The Time Machine

by HG Wells

This book must have been sitting in my Kindle for ages. Anyways, I got around to reading it whilst the wife was shopping. I finished this book in one day, because shopping is soooo boring and I just was hanging around the mall reading this the whole time whole wife was shopping.

Anyways, a classic. Very good read. It is a story about a nameless time traveller, who journeys into the future. A lot of interesting things happen, where humans are not humans and there are a lot of strange beings around. To me, this is a great achievement in the writing because the author still manages to capture my imagination even though this story is so old. What I mean is, with Sci-Fi sometimes as time past, it gets dated. But not this. There is a fine balance of detail on the write aspects, and vagueness in others. There are several points where the author extends the political ideas and extrapolates it into a very strange projection for the distant future though. Though a bit odd, it is still not completely weird even today to have those points of views. Anyways, I am rambling, because I'm sleepy. I enjoyed this book. I actually watched the movie with Guy Pearce in it before I read this. I liked that movie, and I am pleasantly surprised that I liked the book too, since they are not really the same story. Usually I do not like when the book and movie depart from each other. But both these work good stories.

Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

by Haruki Murakami

Read this book because my wife introduced me to it, saying it was quite well known. Well yes, it was quite engaging and I stayed up a bit late for a few nights just to finish it. It was a really interesting read. The story was simply about a man's life from a small town then moving to Tokyo and the occurrences as he grew up, the friends he had and the life he led. It was really a simple story but well-written. I guess the last time I had this sort of feeling was when I read Knut Hamsun's stories. But I think Hamsun's was better. The ending was open-ended though. I would have liked a bit more closure. I know this is not a very good book review, I read it about a month or so ago. I should probably write these when they are fresh in my mind...

Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man's Fundamentals for Delicious Living

by Nick Offerman

This book is an autobiographical book by Nick Offerman, the TV actor in the show Parks and Recreation. He talks about his upbringing and life to the current point, and all the ups and downs in his life. It is a very interesting story from the perspective of a sort of outsider of Hollywood, who is not one of those glitzy and glamorous actors. It is also a very interesting (and humorous) insight into an actor who was raised on a farm outside Chicago and went through the Chicago theatre ranks before moving to Hollywood and struggling before making it big. What really made this book interesting in his focus not only on acting but also pursuing his other interests in life, primarily woodworking.

I can relate to Nick with his need to creating things, in being involved in not only acting but also creating wooden furniture and things. I think there is a real joy in creating things by yourself, be it a piece of furniture, painting, sculpture etc. All in all, a good and very funny read. I would recommend this.

The Reason I Jump

by Naoki Higashida (translated by KA Yoshida & David Mitchell)

I just finished this book today. A good short read, it was written by a 13-year old autistic kid. Very insightful into the mind of an autistic person and their struggles, conditions and aspirations. One point to note was that one will never know where the austism starts and the personality ends. What I mean is what trait is due to the individual's personality, and what is due to the condition that is autism. However, I am very much able to draw a lot of similarities between how I feel and the experiences described by the author. This is either a great testament of the author's ability to connect with the reader, or simply I am perhaps exhibiting some autistic tendencies as well. Or perhaps it is simply these emotions are commonalities for all human beings and autistic individuals are simply more sensitive and atuned to their emotions. Overall, a very good read and breaks a lot of taboos on the subject of autism.

Reads Update

I have not been updating my blog because work has been hectic and PhD. has gone a bit on the wayside lately. But here's the stuff I have read lately and some notes.

1. For One More Day by Mitch Albom - This is a nice book about appreciating life and what if we had one more day to spend with our loved one when they say their final goodbye. The themes of Albom's book are pretty much all the same. Same vein if you have read any of his other work, just as good.

2. The Associate by John Grisham - Who can write better law thrillers than Grisham? Not many. Good solid story about a lawyer caught between his conscience and an industrial espionage ploy.

3. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult – This story is about a family who have a daughter that has cancer (I think?), then the family has the idea of genetically engineering another child to be a perfect donor match for their sick child, so she could donate bone marrow and blood for the sick child to survive. This book is about their life journey, struggles, etc. The book started off well enough, but I felt the story towards the middle and especially the end was really terrible. Firstly I did not like the ending. Secondly all the subplots are very self-serving and too nicely encapsulated within themselves. Very predictable, not organic.

4. The Street Lawyer by John Grisham – Another lawyer book. This is about a lawyer who decided to trade in his high-paying corporate law job for a public interest law job for the homeless. Defending the weak and poor as it were. He decides to do this after undergoing a traumatic experience. I love Grisham books. Perhaps it is his story-telling, very straightforward and to the point.

