Click on image for larger version, originally at newsweek. No need to add any comment, it speaks for itself.

Bongwater is Michael Hornburg’s first book, published in 1995. It tells the story of 3 twentysomethings in Portland. Courtney burned down the house she shared with David and ran away to New York. David had a crush on Jennifer and Jennifer ran away to New York to join Courtney. In the meantime, David met Mary and went on a road trip with her to visit his weed-growing friend Phil.

Nothing much else happens. Arguably David and Courtney are the main characters but they don’t meet up again till the end. Jennifer is the glue. Mary is somewhere in between. David crashes with two gay guys who steals Jennifer’s underwear. Courtney and Jennifer does a round of New York clubs and comes back to Portland.

The characters are cynical and innocent at the same time. They do drugs and each other. But no one judges. It just is. The end of the book doesn’t have resolution; instead there is the hint of a beginning.

I get confused between Gen X and Y. Of course I’m reading this book 15 years after it was published, and I think about those days in the early 1990s with nostalgia. Now I identify with them — not the drugs or alcohol or sex or partying, the sense that we are just observing and living our way through life.

Reviews are mixed. Some readers get it. Others find it boring and without plot. Even others dislike the prose. I liked it. It feels superficial, but is deeper than it appears. Was Mr Hornburg sending life lessons? No, of course not. It just is. I get the feeling that there’s a large autobiographical element in the book. Nothing wrong with it. It just is.

Bret Easton Ellis’ seventh novel, Imperial Bedrooms, comes out mid-June. It’s a follow up to Less than Zero, to coincide with its 25th anniversary. Gulp. Has it already been 25 years? Next I know, I’ll be needing reading glasses. [heh, don’t be so cocky. that day will come soon and you know it.]

Less than Zero is arguably my favourite book. Something spine-tingling and deep comes over me whenever I read it (unlike spine-chilling when I read American Psycho). I’m not sure how I feel about a sequel, because they never live up to the hype of the original. And reading the excerpt, which I assume is the beginning, I’m still leery.

They had made a movie about us. The movie was based on a book written by someone we knew. The book was a simple thing about four weeks in the city we grew up in and for the most part was an accurate portrayal. It was labeled fiction but only a few details had been altered and our names weren’t changed and there was nothing in it that hadn’t happened.

Clay is now a successful screenwriter and returns to LA from New York. The characters are still there — Julian (RDJ, who died in the film), Blair, Trent. I suspect parties and craziness still abound but it’s probably a bunch of people pushing 40 who don’t want to grow up.

I’m being unfair. I haven’t read the book yet and here I am dissing it. The reviews on amazon are mixed. It’s 100% certain I will buy it so I must reserve judgment.

Most people my generation have heard of Ethan Hawke, the epitome of intense and pretty. He of Reality Bites, Before Sunrise and a version of Hamlet. No, he won’t be the first actor to branch out to writing, singing or race car driver, and he won’t be the last.

The Hottest State was published in 1996 and was Mr Hawke’s first novel. The state in the title refers to Texas, where the narrator, William, was from. The novel was set in New York, where William had moved to be an actor. One night at a club he met Sarah, who just moved to New York, and coincidentally lived in an apartment opposite William’s. Soon they began a love affair, the sort that people in their early twenties engaged in — tugs-of-war of emotions, co-dependency, and a tendency to talk a lot and not at all about the important matters. She held off having sex with him for the longest time; they went to meet her mother; went away for a week; then she broke up with him.

The second half of the book was about how William tried to get Sarah back, alternating begging and making a fool of himself with being mad at her and life in general. Heartbroken, or so he thought, he tried to find solace with his friend Samantha, and then returned home to look for his father.

It’s a small book, less than 200 pages. The writing is sparse, though it took me a while to get into it. Or rather, I never totally got into it. It is one of those books I like, where there was a story, but not completely overshadowed by the characters and what they thought/felt/did. In terms of nano, it’d be classified as a literary fiction.

Most readers would assume that the book was partially autobiographical. I can’t tell one way or the other, it feels like there’s some of the author in William — that’s always the danger of first person narration. I never warmed to William, he seemed kind of a jerk to me. Sarah said it best,

“You don’t love me.” She was gesturing at the ground. “I could be any girl. This is about you.”
“Everything is a big game of pretend with you. ‘Let’s pretend to get married.’ ‘Let’s pretend I’m gonna be a big country star.’”

