Archive for category BOOKS

Date: November 27th, 2011
Cate: BOOKS, M wants
7 msgs

book p o rn

i bought a copy of If On a Winter Night’s A Traveler a while back and even further back I bought a copy of the Popular Penguin’s Picture of Dorian Gray. I don’t buy a huge amount of books but every once in a while I have this itch that needs to be scratched and i run to amazon and I buy at least 2 books.

The copy of Dorian gray was used but it is the orange cover…..and silly old me thinking i could buy a super old book for like $10. The other day I was reallly bored so I was looking through my bookshelves and I looked at the back cover of the copy of Dorian Gray and found that it was from the Australian branch of Penguins…and I started to search…

(Popular Penguins)

oh my god, they make these! Such reasonably priced books! They make these in Australia and apparently you can even get these at a local supermarket. I eyed with such envy but alas my search came to an end as I got a response from a book retailer saying they won’t ship outside of australia…

this is another series that i really really like but it’s too expensive to get a lot of it

(Everyman’s Library)

A lot of these sets have overlapping titles and it drives me nuts….i’ll ultimately have to decide on a series that’ll fit the budget

Then I came across this mini set, it’s on amazon for $150 for 50 mini books which isn’t bad at all

(Mini Modern Classics)

my friend tonight showed me this series that i am in love with, Great Ideas Series

i am itching to buy so many books right now but perhaps that’s not such a good idea… i’ll just..add them to cart first…

it feels like pokemon, like i’ll need to catch ‘em all or something..maybe =_=

Date: November 7th, 2011
Cate: BOOKS
7 msgs

look at what noboru wataya dragged in

noboru wataya, the name of the cat in The wind up bird Chronicles I googled this, I did not know this off handed.

there’s this meme on tumblr that says when girls take a picture of something they must put their face in it. At first I thought it was stupid, now I realized that it’s true.

I’m using non-wifi internet so I’m not going to take pictures with my phone also I’m lazy so I’m using the webcam, thus my face is in it?

I finally received my copy of 1Q84. My least favorite cover, to be honest perhaps I should have waited for the paperback edition cause I really hate the cover. I was hoping that once I stripped paper thing on the outside I’d get a legit, hardcover with very minimal designs and all that awesome Victorian style stuff. But nope…. nope…

I didn’t plan on buying it but I needed to spend $25 so I get free shipping on Amazon, I hate to pay for shipping so I ended up buying it. hahaha, oh wells, I need a copy to write something for a school thing anyway. Might as well….

I’ve read part of volume 1, and it feels like one giant Murakami compilation of everything that he’s done. Have I read everything that he’s done? Nope, but I read a lot of it. By the way guys… I also write this blog called DARK// and I talk about all the books that I read and some other..things that a pseudo intellectual like myself would talk about.

I also got this book… If on a winter’s night a Traveler by Italo Calvino

look at this bad boy, it came in bubble wrap!!!! I think this is the first time that I got a book in bubble wrap.

It has this amazingly beautiful red color, it’s so beautiful. It’s from a collection called Everyman’s Library, I love their books. It comes with a piece of string so screw your bus pass or post-it bookmarks….

I also have a copy from the library and I ended up buying it because of what I read very early on….in this book.

It’s not that you expect anything in particular from this particular book. You’re the sort of person who, on principle, no longer expects anything of anything. There are plenty, younger than you or less young, who live in the expectation of extraordinary experiences: from books, from people, from journeys, from events, from what tomorrow has in store. But not you. You know that the best you can expect is to avoid the worst. This is the conclusion you have reached, in your personal life and also in general matters, even international affairs. What about books? Well, precisely because you have denied it in every other field, you believe you may still grant yourself legitimately this youthful pleasure of expectation in a carefully circumscribed area like the field of books, where you can be lucky or unlucky, but the risk of disappoint isn’t serious.

Perhaps because I am completely unemployed and I realized that as I spend money I don’t get more….!? Even though I earned very little money before I still had a relatively stable income. It was small but I was always able to put away money but I just realized that I have…a very low number in my account. And hey, I’m not gonna get anymore.

