective of Daniel Underwood, or "Dan" as he is known by his fellow coders, as he records the events from his days working in Microsoft to when he and his group of friends venture out into the start-up land, and discover relationships as well as a way of balancing their work and personal life.

I didn't rate this book highly as I thought that at the end of the day, it stopped short of being a good read as it didn't leave me with any takeaways. Notwithstanding I think Microserfs remains an "ok" read because it explores the sub-culture of the geek in a fashion that is at times dark, but yet kinda funny. The book also attempts to broach themes like the relationship of technology and humans, how human life has evolved with the advent of technology.

I realise I haven't anything much to say about this book. Hmm...

Geek rating: 3 out of 5

An Unreadable: "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco

My first chuck in this blog is ... (drum roll)... "Foucault's Pendulum" by Umberto Eco!

I picked up this book on Don's recommendation. Either I read it in the wrong frame of mind or it's really unreadable. Truth be told, the gist of the story as told from the cover of the book does not seem that bad. But it is deceptive, and having attempted to read it more than once, I have eventually decided to concede defeat and consign it to the "condemned" list.

Come to think of it, it's been a while since I have been so ill-disposed to a book. But hey, there's always a first time, I reckon.

Cheers for the Year Ahead

Wa, design for the mast-head of "Bookworm Supergeeks"!

One for the CNY, perhaps?

Regardless, Happy CNY to my fellow geeks and readers of this blog!

As my friend memorably says, "Huat ah!"

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami is a story about.......a man who loses his cat.
.
..
...
*scrunches face thinking how to continue*


....of cos it's not just about that. The unemployed Toru Okada, after losing his cat, starts to encounter all sorts of strange events and characters. His wife leaves him without warning. He meets a pair of spiritual medium sisters, who were originally asked to help find his cat but seem to have a mysterious reason for coming into his life. His neighbour, a girl in her late teens, will engage him on thoughts about death and life. He learns about the Japanese side of WWII in Manchuko, about how this soldier was trapped in a dried-up well for days...Okada then decides to climb into an abandoned well, to experience the same darkness and mull over why his wife left.

I think explaining The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle is very much like explaining a particularly vivid dream you had. To you, you're enthralled at how real the dream was and the things that 'happened'. But to the listener, it sounds rather nonsensical.

The magic of the book is that the premise is pretty strange yet not unbelievable. Or maybe it doesn't matter. Because you get drawn into the souls of the characters, their struggle for identity, for meaning to life.

If someone were to ask me what The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle was about, I'd scrunch up my face again and crack my head on how to begin...but one thing's for sure, I really enjoyed the whole reading experience.
It was just like a very nice dream.

9 out of 10 ninja dream inducing smoke balls.

"Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" by Paul Torday

A whimsical read with some moments of light-hearted humour.

Dr. Alfred Jones is a fisheries scientist working for the government. He has been "forcefully" inducted into a project to introduce a salmon population in the dessert-like climate of Yemen. Initially skeptical and downright dismissive of the project, he eventually comes to believe in the creation of this miracle and finds a sense of inner peace and contentment that he never used to have, back before his involvement.

The story is told in various ways, from the "direct" perspective of Alfred, his diary, various accounts of interviews, letters written by various characters in the story and even selected email communications reproduced in its original form (complete with email addresses, signoffs et al).

Political satire underlies much of the book, in a world where the media are cast as newshounds/purveyors of "newsworthy" stories, and easily manipulated by politicians out to get good news published.

It is also a commentary (of sorts) on modern relationships. In Alfred and Mary's relationship, we see the dying embers of their marriage. Childless and each pursuing diverse careers, they spend much of time living apart, in 2 continents and 2 different worlds. In choosing to portray much of their interactions with each other via the email channel, Torday certainly meant it as a side commentary on modern relationships and the institution of family. In Harriet and Robert's inability to be together, it was the underlying sadness of what could have been but didn't, because they were separated by death and war.

In totality, Salmon Fishing is an easy read, if a bit disappointing in terms of its ending. I was kinda expecting a whimsical ending to the story, but surprisingly Torday chose to return to the cold hard world of reality in closing the book by depicting the whole Project as a failure. For this disappointing ending, I give it 3 stars out of 5.

