The Secret Teachings of ALL AGES - Reading

This is a rather interesting book. It goes through many religions and their meanings along with different cults, practices etc. This is an abbridged version from the complete original, with less pics essentially. I'm still reading certain parts of this book. It's a huge book and rather detailed in nature, with a lot of information to take in and understand.

If you want to expand your knowledge in this area, I highly recommend this book. It's a very rewarding read.

I started reading this in Japan, it definately opens up your mind to new possibilities.

The Da Vinci Code - Reading

Here's a highly talked about book. So many weeks on the best seller list, translated into so many different languages. So much controversy. So much to tell, so much to talk about, everyone should read it, yet I still can't manage to get past chapter 5.

I think people have hyped this book up too much for me, and when a book is not introduced to you in the right way, I believe that either you lose interest in it, or when you eventually read it you're left unsatisfied. I believe this is what this book will be like for me. Many have told me that since the movie is out, I should watch the movie first and then read the book, otherwise I will not enjoy the movie since the book is so much better. The other reason I can not bring myself to read this book is that it is the illustrated edition and it's hard cover, therefore making it large and difficult to take to work, to read in bed or simply on the couch. Holding it is a real task. Maybe if I had the soft cover I would've finished it by now, yet the pics in this book really add to the story. Being able to see exactly what the author is talking about is a real advantage, although it comes with its disadvantages also. I will re-attempt this in the future.

1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

I love the blatancy of this title! It's like, well, you're going to die, so you must read all these books before that happens. ha ha ha

I HAVE ANOTHER MISSION IN LIFE!!!

Well of course I'm not going to read all 1001 books, and I'm not even going to read the ones that it says in here. I will use them as a guide only. I don't agree with a fair few of the books that are in here, and I think that there should be others in here, which are not! I will have to create my own list of 1001 books you must read before you die.

Now I love this book, because it contains the 1001 most popular, most talked about books in our time, ranging from the past till now. It has descriptions of the books, summaries, about the author, pics etc. Pretty hefty book if you ask me, but it feels good in the hands. I first saw this book in Angus and Robertson, retailing for $65 AU, and thought what? I want it, but I don't want it for that much. So I decided to buy it from Amazon... As per usual, I got it for less than half that price. Gotta love Amazon. I still look forward to and will celebrate the day when an official Amazon Australia is launched! I really want to the No Postage Policy within that country!!! Grrrrr! I'd be saving soooo much more! If you love books as much as I do, you will be thinking the same thing!

Can you believe that "The Da Vinci Code" is NOT in this book! ha ha, I love it! I still haven't been able to get into that book. I've read about 5 chapters, and just cannot get into it. I think the hype has turned me off. I will eventually complete it but for the time being it remains on my bookshelf with a bookmark early on in its story. Geeze, I should put that one on here too.

I'm also surprised that "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" is not in this book, as I think it's a wonderful book and should receive mention. I thank Angus & Robertson for placing it in their top 100 list for 2006.

Result 4 of 5 Great for a reference book. I think I will like this book the more I read its recommendations.

SIN CITY COMICS (COMPLETE)

Okay so here is the complete set of all 7 SIN CITY comics! In order of Reading.

1. The Hard Goodbye
2. A Dame To Kill For
3. The Big Fat Kill
4. That Yellow Bastard
5. Family Values
6. Booze, Broads & Bullets
7. Hell And Back

All I can say is WOW! I have to admit that I watched the movie first with no idea that the comics existed. Once I found out, I had to buy them and read them since the movie was amazing. And can I now take the time to mention, wow! love the graphics, the stories, they are superb! Amazing drawn, more like a print than drawn, or so begin the first 4 afterwhich the art changes slightly.

You get a lot more out of the comics, and I love the way their stories overlap. So you can read one story and there's another one going on in the background which you don't realize till you read the next story and the one you just read is in the background. Very nicely done. Sometimes there's even three stories happening.

Oh, complaint about the movie! Nancy (Jessica Alba's Character) is topless in the comics!!! Fully ripped off in the movie! I thought it was supposed to be the same! lol

Result 5 of 5. Simply AMAZING!