So I’m gonna sit here and wait to get that job selling books, I mean, gifts and scented candles and what not. They haven’t called, dammit.

I totally thought I got it. Even though they didn’t even ask what books I was reading at the moment or what books I enjoyed.

It’s a book store, people gotta be..reading right?

Date: August 29th, 2011
Cate: BOOKS
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I want to meet..

…someone that talks like this.
why do we still not talk like this?
romance is stupid and chivalry is dead, but, let’s at least talk like this, maybe then we can bring romance and chivalry back.

Claire offered him a chair, and once he was seated, he spoke: “I shall not, mademoiselle, try to make you understand how happy I am to be able to talk freely alone with you for a moment. For a year I’ve been awaiting this moment, granted to me now by Heaven’s goodness, and upon it will depend the fortune or the misfortune of my entire life, although I’ve only been able truly to harbor such a hope for the last three days. You were kind enough to tell me at the ball that you noticed the anxiety that I seemed to experience in your presence, as well as the pain and the joy you suspected were in my heart. I am going to tell you the cause of my anxieties, perhaps at greater length than necessary, but I cannot expect you to understand me unless I present you all the necessary details.”

page 84: XIII The Three Sainte-Germaine: The Last Cavalier by Alexandre Dumas

It wasnt Napoelon that said this but I think..Hector Saint Hermine…but I like this painting so I was just really looking for some excuse to post it…., propaganda or not, haters gonna hate.

Date: August 14th, 2011
Cate: BOOKS
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The Art of Fiction

I always feel sorry when I find out about an author that I should have otherwise known about. But, let’s be honest, there are way too many of them, past, present, and in some senses, future.

I just read this interview between the Paris Review and James Salter

As I was reading it I couldn’t believe that this is how he speaks? Was it verbatim? Was it prepared? Were the questions given ahead of time? Though it didn’t feel so, it felt smooth but I can’t believe there are people who talk like that.

Interviews are astounding to me because someone might print what you say, and what you say will be printed, and that’s too exhausting, frustrating to think about. Especially if you are someone like me, who gets lost in conversation, once the conversation is over would I think about what I have said and in hindsight it would never be a good thing.

That’s why I have heard that I am much more likable on the internet (via chat) than in real life (in conversation).

That’s because I don’t think before I talk, I should start doing that…

but it also just means that i’m really really honest, and it also means that it’s easy for me to tell you things, and what you choose to do with what i tell you, whether to tell someone else, or use it against me later on, or to judge me without meaning to, well i can’t control that can i.

i really hate manners sometimes, i wish people were more forthcoming about everything. let’s not beat around the bush now.

anyways

I like him, I like people that like the French, and the way of life, a la francais.

he talked about his writing method a lot which I really enjoyed reading (actually I always enjoy reading about how people write) and he talks about being extremely meticulous and copying out what he wrote many times just to fix errors (or that was the impression I got that, that he felt like it was inefficient). I feel inefficient when I have to type out again just to fix errors along the way. I always retype entire chapters just to fix errors along the way, therefore I’ve retyped certain chapters at least 10 times. And I have 10 documents saved with almost the same content. Just the other day I felt like that it was ridiculous but I also felt like it couldn’t be done any other way. though I think I’ve had enough with some of it.

Time to let it sit, let the bad stuff sink to the bottom and let the good stuff bubble to the top.

if that made sense…

I don’t know.

edit: oh look what I found! Murakami’s interview with The Paris Review, goes to read now…

Date: August 9th, 2011
Cate: BOOKS, WRITING
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Everything is a miracle and nothing hurts

sooo busssyyy theseee daysss doing nottthinggggg..

not true, reading and working.

it is August 9th today, and before Jesse Eisenberg a la Mark Zukerberg mocks me for mentioning that tomorrow is August 10th but tomorrow is August 10th.

