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...

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.

Matilda

by Roald Dahl

I read this when I was little but have forgotten the story, so re-read it again. My dearest bought the whole set of Roald Dahl books and this is the second one I've read now I think. I read all of them in the past, but my memory being what it is today, it all feels like new books every time I read it. Anyways...

This book is about Matilda Wormwood, a little girl. She is a very smart girl though her parents cannot see that and are very ignorant and unpleasant folk. Matilda being very smart, begins to learn to read and loves reading very much. She starts going to the library on her own and reads all the nice books there is to read there. So by the time she starts school she is already way ahead of her classmates. Her intelligence not only stops there. When the teacher, Miss Honey teaches math, she finds that she can already to amazing some all by herself without even using a calculator! She is indeed very very smart. Miss Honey wishes to help her excel and to put her in a higher class. Though the headmistress Miss Truchbull disagrees and keeps her in the lower class, because she inherently hates little children. There are many twists and turns in this book, and the ending is wonderful.

Anyways, lovely book by Roald Dahl. I love all his books.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Angel Time

by Anne Rice

This is the first book of the Songs of the Seraphim Series. Short synopsis here.

I found this book a bit slow to start and actually thought of not reading through to finish. But after the first 50 pages things did picked up a bit and I carried on all the way to the end. It is typical Anne Rice style, in the way she narrates the story. I can also draw strong similarity between the main character here Toby O'Dare and that of Lestat and the like in the Vampire Chronicles series. Though, I do feel that this story is so thinly veiled in material that it did feel very pedestrian. It did not have the layer upon layer of complexity that The Vampire Chronicles had. I guess it is very difficult to write to the high level that is that. Probably also the subject matter is not that familiar to Rice as this topic of angels and the historical context in which it is set. Well, I just felt it was not as rich as the Vampire Chronicles. Well, I will still give the second book a try, perhaps that would fare better. But I am going to read some other books for now.

The Little Prince

by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

I read this book for the second time, and it was as lovely as the first time. It is a story about a Little Prince from another planet that visits Earth and finds a pilot that has crashed in the desert. This book is the account of the pilot of meeting this strange boys. The pilot writes this story down lest he forgets his time with this strange but wonderful prince. The original story is in French, called Le Petit Prince.

I really love this book. Second time around because I still remember the story roughly, I found it less sad than the first time I read it. Because it was sort of like meeting an old friend again rather than the loss of a friend. One does feel the longing and sadness of losing a friend when reading this book (first time round), but second time around one feels the joy in cherishing the memory of such a wonderful character. I would definitely read this book again and again from time to time. One should never forget to see the elephant in the boa, and not a hat in a child's drawing.

To Kill A Mockingbird

by Harper Lee

I bought this book, the 50 anniversary version of it. This book is a Pulitzer prize winner and amazing that I have not read such a classic till now. Well, actually there are many 'must read' books that I have still not read yet, so there you go.

Short synopsis from wiki here. This really is quite a simple story of kids growing up, but in the backdrop when black and white people were still very much segregated, the time of black slavery. The simplicity of the story simply makes the story of it better. I think the measure of a good piece of fiction is not only the plot and pacing, but the good writing style. This book is pretty direct and simple, but it just wants to make you read on. You just read on page to page without any rush, because each page is as beautiful as the last, as the next.

I see this book sort of like J.D. Salinger in terms of quality, obviously the style is very much different. But it is such a beautiful story. It really gives me motivation to read more book, everytime I read such a wonderful book.

A Study in Scarlet

by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Short synopsis from Wikipedia.

A Study in Scarlet is a detective mystery novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which was first published in 1887. It is the first story to feature the character of Sherlock Holmes, who would later become one of the most famous literary detective characters, with long-lasting interest and appeal. The book's title derives from a speech given by Holmes to his companion Doctor Watson on the nature of his work, in which he describes the story's murder investigation as his "study in scarlet": "There’s the scarlet thread of murder running through the colourless skein of life, and our duty is to unravel it, and isolate it, and expose every inch of it."^[1]

^{This is the first of the novels of the whole Holmes series and it is where it all starts, how Watson meets Holmes and their first case together. I have found this website here, that has all the Holmes stories for download for free here as the copyright has ran out already and is free to be read. So I am not my lovely Kindle, going to read all of it in order. Month long this will probably take. Lovely.}

The Alchemist

by Paulo Coelho

Short synopsis from Wikipedia.

The Alchemist details the journey of a young Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago. Santiago, believing a recurring dream to be prophetic, decides to travel to the pyramids of Egypt to find treasure. He then tells a lone gypsy about this treasure. As he leaves, the gypsy mentions one thing. If he does find the treasure, she wants 1/10 of it. On the way, he encounters love, danger, opportunity, disaster and learns a lot about himself around the impact he had on the people he met. One of the significant characters that he meets is an old king named Melchizedek^[5] who tells him about discovering his personal legend: what he always wanted to accomplish in his life. And that "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." This is the core philosophy and motto of the book. During his travels, he meets a beautiful Arabian woman named Fatima who explains to him that if he follows his heart, he shall find what it is he seeks. Santiago then encounters a lone alchemist who tells about personal legends. He says that people only want to find the treasure of their personal legends but not the personal legend itself. He feels unsure about himself as he listens to the alchemist's teachings. The alchemist states "Those who don't understand their personal legends will fail to comprehend its teachings."