Cell - Reading

Guess where I saw this one?

Most of you probably saw it there too, on the toolbar advertisements of MSN Messenger. Now I have most of Stephen king's books but I have only ever read part of Four Past Midnight (The Langoliers) and half of another of the shorter stories. I will eventually read them all, but not at the moment, due to the fact that I have seen the movies, and have been turned off thinking they will be exactly the same. A theory I do not believe now. But besides the point.

So I saw this one and the story took to my interest. I bought it in Japan from Japan Amazon, and it was delivered to my door, free of postage, as per the Amazon rule of ordering within a country that distributes Amazon. I started to read it and it was interesting...I wonder where they would go with this. Then I had to pack my boxes to send home to Australia, so I didn't get a chance to finish it due to parties and the like, so in the next couple of days before packing, Aaron read it, and he said that it was okay, but that it ended strangely. Hmmm. I was turned off, it's still sitting on my shelf, bookmark in page 128 of 350. I will get to it, when I have finished and started others than fascinate me more at the moment.

No rating was given for this highly anticipated read.

Coldheart Canyon - Reading

Okay now here's a strange book. I'm just over halfway. Another one I started reading while I was still at uni! I bought this book from the Uni Bookshop when I had an obsession with Clive Barker books, since hellraiser. I love warped things, and here's one I am yet to complete.

Slowly, slowly I will read it. I remember it being great, but I was still in the phase of my life, where I found it difficult to read books over 300 pages. This one being double that was more than arduous for me, so its progression is slow.

So far though, I give it a 4 of 5. I seem pretty lenient on books huh? Maybe my views will change as I read more. Sorta like how a systems results become more accurate with the more information it receives. We'll have to wait and see!

Life of Pi

PART 1:
I saw this book on our kitchen table just before I left Japan and I asked Aaron about it. He told me the story and told me it was an amazing read, and since I highly respect his views on great books, when I saw it in Angus & Robertson's Top 100 List and also in the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" book, I thought I had to buy it, so I ordered it. I particularly love the authors note at the beginning of the book...It's very interesting.

So far the book is excellent, really well written and superbly described. I'm sitting on a 5 of 5 at the moment.

I love the smell of the paper also in the Amazon American Print, smells like the bible pages...I wonder if that was done on purpose. hmmm.

PART 2:
Okay, so it's finally finished! And what a feat that was! So many people were annoying me today at work while I was trying to finish and since there's a kinda twist in the end, I really wanted to finish it, yet the fuck-wits at work wouldn't let this happen, cause they're complete morons.

Anyway, besides the point, the book was fantastic! I really loved every little bit of it, from the descriptions to the circumstances Pi was placed in, to the relationship he built with Richard Parker (ie the Bengal Tiger). I particularly loved the island that they reached just before the end of the book. Awesome, and you know what? I believe the first story, the original. Not the second more plausible story.

Result: 5 of 5 for this one, cause it was so INTERESTING!!!

69 - Reading

The movie of this book was talked about constantly amongst my Japanese friends. Everyone knew it except for me. Even to this day I haven't seen the movie, but when I found the book in the big bookshop at Kurume Youme Town, I had to buy it.

They kept saying "Alfa Romeo" with a particular kind of accent, and it was hilarious, especially when I would repeat it amongst all these Japanese and they would piss themselves laughing and say "69"!! I had no idea what they were talking about.

The book itself is okay, it's a bit slow for my liking. I can see how it's funny, but I don't know what the movie is like. I have a feeling the movie will be really funny.

The Five People You Meet In Heaven

Beautiful.

I love this book because what we would call Short & Sweet. Nigar recommended it to me...I think and her boyfriend Mike recommended it to her....I think.

I saw this on Angus & Robertson Top 100 Book List, and since I heard it was good, bought it myself.

Very nicely written, this story unfolds and touches your heart. The initial blurb fascinated me, and when I read the opening pages, I thought...I need to know how this ends. As goes with all stories about the afterlife, we want to know what happens in the end. What is it like? How does this particular story end, and who are the five people he meets?

