Filed under: Currently Reading | Tags: Currently Reading, Religion, The Year of Living Biblically
This book by A.J. Jacobs was recommended by my former TOK teacher. Basically, the author, who in a previous book had apparently read the whole encyclopedia, decides to live literally as possible according to the Bible. (Non-fiction.) I found it rather witty and thoughtful. But also thought-provoking. One of the things that the author cited as his reasoning was that he wondered whether his child was better off raised with or without religion. I, too have wondered whether it would be better raising a kid with or without religion. I know it’s not exactly something i have to worry about now, but still I want to be prepared. Though I’m technically Hindu, I’ve been going off on an agnostic and/or atheist pathway for a few years now. I have friends who are Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim, or atheist, and they’ve all turned out fine. So how can you tell? On one hand, you could just leave it til they choose on their own accord; on the other you can raise them in your religion and hope they’re happy living with it (as many seem to be).
That was the main thing I was pondering when I read this book, but seeing the progress of the beard was funny too. I wonder if the author still likes to Google himself. If so, Hi Mr. Jacobs! : D
Filed under: Currently Reading | Tags: Currently Reading, Enter Three Witches, Macbeth
Enter Three Witches is one of those ‘let’s take a classic and write it from a different point of view’ (this sounds like I’m being negative but I’m not) books by Caroline B. Cooney (yeah, she actually writes other things besides mystery stuff). I think I would have liked it better if I had read the full version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but nevertheless it was interesting. It was dark at times and I liked Lady Mary, the main character. It was somewhat predictable though but I guess that’s an inevitability considering it’s genre. Sometimes it felt like the story was focusing on inconsequential characters, but they turned out to be quite important. But still a very enjoyable read, maybe because of my partiality to the genre.
As far as its awesomeness compared to others of it’s genre though, I think ‘Romeo’s Ex’ and ‘Song of the Sparrow’ were the ones I liked better. X D
Filed under: Currently Watching | Tags: Amitabh Bachchan, Black, Currently Watching, Hindi, movie, Rani Mukherjee
It’s a Hindi movie that was really good. Though at first, it felt like a rip-off of Helen Keller, which it was for the first half of the movie, then it got interesting as it diverted on a more original storyline. It was a Helen Kelleresque girl, in the same situation, but the teacher instead of being more like Anne Sullivan, seems to be rather loopy himself. But he is brave and persevering and manages to make her come out of her shell. The story continues onto how she goes through university, up till she graduates, which takes a very long time. But a parallel story shows her teacher’s gradual progression to severe Alzheimer’s which was sad. In the end, it sort of ends up as a teacher-student role exchange thing. This sounds vague but it really was heart-breaking yet inspiring to watch. Amitabh Bachchan did a great job, but Rani Mukherjee was so good that I didn’t even realize it was her until the end credits!
It’s one of those movies that you just have to see. I really want to see Jodhaa Akbar, Dhoom 2 and Deepa Mehta’s stuff soon, too.
Filed under: Currently Reading | Tags: Currently Reading, Escape from memory, Margaret Peterson Haddix, memory
This book, Escape from Memory, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, was a great book from a great author. She’s also the one who wrote Just Ella, which was enjoyable, but this one was very different in tone and genre. It was more of a mystery genre. It had a lot to do with memory, and the general story follows a girl named Kira who finds out that she is not who she thought she was all her life. I don’t want to spoil it, so I shall say no more! But it has a lot of plot twists that I didn’t expect and it was definitely one of those books you couldn’t put down. One of the things that was really interesting about the book were the characters who could remember everything and I was sort of wistful about that. I’ve always thought that having a photographic memory would be really cool; you would probably be really smart =_=. But I understood, I think, from reading the book that sometimes there are things you don’t want to remember, and as a result, remembering everything that ever happened to you- or in the book’s case, even stuff that didn’t happen to you in particular- would be painful…
Filed under: Currently Watching | Tags: Currently Watching, drama, family, Korean, My Girl
I just finished watching My Girl, this Korean drama. I’d bought the DVD set last summer, but was busy watching Goong (another great drama : D) with my mother (yeah. you read that right.) and that one was really long. So, I watched the first couple of eps of My Girl last August;then about 9 days ago, my mother asked me to put on this one. And we started watching. It’s basically about this girl (who is good at lying) and this somewhat rich guy she runs into, who asks her to pretend to be his long-lost cousin in order to save his grandfather. The rest is about how she fares, and of course the inevitable emergence of the love triangles…more like a weird web really. It really brought that quote about lies to mind- “Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive”. It was pretty funny; though I think I still preferred Goong, which was a bit more on the serious side than this one.
