Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

2014

So the end is nigh. The end of 2014 that is.

I see that everyone is doing a summary/recap of how their 2014 went. As for me? Far too much has happened in the space of a year that I'm not going to try and list out every single event.

However I will say that 2014 has been quite the roller coaster. I feel like I've learnt so much in just this one year. Sure it may not be the traditional things like studies seeing as I've been taking my post uni gap year. But the experiences of doing something else in life besides just studying and working really are quite valuable. If not for personal development at least they make for great conversation.

I'm not much of a non-fiction reader and this past year I haven't been reading as much as I used to but the books that I have picked up are geared more towards the factual side. For some reason I find it harder to get lost in fictional books as much as I used to. The psychological analysis for that would probably be that I am not so eager to get away from real life as much. Probably true, but I digress.

My main point was to recommend a book that I believe everyone should read. Especially if you are an introvert. It's called Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking  No it's not one of those self help books that is meant to change your life. But I think it's a good read for everyone to understand people a little bit more. I am definitely an introvert by nature. Yet I've found in the past year that the first impression I give off has been that of an extrovert! The book talks about how many introverts in life will slowly learn to be what is known as a pseudo-extrovert. Someone who changes to a more extroverted nature because that is what society is more welcoming off. Definitely has happened to me. While I believe introverts should read to book just so you can feel less out of place in the world, it's the extroverts who would benefit more from it I think. For them to understand that when someone just wants to stay at home by themselves doing their own thing, it's not because they are getting old and boring but because they just need to recharge.

All that aside, one thing for sure is that I am definitely getting better at this life thing. 

Friday, July 27, 2012

ombre.



I've always sought solace in the written word. From reading it in books or online to writing it out on paper or typing it out on my computer.

While my computer might hold more than half of my attention what with this blog I update, the fanfics I read, updating twitter and facebook (yes I consider that writing, even if it is just a sentence or two). There's still something about physically holding a book to read or holding a pen a putting my thoughts down onto paper. It feels a lot more comforting for some reason, less mechanical and more natural. Like how it is meant to be.

Life nowadays is moving closer towards a technological one. Even I have to admit that I don't read as much as I used to seeing as I spend most of my time glued to my computer screen. Most people now have a kindle or an iPad in which they read on as it is a lot more convenient than carrying a book around. And people don't seem to write anymore as it is definitely more efficient to type everything out onto the computer with it's autocorrect and search functions just in case you want to change something.

From time to time however, when I'm in the mood, I like to sit down and write. While I have been mainly putting my thoughts into blogposts (after all, I've been blogging since 2005), there are moments when I pick up a pen and just pour my thoughts out onto a piece of paper. It might not always be my opinions or thoughts about my day, it may be something completely fictional or descriptive that I just wanted to get out of my system. When I'm done, I promptly scrunch up the paper and throw it away. One thing I dislike is re-reading my work so if it's on paper I chuck it, if it's online I either delete it or just never open up the same file again.

I guess this blog post is mainly to remind myself of how I will always cling to the 'old' ways of reading and writing with paper instead of a screen. 

Friday, March 30, 2012

early.

One week of traveling. How backpackers do it I will never know. It's just so tiring.

Yes my week in Italy was good while it lasted. But I am happy to be back here in Manchester. The sky may be gloomy and the wind may be strong, but I can stay in my room the whole day in my jammies while doing absolutely nothing.

Okay fine. Not nothing. Useless things like reading blogs, facebook-ing, going on 9gag, watching youtube. Just taking a breather I guess. My brain can only process so much. And after a week of looking at a great deal of art (whether in churches or in a museum), my mind needs to take a rest and not process anything of great significance.

Now excuse my while I read my chic lit on my bed under my comfy duvet with my stuffed gingerbread man as company. Cause I can. 


Saturday, May 21, 2011

Thursday, March 17, 2011

pea.





Her skin is white cloth,
and she's all sewn apart
and she has many colored pins
sticking out of her heart.