Perhaps it’s immaturity, and hopefully by the end he would have taken this heartbreak and grown a little.

I finished the book, then got the dvd immediately on netflix. Some of it seemed clearer in the film, written and directed by Mr Hawke. William was still a jerk, Sarah still lacked self-confidence and they both did not communicate. This is one occasion where I think the film complemented the book.

Peter Mayle is famous for his autobiographical A Year in Provence. I haven’t read it, nor did I see the film, but I’ve always been aware of him. Mr Mayle was a sort of expert on Provence, and France in general. And France is where this little novel, Chasing Cézanne is partially set it. It’s one of those books whose characters think nothing of stomping all over the world. It starts in New York, makes several visits to the south of France, the Caribbean, the English countryside, and of course Provence.

The characters fit the globetrotter type too — our MC, a “dashing” photographer who works for a glamorous magazine, his agent/soon-to-be girlfriend, a powerful editor who constantly reminds me of Anna Wintour, the villain with the Germanic name and the eccentric art dealer who acts as both catalyst and tour guide. Add a scandalous art scam and a little romance and we have the ingredients of a light-hearted comedy romp.

Some reviewers on amazon complain that the characters eat out at restaurants too much, or that Mr Mayle is too keen to show off his knowledge of French cuisine. Blah I say, that’s the point of the book. It’s not supposed to be War and Peace deep, people. If anything, I find the “elaborate” restaurant meals kinda boring, and want even more descriptions. I guess that’s the effect of the passage of time. The book was first published in 1997, those were the days when photography was still done using film, people were beginning to travel as opposed to just laying on the beach, and food programs on TV were mainly instructional (think Delia Smith and how to boil an egg). Foodie terms like velouté, sabayon, amuse-bouche and ceviche weren’t part of our everyday lexicon then, but have become oh so familiar (well, to those of us who are dedicated followers of the food network anyway). In other words, the readers then weren’t as sophisticated as we are now, and were more likely to be wowed by a French word by virtual of that word being French alone.

The art scam itself is pretty unremarkable and the resolution did come rather too quickly, almost like our villain has run out of steam, or has become so bored with the proceedings that he decided not to be a villain any more. It’s still a decent enough book, easy to read, and mostly enjoyable. Mr Mayle does know his food and France, no question. And for the record, I, an amateur cook, have made sabayon and if need be, can produce an amuse-bouche or two, but not in 1997.

I read Michael Ridpath’s first book, Free to Trade, when it came out in 1996. It coincided with the beginning of my career in financial services, and it was unspoken required reading. It painted an exciting, if superficial, picture of what it was like to be on the trading floor of one of the bulge bracket firms.

This one, The Marketmaker, was his third book and set in the world of Emerging Markets. The MC was a Russian scholar who found himself needing money and employed at the premier EM Fixed Income brokerage in the City, specialising in Latin American bonds, but aiming to expand into Eastern Europe.

I had it on my shelves for since it was published in 1999, and it was interesting to read about the markets then. It was before the term BRIC was even invented; before the LTCM failure; and just after the Asian financial crisis. Those were the days when the words banker and excess were synonymous, before all the scandals that eventually brought about Sarbanes-Oxley. It was also interesting to remember that the bulge bracket was bigger then, and there were more players on the street.

Our MC started all starry-eyed at the broker. There was a charismatic owner / mentor; a dodgy enforcer type with hints of mafia links; a best friend who had to make a choice between friendship and own gains; a beautiful, smart heroine who the MC fell in love with; even a cockney, pudgy East End boy. He was in turns fascinated by the City and angsty that he’d sold his soul. Then he discovered by accident something suspicious, and a series of seemingly unrelated circumstances only heightened his suspicion. He and his colleague-new lover were kidnapped, and he managed to escape himself but leaving our heroine in the clutches of evil kidnappers. In keeping with the “financial thriller” theme that the writer is known for, there were thinly disguised i-banks to give the feel of authenticity and much technical name dropping. I couldn’t help wondering if Bloomfield Weiss was Goldman Sachs and there’s no prize for guessing who the large Dutch bank KBN was named after.

