From the looks of this blog one would imagine that I do nothing but read (and subsequently nothing exciting in my life occurs.) Though that is not true, I can do nothing but reinforce that image because I am about present another summer reading update. Ah, pity. Anyways, here are a few more books that I have read since posting the last list or books that I forgot to include in the last post.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince
- Thich Naht Hanh’s 화 (Anger) – read in Korean
- 김정현’s 아버지 (obviously Korean)
- Audiobooks: J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
- Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
- Jonh Grisham’s The King of Torts
As usual, I will choose one more book to expand my views a little. Though this book has already received a rave of reviews, I shall join the chorus. I will admit, however, that I bought this book in 2007 and have just only finished it. I discovered in May 2007 that Clarke’s writing style, while highly entertaining, to be too ropey. That year’s August, I found Clarke to be quite vivid, but with the college transition, the book lay forgotten somewhere in my library. The next summer, my excuse was the PCAT and subsequent pre-pharmacy duties, and only this year (sometime last weekend) I picked up the book and failed to put the book down (with a sane want/need of a casual reader) until I finally finished it last night past 3:00 AM.
Reader beware. Once Clarke captures you, she will bind you to the book, just as the gentleman with thistle-down hair envelopes Jonathan Strange in the Everlasting darkness. You will not break free until you finish the book, and even then, the world that Clarke has created will linger in the back of your mind, always ready to welcome you back into it. The scenes the writer painted gives a vivid pastel-tone aura; a piece of work that surprises the viewer with the strong memory and emotional tie that we didn’t even realize we had until we left it.
I’m getting all dramatic about the book, so I’m going to move on. In about two weeks, my summer officially comes to an end. Since a reading famine is sure to occur, I am determined to read as many as more books before leaving for school. Here are the desirables:
- J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, Unfinished Tales, The Children of Húrin
- Jane Austen’s Emma or Sense and Sensibility
- Peter Shaffer’s Equus
- Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting
- Anthony Burgess’s A Clockwork Orange
I have already read the script and seen the movie version of Trainspotting. While I did enjoy both tremendously, I would like to read the original work to honor the author and movie righteously. (I am one of those very unyielding people that almost always believe that the book to be superior to the recreated movie. Few exceptions occur, and I believe two of those are Joe Wright’s recreation of Pride and Prejudice and Peter Jackson’s making of The Lord of the Rings. Countless examples of failures exist; The Harry Potter movies are one. I would say Twilight was a horrible mistake, but then, so was the book.)
