Summer Reading Report

it’s NOVEMBER now. Just a “little” after summer. Hah! But I noticed the other day of how I still have my summer reading list up, and I decided to take it down. But here’s the list itself.

While the Summer lasts:
Currently Reading:
:::::J.R.R. Tolkien’s Silmarillion
:::::Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Finished Fine:

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings

Umberto Eco’s Baudolino

Yarn Martell Life of Pi

Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility

Paul Zindel’s The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds

George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion

Alain de Botton’s How Proust Can Change Your Life

Alain de Botton’s On Love

Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five

Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street

Sadly, I neither finished Silmarillion nor Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell – hopefully I will on the way back to South Korea after my finals this year, which means that it won’t be until December that I get to have a relaxing read. I haven’t really read my Bible as much as I would like, but let me tell you, I’ve read my Anatomy, Organic, Physics, Sociology, Spanish and Health Science text books often… oh! and lab manuals, did I mention that? Good times!

It was Halloween last night, right? Of course, with a tension, cluster or whatever headache, trick-or-treating is out of question, and with minimal rest, I stayed in (as usual). While I watched some horr-or(-ible)  movies (i.e. – I Know Who Killed Me, which has a 8% review on Rotten Tomatoes and Boggieman 2, which has 5.1/10 on IMDB) and did some homework (of course, what’s new?), I couldn’t refrain from being a nerd. When the murdered victims were described by court officials, a chill ran down my spine, not because of the images, rather due to the description. Yes, I had my eyes averted on my papers, but I actually understood all that sinus and artery stuff they were talking about… so I guess I am getting some practical application out of my college biology classes! :-)

Anyways, getting back to reading, let me elaborate on a few things concerning this list. My favourites were (as usual) Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, but I truly realished Eco’s Baudolino. He has quite an attitude against the established church (a.k.a the Hole See), but it was a cute twist on what people used to think. A satire on delusional and destructive blinding of religious influence, Baudolino is Eco’s best reflection on his distrust. What I particularly enjoyed was how is mixed the reality and the fantasy – almost magical realism, but not quite. Too fantastic, I would say for Garcia Marquez to approve, but too down to earth to be nonsense work! Anyways, I can’t wait to get a chance to read more of his stuff!

Speaking of a reading list… I should update that reading list with my text books. ;-) Sad as it sounds, it would be the truth. Actually, they’re not too bad – just too much at times. I enjoy learning about whatever that may be on those pages, especially, now that they’re becoming more specific to my studies. All I’ve got to say after all of that, though, is that I’m just going to keep on trying my best at whatever I’m doing now, and hope for the best, and that it’ll be worth it at the end!