It made me wonder how colourful and stressful lawyers’ lives are. Then I thought about my own work as an engineer. I mean both are professional jobs, but I think if there is an engineering story, it’d be like watching paint dry. If there are good engineering stories out there, I’d be all for reading those too though. I guess there would be great stories in the form of industrial espionage, the inspiration of engineering creations. Nah, there is space for nice engineering fiction, just need to find out who writes those…but for the moment, I am still very much into Grishams. So will read a few more before I move on.

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

by Douglas Adams


Second book in the Trilogy of Hitchiker's. This was alright still all very silly. Love it. I actually read this a while back but just have not written the review. Well, I don't write proper reviews nowadays anyways, just whether I like the book or not.

Anyways, roughly, this book continues on the adventures of Arthur and the crew and they are still being chased after. So they wanted something to eat, and went to the Restaurant at the end of the Universe. Which is temporally, it is at the end of the Universe's time, they time travel there. Still a good book, but question is why so many books in the series. I feels like just a section of a book rather than a book in itself. Anyways, still a good story.

Have just been so busy with work and research. But I care not anymore. Fuck it. I need to continue writing someplace to keep my sanity, to collect my thoughts.

Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams

First book I have read in a while. It was great. Quirky, funny. Absolutely my kind of book. It is about a bunch of people being hitchiker's around space. And Earth being one big experiment by the things we run experiments on. Adventure, lovely adventure. Too exhausted to elaborate. Currently reading the second book in this trilogy of five, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

The Adventures of Pinochio

by Carlo Collodi

I read this during my recent holidays. Oh, what a wonderful book. And who does not know the story of Pinochio. Well, actually me. Not like how it is written originally. I have seen numerous cartoons of course when I was a child. I have however never read the original version by Collodi. Of course I did not read the Italian version but the English translated one (as I know not how to read Italian yet!!!).

Anyways, this book is about a wooden puppet who dreams of being a boy. He has many adventures where his naughty ways lead him to troubles. Pinochio must learn to be a good son and student, and learn all the good values of being a good boy. Only then will he be granted to be a real, living boy. But as Pinochio is Pinochio, his mischief leads him into a lot of trying situations from which he is slow to learn. But he does learn eventually and make good on being a good son and person. With that, he is eventually turned into a living boy.

Wonderful book, wonderful pacing. Its originality makes it to this day still a wonderful read (it was written in 1883!). Beautiful, worth reading again.

With the Old Breed

at Peleliu and Okinawa

by E.B. Sledge

Been so busy, with so many things going on in my life right now. I do not wish to be swept up and wake up one day and realize I'm 50, without doing anything that I had set out in life to do. Thus to maintain some sanity, here is a book review. I read this several months ago.

This book was written by E.B. Sledge who was a marine in WWII, in the Pacific campaign. I only found out about this book after watching the HBO series called The Pacific. It tells the WWII Pacific campaign through the experiences of mainly 2 individuals. This book is one 1 of the 2 individuals (Sledge), the other being Robert Leckie. This is a great book that looks at the campaign through the experiences of ground troops, rather than high level strategy. It tells war in more human terms, rather than intellectual terms. It tells of the bravery and endurance of these men, and also the horrors and hardship they have to face. People would be well-served to read books like this to understand that we should not go into war on a whim. It describes well what the military personnel go through, as well as how people are affected in the cross-hairs of war. It is definitely a classic, and very well-written with no biased language, but still maintains a strong emotional connection with the reader.

Open: An Autobiography

by Andre Agassi

The tennis fever! My second consecutive book on tennis greats. Agassi has not won as much as Nadal probably but his life is certainly more colourful. He had a tough upbringing from a very harsh tennis father. And one thing strange about Agassi is he has always maintained that he hates tennis, yet he continues to play and excel at the sport, though in tempestuous patches.

I can relate with Agassi and his temperament as much as I could relate to Nadal's. Agassi's life is full of contradiction and bursts of passion and lulls. It gives hope to us 'regular' folk when a God of Tennis like Agassi can be so contradictory about his life, what more to say us. Agassi is an a wonderful person and many can draw from his life lessons and hopefully focus on things that give their life joy and meaning, as well as success.

Rafa: My Story

by Rafael Nadal and John Carlin

This is a great book about one of the best current tennis players. He describes his life from childhood up to the current point, his rivalry with Federer and also Djokovic. It is very interesting to hear the thoughts and life of a champion. The mental strength this guy has, and how he handles his life with such grace and humility. I need to take a page from this guy's book. Though the language used and story telling isn't the best, yet the raw content of the story is very good. Overall, a book worth reading, and perhaps re-reading.

