Archive for Current Read

3 Books Down

{ February 3, 2010 @ 2:04 am } · { Current Read }
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Last year, my new year’s resolution was to finish reading a book each month. I did not exactly follow it but it was worth having it because I’ve at least finished a few.

This year, I’m holding on to that resolution. Now that I have nothing to keep me from enjoying my old hobby, I have finished reading 3 books in 1 month. I started reading 2 of them last year and 1 was actually sort of a short story than a book.

I’m a fan of the classics and I have quite a wide collection of such books. But I have not read everything yet.

Late last year, I picked up Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights from my collection. I think I’ve seen a MTV movie of this book, but I’m not too sure. Nevertheless, I read the book and halfway through, I decided to download the movie and watch it. I enjoyed the movie but I lost the interest in finishing the book. Somehow I already know how it’s going to end.

However, knowing that the reading experience is incomparable to watching the movie, I pushed through to the last pages. I’m glad I did because it was not quite what I’ve seen in the movie. There was so much more in the book.

~*~

Another one that I started last year was Paulo Coelho’s Eleven Minutes. I was also halfway through when I stopped. However, I started reading from the start when I decided to get back to it. It took me less than a day to finish the book.

It wasn’t something I’d call the story of my life, but there was so much in there that I can relate to.

I’m passing the book over to my fiancé because I think it’s also a book that men ought to read, although it doesn’t appear to be so.

~*~

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery is a very popular book for all ages. I have probably read that book when I was younger but it must have made no sense to me back then. So, when I found out that my fiancé has a copy of that book, I borrowed it right away.

The Little Prince has been praised by many. But I hope to do more than that. I will remember and live what I’ve learned from it, and share it to everybody. It’s definitely something I’d keep handy for a good read once in a while and for some inspiration.

On Helen Keller’s The Seeing See Little

{ September 26, 2009 @ 6:00 am } · { Current Read }
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helenkeller_dbking_flickrI remember Helen Keller from my grade school days. I knew that she was deaf and blind and that inspite of her handicap, she was quite a woman. As to why she was so, I couldn’t remember anymore.

Upon seeing her name on my high school English book, I decided to give her story, The Seeing See Little, a read.

Recently I was visited by a good friend who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, and I asked her what she had observed. “Nothing in particular,” she replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such responses, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.

How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy of note? I who cannot see, find hundreds of things to interest me through mere touch.

I couldn’t agree more with Helen. I remember how I used to travel for an hour everday to school, then back home again. We pass by the same buildings, houses, trees and just about anything along the road. There were some changes once in a while but they were never anything I’d bother myself with.

That was it until I owned my first digital camera. Strange enough, the way I look around me has changed. It was like looking at a beautiful picture always. I look at one thing in different angles, perpective and textures. Suddenly, everything around me became interesting and wonderful.

I saw the beauty of a tree’s branches and leaves that I used to watch passively. I saw the delicate crispness of a flower’s petals that used to be common and uninteresting to me. I saw creative formations of the clouds in the sky that used to look all the same to me. I also saw the beauty in ugly things like withered flowers, broken things, rust, etc. I guess the feeling is the same as Helen’s touching things.

I appreciate my sense of sight all the more when my camera tends to be blind and blurry sometimes. That’s when I feel grateful that my eyes can see better.

image by dbking via flickr

On Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird

{ September 25, 2009 @ 6:00 am } · { Current Read }
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tokillamockingbird_szlea_flickrI just finished reading Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. See, I’m making a progress! I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it before but here it is: one of my resolutions this year is to finish a book every month. It was pretty tough for me to stick to it but at least, I’ve finished quite a few books already this year. Yey!

Anyway, I really enjoyed leafing through the pages of To Kill A Mockingbird. It was an easy read and quite entertaining too. Now I know why so many people, both young and old, loved this masterpiece. I heard it was made into a movie and an Academy- Award winning at that! Hope I can grab a copy and watch it.

About the story, the best part for me was Scout (Jean Louise Finch) realizing that the man who carried his brother Jem (Jeremy Atticus Finch) home is Boo (Arthur) Radley, the person they (Scout, Jem and Dill) have always been wishing to come out of his house and meet.

My only disappointment is Boo Radley not being able to tell his story. Basically, that’s what intrigued the kids (Scout, Jem and Dill). But Boo didn’t say anything at all about himself and his reasons for locking himself inside their house. Even when Scout walked him up to his house. Then again, I think it is part of the story’s appeal.

I would like to quote Atticus Finch when he told his daughter, “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around it.” For Scout, standing on the Radley porch was enough. I guess that’s the part that says all of her questions about Boo Radley were answered.

The idea that Boo Radley have always been secretly observing them the whole time has really fascinated me.

… continue reading this entry.

One Law For The World

{ July 17, 2009 @ 8:53 am } · { Current Read, Random Crack }
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I have already gone to bed with the book I’m currently reading when one question from the book got me thinking.

She played a game in which she was given the power to pass one law to which every person in the world must adhere. What law would she lay down? What one law could change the world?

If you were given that power, what law would you lay down?

This idea reminds me so much of the movie, Pay It Forward.

Young Trevor McKinney, troubled by his mother’s alcoholism and fears of his abusive but absent father, is caught up by an intriguing assignment from his new social studies teacher, Mr. Simonet. The assignment: think of something to change the world and put it into action. Trevor conjures the notion of paying a favor not back, but forward–repaying good deeds not with payback, but with new good deeds done to three new people. Trevor’s efforts to make good on his idea bring a revolution not only in the lives of himself, his mother and his physically and emotionally scarred teacher, but in those of an ever-widening circle of people completely unknown to him.

I wish I’ll remember to do this everyday of my life and at the same time, influence people to do the same.

In A Pack Of Camel Cigarettes

{ July 17, 2009 @ 4:14 am } · { Current Read, Random Crack }
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stilllifewithwoodpeckerI am currently reading Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins. This book is very rich with funny stuff, bizarre ideas and enlightening quotes.

Here, it might be worth mentioning that Bernard Mickey Wrangle, while in agreement with the King’s opinion of the profession of psychology, had developed a psychological test of his own. It was short, simple, and to the mind of its cretor, infallible. To administer the test, merely ask the subject to name his or her favorite Beatle. If you are at all familiar with the distinct separate public image of the four Beatles, then you’ll recognize that the one chosen — John, Paul, George, or Ringo — reveals as much about the subject’s personality as most of us will ever hope to know.

Do you know what I thought of once I read through that paragraph? Facebook!

There are just a lot of personality or whatever quizzes in Facebook that tells about you, what you want, what will be and what not by simply choosing from 5 options or answering 5 questions. It’s plain silly but Facebook probably got their idea from Bernard. LOL!

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