If you have less than a day to spare, read this book. I highly recommend it. I'm surprised it's not in the "1001 Books" book, it'd definitely be in my 1001 books you must read.

Result is 4.5 of 5!

Howl's Moving Castle

Who knew that this was a book let alone a story NOT written by Hayao Miyazaki? I sure as hell didn't! It was funny, I saw the movie which I had downloaded off the net in Japanese with English subtitles, and then when I went into work and started talking to my students about it, one of them told me that there is a book! So I thought, wow! A book! I can't wait to read this story as it was originally written by the Japanese author. She told me that you could get the book in English, so I was thrilled. Next day without fail, as is the Japanese way, she hands me this book, in English, written by Diana Wynne Jones. Hmmm....Strange, I thought. Is this the same book? Or has it been re-written in English by an English author? So that night I went home, jumped on the net and did some research, only to find that the story isn't in fact Japanese at all, but is Diana Wynne Jone's original story! How wierd that Hayao Miyazaki would use someone else's story and make it into a film. I was disappointed in a way but also interested.

I began reading only to find out that the book is so different from the movie that it's bloody awesome! I obviously like the book better than the movie, but the movie and it's story is also amazing!

Result 5 of 5! Excellent read

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Okay, so here is Haruki Murakami's so called best book. Don't get me wrong! It's an amazing book with an amazing story. I just guess it was hyped up too much for me. It was an interesting read. Very long, but entertaining never the less. I didn't know what to expect from this book, except that it was really warped from what people told me, and I see now how they meant, but not so much that there's a big difference from Murakami's other books.

This book along with Kafka on the shore are 2 of 3 books that are actually listed in the "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die" book. A true achievement considering they don't usually place more than 1 book from the same author, especially in the time in which these books were written. If you're looking for a strange book to read, read this! I await comments before I can elaborate on any of these posts.

Result 4 of 5. Read it!

Kafka on the Shore

What an amazing book. In my opinion, this is Murakami's best book! Okay, well I haven't read many, but I did read his so called best book straight after this one and I didn't particularly like it. This one on the other hand is excellent.

Funny how I got to reading this one. My flatmate Aaron would say, read Murakami, he's really good, really strange, read it. You'll like it. I saw this book lying on our kitchen table for weeks, but never reached over to even read the blurb, until one day I rocked up for work only to find that there had been an error and my shift had been slided 3 hours later and I hadn't been told. Damn! What was I to do now? I'll buy a book, don't know what, an English one. So I went over to the bookshop outside of Omuta Youme Town and walked straight to the English section only to see this book staring me in the face. I recognize this book, let me read the blurb. So I picked it up not knowing that it was his latest book at the time, and read the blurb. Seemed somewhat interesting, I'll give it a go. So I bought it and went back and began reading. I had 3 hours to kill so there was no point putting it down for 3 hours, hence I broke past the introductory boring bits you usually find at the start of the book, and then I was hooked! I couldn't put it down. It wasn't before long I finished it and fell in love with Murakami. How strange! I understand why the Japanese call him the strange author, and why the foreigners like him so much.

This book is strange, it is amazing, and it is totally my kind of book! I highly recommend it to anyone!

Result 5 of 5. Excellent read!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Now I can start reading the 6th book. The thing that struck me with this one was the title! And so unexpected was the answer. I loved it. This is by far my favourite to date. It was shorter than the fifth, but the story was amazing, me in particular as it centers around my favourite character from book 1, Severus Snape. I could not believe what as happening in the book. Especially towards the end when a certain character is killed off. Let me tell you, I was so shocked, that I immediately went over to Kat, Polly and Damo's in the next building and asked for a shot of whiskey which I never drink! I needed to calm my nerves. I have never been so shocked in a book before. My world seemed to be crumbling down all around me, like I had been living in a fake existence, but I know that everything that has happened so far, has for reasons that will be explained in the sixth book and I know that the sixth book is going to be one unfucking believable book! It'll definitely be the best of all. Too bad the series is coming to an end. It's been such an entertaining story. One can only hope that it will continue.

