Books

Sometimes I feel obliged to post something on this blog even though I don’t really have anything to write about. I guess that’s what they call “commitment”. Gosh, I hate “commitment”. In every sense of the word. Yet, I put up with it. What can I do? I’m forced to.

Anyways, approximately two weeks ago, I bought three books.

They were Brand New Friend – Mike Gayle, Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer & Monster – Jonathan Kellerman.

Gayle & Kellerman were recommended by friends and I did some research over the Internet and finally decided on the two titles. And I bought Everything is Illuminated because it had a dog named Sammy Davis Junior, Junior. Yes, really. That was the reason.

I finished Brand New Friend within a week. It’s a lad lit, so it wasn’t heavy reading at all. It revolves around the strangely familiar and often done theme of platonic relationship between guys and girls. Or more precisely, the struggle to maintain a platonic relationship between guys & girls. It tells the story of how Rob struggles to just be “friends” with Jo, and at the same time convince his girlfriend the same thing.

Sound familiar? Well, I’ll admit; it’s not really ground breaking stuff, and it’s a subject that has been more or less covered in at least 2 Meg Ryan movies. In fact, reading this book, I just can’t help imagining that if this were a movie it would most definitely star John Cusack & Meg Ryan. Yeah, its THAT kind of story.

But I’m not saying that the book is bad. Not at all. This book is absolutely hilarious. It made me laugh out loud. And that’s quite an achievement. I don’t remember reading anything that made me laugh out loud before. This book must be pretty good.

I like the writing. It flows effortlessly. It’s very conversational (if that’s even a word).

And being a lad lit, it covers a lot of stuff that I can relate to. One thing that Gayle does well is his observation of the male behaviour, as more often than not I end up nodding in agreement to Gayle’s description of typical male actions.

I’m fully aware that reading lad lit is totally uncool but hey, I enjoyed it. It was an easy and pleasant read, I laughed out loud, it was profound in some places, it was decent. Tak pening kepala langsung. The 5 stars given by Amazon.com readers I feel was a tad too generous but if I were to rate this I’d give it a high 4.

I’m now in the middle of Everything Is Illuminated. This is a completely different book to Brand New Friend. Its so chaotic, everything is everywhere, the dialogs are crazy nonsense, it’s kinda like the Malay Male blog. I like this. Though the only complaint I have so far is it has far too many difficult words, and I have to refer to the dictionary every 2 minutes its annoying.

Oh, in between Brand New Friend & Everything is Illuminated, I’ve also began reading (for the 2nd time) The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. I loved it the first time but I’m enjoying it even more the second time around. Please read it. It’s very very witty. And charming.

And lastly, I just want to say I hate Nescafe. It’s not coffee. I’d rather have Kopi Kapal Api.

Visitors

I've just realised that this site is actually more popular than it seems. And I've got secret admirers! I guess that's very flattering.
Thanks anyways for visiting. Come by often. Drop a comment or two.
But make sure its signed off as anonymous. If not, it's no fun for me. I like to guess.

P/s: This is in no way a sarcastic post. I'm honestly thanking people here. I just can't help it if it comes off as slightly cynical. Its just the way I write.

I'm back

Hey people. I am back. Been missing for a couple of weeks, I know. But work is really hectic the past 14 days, and only on my last day at work, I've had the chance to relax a little.

I finally bought a book. Well, actually I bought three. And I've managed to finish reading one. I'll write about that in another post.

Liverpool are getting crappier each week. Benitez is a decent man and all, but dude, your bullshit excuses has to stop!
And you know what else is bullshit? Persidangan Umno.

Anyways I'm off to Perth, Australia next week! Getting myself some summer sun.

Have a nice week ahead, and I'll update this site soon.

Season Review

First off, I'm praying that they find the missing pilot off the shore of Kerteh. This is really scary.

Secondly, I think it's not too late for my own personal review of the 2006 F1 Season, which I thought provided so much entertainment and thrills throughout the year.
It's all off the top of my head, so if I screw up the details, please correct me.