To continue or end, that is the question

People, just realised our 1-mth deadline for this blog is almost up!

Actually thought we have been having fun so far, so I don't mind posting here from time to time if only to share our respective reads.

Votes? Yea or nay (to continue) pls!

"The Spiral Staircase" by Karen Armstrong

The Spiral Staircase (TSS) is a book about the author, Karen Armstrong (KA)'s self-discovery, in which she relates the events of her life and how she had gradually come to the realisation that the path she had chosen, while defying conventional approaches to God, eventually brought her closer to him.

(If you are aghast at this topic, don't worry, this is all I'm going to say about religion in this post.)

Were it left to me, I would never have picked up this book on the basis of its introduction. But a friend had introduced this book to me, and the extent to which he had spoke of the book, attributing to it the highest praise and how it had reasonated with him, sparked my curiousity. For this friend of mine is hardly one who is given to effusive praise, let alone speak in such glowing terms of something he had read.

So resolving to pick up the book some day, I jolted down the title. By chance, I recalled the title one day while I was surfing around for a book to pick up. It so happened that the library delivery service that my office subscribes to carried this book, so deciding that now was as much a good time as any, I "checked out" the book in my virtual cart. When the delivery was made a few days later, it languished for a couple of days in my office drawer. I was for some inexplicable reason, quite reluctant to pick it up. When confronted with the reality of the book, I still entertained reservations about its capability to enthrall me. At the back of my mind, I was prepared to consign it back to the bookdrop without opening it.

There the book lay until one day, I was left without a book to read when I needed one. Deciding to give it a try, I brought it along with me. The introduction did not inspire, for KA had chosen to start the book with her story of how she had commenced her training to be a nun. Not being a religious person by any stretch of the word, I couldn't relate, much less understand.

But I am glad I read on, because by the time I came to the part about her leaving the Church, I was in thrall. When she struggled to adapt, desperately wanted to fit into the world that had leapt ahead of her during her years in the Church, I thought I could even sympathise, even empathise with her realisation that she stood apart from her peers and that nothing in her current life could speak for her.

When she wrote about being a "fake" in the way she cobbled ideas from literary masters to form her own body of work, it also reasonated in a way with me. For while I always publicly maintained my pride in having attained a 'distinction' in English, a secret part of me always thought that it was due more to my illustrious assembling of literary criticism offered by my betters before me. The only true pride I had was in practical criticism since one had to work on the piece extempore. But even so, my pride in this accomplishment was somewhat diminished when at the end of my 4 years in university, one professor made the chance comment that she considered "prac crit" a senseless way of appreciating literature. In reading this book, I was reminded once again of this, and with the benefit of hindsight I think the secret suspicion had in a not-insignificant way contributed to my refusal to study English in university, despite being told that my distinction (in English) was rare in the extreme, and that very few people could lay claim to it in the year I took my exams.

KA's struggle to find herself was to take several more turns, from being diagnosed with a psychiatric illness to finding herself tested in other ways. But she draws constantly from the strength of others' insights, from her friends, to literary masters. The title of the book, is taken from Eliot's "Ash Wednesday". In reading the poem as she interprets it, I can see why she used it.

Out of Eliot's poem, "because I do not hope to turn again" and "desiring this man's gift and that man's scope" have become memorable phrases for me now. They seem to echo my own tenets of striving to be contented in life, rather than hankering after what I cannot have. (Here I must emphasise the "stiving" part, because I usually don't accomplish it at all.)

I have many other thoughts throughout reading this book, which is why I think it's a great read. It has something for everybody: for people struggling to come to terms with their religion, for people who like reading stories in which there are literature references (me), and for the thoughtful people who like a book that makes them think, I think you will be able to find something to relate to and draw some insights from.

For the record I intend to buy this book.Think a second reading will offer me different impressions.

Geek rating: wow! (straight off the geek scale)

"I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson

This is a book of the "vampire" genre unlike any I have read before, which made it an interesting read. In books I read previously, people were usually "turned" into vampires when they got bitten by another vampire. Matheson's vampires however, were "turned" via the spread of bacteria in addition to the above method. Because of its ability to transmit via air, it soon wiped out everyone bar one.