The funny part was that when me and my mother started watching, eventually the whole family ended up watching (dad, grandma, brother). And it was really funny to see my parents, who usually keep clear of my love of East Asian culture, saying “That actress is really good.”, and “Tamil stuff sucks compared to this”, etc. Even at the end, my parents loved it so much that they wanted me to burn a cd with the My Girl OST. I was really happy to have brought them over to the dark side, muahahahaha. The only thing was that my mother wanted to watch 2 hours worth every day, and as a result, we didn’t really get to watch anything else for over a week, but alas, that is a small price to pay : ).
Anyways, it’s a really good drama and I would definitely recommend it to anyone. The songs are great too; very addictive. XD Next I’ll probably watch One Litre of Tears which I heard is really good, even though my mother says she doesn’t like sad stuff cause it makes her cry. : p
Filed under: Currently Reading | Tags: Azumanga Daioh, Currently Reading, manga
: D Read a random volume of Azumanga today. To anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a hilarious manga by Kiyohiko Azuma. It has no plot, so don’t bother reading it for that. It just follows the life of 6 high school girls. And occasionally, two of their teachers. The anime is hilarious as well.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
I love Osaka’s and Sakaki’s dreams of Chiyo-chan’s pigtails as wings and her dad as this weird cat thing, repectively. Watching the anime especially, is fun because it has a style of comedy different from others. It’s a bit slower than other comedies; I don’t think quick wit is even present in this one. But it makes it even more fun to watch. The only thing I would change is the length of the series. I wish it went on for longer. XD
No, not the novel by Jane Austen, though I will be reading that sometime soon. This is a 7-volume manga by Kaoru Mori. I did think at first that it was just like a Jane Austen novel, though. Set in Victorian London, it’s the story of a Emma, a maid who falls in love with a member of the gentry, William Jones.
Up til now, I’d always avoided this manga, because to tell the truth, it didn’t look like something I would enjoy. But the other day, I found it in the library, and spontaneously took it out. And was rather pleasantly surprised. The art is amazingly intricate and skillful. The plot was actually pretty interesting and even had a couple of twists. I would actually go so far as to say that the plot and the characters’ reactions were quite realistic. Of course, that didn’t mean I liked the plot all the time.
**SPOILERS AHEAD**
Like when Mrs. Stowner died, in like the second volume. That was quite necessary for plot development, but still. Or when William RANDOMLY proposed to Eleanor. Another event somewhat necessary if you think about it (I try not to) but at the time I felt it was just sort of oddly placed. There was no reason for it when it occurred.
But the characters were what attracted me the most, I think. Even in this setting, their emotions felt real to me, in the 21st century. They had good points and bad points, and the author chose not to go for fluffy love scenes, opting for realistic ones. I loved that scene where Mrs. Trollope (Mrs. Jones) asked Mr. Jones something along the lines of “Did you ever regret marrying me?” and he answers “I have and I haven’t.” Actually, besides Emma, I think Mrs. Trollope (Mrs. Jones) was my favourite character. She epitomizes the result of the pressures of that society, and I loved that she had this inner strength as a result of it. But of course, I liked each character for their unique personalities.
And the random addition of the dancing Indian girls who accompanied Hakim (who was an awesome ‘potentially the other guy’) and, later Monica, was pure genius.
The one-page epilogues at the end of chapters were highly appreciated. Also, the ending was realistically satisfying.
All in all, I might actually buy this series next AN.
I deleted all my posts (the ones that I wrote since I started this blog in February) today. Sigh.
Perhaps this time around I’ll have things to say that I won’t want to delete later. It’s amazing how easy it is to delete things. Even more amazing is how easy it was for me to abandon this blog. Well, with the past couple of months, what with TOK Essay, Group 4 and IB Exams, then other exams, and several other random assignments, it didn’t even cross my mind. But now, when I have nothing else to do -besides work on Extended Essay and Math >_> – I’ve decided, why not try to resurrect it. But when I read the pitiful posts that I had previously written, I felt rather, well, pitiful. So I deleted them. But I’ll probably write more. Why wouldn’t I; it’s not like I have anything else to do. It will be a new start.
