mindspill

The dot featured in Ryanland

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 16:56:27 GMT

In RyanLand, Philip Nolan uses the Ryanair schedule as his destination planner and travels around Europe low-cost with Ryanair. Each chapter is about a Ryanair destination (Hahn, Lubeck, Reus Salou), and the very last chapter is about nothing less than ... the dot. The prose is hilarious throughout the whole book and the last chapter is no exception. I've scanned the chapter to share it with you. This is promo for the book, and for the dot which gets quite a positive evaluation.

Scan of pg 250-251
Scan of pg 252-253
Scan of pg 254-255

I served the king of England

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 18:24:31 GMT

I served the king of England by Bohumil Hrabal narrates the life of Dittie who starts his working career as a busboy living in Czechoslovakia around 1935. Dittie’s career evolves from being a busboy, to a waiter serving some of the most exclusive hotels in his country. Along the road he starts losing his innocence and experiencing the real world, money, important people, corruption, sex and eventually love. The main ambition of his life is to gain recognition and acceptance, something he thinks can be achieved by becoming a millionaire.

This is my second book by Hrabal and I doubt it's going to be the last. The way Hrabal weaves the story and narrates as if the boy is telling a story enthusiastically to some of his friends, is something I’ve started associating with the author. Sometimes humourous, sometimes sensuous, sometimes sad, but always pleasant, this is a great book which I recommend to anybody. 4.5/5

Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch - Review

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:40:06 GMT

I heard about The Lies of Locke Lamora from Joe Sherry's blog Adventures in Reading (which is becoming one of my favourite blogs btw). Since then I read several positive reviews about the book, so I thought I should check it out. One day I saw it in the bookshop, read the jacket and wasn't convinced by it, so I didn't buy the book. I was afraid that it was going to be a complex fantasy book, full of descriptions of a magical world difficult to understand, written in a style of English as old as the world itself. This is probably one of the reasons I don't usually read fantasy books, even though the titles and cover art are very alluring. Finally, I borrowed the book from the library, and started reading it half heartedly. Boy was I sucked in the story.

A couple of people on Shelfari described the book as an Oceans 11 / Robin Hood type of book, and I tend to agree. The book is about a group of thieves who call themselves the Gentleman Bastards. Unlike Robin Hood though, they keep the money they steal. The gang leader (garrista) of the Gentleman Bastards is Locke Lamora. Locke isn't endowed with supernatural powers or an imposing physique, however he's the best at what he does, and what he does is stealing.

The book starts with the story of Locke as a child living in the streets of Camorr, a city not unlike Venice. After a teaser of Locke's early life, the story suddenly jumps to the present day, where Locke is already the garrista of his gang. After setting up a complex con job against the wealthy Don Salvara family, the peace of the city is disturbed by an uprising boss who calls himself the Grey king. With the help of his bondsmage (wizard) henchmen, the Grey King wants to overtake Brasavi, the old boss, to start ruling the Camorr underworld. This part of the story is reminiscent of Mafia stories. At the end of each chapter Lynch adds interludes that describe the formation of the Gentleman Bastards. I really liked this way Lynch pauses from the main storyline to describe something as interesting as the main story itself.

The dialog and language of the book are quite modern, not something I was expecting in a fantasy novel. The title "Gentleman Bastards" itself suggests that the language is indeed modern. Lynch doesn't hold back on using foul language in his dialog. I think this modern language use made the book much more accessible for me.

Brasavi's men piled into the room with crossbows and shot those poor idiots so full of bolts that a porcupine in heat would have taken any one of them home and fucked him.

I'm glad that I started this series from the very beginning. At least now I can read each book as it's published, not having to play catch-up with a long list of thick books. In fact today I ordered the next book in the series, Red Seas Under Red Skies, which was just released this summer. I recommend Lies of Locke Lamora, to anybody looking for a good story or anybody who wants to get into fantasy fiction. 4.5/5

Some Links
Scott Lynch's personal blog on Live Journal
32 page extract from the book
Wikipedia Entry for Lies of Locke Lamora
Strange Horizons Review
Forum for the book / series

I am a cat - Soseki Natusme

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 14:00:11 GMT

I am a cat and as yet I have no name". A perfect sentence to start the chronicle of an unwanted kitten narrating his life in the household of a Japanese teacher in the Meiji Era (early 1900’s). I am a cat by Soseki Natusme is a humorous satire on the upper middle class, academics and aesthetes. The text originally appeared as a series of 10 articles in a Japanese magazine, and the book is a collection of these articles divided in 3 parts.