Now for those who know the story, please read on. I do believe that the reason Dumbledore died is that he has been working secretly with Snape to begin with and still even right up until his death has had complete trust in Snape. He knew that he was getting weak and couldn't defeat Lord Voldermort, and since throughout the novel there is a complexity around the trust followers of Lord Voldermort have of Snape, the killing of Dumbledore by Snape would in fact change this view of all the dark lords followers including the dark lord himself and then just as Dumbledore would have wanted, he'd have an insider completely masked by everyone, in order to find out details as to where the other objects containing Voldermort's split soul are and destroy them. You know what they say, keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Result I would give this one a 5 of 5, simply brilliant story telling!

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Ah, the first so called book entry. It started with the fifth Harry Potter Novel. I was in Japan and the Sixth book was released, but sitting at home in Australia with a bookmark in page 265 was my fifth book. What did I do? I obviously bought it again, except this time I had the choice of buying the same cover as my hardcover at home but in the soft back or buy the softback in the Adult Editions. So I went with the latter. I went home and called my brother up to ask where I was in the novel, after he had told me I began to read.

It's funny, cause I remember buying this book, Ellen and I had pre-ordered it from Myer and were there on the morning of it's release, lining up outside Myer in the city amongst all these little kids dressed up as various characters from the book. Geeze we felt wierd, but the excitement and greatly anticipated release was more than enough to overcome the stupidity we felt standing in the line.

On arriving home, I couldn't wait to start reading it...here it was in my hands, the longest of the books to date. I began reading only to find that I was actually disappointed. It was slow so I couldn't get into it the way I had with the previous four. I knew that a book of its length would obviously take a while to get into, but I just couldn't get past 265 pages, so I bookmarked it, put it back on the shelf and left it there for 3 years, until now in Japan when I had the adult covered edition and had continued reading once again.

Winter 2006 Japan. I couldn't believe that I had put down such a good book! I knew at this stage what happens. I knew that Serius Black was going to die, but it didn't phase me much. I just wanted to read it. I couldn't put it down. I knew that I had another to continue reading once this part of the story was over, but I didn't want this part of the story to finish. It was simply amazing. Awesome!

Result I give it 4 of 5 star rating! Highly recommended for any Harry Potter fan and those whom are pre-destined to become one.

I currently also have 5 of the 6 books in Greek, which I purchased for my mum at an arm and leg in comparison, the 6th of which is on order and to arrive any day.

I have not yet read the Greek Editions of Harry Potter as I cannot read as fast in Greek as I can in English. I will one day though read these also, when I think I have somewhat forgotten the stories, as we do with books, and wish to remind myself with the medium of another language.

BOOKS ARE LIFE

It's strange how a book can alter your mood, shift it within seconds and lose you in a world other than the one you are actually in.

I decided to create this part of my blog because I've always wanted to talk to people about the books I've read, but usually never get a chance too, either because they haven't read them or they read them ages ago and have forgotten their details. So many times I have tried to get both of my siblings, who are constantly around me to read books I have read, knowing that I will not have to wait for them to buy the book or borrow it since we are in the same household, or concern myself with the next meeting in order to discuss once it is read, but their personalities restrict them in doing so. Thus leaving me with a feeling of excitement, that I cannot share with someone.

It is therefore the purpose of this section of my blog to be able to express my views and ideas on the books that I have read for family members and friends, rather than posting them up on a general book review website amongst thousands of reviews. This is my own little personal excursion... And it allows me to keep track of what I have read.

The curious thing is that I never could read a book in its entirety in my younger days. I remember the first book I ever read completely was 'The Outsiders' by S.E. Hinton and only because we had to in Year 9 and I enjoyed it also. I have many friends who at that age had already read numerous books more arduous in literary complexity. Books that I have only just started to read.

Many people say that you feel smarter when you read books and I would have to agree with this. Not only do you stimulate brain function, but you learn about different things, increase your vocabulary, are momentarily taken to another plane of existence on another literary excursion.

Knowledge is Power