The first half had some exciting trading scenarios and a touching philanthropic initiative. The beginnings of the romance was always hovering as a possibility. Unfortunately the financial backdrop faded to exactly that, a convenient background. The kidnap was a little too drawn out, and the solution to the story a tad too incredible. I was sympathetic towards our MC at first, but the Like (fb term) didn’t stay. I felt the writer was checking off cliché after cliché, the characters and story was pretty formulaic. Towards the end it read like an airport thriller and while there is nothing wrong with that (airport thrillers tend to be best sellers), the twists and resolution were pedestrian and I couldn’t wait to get to the last page.

youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYiw5vkQFPw

I’ve only recently come across the use of trailers to promote books. Seems a little disjointed to me, books are text only but videos need sound and graphics. To be honest I have only seen a handful of book trailers that I liked, the others are too forced.

Until this. Leviathan is labelled as a Young Adult book, this trailer makes me want to order it straightaway. Of course, it helps that it’s an illustrated book. And OMG STEAMPUNK.

Important: Simon & Schuster is giving away Scott Westerfeld’s earlier book Uglies, but only for 1 more day. Get it quick.

I’m still on the fence on trailers for books.

Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you’ve read that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than 15 minutes. Tag 15 friends, including me because I’m interested in seeing what books my friends choose.

1. Pride & Prejudice — Jane Austen
2. Catcher in the Rye — JD Salinger
3. The Belgariad series — David Eddings
4. Less than Zero — Bret Easton Ellis
5. I am David — Anne Holm
6. Hood - Emma Donoghue
7. The Sun also Rises — Ernest Hemingway
8. Bright Lights, Big City — Jay McInerney
9. Down there on a Visit — Christopher Isherwood
10. From an Inland Sea — David Harsent
11. Pzyche — Amanda Hemingway
12. Deverry Series — Katherine Kerr
13. American Psycho — Bret Easton Ellis
14. Hitchhikers’ Guide series — Douglas Adams
15. Little Women — Louisa May Alcott

I’ve had this book since it came out in 1997, together with Goodbye Johnny Thunders and Elvis Has Left the Building, Tania Kindersley’s other books. She was someone in my generation, catching the end of the yuppie 80s, the generation for whom it was almost easy to achieve success and wealth, provided we went out to look for them.

This book chronicles the friendship of a small group of young people, from their undergraduate days at Oxford to their burgeoning careers (or not) as they found themselves entering their thirties. The focus was on the narrator, Ashley, and her best friend, Virge.

One of the most noticeable things about this book is its atmosphere. I look for atmosphere in books, in the same way that I look for plot in films. The poignancy reminds me of another “atmospheric” book, Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, which I return to again and again when I’m in search of those quiet, deep moments. There are shades of Jake Barnes in Ashley; and a lot of Brett Ashley in Virge.

That the characters are privileged and indulgent and petulant is no question. However, they oh so charming and nonchalant about it, because they didn’t set out to be arrogant. This is a generation that reinvent themselves on a whim, and has very little patience for those who can’t keep up. A side character described Virge as” shallow and fey and smug” but Ashley never felt it. She was upset and angry, but her response to that jibe was that the person could feel whatever he feels about Virge. In a way, Ashley doesn’t feel any need to justify Virge, and by extension herself, to anyone.

Ultimately, it’s about growing up and leaving the comfort of college to face the outside world, which they do in various shades of success.

“No one has told me,” said Virge with sudden violence, “that it was this complicated. Why do they never tell you that?”

Here the atmosphere evoked is This Life, so much so that the characters could almost interchange.

The blurb is that the story is all about friendship. Ashley and Virge are opposites who attract. We hear mainly Ashley’s voice, about her feelings for Virge,

and because i didn’t believe in coincidence, I felt utterly unsurprised that she should be here, back from America on the very day that I had fought my way out of the months of darkness and despair and self-doubt, because she was the one person in the whole wide world who always made me feel that I was lovable and desirable, and good enough.

And later on,

“You do know, Ash, don’t you,” said Virge, “you do know that you are the one I love best. I never loved anyone so much as you.”

I keep waiting for them to cross the line from friends to lovers, which they never do. Perhaps I’m projecting, or perhaps the writer intended this as the pure, unconditional kind of love that can never be tainted, even by sex.