There are a few copies of my cough novel cough still in people’s hands and ….

you know what i want from you don’t you?

i think editing has come to a stand stilll

and im utterly depressed because of it.

i wish i could draw you a chart of my emotional turmoil over this but all you’ll see is something like a roller coaster.

here is a picture of a roller coaster (apparently the tallest and scariest in America) to illustrate how I feel

Is that possibly why I’ve been getting those … stress stomachaches?

Am I proud of my work? I guess so but I really don’t know because I’m not someone that can easily be proud of myself without outside influences. That sounds bad doesn’t it, but it’s the most truth you’ll get out of anyone.

It’ll be alright.

(send meee your feedbackk please)

edit: THIS DOESNT MEAN THAT im not accepting feedback after the 10th! i am accepting feedback anytime, but before the 20th would be the best….!!!!!! yes….

—-> CHANGE OF MOOD

in other fantastical news, today, The Magician King came out today!! I pre-ordered mine but I didn’t get it yet.

But I went to the bookstore and saw it in person. Lovely Lovely deep charcoal cover. I had to go to the author organized by last name section to find it. Very surprised and appalled that it wasn’t in the New Releases section, so I did what any good twitter follower would do and shoved Snooki’s whatever it was under the table and replaced it with the Magician King.

But can’t blame a bookstore for trying to make money. they got rid of most of their books and replaced it with scented candles and cheese graters, very expensive cheese graters but cheese graters none the less.

you can actually visit the official website and send a postcard from Fillory (the magical land!) some pretty nice designs

also there’s a song about wanting to Be a Magician by Parry Gripp

amaazzzingggg

i am glad that amazing things are happening to good people.

(ergo something good should happen to me too?)

Date: August 4th, 2011
Cate: BOOKS
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Albert Camus

the school of Absurdism

“The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth”
“Always go too far, because that’s where you’ll find the truth.”
“I rebel; therefore we exist.”

Just started reading The Plague .. simple and majestic writing style, and he’s like, dude i’m not even trying and you’re like, but you have a Nobel Prize in lit! then he’s like what.. this old thing?

is what I imagine..him to be like from his writing style. Though writing about The..Plague…

Date: August 28th, 2010
Cate: BOOKS, PLACES
3 msgs

COLOR ful chairs

every night i tell myself that i will go to sleep early and wake up early because people who work hard do that. but here i am, 2 am, and blogging.

i brought “my” new camera out and took some pics….! everything has been photoshopped and resized etc, but i do that with everything, you can’t really judge my pictures based on quality (because i think most cameras these days take fairly good pics) or color or a lot of technical things that i dont really know about. i mostly use my Lumix LX3, but i think this camera might grow on me simply because it’s SO light weight and easy to hide (e.g. going to concerts…)

I will review it though, for utility purposes, how easy to use is it? i actually bought it for my mom, well my dad paid for it, but i picked it out ..

i always joke about having a quarter-life crisis but it’s slowly becoming a reality. today i had one of those “what the fuck am i doing” moment annnndddd it didn’t go well. I was heading out from my appointment with my Korean Tutor and I started to feel ill…

not very ill, but this stuffy feeling in your chest…

when I feel like this, I always head to the place i always feel safe at, and lucky me, the library is right next door…(yes I always plan my panic attacks at strategic locales)

Today, the panic came faster than usual, and i couldn’t really sit at one place, or concentrate on a book… plus i have a sensitive stomach when it comes to coffee, and yes, i just had coffee.. things weren’t looking good then i remembered…

what helps me to calm down is concentrate on a simple activity, any simple activity will do..

the children’s portion of the library is in the basement, i know..what you’re thinking. WHAT? put our future in the basement? now this ain’t no ordinary basement, it’s not even a basement because it has sky to ceiling glass windows.. and an amazing ceiling decorated with dragons.. it’s amazing..

and then i found this room, this circular room (see my cool panoramic photo that didn’t really line up well) amazing, peaceful room with NATURAL LIGHT!!! . it was quiet, except for the girl play Arthur computer games in the next room, but she wasn’t really being loud. (How good is Arthur? one of my favorite kids shows) and I sat there, reading I spy books… then i got owned and decided to read something else.