I actually read this book several years ago and decided to read it again because it is just so wonderful. Plus it is not that long, so it is a book you can finish in one or two sittings. The story is wonderfully inspirational, it motivates for one to be brave and chase their dreams because that is the only life worth living. One would rather be poorer and take a risk in doing something they love, rather earning more money doing something they don't like. So I read this book over and over just to remind myself of why I am here, and what I should do. This is one must buy book because it has infinite re-read value, a modern day classic.

Aesop's Fables

by Aesop

Short synopsis from Wikipedia.

Aesop's Fables or Aesopica refers to a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. His fables are some of the most well known in the world. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many stories included in Aesop's Fables, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" derives), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Ant and the Grasshopper are well-known throughout the world.

Who does not know some of Aesop's Fables. Though, I actually did not know there were so many fables by Aesop. By the end of it I was sort of sick foxes and asses and lions and birds.

An interesting thing about Aesop's Fables are their morals are as applicable today as they are then, barring a few. There were only about 5 stories which moral of the stories I did not agree with. In a few of those I also did not feel the moral was what was being represented in the story. But that maybe due to subjective opinion. Overall, it was a good read and good (or bad) to see human nature has not changed  much in the past few hundred years.

The Mysterious Stranger

by Mark Twain

This story is about three boys in a small village who stumble upon a stranger in the woods one evening. This, the mysterious stranger, turns out to be an angel and when questioned what his name was, he replied that his name was Satan. Following this encounter the boys' life are changed and so too the whole village as the stranger stays in the town and meddles with the affairs of the villagers. He does this to highlight the Moral Sense of humanity and how trivial the sense of right and wrong and how hypocritical the human race really is.

A full synopsis of the story can be found here on wikipedia.

It really is an amazing story and surprising how relatable this story is even though it was written about 100 years ago. It is the sort of story I hope to write in terms of the theme and plot. It also shows me that books do not really need to be scenic and full of descriptive prose to fully-colour the world. Twain here has very efficiently created his world in broad strokes and allow the reader to fill their own worlds with their own details, I would analogize this to a minimalist artist but still not cause a wanting of more description.

Darkness Comes

by Dean Koontz

A short summary. This book is about a police officer, Jack Dawson who is assigned to a case investigating the strange deaths of the Caramazza mob family. Their deaths were very peculiar with their whole body seeming to be bitten by small creatures and bleeding to death. One by one, the Caramazzas are dying, and although they are scum Jack must solve the case before more people die. And even worse, it seems these creatures are going to come for not only Jack but his young son and daughter. The tiny creatures are coming, they are coming for them all...

I loved the first chapter of the book, where it was a scene of Jack's daughter in the dark with the creature coming from who knows where, the fear and anticipation was electrifying. Then after that scene it was pretty much flat all the way through. The whole story was predictable and all the characters were very corny. It seems the story was written like a cheap movie production; stringing along one horror scene to the next horror scene and some of these were decent but it all felt too rehearsed. Like okay I will scare you now a little, then we will have a little break, then I will scare you again. And by the end I felt there was some glaring holes in the plot. But I finished the book nonetheless. There are some good moments in the book, but overall I think it is not that worth reading. Koontz is said to be comparable to King, and I can see at moments his style works. However, based on this piece of work, I think King is much better story telling wise. I perhaps need to read a couple more of Koontz's books to have a better idea of things. But definitely will hold off buying any of his books until I have read a few more from the library.

The Eyes of the Dragon

by Stephen King

This is a dark fantasy book set in a sort of medieval age, of castles and wizards. It is a story of a young prince, Peter who is framed by Flagg, the magician/advisor of King Roland, Peter's father. He is then sent to live out the rest of his life in the top of a tower that overlooks the whole city, called the Needle. In the meantime, Peter's younger brother Thomas takes over the kingdom and being so young and not very bright, Thomas is simply a puppet to Flagg's will. In all this while, Peter sets about setting things right and starts to hatch a plan to escape and reclaim his throne and clear his name. All this Peter must do before Flagg causes the whole kingdom to riot in arms from the high taxation and injustice of the courts he has imposed.

I think this is not one of King's best works. It seems to simple and the world's coloring and texture is very thinly veiled. The concept are also not explored into much depth. I felt there was very little to make this story have any sort of fantasy feel, or is it not supposed to be fantasy but just set in medieval times. I wonder. Anyways, it is also not dark and scary enough.

With other King books I have read, I always felt sick to my gut about how mentally disturbing it is. For instance, when I read Rose Madder, even thought the overall plots was not very well put together, the depth and substance of the characters are enough to make you feel and sick with everything, which is where I set the bar for King's fiction.

Overall, the story is decent and the characters are likable but at the end of it I felt it could have been so much more and I did not feel particularly horrified by any of it.

Victoria

by Knut Hamsun

I read this short story a moment ago. It is a story about a miller's son, Johannes who falls in love with a girl of the upper class, Victoria when they were children. And all throughout life they struggle with their love for each other and having to deal with the reality of their lives being so different. Johannes grows up to be a successful writer and Victoria was to to be married to a rich lieutenant. After his, Johannes finally was also engaged to a girl he who he has saved her life when she was younger called Camilla. And after all these occurrences, Johannes and Victoria still loved each other.

This is a good light book to read, the words are simple but deep in meaning. Its take of human emotion and logic (or lack of it) behind the character's actions are interesting and very believable. Hamsun captures the irrationality of the human condition perfectly. It is a compact book and is worth a read, and a re-read. That said, it is a very sad book so you may wish to allow some space in between reads because the emotions evoked would not be dampened by knowing how this book ends, as is the sign of any good book. Perhaps it would even compound emotions by hearing a story familiar that one has forgotten and remembered again, like the embers of a long forgotten love.