As is life, nothing is perfect and golden forever. Throughout the story, the copious reference of looking back suggests to me that Something Big will happen at the end. And again, to mimic life, it’s not one big event that gives ample warning — it’s a series of littler events that chip away at the perfection, and then finally, something explodes.

The events at the end were actually not unexpected, though just as tragic. The last pages were sad and, again the word is poignant, but it seems to me that a page has been turned. What is past is gone, and there is a future that is more mundane and less rose-tinted.

Don’t ask me why, but that’s just how life is, isn’t it.

Back home and feeling more in control of the unfamiliar pensiveness. Not in so much control of my wallet though. Spent a small fortune on apps, mp3s and ebooks. Even though most of the apps I’ve gotten are free, I ended up buying a couple of games (lexulous, slay), the livestrong app and the famous brushes app. Music-wise I caught up on the latest from Snow Patrol, The Virgins, but was chagrined to find that Daniel Merriweather isn’t available for download, and the actual CD is at import price, argh, should have gotten it in London. As for ebooks, got the new ones from a few of my fb friends, i’ll be cheeky and not say who.

I went to Amber Benson’s signing of her book Death’s Daughter today. The event started at 4.30pm, but I got there after work at around 6pm. I could have brought a whole collection of her stuff for her to sign — Chance and LLL dvds, Chance poster (hmm, that one is already signed), my 2 limited edition Ghost of Albion hardcovers (hang on, those are signed too), or any of her comics. Or Buffy stuff. She’s got such a varied body of work. While I was queuing someone at the store asked me was there a signing. I said yes, and he asked who? He didn’t know Amber (travesty!) but I heard him tell his friend “it’s an author.” Little does he know she is more.

I guess there was a reading, which I missed. The queue for the book signing was long, snaking all the way to the back of the store. I wish I’d brought some water cos it was a hot day and I felt dehydrated. It took the better part of an hour. but it was all rewarded when i finally reached the front, because she was warm and friendly. She greeted every single person like a friend, and was genuinely happy to speak with each of us. I didn’t really have anything to ask or say to her, just asked her to sign my book, and another copy for Car.

I took a picture of her and the books. There’s also one with me, but I’m doing the hiding being invisible thing again so that pic isn’t available in public.

Apparently it was just a display issue, and my account was credited with 100 classic books. I looked through the ebookstore today, and even though there are over 900 books, it took me a whole day to come up with 66. Jane Austens, Shakespeare comedies, and a bunch of Dickens. But there were many from authors who are obscure, like Charlotte M. Yonge. And for some like Trollope, they’re not offering his most popular books. They have just one or two of each series, like just Barchester Towers above, but not many more. Actually the entire list looks like it was gakked from project gutenberg and if i wanted i could just download them free from there and convert.

I have to register twice for the ereader — once at the sony website for the device itself, and a second time via the stupid PC only software at the ebookstore. The first went fine, cos I did it on the mbp. The second wasn’t so smooth. The device had been authorised before to another user. What? It became obvious that I had been sold a returned product, as new. This is very annoying.

I emailed Sony, following the instructions on the faq. The fact that they had the answer to that question is disconcerting.

I got a reply within a few hours. They gave me 2 codes, each for 50 free classic books. I entered the code one at a time, and hey presto! Only one code worked. My account has 50 free books, but the other 50 was missing. I’ve emailed again, and waiting for the answer.

This is becoming ridiculous and a farce. Am I not supposed to have bought it? Was someone thumbing their nose at me for getting the 700 instead of the more popular 505? Should I have been more patient and ordered direct from Sony instead of getting from Borders?

Very bad taste.

so I was visiting Car this weekend, and she’d told me during the week that she’d ordered the sony ereader and it was expected to arrive on Friday. And when I got there Friday it was there, all tiny and thin and cool looking. How possibly can I resist such a toy? I had myself during the week went over to the Borders at Michigan Avenue to look at them in person, and i was amazed at how small they are.