Peace is everywhere if you could find it, well not everywhere, but it’s there.

Stay cool kids… (my hair cut looks really good in real life, this pic came out weird…damn not at all photogenic )

P.S. shout out to my 2 new subscribers, thank you ^^

Date: August 8th, 2010
Cate: BOOKS
4 msgs

xylophone

so, as i’ve mentioned, i’ve been studying korean.
i’ve been trying to learn grammar with my tutor, but the books she’s brought are all in korean with extremely complicated words and vocabulary.
so to keep things simple, i thought “how do korean children learn korean”
ah…
blocky picture books!

i have a pile stacked on my desk, i feel as intimidated by them as i was intimidated by my genetics textbook.

but, no matter what, learning a language is still a lot more fun and easy than attempting to master molecular genetics, in which i should tell you that i failed, and didn’t even attempt to retake. i took evolutionary genetics instead, which, again, surprised me, and took my fail to a whole new level. Although i did end up passing the course, it was a labored process full of pain and tears, and making my TAs and professors lose hope in the new generation.

now to change the mood completely

Roberto Bolano, an extremely celebrated author from South America, i HAVE attempted to read both 2666 and The savage detective. Both I gave up after 20 pages. But this, THIS! is short, and sweet, and most likely depressing as hell (check out the title) but i will finish, I WILL FINISH!

i always find reading translated novels intriguing because different languages have different grammar patterns, when you attempt to translate a really complicated sentence in another language, you some how always end up producing a new way of writing almost, and this is always really beautiful to me.

Or in some cases, the sentences that are translated become more blunt and simple, it keeps the stories focused and clear, and it’s refreshing to have simplicity, instead of trying to out do each other with paragraph length sentences, although i dont know any real authors that do that.

now i’m gonna stop trying to sound like a pseudo intellectual and watch some korean variety shows, peace out.

Date: July 10th, 2010
Cate: BOOKS, FOOD-RELATED, GADGETS, MUSIC
7 msgs

RANDOM + VUVUZELA

things that i’ve been doing lately since my job decides they don’t need me anymore

- staying up until very ridiculous hours to live-stream korean pop shows that features Super Junior
- playing tetris with random strangers via wifi on my DS, getting my ass kicked continuously while at other times beating them without getting a sweat
- reading books, currently reading Linchpin, i looked up the word on wikipedia, i still don’t see how it’s a metaphor for the book
- Linchpin is a self help book for jump starting your career, it feels like a “don’t kill yourself just cause your job sucks” kind of self help book.
- Going out a lot because my room is too hot, though it’s significantly cooler today
- i got another hypersim (see above for pics) for my JPN softbank phone, this isn’t even a really good phone but i feel the need to conquer technology, softbank 2 emma 0.1 (i got the phone to work for a day)
-looking into buying a new phone, the running contenders are: iphone 4, nexus ONE, the nexus one is leading by a long shot
- i got a free vuvuzela from the lottery commissions, because the jackpot is really big and they want to get the message out there
- i’m going to use it during sunday’s game
- it’s pretty obvious which country i’m cheering for right?
- i’m on tumblr the rest of the time, without sleep of course

things i’ve been wondering

- why is kpop so addictive
- how kyuhyun grab my heart with a simple smile?
- do you see that tree in the penthouse in the first pic? that penthouse alone is probably worth 10s of millions, so, did you get the tree up there when it was kindling or did you helicopter pad it? either way, NICE BRO!

This is how Kyuhyun does it, mystery solved…!

i’m going to clarify here that i’m not a fan-girl type of person, NORMALLY, but I can’t fight this, I can’t. Its powers are beyond me, there’s nothing I can do here. I am completely powerless to his smile.

this is my expression when i’m looking at him :3 the WHOLE TIMEEE

yeah, obviously i’ve been busy, as you can see…

OH BTW!!!

PROP is finally opennn!! excited? oui oui?

I (A)MSTUFF HAPPENS, KEEP LIVING

Archive for category BOOKS