She has many different zombies
who are deeply in her trance.
She even has a zombie
who was originally from France.



But she knows she has a curse on her,
a curse she cannot win.
For if someone gets
too close to her,

the pins stick farther in.



Taken from 

Tim Burton's: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy.

Pretty weird and twisted stuff. But then again, what more could you expect from Tim Burton.

*CLICK HERE* to read the rest.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

smooth.

I just noticed that today's the 11th of November.

Do you know what that means??

It means,

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

in ONE WEEK'S time!!!! =D

Can't waitttttt!!

Haha. Unfortunately, I'll be in Bangkok. So will only get to watch it when I get back to Malaysia =(.

Oh well. Time to re-read all my Harry Potter books now.
Yes. Before each movie I re-read all the books. From the Philosopher's Stone up till the movie. So in this case till the very end.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

epigram.

I think if was ever given the chance to meet an author(whether dead or alive),

it'd have to be Oscar Wilde.

My favourite quote has always been from him.

"I can resist everything except temptation."

And now after reading "The Picture of Dorian Gray", I'd have to say I agree with a lot of ideas put forth in the book.

"Nowadays most people die of a sort of creeping sort of common sense, and discover when it's too late that the only thing that one never regrets are one's mistakes."

~Lord Henry Wotton (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Saturday, October 23, 2010

waltz.


"He adjusted himself to beams falling, and then no more of them fell, and he adjusted himself to them not falling."

~Sam Spade (The Maltese Falcon)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

purity.

This is ANNOYING the hell out of me.

There's this movie that I want to know the title of. So if anyone can tell me that, I will be FOREVER grateful. Seriously.

It's about this boy who uses a time machine to look for his father in the future. When he does get to the future he finds out that humans have evolved into two entirely different species. One type live above ground where they're always carefree and happy and have telekinetic powers(which they use to start a food fight =P). The other type live underground and only come up at night.

The ones above ground have to sacrifice some of themselves every month to those underground in exchange for food and clothes. Turns out the underground people use them as power sources. Boy finds his father trapped underground and manages to save him. Oh, and the boy sort of falls in love with an above ground girl.


That's about it. Should be enough to trigger off your memory if you've watched it.

The reason I suddenly thought of this is I'm reading H.G Well's The Time Machine. And it seems that this cartoon movie is directly inspired by the book. In my opinion at least.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Thursday, July 15, 2010

inception

Ever wondered who your writing style resembled??

Well, there's *THIS WEBSITE* that can sort of tell you.

It's not really accurate cause the results aren't that consistent. But still it's interesting to see what comes up.

I analysed seven of my blog posts, and this is what came up.

Jame Joyce (author of Ulysses.) X3
Stephen King (author of Carrie, It, The Shawshank Redemption...) X2
Chuck Palahniuk (author of Fight Club)
Kurt Vonnegut (author of Harrison Bergeron)

Interesting combination no?

Wonder what it says about me though...

Monday, June 28, 2010

ratatat.

I'll admit I spend a lot of time in the fiction world.

But no matter how many times I read or watch these type of relationships, I never get bored.

What type of relationships you ask?

The kind where the girl and guy hate each other or at least dislike each other at first, but eventually they fall in love. And the reason they dislike each other at first is always either cause they're too similar and therefore their ambitions overlap (wanting the same position) or because the guy has too huge an ego (playboy) or the guy is so mysterious (girl needs to know everything).

My top 3 from manga/anime, books and shows.

Ayashi No Ceres: Aya and Toya. She the reincarnation of a celestial being, him the assassin hired to kill her.

Black Magicians' Trilogy: Sonea and Akkarin. Her a novice in the magic world, he the powerful high lord who practices the forbidden black magic.

Gossip Girl: Chuck and Blair. He the super bad boy and her the queen.

Fine, I'm gonna add a fourth just cause I love this pair so much in fanfiction.

Harry Potter: Draco and Hermione. Him the playboy and her the know-it-all.

Haha.

