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?

Silly

http://www.theonion.com/articles/books-whats-all-the-buzz-about,10283/

I’m Hungry for More!!!!

Two great things combined to create one awesome book. Young adult fiction + dystopian lit = The Hunger Games!!!!  Oh my god! What a good book. I decided recently to read this book before I even knew it was being made into a movie. I decided to read it purely because Lia recommended it (see the video in my post about Twilight). Now I cannot wait to see the film!

Lia was right, that IS a good book! After reading it, I could hardly wait to get the next one to read (Catching Fire is the second and Mockingjay is the third, which I am waiting to get now). Why is this book so amazing?, you might ask... Well, for me I really enjoy dystopian literature to begin with. I don’t know why, I just do. It’s nice to imagine alternate places and times which, while highly unlikely in my opinion, could exist.  I also really enjoy young adult fiction. It's often easy reading, very engaging and enthralling, and keeps you wanting more. In these respects, The Hunger Games does not disappoint. It is constant suspense –  I often stayed up too late so I could keep reading – and if I had just a whole day to spend reading I could have easily finished the book in one go. It definitely brought me away to another time and place – Panem, a futuristic and dystopic North America.

True, it is hard to imagine this future ever really occurring. I mean, seriously, no other countries would ever really allow America to kill kids and not allow its citizens to leave their particular district, right? Oh wait, let’s think for a minute about the world we actually do live in... I think there are some countries in which the citizens aren’t allowed free mobility to leave and some countries whose citizens we (as Americans) don’t really care about. But anyway, I really am not going into political or social commentary here. That’s not my thing at all. But it just makes me second guess the theory that this would NEVER happen...who knows what could come?...

*DISCLAIMER* The next paragraph reveals some important plot details. Don’t read this if you don’t want me to ruin anything for you.

This book definitely makes me want more. I want to know more about the war that caused Panem to be the way it is. I want to know more about the daily lives of the people in all the various districts. How they all handle the strict and cruel rule they are under. I want to be in the book (without actually dealing with any of the problems there, of course). And with regards to the second book, I want to know more about the various players in the rebellion. How they have planned the rebellion and the things they have done up til the end of the book. Of course, the reader is kept in the dark (so far) about these things in the same way Katniss is. That’s a good way of being able to put yourself in her place and be more easily drawn right into the book.

I cannot wait to read the last book, but then of course it will be over. And that is the sad part about reading books that really keep you captivated like that, that totally engross you until you’ve lost your grip on reality. Eventually you have to go back to the real world and let these characters and places go; you'll never really experience them. But still... Man I love books like this!

Recommendations?

My friend Marine recommended a book to me: http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/08/johan-lehrer-fourth-culture/.
I think it looks pretty cool and it is a great suggestion for me. I'll be reading it at some point when my obsession with young adult dystopias wears down...

Do you have any recommendations you think I would enjoy? (Let's see who knows me best. :P)

'Everything is not so bad' when you have a good book

The topic today is about one of my favourite books. I have three favourite books (and just by chance they all start with ‘C’):  Candide, A Confederacy of Dunces, and A Clockwork Orange. Why I have chosen these...I don’t know. I never really thought about it too much before beyond the fact that I like them. But upon deeper thought, perhaps it is because for each of the books, I had never before that point read anything like them.

This post, in particular is about Candide, or Optimism by Voltaire. This is a great book and I first read it at a time in my life when I was absolutely miserable. Nothing was going right in my life – or so I thought – and I hoped for something better. This book helped! The misery that Candide suffers while still hoping that he was in ‘the best of all possible worlds’ is funny, sad, and cynical. I love this book! But, I do have a hankering for utopian literature in general. And I would consider this – for me – to be a bit utopian in a sense. Candide is always out searching for his eutopia, and finds it in El Dorado momentarily yet decides it still isn’t good enough because his love isn’t there. I guess it is like some people say...’everything happens for a reason’, or ‘look on the bright side’... Well, I don’t believe in all that garbage. Sometimes things just suck. But it’s not totally cynical and pessimistic to denounce Leibnizian thought or optimism in general. Rather, you can accept that things suck for the time being, or things could be worse, or whatever, and say that ‘everything is not so bad’.

Here are some of my favourite quotes from Candide (the translated version you see in the picture above):

‘A hundred times I wished to kill myself, but my love of life persisted. This ridiculous weakness is perhaps one of the most fatal of our faults.’ – the old woman

‘When one cannot come to terms with one world, one can always do so with another. ‘Tis a great delight to see and do new things.’ – Cacambo

‘If we find nothing pleasant, at least we shall find something new.’ – Cacambo

‘...when one is tolerably at ease in any place, he should remain there.’ – King of El Dorado

‘Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part, I read only to please myself, and like only what suits my taste.’ – Pococurante

‘Such are my sentiments. I speak my mind, and am perfectly indifferent whether others think as I do.’ - Pococurante

World Book Day

Thanks to my friend, Ania, for bringing this to my attention.
1 March 2012 is World Book Day!!!!
http://www.worldbookday.com/
Enjoy your books:)