Instead of ordering and waiting, I just decided to go get it. Originally I thought I’d go during the week when I’m back in town, but Car very kindly offered to take me to a nearby Borders. The one we went to first was further away, in a large shopping complex. I queued up at the till and told the person there I wanted to buy a sony ereader. She gave me a blank look for a few seconds before something snapped. she was still a bit clueless, first having to ask a colleague, then offering me the 505 when I specified the 700. Eventually i found myself at the information desk, and a VERY helpful lady told me they actually have one and was bringing it out. Then it turned out the they didn’t have it, but she continued her helpfulness by calling another store nearby and holding it.

Backtrack. Why not the kindle 2? The main reason is the DRM — I want to buy books from sources other than amazon, and the conversion process put me off. The k2 still looks like a toy to me. I will probably use the iphone, when i get one, perhaps on a daily basis. I wish I had gotten more into ereaders last year when I was travelling so much. Why the 700 and not the 505, at $100 cheaper. One word: touchscreen. I’m a big sucker for geeky things I can touch. When I was playing around both the 505 and the 700 at Borders, I’d finish with the 700 and was poking at the screen of the 505 expecting something to happen.

Okay, back to the buying adventure.

The other Borders (at 95th and Western) turned out to be elusive to find. First off, it started raining heavily, then there was zillions of traffic. We ended up at the mall, but it wasn’t inside the mall. Finally we got there, and I queued up again to buy my ereader. The helpful lady at the first store had told us, “it’s behind the registers” which we first thought it was the store that was behind some “registers”. Hee. Anyway, i paid for it, got suckered into getting a Borders card, and off we went back home.

Close. But the story doesn’t end there.

I carefully opened the box, fondled my new ereader, and then discovered the usb cable was missing. It’s a fairly standard cable, and i have a couple at home just like it, but still…it was missing so we should get the whole package. i called the store, and was fairly inept at the whole explaining thing, but finally i found out that i could go back and exchange it.

After a dinner of “shit on a shingle” — i was too concerned with my ereader to take pictures of the new food — we headed back to the store to exchange my ereader. Actually it ended up at the store assistant ripping apart a 505 package and giving me the cable. LOL

So i sit here, it’s happily charging up. The only hurdle to overcome is Sony’s STUPID decision to make their software PC only. Then again, they make vaio’s so they don’t want to be associated with macs? As i said, stupid, and it rings a sour note. But i’ll get round it somehow.

meme #8, tagged by Kerry. Apparently the BBC reckons most people will have only read 6 of the 100 books here.

Instructions:
1) Look at the list and put an ‘x’ after those you have read
2) Add a ‘+’ to the ones you LOVE
3) Star (*) those you plan on reading
4) Tally your total at the bottom
5) Put in a note with your total in the subject

1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen x+++
2. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien [I tried, but i just can’t get through them]
3. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte x
4. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling * [i’m stuck on book 5]
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee x
6. The Bible [the whole Bible, not so much]
7. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte x
8. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell x
9. His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman x
10. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens x+
11. Little Women - Louisa M Alcott x+
12. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. Complete Works of Shakespeare
15. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16. The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien [see #2]
17. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18. Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger x+++++++++ [:P]
19. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20. Middlemarch - George Eliot
21. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell [no, never]
22. The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams x+++
26. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck x
29. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens x
33. Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34. Emma - Jane Austen
35. Persuasion - Jane Austen
36. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40. Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41. Animal Farm - George Orwell x
42. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown [i got may be half way, then lost interest]
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46. Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47. Far from the Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49. Lord of the Flies - William Golding x
50. Atonement - Ian McEwan
51. Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52. Dune - Frank Herbert x
53. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen x
55. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60. Love in the time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63. The Secret History - Donna Tartt x+
64. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66. On the Road - Jack Kerouac
67. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68. Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding x
69. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens x
72. Dracula - Bram Stoker
73. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett x
74. Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson
75. Ulysses - James Joyce
76. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78. Germinal - Emile Zola
79. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80. Possession - AS Byatt
81. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens x
82. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro x
85. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87. Charlotte’s Web - EB White x+++
88. The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom
89. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton [why these and not the Famous Five?]
91. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint Exupery x
93. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94. Watership Down - Richard Adams x [really boring]
95. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas x [though, i think it was an abridged version]
98. Hamlet - William Shakespeare x
99. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl x
100. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo x [this was definitely an abridged version]

Total 28, of which most were required reading at school. Those I like I put more than one (+) and of the ones I haven’t read, I intend to finish the Potters, that’s it. I wanted to read Atonement, but after seeing the film, not so much.