The story starts in at this point. Robert Neville is the sole survivor of the vampire plague that has decimated the entire human population. As far as he can tell, he is the only one around. He longs for company, but does not get it. He has erected a formidable barricade in his house, with stocks of food, music, literature, and more important, planks to fend off the bloodthirsty vampires who gather at his house night after night. His is a sad tale, as his personal story is told in a series of short flashbacks that invariably end with him bemoaning the state of his existence.

A few years down the road, Neville eventually encounters a woman, whom he very much wanted to believe was a human. However it proves to be his downfall as eventually he is exterminated by another race of vampire, much stronger than the ones he was fighting. In his death, he becomes "legend".

I saw the movie before I read the book, and having experienced both, I find that both are paradoxically "more" and "less" than the other. Before I read the book, it never occurred to me that the story was a "vampire vs human" one. I always thought of it as a "apocalypse" kind of show, where the human struggles against all odds to survive in a world that was collapsing around him.

Will Smith, who helmed the movie, also incarnated a "hero" in the true sense of the word. There were no shades of grey to him, unlike the Robert Neville in the book, who was a drunk, bad-tempered, and suicidal person by the time the story opened.

There are a couple more differences, but I shall just close with the ending. (By the way, if you are the kind who hates it when the ending is revealed before you have read the book, I would advise that you stop reading this post now since I'm going to talk about the endings for both). Will Smith eventually sacrifices himself to save this mother and child duo. The duo make their way to a community of survivors.

This ending contrasts sharply with the book, in which Neville dies as he now becomes the outcast amongst the super-breed of vampires. Normalcy is for the majority, and in his sole survivor status, he is clearly in the minority. I found this ending darker, and more disturbing than the flick, which being the standard US fare, invariably features an ending that is neatly tied up with a ribbon, all "present-like".

Geek rating: 3 out of 5

Life of Pi

Instead of giving you guys a new review, I thought I'd cop out a bit by writing one about a previous read. And the lucky book is Life of Pi by Yann Martel.

I must say that when I picked up the book, it was not without trepidation. Not fear of the genre per se, but a distinct foreboding that it'd turn out to be a bad buy and a worse read. You would feel the same way too if you had read the blurb, which was about a boy and a tiger stranded at sea. Or was it a preliminary review or something someone told me. Anyway, I don't think my memory can be counted to serve me in this instance since I read the book many moons ago.

Back to the book. Boy, was I glad I gave it a chance. It had me glued from day one. The writer tells an incredulous and yet believable tale of a boy stranded at sea for 200 over days with a Bengal tiger. Of course, you get the normal spiel about how he, who by the way is Indian, grows up in a zoo because his father owned one. Yep, apparently, owning a zoo is not uncommon in India, not unlike our compatriots who own dogs and other pets.

And the boy's name is Piscine Patel, which sounds like pissing. As is the logical fate of those with funny names, he gets ridiculed in school to no end. And this is why he calls himself Pi. Yes, as in pi of the mathematical ratio 3.1415! And if you wonder what can happen at sea, try reading it and you'd be ushered into a world teeming with various types of fish, birds that fly out to sea for weeks, things you see floating past everyday and even an island that's alive and infested with meerkats.

The question is how he ended up with a tiger in a life boat. It was because the family was sailing to Canada with their animals. And while he was looking forward to a new life, it was not meant to be. The ship sank and Pi is cast adrift in a lifeboat with a zebra, a hyena, an orangutan, and a huge Bengal tiger. The first week is horrific as the animals battle for survival and eventually only he and the tiger are left in the boat. While the boat is well stocked for a human, it had no tiger food per se. Hence, he started supplying the animal with fish, turtles, and fresh water so that it doesn't turn on him. The book is about surviving in the midst of overwhelming odds and how Pi maintains his optimism and sanity, and refuses to give up. I think he was saved eventually although I vaguely recalled that there were 2 endings - hmmmm. This is a fantastic read and I give it 4.5 out of 5 stars.