The observations on humans and their peculiarities as seen by a cat make this book very humours. If you own a cat you’ll appreciate how the cat describes his superiority to mere humans. The importance of sleep, scratching, and the overall owning of the place are just some of the opinions this highly observant cat has to offer. The flowery language the cat uses in his descriptions and the archaic and bombastic tones in the conversations between people are one of the most pleasant aspects of the book.

I found the first two sections of the book to be very enjoyable, however in the last part I admit that I lost my interest and started skipping some conversations between the main characters. They seemed to become quite long winded and uninteresting towards the end as well as a bit inconclusive.

Even though the book was written in the early 1900 in Japan, and classified as literature, I found the book easy to follow and enjoyable. I highly recommend the book to any cat lover or cat owner. However if you’re totally indifferent to cats, academic snobs, and character based books I don’t think this book has much to offer for you. 4/5 stars.

War with the Newts - Karel Capcek (translated by M & R Weatherall)

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 21:12:31 GMT

War with the Newts starts with captain van Toch finding some strange ugly creatures in the Pacific Ocean who the locals used to think were devils. One day Van voch confronted public fear and went to meet the so called demons. Gradually he started interacting with the newts until he learned that he could teach them how to fetch pearls from the bottom of the ocean for him. This way he managed to make a small fortune selling pearls so van Toch sought further financing from a G. H. Bondy and prominent businessman, to help him start using the newts for other jobs. This venture was successful and the newts started being used by different countries to help in marine related jobs like building dams and building other submarine structures leading to the building of full blown underwater cities.

The cute ones never want to do anything

The good thing about War with the Newts is that it can be enjoyed at different levels. The main storyline of the book is very readable and enjoyable and can be read as a bedtime story to children. On another level there's lots of underlying satire woven in the events that happen in the story. Underneath the main storyline of the book one can easily notice references to mass production, low cost labour and slavery, mass destruction, dystopia and international politics. The satire is not really subtle but at the same time quite humours and adhering to the main storyline of the book.

As one can see, fame demoralizes even the newts

I admit that if it were not for my literary mentor who gave me this book I would have never dreamt to read it. Now that I've read the book I'm glad that I did and I'll recommend it highly. The book can be enjoyed even if you don't get the satire behind it, but then again if you're alive and go out from home once in a while you'll be able to get most of the satirical references. 4.5/5

There is an ebook version of this book at Adelaide University (translated by David Wyllie)

Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 03:44:11 GMT

I started reading Norwegian Wood after having already enjoyed other (2) books from Haruki Murakami so I thought I knew what to expect. I was expecting some strange surreal and intriguing story with mild references to The Beetles because of the book's title. I was only right about it being intriguing and having Beetles references, because Norwegian Wood is the only realistic book by Murakami. There are no talking cats or strangely marked sheep, and the character's behaviour is potentially plausible in real life.

If one had to broadly categorise the story he might say it's a love story set in the late 60's. The narrator and main protagonist is a Japanese university student called Toru Watanabe. The main storyline explores the relationship between Toru and Naoko, the girlfriend of his dead friend Kizuki, who committed suicide at the age of 17. The relationship is challenged by the pains of love, death and mental health which are the three main themes of the book.

Murakami makes art of the ordinary life of an average university student and writes to explore the psychological feelings of his characters. There are only a handful of characters in the book, yet as usual the author delves deeply into each character and makes each one very distinctive. Murakami's characters are always searching for something. This time it's a search for love, personal identity, and purpose of life of Toru and his friends, who are at the critical stage of stepping in adulthood.

There is no thrilling plot or weird story to hook you to the book yet I still finished the book in two days. From the translator's notes at the back of the book, I learned that this is the book that brought success to Murakami and gained him popularity out of Japan. After you read the book this fact wouldn't surprise you in the least. 4/5.

