Random rant

So Gaddafi is no more. People in Lybia rejoice.

Although, should we?

Call me a prude if you want. Or you could drop by sarcastically, leaving a comment like "you're one to talk".

Review: Thirteen Reasons Why

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I already said I'm curious about the mind. Whether it's a real mind or a fictional mind doesn't really matter.

Suskind captured me and my attention with Perfume, and now once again I lost myself to another description of the mind.

The mind of a teenage American girl who decided to take her own life.

Thirteen Reasons Why.

It's classified as a fiction for young adults. But I think, aside from the YA stuff going on, it's pretty fit for me. It tells her tale from the point of view of someone that has wronged her somehow, so you get to peek into two minds at once. The sensitive, fragile girl as she's slowly, in a way, bullied to her end, and the person that constantly finds shocks and heartbreaks as she slowly reveals it all, through cassette tapes.

Gosh this probably wouldn't work any more now. Who in the world still uses cassette tapes... more importantly, who in the world still has equipment to play them?

She recorded 7 tapes, 13 tales. Each targeting a person that has pushed her a little further, and each telling a story along that line of losing hope.

And she sent them all, to the first person out of those 13, for them to be passed on by the people on that list, each to the next, so they'd know exactly what they did, and how it was perceived.

It's not deep... but like I said so many times... I'm quite soppy. And I can almost hear her in those tapes. I can almost hear her anger, her frustration, her hurt, her disappointment.

I think the author did a pretty good job describing a teenage girl/ young woman, her anger and hurt, as well as the young man listening to it all. It is probably more suitable for young adults if you consider what kids that age go through...bullying, peer pressure, stuff like that. But it is no less real for me because I've been through that... So it's cool that a grown man can capture stuff like that, that impacts people so deep.



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Review: Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Picked up Patrick Süskind's Perfume, because recommended to me by a friend, I liked the movie a lot, the first time I believed wholeheartedly that images can transcend odours.

I believe I have the paperback in the UK, for now I'm stuck with a badly formatted digital version.

But gosh the scents that are described seem to attack my brain directly. I believe I'd be stuck with it for a while still... very strange..., can't seem to put it down, but I worry about my mentality when I try to understand Grenouille's mentality... and I cannot help it, the books seems to draw readers into it...

The words seem to shower me with their description of mentality and scent... making me feel lost and confused but enthralled all at once. I have to constantly stop because I get drawn in too easily... it's a masterpiece indeed.

I get to peek into the mind of a socio-path... or is that the mind of a psychopath? I think it is both, but more inclined to the latter. And I can almost see the reasoning, I can almost understand, and comprehend what is going through the head of Grenouille, how his mind is set.

Babies are born with a pure and simple mind. It's been a debate going on for thousands of years: were they born evil, or were they born good? Süskind seems to believe in the former, since Grenouille was born with a defect in character, as in he saw the world as he saw it, without love and without hope. But would he have changed if he had someone to love him? Would it have been different were someone able to offer him warmth?

I think I'd be stuck with finding out the answer. I wonder what I'd do if I was facing a person with no personal, human scent. I wonder what I'd do if I was such a person.



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Movie #chickflick (maybe)

So, today I saw this wonderful feel good movie called *One Day*, staring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess. And it's kept my mood up all day.

It's an adaptation based on the novel of the same name, by David Nicholls.

I read the novel in June, I think I'm going to call it one of my top 5 for the year 2011.

Review: And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I know this story inside out for some reason. I don't believe I've read it before, but to be honest I cannot be quite so sure.

And I don't think I've seen any adaptation of this either.

Either way, I picked this up last night and finished it in just under 4 hours.

I think Agatha Christie is not great for writing detective or mystery novels. She's great for capturing the human mindset.

This novel is a perfect demonstration of such ability.

The way each guests thinks, doubts, suspects and is tortured with their own thoughts and fears. The fantastical description of how the dark side of human minds are at work. The endless questioning and cunning of each individual.

They are all so lively. Reading this book was like watching a play, a movie.

Knowing whodunit from the start did not spoil the story for me. It may have, in fact, enhanced it. To see that particular character at work, to comprehend the actions, and the derailed mind.

I shall refrain from picking up another until I finish Alan Glynn's Limitless. But oh the temptation!



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Review: Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I finished this one two days ago, was just lazy to type it out.

Another reason was I wasn't not sure what I could add to the Agatha Christie glory already out there. I always liked mystery and detective novels, most of the ones I've read however, prior to the 3 years spent in the UK, were in Chinese.

I have the full Arsen Lupin collection, as well as the Sherlock Holmes collection, in Chinese, sitting next to me right this very minute. In Taiwan and Japan, Arsen Lupin is a lot bigger a deal than Sherlock Holmes. At least such was the case of my generation.

I suspect the reason being French are inherently more romantic, and thus their stories presents themselves more romantic as well; while the English are...well, not dull, but oh-so-formal, and stiff. Sherlock can never be the ladies man, the moment he starts speaking that mysterious air of his vaporises, turning stern.

Anyway, Agatha Christie is English, and so...not very romantic. Poirot is set to be Belgian, but still more English than believable.

But I picked this out of my ebooks one night after watching the ITV movie adaptation. So it lives up to the task. She's truly remarkable in story telling, the dear Agatha. The story flows, the characters are, so lively (even though just a touch more stiff than in real life, but consider the time...I can live with that). And my favourite character of them all must be M. Bouc. He's more alive than anyone in the story. But that's just me.

I always dreaded picking up Agatha Christie, for there are so many. I was given a Poirot collection couple Christmases back, by my not-so-much-better-but-one-can't-complain other half, who saw me wasting time on a pc game demo based on her work. I don't think I really read it, I just picked it up to make him feel like he didn't waste the money.

Also I had it in my head that her work would be difficult to read. I am more into modern mysteries and detective novels, like the Jeffrey Deaver type.

But this was surprisingly fluent, for a person that's native tongue isn't English. I've been working on finishing the novel Limitless (or The Dark Fields), which the movie is based upon, but it's narrative left me with a headache so I stop constantly. With Murder on the Orient Express my only stops were when I was attending my Grandmother's funeral, and when I fell asleep while reading.

By the way I tend to read just before bed time, so falling asleep while reading (especially after spending the entire day working on translation or surfing the web), is a common thing. So the above statement was meant to be complimentary.

I think I'll pick another Agatha Christie book, for my next read.



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"What is your name?"

Seems like an innocent enough question, doesn't it?

I needn't think much about it, not prior to the last two months.

This is a rant, ignore.

I hate grammar. And I suck at it.

If you read any of my writing you'd realise I tend to rant on and on and on, without stopping, using way too many commas, and end up having an overly long sentence, like this one. It just formed a paragraph! = =

Ranting on

I went to bed at 7am. Fiddled around with my phone... and of course we know where that leads...by the time I closed my eyes and went into lala-land, it was noon.