The Scarlet Letter

by Nathaniel Hawthorne

I only read 55% of this book on my Kindle and did not enjoy it very much. The first part (before the author went into the story) was decent but after that it just fell on the wayside. Several reasons why.

First I did not like the story. It is about a woman who had a child out of wedlock and has to bear the shame of having a bastard child. My gripe is not with this concept actually. It could have been a very emotional and touching journey. However, I did not feel an inkling of feeling for the main character Hester Prynne. Furthermore, through the author's prose, it seems the place of woman at the time was in the kitchen. This is shown in the early sections where he says the utility of a woman is cooking and cleaning (or something to that effect, I cannot remember the exact words). Perhaps this was an ironic statement, though i feel not. Perhaps this story does not carry much weight in the current society, life has advanced so much from 1850 after all. That said, I still feel there are books out there that describe their respective period with much more emotion and impact, Like To Kill A Mockingbird. Or perhaps 1850's English is so hard to read that I just cannot fully appreciate the beauty in the words. I felt the prose lacked elegance and were very poorly constructed at times.

It is surprising I would have such a negative of such a popular and classical piece of literature. I guess it really is subjective people's taste in book. I really cannot say I enjoy this book no matter how much I tried to force myself to.

Free Culture

by Lawrence Lessig

This book is about American copyright law and how it affects free culture. This of course covers mostly the internet and how its use has affected the current mode of distribution for music, books, art, movies and so on. Obviously piracy is a big issue right now. This book elucidates the particular issues on this matter not in terms of the regular talking points of the media such as 'piracy is killing creativity' or 'piracy will bankrupt the industry'. It goes into a much more deeper level than this and explains the wider implication and puts into context what this advent of digital distribution has meant, what it means now and what it will mean in the future. Overall, it is a very good and insightful book.

I actually finished this book several days ago, took me 2 months or so because it was something that I put down and stopped reading, but continued reading again after some time. I put it down not because it wasn't good, but I was reading some other things at the same time too.

In-line with the values of this book, you can download the book from this link.

Steve Jobs

by Walter Isaacson

This was a book that I really wanted to read and just completed it during my trip to Beijing and Harbin, China. It is the autobiography on Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple and Pixar Studios. It is a wonderful book on the creative genius and his process, his temperament, relationships and life. Before I never understood all the hype about Apple products but after reading this book I have a better appreciation for the philosophy behind Apple products and where they sit within the technosphere. Steve Jobs is a truly enigmatic and unique individual and one could just wonder what wonderful things he would have come up with if he was still alive. Isaacson does Jobs justice with a comprehensive and detailed account of his life's achievements, events and tribulations. A wonderful read; an inspiring and insightful book.

Rage of Angels

by Sidney Sheldon

I started reading this book 2 days ago and finished this morning. I must say Sheldon books always read like soap dramas, and they are really easy to read and finish. It was 500 pages but they are such quick books. Feels a bit like junk food, in the sense that you just keep munching and munching away and when you finish you still end up with a slightly empty feeling like you didn't eat much at all. The content doesn't feel all that feeling, but that doesn't mean that the ride wasn't entertaining.

This book is about Jessica Parker, a lawyer and she gets intertwined with the lives of Michael Moretti, a Mafioso and a Adam Warner, an aspiring lawyer and politician. Their lives become complicated when Jessica Parker struggles to hold her ideals while dealing with the reality of the real world.

Actually, I was 200 pages in when I asked myself whether I read this story before. Sheldon's story set ups are quite similar for most of his books and it read very much like other stories I have read from him. But about midpoint, I realised that no, I have never read this story. The pacing of the story is decent and character development is mainly focused on Jessica while less focus is given to the other characters. This isn't a criticism of character development, just an observation. As a whole, it just felt like a run-of-the-mill Sheldon story of a heroine's initial struggle, rise to power and eventual falling back in to reality. Nothing more and nothing less.

Tuesday with Morrie

by Mitch Albom

This is the second book I read by Mitch Albom. First was Five People You Meet in Heaven. This is a sort of autobiographical book about Mitch's time spent in the final days of his former university lecturer Morris Schwartz, Morrie. These meetings occurred mostly on Tuesdays, hence the name of the book.

It is wonderful story about life, how to live and how to die. It puts into perspective the things in our lives and what is really important. I would recommend this book to anyone who feels lost in their lives and wish to discover for themselves and ask themselves what's really right for their lives. Also, this book is a pretty short read. Took me about 3 hours to finish. So it is really one to keep and read through again and again as the book's lessons are timeless.