I tried to look for the origin, and I think the meme grew from a 2003 search for the nation’s favourite books that resulted in the Big Read. When i said grew, there are post-2003 books in this list, so perhaps it’s morphed.

via mefi, pride and prejudice told facebook newsfeed style. It’s funny as hell, I grinned like an idiot reading it. Funny bits further down:

Lydia Bennet and Kitty Bennet joined the group 1,000,000 Strong Against the Officers Leaving Meryton!

Mrs. Bennet joined the group Widows of Men Killed in Duels.

via stacia seaman, an editor at BSB books. Interesting, her answer on romance books.

+++INTRODUCTIONS+++

What’s your name? heh, you’re kidding me, right?

Do you read a lot? yep

What’s your favorite genre? modern fiction, adventure, fantasy


+++FANTASY AND SCI-FI+++

Do you prefer fantasy or science fiction? fantasy

What’s your favorite fantasy book/series? the Belgariad

Who’s your favorite fantasy author? David Eddings, Katherine Kerr, Anne McCaffrey

What’s your favorite science fiction book/series? it’s been a long long time since I read good sci-fi: Foundation series, Hitchhiker’s Guide

Favorite sci-fi author? Asimov


+++MYSTERY, HORROR, AND THRILLERS+++

Which do you prefer: a puzzling mystery, or a terrifying thriller? mystery, i get too scared of scary stuff

Do you have a favorite mystery novel? probably more adventure, Desmond Bagley, Frederick Forsyth

A favorite horror novel? i’ve never finished a horror novel


+++ROMANCE+++

Do you read romance novels? yep, i can’t stay away even though I get really disillusioned reading them

How about gay romance novels? uh huh

What’s your favorite? all bella, spinsters ink, bsb authors, the standard is very high


+++CHILDREN’S AND YA+++

What’s your favorite children’s book? Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Encyclopedia Brown series, Three Investigators series, Hardy Boys series, Famous Five

Is it the same book that was your favorite when you were a kid? these were the books i read as a kid

What’s your favorite YA book? I am David

Did you actually read it as a YA? i read it when i was 12, so probably it’s should have been classified as a children’s book

In general, do you prefer children’s books over grown-up books? i think i’ve outgrown children’s books. classics now classified as children or YA books — Jungle Book, Alice in Wonderland, the Count of Monte Cristo among many — i haven’t read and find it hard to motivate myself to read


+++CLASSICS AND GENERAL FICTION+++

What’s your favorite classic novel? Pride and Prejudice

What about general fiction? Classic: The Sun Also Rises; Modern: Less than Zero

What classic novel do you just not get? Moby Dick

Do you have a favorite play or drama? Macbeth

What do you think of Shakespeare? some are okay, like the comedies and tragedies. i don’t get the heavier war plays


+++POETRY+++

Could you pick a favorite poem? don’t know any poem, let alone picking a favourite

What about a favorite poetry collection? see above

Who’s your favorite poet? see above


+++COMICS AND GRAPHIC NOVELS+++

Do you read comics or graphic novels? i’ve read a few: Buffy, Oldboy, Doraemon, but not a lot

Do you have a favorite series? nope

A favorite book? nope


+++SHORT STORIES AND NOVELLAS+++

Do you prefer short stories (or short novels) over full-length novels? no, i pretty much only read full length novels, which is strange because I write a lot of short stories

What’s your favorite short story? i have to think about this

Favorite short story collection? nope

Do you have a favorite short story author? nope


+++NONFICTION+++

What kind of nonfiction do you usually read? none, unless we’re talking about blogs, travel guides or the watcher’s guides i use for reference

Do you have a favorite nonfiction book? i have a few travel photography books i treasure: the collection of Furano & Biei photos by Kenji Alsumi and the Chile photo book by Pablo Valenzuela Vaillant that K gave me for example

Read any interesting biographies? no, though when I was really young (like primary school) I read a bunch of biographies about famous composers

History books? no

Politics? no

Religious texts? no

How about books on mythology, fairy-tales, or other cultural stories? I have Mythology for Dummies on my desk for months and I haven’t touched it


