A month has passed! Yet I still breathe.

Labels: books, christie, mystery

School has started, so that means that my reading list is currently dominated by books similar to History of Philosophy: a Short Narrative, volume 25563, or Lombroso's Genius & Insanity, or all the other equally exciting books. I'm going to be posting about them, for sure, but my comments will only be relatively intelligent.

For Japanese Lit Challenge, I'm currently reading Murakami's Wild Sheep Chase, having finished Flight of a Butterfly. I really want to talk about both of these books in detail, and I shall. Soon.

As far as other media goes, I've picked up Charmed again. Am currently on S04. Gossip Girl's new season has begun on September 1, but I have yet to finish S01, so I'm not watching it yet.

To my general horror, I've also read about four Harlequin novels lately. I figure this is the only kind of book I can process after coming home from uni & work, and instead of simply not reading anything, I pick anything with letters and go on.

Okay, I lie a bit. My original intention was research. I wanted to read a couple of romance novels to see if it's a type of book I can possibly write (I do this sometimes w/ other usually overlooked by me genres). It has been decided since then that I can't, but as there are still about four of them lying next to my bed, I just pick them up and scan through them as I fall asleep.

A more substantial post coming.

Labels: alma mater, anthro, books, challenges, charmed, japanese literature challenge 2, murakami, tv

As always, I'm reading many books at the same time.

The Kreutzer Sonata; by Leo Tolstoy
I thought I'd breeze through this book in an hour or two, but it's taking me much longer. I forgot that none of Tolstoy's books are easy reading, heh. So no matter how short the story is, it's not going to be a quick read. (Doesn't help that I'm a slow reader.)

I'm not sure how I feel about the book so far. While I can't help but agree with the main character's narrative at times, there are a lot of things that just make me go 'huh..?', and in a rather angry way at that. I've a poor choice of words here, but he seems to be a feminist and a sexist at the same time, and it's a befuddling combination.

Flight of a Butterfly; Various
A small collection of hokku, read for JLC2. I had thought in vain, once more, that I'm going to go through this one fast, because seriously, how long can a 300+ page book with only three lines on each page take you? :P But it turns out that I stop after nearly every poem to contemplate on it for an hour. The biggest part of the book is taken up by Basho (works of whom I've finished reading already), and now there are just small "trial versions" for many other poets.

Maria Fedorovna's Diaries
It's one of the very painful books to read, at least for me. Truly, it's just a simple narrative of her days (1915 and beyond), and truly, I know what's about to happen most of the time (I'm not the best History student, but not knowing that would've put me to grave shame), but it doesn't make it any easier. Though, reading Nikolai's diary two years ago was much worse.

Labels: books, history, japanese literature challenge 2, memoirs, poetry, russia, russian

I loved it. Beautiful settings -- the shore, the countryside, forests, library -- oh my God, that library, -- interiors... Having Anne Hathaway play Austen and James McAvoy play Lefroy didn't hurt that much either.

The film follows the love story between Jane Austen and Thomas Lefroy. She's a young woman who wants to "live by her pen", he has to stay in the country for a while. While indeed there's more fiction to plot than truth, I believe it's executed nicely and in the spirit of Austen's works. It's been said that Lefroy was inspiration behind's Austen's (in)famous Darcy.

Amazon; IMDB.

Labels: austen, movie

Odna Ten' Na Dvoikh; by Tatiana Ustinova
(One Shadow for Two)

Continuing with my 'so braindead' series I bring you the second novel of T. Ustinova.

Many years ago a woman is murdered. Her spouse, an architect named Andrei Danilov, is the first and seemingly only suspect, and the only thing that saves him from jail was a road police officer who took his time questioning Danilov on the legitimacy of his driver's license.

Fast forward to now, and something goes terribly wrong. Somebody destroys the house, the house, Danilov has been working on. Somebody keeps reminding him of his spouse's death in crudest ways. Danilov's long time Best Friend gets pregnant, and for some reason he doesn't like it. Danilov's mother invites him to his father's latest book presentation, and it's hard. Too hard.

Because you see, Danilov was supposed to become a famous pianist. But he couldn't, and now his parents are forever disappointed in him. So to get over it somehow, he builds a life of structure and order around him. Everything's according to a regimen. Danilov is very OCD.

I can't decide whether I liked this book more than the first one. The first one was more of a romance novel with a bit of suspense & mystery thrown in to make things more exciting. This one is definitely more of a mystery novel, but with a love story on the side of course. I can even call it a thriller. And once more, Ustinova's characters are detailed. She never shies away from giving them a whole lot of complexes and inner turmoils. They don't seem to be easy on themselves, ever.

What I didn't like is that the main character, Danilov, was sort of... repetitive. He's supposed to be, considering his character, but at some points in the story it got old. Another thing I didn't like is that I kept walking around the flat all paranoid, but that's not the book's weak point, of course. It's just me, and my nocturnal lifestyle, and my cowardly nature. :P

Amazingly available on Amazon here. In Russian, though.

Labels: mystery, russian

Go here!

I simply had to join this one, as you realise. And for the first time in my challenge life, I'm not late to the party!

My list, with some alternates just in case:

1. Wild Sheep Chase; by Murakami Haruki
2. Confessions of a Mask; by Mishima Yukio
3. Death Note; by Ohba Tsugumi, Asami Yuuko, Obata Takeshi

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4. Dance, Dance, Dance; by Murakami Haruki
5. Kagero Nikki; by Michitsuna no haha
6. Flight of a Butterfly; by Japanese Middle Age poets

There are many other possible alternative entries, but I'll try to stick to these, since I've been meaning to read them for ages. I've started reading Kagero Nikki some years back, and then had to put it away to concentrate on school work. Same goes for Wild Sheep Chase & Dance, Dance, Dance... And Death Note has been on my mind for a long time now.

Labels: challenges