I just realised. Akkarin dies at the end of the story, Toya will die soon, Chuck seems to have died and Draco dies in quite a number of the fanfictions I read.

What tragic love stories I like =P.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

ghostly.

There's nothing I like better than sitting in my bed with a good book on a rainy day. I like the feel of holding the book in my hands, the feel of paper as I turn the page and the satisfying sense of completion as I close the book and put it down on my bedside table.

As much as I love books, I can't help but feel that with time books are going to be a thing of the past. People no longer want to buy bulky books that only seem to take up space at home or add weight to their luggage when they travel.

Amazon's Kindle is becoming more and more popular and after reading about it, I can see why. Although the Kindle DX costs $489, it can store up to 3,500 books. That's only around $.10 per book. A pretty good deal right? That's if you only download the free books which are mainly older books like the classics. However, if you do want to buy the new books, it's still cheaper to get it on Kindle than it is to buy it at a bookstore.

So yeah, an increasing number of people opt to get Kindle since it's easy to carry around and you can store so much in it.

What do I think about it?

Yeah sure I think I'd eventually find myself buying a Kindle but no matter how realistic they try to make the ebook read, nothing will ever beat a good old fashioned book.

But for now, I like how I can download free books and read them on my laptop using Kindle for Mac =D. There's just so much out there. A good website if you want to read free books, is *FEEDBOOKS* They have loads of good stuff to read. Dante's Divine Comedy, Freud's Dream Psychology, Grimm's Fairy Tales...

Yay for free books!

Thursday, April 15, 2010

kick.

I'd always been a great lover of books.

I've read plenty of books over time and always loved getting lost in the stories. It's like time would pass by so fast when you're immersed in some one else's story.

But since A-levels started, I think I'd kinda lost the reading habit. All story books that I seem to have read were just for lit class. Books were no longer an escape from dreary reality. Instead, books were meant to be read over and over again so that I can analyse the character, the setting, the tone blah blah blah.

I mean, I don't think I've read as many books as I used to (fanfiction doesn't count). Haha.

Yet today, I rediscovered the marvelous world of fiction =D. Borrowed this book from the college library and it's pretty good so far. It's called "The Last Concubine".

So yeah, yay for finding good books again. And I just bought two more books (The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest and Lord Sunday). Two books that I expect to be really good. Looks like I've found my reading drive again =).


Tuesday, September 29, 2009

make me.

Did you know that it's possible to write an ENTIRE book of over 50,000 words without the use of the letter E?

*GADSBY* the book that seemed impossible.

It was written in 1939 by Ernest Vincent Wright.

Quite cool no?

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Monday, August 31, 2009

average.

Haha. You wouldn't believe the kinds of websites there are nowadays.


Yes indeed. They have a step by step guide to joining the Forces of Darkness.

Sort of reminds me of the sarcasm website I posted up before.

And guess what??

There's a book based on the website too.

The internet is ever so interesting.




Wednesday, April 29, 2009

viva la vida.

Life is pretty ironic at times isn't it?

Ah well.

My group has finished partitioning the whole of Jane Eyre!!! The moment we finished it, Marcia, Lucas and I(Caroline was busy at the prize giving ceremony thing), we were like "YES!!!". Haha. All the work and effort we've put in made it feel so nice to finally finished.

And you know what that means? No analysis for a week till we start 'A View From The Bridge'. Uh huh, no lit work for an entire week. =D.



I also just read this book called "The Chocolate Run" by Dorothy Komsoon. It's quite good cause I seriously feel like I can understand the main character in the book at times.

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Monday, February 16, 2009

who am i to say.

I swear the greatest love story I've ever read is 'Jane Eyre'

Like seriously! I spent the entire Sunday not doing any work or studying cause I was reading it.

It's so good!!! That I almost cried at a few points.

It can hands down beat Twilight, Romeo and Juliet, Titanic, Pride & Prejudice. You name it, Jane Eyre wil beat it.

It just shows that the main character need not always be drop dead gorgeous and the guy need not be super hot or dashing.