+++ELEMENTS OF FICTION+++

What’s the most important element of a novel? Plot? Characterization? Style? Themes? Happy ending? as long as it makes sense and speaks to me. some books have no particular plot, like the Catcher in the Rye, but i get embroiled in Holden Caulfield’s mind. some have weak characters but a strong storyline, like a lot of adventure books, i get caught up in those too

What kind of plot interests you the most? ones that have that something — not too clichéd, have a combination of strong characters, intrigue, angst

What kind of characters usually appeal to you? real people; people with ups and downs; people who are not perfect; people who know what they want, or are confused about what they want; they can be twisted (like Patrick Bateman) or curious (like Hermione Granger) — as long as the writer tells me their story, and i can relate to them somehow

What is your favorite book overall? i don’t think anyone who takes this survey can answer this


+++PASS IT ON+++

What’s the last book you read? the Supreme Constellations series by Gun Brooke

What are you reading now? i’m looking at my shelf and trying to decide

What are you going to read next? probably something i’ve read before

Is there a book you would recommend to everyone on your friends list? if you want to understand my writing and the type of writer i want to be, read Less than Zero

Tag five people to fill out this meme. I don’t tag. do, or not do, it’s up to you

Helen Sandler used to be the editor of Diva, and still freelances for them though nowadays she’s more known as a poet. I haven’t read Diva in many years and I have a feeling my copy of this book was a freebie with the magazine. Published in 2001, it’s Helen Sandler’s proper book about “sanity, secrets and cybersex”.

Some of it seems at once to be both relevant and dated. People still IM and email and (may be) do cybersex. But there’s so much more to online life today that the protagonists would simply be overwhelmed — all the social networking, blogs, vlogs, podcasts, twitters, tumblrs and just completely conducting one’s life online — all pretty unthinkable in the early part of the millenium.

It’s a nice book to read on the plane, not too heavy and just enough humour mixed with angst to make the story interesting. The main character, Joss, tends to whinge and feel sorry for herself way too much but I suppose we all do that. Weird neighbours, well-meaning friends, boring job, a relationship without commitment are all familiar in real life. Meeting someone online and falling in love may seem a novel idea in 2001, but nowadays it’s almost a norm.

Like I said, the writing is light and funny. There are bits between chapters providing insights from the point of view of a side character that are amusing. The main characters are real enough, though in the spirit of being light, not hugely developed. Not a book that left me deeply affected, I enjoyed it.

I think I’ll try to make it a habit, read one of the bookshelf books when I’m travelling.

Bret Easton Ellis defined my writing. I was very affected by Less than Zero and American Psycho. Not so much The Rules of Attraction but still. It’s the style, the tightness of language and ultimately the blank emptiness of his characters, his stories and his locations that got me. Deeply.

The Informers came out in 1994. My copy is actually signed, I bought it in London. Strange that it’s taken me 14 years to finally sit down and read it. I’d tried numerous times, but never got round to finishing. When I’m stuck on a plane with no access to my books, it’s a good incentive to finish.

Not so much a novel as a collection of short stories about a group of people who are loosely interconnected. Almost all written in first person and, honestly, it sometimes took me a few pages to figure out who was narrating.

Nothing of import went on. Set in opulent LA we had people doing drugs, doing each other, aimlessly going from one place to another, and not even death can pull them out of their self-absorption. The actions shock, but are not written to shock. Some of the chapters held my interest more than others. Some of the characters I could recognise — Julian, Tad, Alana and Blair from Less than Zero, or just characters with the same names. Tim was just like Clay. Sean. The characters are grotesque, in their tanned, Porsche-driving, Spago-dining ways. But they are just who they are. He doesn’t judge, or glamorise, he just paints the picture.

Now I need to read Glamorama.

So yeah, we’ve been a little ebook crazy lately. And I finally bought ebook studio for $26.95 (I found a 10% discount code). It’s dead easy to use, it can read txt, rtf, html — the more stripped down text formats and conversion to pdb takes one minute. Of course, to add more features like images, page breaks, table of contents will take longer but the basic action takes a minute.

So for my thing-a-day today I made a video of me converting lamplight to ereader format to show: a) I made an ebook and b) it really only takes a minute.