Out - Natsuo Kirino

Thu, 17 May 2007 00:32:45 GMT

There were two reasons why I got Out by Natsuo Kirino, first I noticed the distinctive book cover in the bookshop and secondly a friend of mine who was reading it suggested it. The story is about four financially pressured housewives frustrated with the drudgery of daily, who work the night-shift in a food packing factory. One night Yayoi, the youngest one of the group, crosses the line and chokes her husband to death. Yayoi phones her friend at the factory Masako, who for no apparent reason agrees to help disposing of the body.

The book is 500+ pages long but it's also one of the fastest books I finished in a long time. That brings me to the first characteristic of the book - its pace. The story reads so fast that sometimes you actually feel that you're skimming over the pages rather than reading them. One of the reasons for this is that Natsuo keeps suspense growing throughout the whole book, keeping you guessing what's going to happen next. The characters are well developed and are one of the strong points of the book.

The depth in character development gives the book a psychological twist which keeps you wondering what is motivating the main characters. To help in understanding the characters better the narrator sometimes shifts the event perspective between the main actors of the story. Although this adds a slight repetition to the events it helps give more insight to the individual characters.

The major drawback of the book is the book description on the jacket of the book. The description basically gives off half of the story which always is very annoying. Once you get over the main half of the book though the story plot starts twisting itself away from the usual thrillers and turns quite unpredictable. Having said this, the plot is quite linear and not very intricate. Final say: A very enjoyable fast paced thriller but I'm waiting for the sequel. 4/5

Free audio books

Thu, 10 May 2007 21:05:35 GMT

Looking for something new to do with your mp3 player? You can try listening to some audiobooks once in a while. The simplyaudiobooks site publishes a free audiobook each month. This month it's The stolen white elephant by Mark Twain. Of course you can buy all sorts of audiobooks from the site but a free download is always handy to get you going with audiobooks.

Free Audiobooks hint Nr 2. In the age of the internet we tend to forget about the more conventional sources of free stuff. Most libraries lend out audiobooks which you can borrow for free. So fish out that library card and visit the library if to find more free audiobooks.

If on a winter's night a traveller

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 04:43:10 GMT

I decided to buy If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino, after my literally-encyclopaedia pal at work asked me read the first paragraph of this book at the local bookshop. It starts like this:-

You are about to begin reading Italo Calvino's new novel, If on a winter's night a traveler. Relax. Concentrate. Dispel every other thought. Let the world around you fade. Best to close the door; the TV is always on in the next room. Tell the other right away, "No, I don't want to watch TV!" Raise your voice – they won't hear you otherwise – "I'm reading! I don't want to be disturbed!" Maybe they haven't heard you, with all that racket; speak louder, yell: "I'm beginning to read Italo Calvino's new novel!" Or if you prefer, don't say anything; just hope they'll leave you alone.

Having come out of a reading mode for a while I thought that a weird book would get me into reading mode again. Boy was I right; this book is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read. And what’s more it’s all about reading. In one of the reviews I read about the book somebody described it as a love letter to a reader. I think it’s a good analogy.

Each odd number chapter is written in the second person and the following chapter is from a book the reader is trying to read. You, as the reader of "If on a winter night a traveller" are reading the same book the reader (you) in the story is reading. This suggests that you are being referenced in the book and the book sometimes even references itself.

The main story develops only in the odd numbered chapters where the reader and the other reader start uncovering a series of book fakers who are causing all the confusion in the same book. Scattered along these chapters are observations on reading, writing and the relationship between the author and the reader. The even number chapters on the other hand are like a series of short stories which don’t relate to one another (or at least I didn’t manage to find any relation between them). Each time the reader gets to the most interesting part of the story the story is cut abruptly and something mysterious happens to the book the reader is reading.

I still cannot decide what rating I’m going to give this book. Parts of it are great (4/5) parts and parts of it I just couldn’t get (2/5). If you liked the first paragraph and like weird books then give this book a go. Don’t expect a simple storyline with a clear plot because there isn’t any. Overall (3.5/5)

Experiment Result

Fri, 03 Nov 2006 07:12:36 GMT

Remember that experiment with the colour, animal, body of water, and room? Well here's the reason for it. In Diary, Chuck Palahniuk says that Carl Jung used these questions to represent these things :-

The Colour and description of the colour you gave are representative of how you think about yourself.
The Animal is other people.
The body of water is your sex life.
And, the all white room is your thoughts on death.