Dedicated To My Dad

This has been long overdue. A while back my dad said he was going to read The Shining. I asked him if I read it as well if he would do a blog about it with me when we were both finished. He was going to do it but he was afraid it wouldn’t be good enough. I imagine it would’ve been awesome. My dad was a funny dude. He died in December, so we never got to do our blog together. But he did get to write one thing. His last facebook post was “REDRUM”. :P Love that guy. 

I recently read A Monster Calls. This book made me cry like a baby at the end. That is something Patrick Ness seems to do very well. No other author has ever made me cry. This book reminded me of my dad in a way. Not because I felt like the main character felt about his mom dying and his reaction to it, but just because my dad had recently died and I don’t want him to be dead. It wasn’t really the same situation but it reminded me of my dad and my sorrow over his death and all that. I sure do miss him.  

So many books, so little time!...

...That’s what I said the other day while I was checking out the stash of books I found in my mom’s attic – books I thought were included in the already huge stash I have in her basement. Whoa, I have so many books. My goal of reading every book ever written is not going so well lately. I’ve been preoccupied – with travel, with moving, with negative thoughts and emotions that take over my brain, not letting me focus on anything let alone reading a friggin book! Ugh. Drama.

Well, I’m working on getting over that. Although, as I mentioned, I am having a hard time focusing, I think that if I was able to focus on a book it could help me take my mind off of other things. So. I need a book that will capture me and preoccupy my mind. And then I need to get back to blogging.

As you may know, this blog is not for critical review (except when I said the Twilight books sucked), but is instead for me to relate books to myself and my experiences and feelings, etc. Well right now I am feeling a bit melancholy (not heartbroken and devastated like the last time I mentioned that on this blog – oh my god that was tragic; this time it's just more of an impending feeling of loss and static-ness). I need something to cheer me up and occupy my mind. Does anyone have any suggestions? Until I hear any ideas, I may go with my old favourite A Confederacy of Dunces. This book can always make me smile. Or Candide, since I wrote that “‘Everything is not so bad’ when you have a good book”. Well, let’s see what I can do...

Confusion, Zombies, Life

I highly recommend this book.

I really don't want to write much about it, to be honest. I really, really liked it. It was entertaining, compelling, nerve-wracking, humorous, and sad. I think especially for me, it was a bit sad to read. The main character reminds me very much of someone I know who I unfortunately cannot have in my life for self-preservation reasons. This is not really the point I am trying to make; I guess I just wanted to point out why it was a bit compelling for me and intriguing I guess. Can you tell I feel a bit confused about it?
Personal drama aside, it is making me think about this situation...do you ever find a character who so reminds you of someone you know that you feel like you are getting some insight into who the real person in your life actually is? It's funny. In my case, this person cannot be more of an enigma to me. I felt while I was reading this character that I was learning more about my person. But I wonder if that is true. I wonder if this character really is like him, or if it's just that I'm at such a loss for clues as to why he (my person) behaves the way he does/what his issues are that I'm grasping at straws here. I found some similarities so I am comparing and projecting the whole character.
Or maybe you find a character that reminds you of yourself or who you want to be. I haven't found one yet to model myself on. I quite like myself. I rather think characters should be modeled on me. Two of my best friends are always telling me to write my memoirs...
Anyway, this post seems more like a journal entry, but as with all the other posts on this book blog, it's all about how the books make me feel:)

Words from the wise...

That awkward moment when you're at a new library and you have no idea where Anything is so you kinda just walk around in circles...


from my cousin Cali on facebook. I lol'ed, which is a rare occurrence for me.:P

Some Solid Stories

Feeling a bit melancholy (actually heartbroken and devastated) I needed some retail therapy. Buying things to make me feel better. Convincing myself that I am worthy of good things in life. Blah, blah, blah...enough moping... My point is that during my retail therapy, I decided to BUY BOOKS!!!! I spent ages in the book store, trying to decide what books I want, what would cheer me up. I haven’t bought books in a long time, especially new books. Even though I love owning books and want to have a huge, huge library, buying new books lately has been more dream than reality. I just haven’t had the expendable income. Now I have at least a little bit of extra cash, and –  being on the verge of a meltdown –  I felt it was time to spend, spend, spend on books! So I decided to get what I wanted. I ended up with four choices and got all of them!

One of the books I got I had never heard of before. I was somehow drawn to it. As I was turning a corner I saw it on a shelf – a row of them waiting to be bought. I picked it up and looked at its description. The book seemed as melancholy as I felt so I bought it.

I thought, if I don’t like it, then that would be a lesson for me – sometimes (as I heartbreakingly found out recently) things don’t always turn out the way you want or expect them to, but you can always learn something from the experience. (Fiction books teach lessons sometimes, although I usually just appreciate them for the way they make me feel and try to ignore/disregard the critical views that ruin them for would be fans.)

I also thought, if I do like it, well, at least something good came from the entire experience.

As it turns out, I found myself bored with the book within the first chapter. Although I’m not keen on the author’s writing style, I think the book could be good. But I think it was partially me and my state of mind – I actually did not want to continue my melancholy. I wanted to feel good and move on.

I didn’t move on completely... Just as it always is for me when dealing with heartbreak, I just couldn’t let go yet. So I continued reading the book I had been reading up til then – Nine Stories. Now this was the kind of melancholy reading I needed. Something untouchably sad and heartbreaking in its everyday depression and disappointment. This one line sums 'it' all up for me, “The fact is always obvious much too late, but the most singular difference between happiness and joy is that happiness is a solid and joy a liquid.” I think I need to strive for more solids in my life. 

As the kids say, OMG!

Whoa, young adult dystopian literature! This series is even better than The Hunger Games, albeit much more intense, in depth, and emotionally distressing. In fact, while I have NEVER before in my whole life cried from reading a book, I teared up a bit near the end of the last book. Don’t let my intense description so far turn you off of this series. The books are probably some of the best I’ve ever read. Chaos Walking is the name of the series and the author is Patrick Ness. The three books are The Knife of Never Letting Go, The Ask and the Answer, and Monsters of Men.

 

I don’t really want to write too much about this series. Just that it is incredible. It’s basically on another planet in the future where there is a virus that causes all people to be able to hear each others’ thoughts. All of them. All the time. Except that women can hear thoughts but their thoughts can’t be heard.  The series is technically a young adult book, but I feel that its subject matter is much more adult. Or at least it allows for incredibly adult discussions of some very serious ‘what if?’ situations. Whoa, intense. Have I said that a few times already?