What Every Body Is Saying

by Joe Navarro

Finished reading this several days ago, recommended by a friend. A rather good book on reading nonverbal body cues and what they signify. It is written by Joe Navarro who is an ex-FBI agent specializing in this area. It teaches one how to recognize the emotion others are feeling and also what you yourself are feeling given how you react.

I bet I won't remember all the stuff in this book and may warrant several re reads. Some of the things are quite insightful and the techniques in general I believe to be very useful. Well, it gives me an extra thing to do now when I find conversation boring. I do however believe some of the things are not right, as I have caught myself in some certain physical position that are mentioned in this book and I am not feeling how the book says I am supposed to feel. So there are lots of variables that needs to be put together to have a holistic view of what one is feeling.

Overall a good book and really useful if just for one's additional knowledge.

Dune

by Frank Herbert

Just finished reading this book again. Really good, I sort of forgot the latter bits of the books, and there were some things after reflection on the book that I thought a bit rough. I say this with respect to the continuation to the second book (Dune Messiah) which I read a little bit of last night. There seems to be introduction of new factions without any mention at all in the first book. So that is a little disjointing. But as a book itself, Dune is pretty much perfect. If you can overlook some minor flaws, it is still a wonderful read. Herbert's mode of storytelling is wonderfully grand without being let down by the weight of the event's scope and gravity. He holds the level of plot very well. What I mean here is he is going through the story in terms the most pivotal characters in that universe and pretty much focussing on them. One does not feel the story is a self-serving prophecy, though it does mention this all throughout the story. For instance David Eddings books, one believe that the end outcome is only that one outcome, where the hero ultimatley meets his great destiny. Although Paul Artreides (Muad'Dib) is prophesized for greatness in this book, one always feel the weight and the tension to decisions made and nothing is ever set in stone. That constant tension, and criticality of events makes the whole story suspenseful. Good book to learn good fantasy writing.

Was

by Geoff Ryman

This book is a piece of fiction with some elements based on real people. It revolves around the story of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The three main characters are in three moments in time. First is Dorothy, which is the Dorothy in the real world who suffered a hard life whose substitute teacher (Frank Baum, original author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz) writes of her life. Second if France Gump, also knows as Judy Garland, the actress playing the role of Dorothy of the original movie adaptation. Lastly is Jonathan, an ailing movie actor who trails after the history of Judy Garland and the original Dorothy to piece together their lives and in doing so figure out his own.

This book began well enough but about halfway through I began to not like this book at all. This probably began when Dorothy's Uncle Henry sexually assaulted Dorothy, repeatedly, then she goes slightly mental. She eventually flees her home and then later in life is admitted to a mental institution. Judy Garland actually has her story concluded about 1/3 into the book with a section of the recollection of Judy's mother at the moment before she dies. Then with Jonathan, he is actually a gay actor and is ailing and going slightly mad in the end. Pretty much all the characters met bad endings, if not literally than poetically very sad.

First I did not like the overall gloomy plot of the story. The original Story of Oz is encouraging, with a story of redeeming characteristics at the end. This has none of this. The message I sort of get from this story is "Life screws good people over, deal with it". Life is shit as it is, I do not need to read 450 pages for anyone to tell me that. When I read a book I want to be inspired, at the very least I want to feel for the characters and care. I ultimately fail to engage with any of his characters. Okay, even if one wanted to make this a really sad story, that's fine. Worse still is the jolting form of story-telling that leaves the reader unsatisfied with the prose being used to describe the full breadth of the situation and emotion. By the end of the story, I simply did not care about the characters and wished the story would just end.

Second, Ryman tags on characters about 2/3 into the book. For instance the character of Bill, the counselor for Jonathon. This is the most glaring introduction of a new character. Furthermore, several new concepts are introduced pretty late into the story that again pulls the reader out of being totally immersed in the story. Ryman seems to tag on plot points just for the sake of moving the story along. It is a very cheap approach to story telling. Overall, this book started off well enough. By the last 50 pages I simply lost interest and could not wait to be done with this book. I feel Markus Zusak's Book Thief is a better book (in tackling the themes of tragedy and living a hard life) compared to this. Very poor read.

The Big Short

by Michael Lewis

Just finished this latest book by Michael Lewis. It is a study of financial market through the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis. It focuses on the players behind the creation of this problem, those profiting from it and the resolution (albeit unsatisfactorily) of this period in time.

This again is a great book to read. Again, some of the financial jargon is over my head but Lewis' approach to the subject matter is very well-presented. I realise now this is because he tells it like a story from inception to conclusion, through the view of the various players in this problem. Being Wall Street though, none of these characters are particularly saints, nor are there evil (though some do come close). They are just human beings driven mostly by money. It goes to show if one removes government regulation that is effective and strict what can happen, the GFC.