Best Driver - M Schumacher. Excellent in the 2nd half of the season, in races where lesser mortals would have no chance of even competing, Micheal repeatedly proved his masterclass by coming back from the dead to score valuable points. And often the comebacks are from way back on the grid. He may be unlikeable, but in terms of pure driving, he's genius.

Best Team - Renault (maybe). Had a great car early on, that was until the mass damper thing was removed. Only screw up when Alonso had a wheel nut/suspension (?) failure in ????. That's as far as I can remember. Apart from that, they had a competitive and more importantly, reliable car, though towards the end of the season, Ferrari stepped up a gear and gave them a run for their money.

Most Disappointing - Kimi & McLaren. How many finishes did Kimi/McLaren have? No wins, as I recall. A few podiums kot. Good luck with Ferrari next year Kimi. And hope Alonso would give something extra to McLaren.

Most Promising - Without a doubt, Robert Kubica. Awesomely quick in his debut, under difficult conditions (Hungary in the rain). Improved rapidly with each race, and towards the end of the season came really really close to beating team mate Heidfeld. This lad is a star. I'd be worried if I were Heidfeld.

Best Race - There's a few to choose from, but the one that really sticks in my head is once again, Hungary. Normally a boring race, this year it was full of drama and events, none bigger than Jenson Button winning his first ever race. It rained heavily, visibility was poor, a lot of crashes, unlucky Kubica disqualified after finishing 7th (?), it had everything.

Moment of the Season - Micheal's Ferrari breaking down at Suzuka. Schumacher who was leading the race, suffered a major letdown when his Ferrari had a failure (engine ?) soon after his pit stop, leaving Alonso to take over the lead, and eventually win the race. This ended any realistic hope of Micheal winning the World Championship, thus ending the dream of a potentially fantastic, magical comeback.

That's all I can think of. Anything to suggest/add? Please put it under comments. Thank you.
And please pray for the pilot.

I Swear!

I have a tendency to swear a lot. I do my swearing usually within the presence of my buddies, very rarely towards strangers (unless I'm cursing at them) and as far as I can remember, never with my parents or elderly relatives.
With my friends, the favourite swear words are the usual - fuck, shit & asshole. That's in English. Malay - pukimak, cibai, babi etc. You get the point. Occasionally, I'd vary the swearing by adding wanker somewhere in between our friendly banter. Example: KJ is a fucking wanker, yeah? And slowly, but surely, wanker has become an accepted and well used swear within our group. But of course cursing a Mat Rempit using wanker serves no purpose, as I am absolutely sure they don't know the meaning of the word. And it's not like they'll go home and look it up in a dictionary.

But swear words are only good if people accept & use them.
I've been trying to introduce and encourage even the use of cunt in our swearing. I'd slide in cunt in everything I say during our usual borak borak sessions, in the hope that my mates would catch on. But unfortunately, they just stared at me with blank faces, and then, with an expression of total annoyance, said "What's up with all the cunts?"
I took that as a sign of disapproval of the use of the word, maybe it's too harsh or too I dunno, vulgar (?). And after that, I reduced my usage of cunt. It goes to prove that, without peer endorsement, a swear word is useless.

I still harbour the hope that someday the word would gain a more widespread use in our society. However ridiculous that sounds.

Anyways, the thing that annoys me is that in the new Martin Scorsese movie - The Departed, as shown in our cinemas, they censor all fucks but not cunt. Is it because the censors think cunt is a lesser swear word than fuck OR more more worryingly, they don't know what it means?

OK. Have a nice weekend. Don't swear too much. It's bad.

Judge by Cover

They say - Don't judge a book by its cover. But doing this - literally, is difficult, isn't it? I mean, I have a difficult time in choosing what book to buy, and it's a million times harder if you can't even browse through the book because it's been nicely plastic shrink wrapped.
And the only thing you can see is the front & back cover, plus the spine.
So, if you have nothing specific to look for in a bookstore, and you just want to "look around & get yourself a decent book", it WILL be hard not to choose based on what's printed on the front & back.
Therefore, you need to judge a book by its cover.
And for sure, I'd be more inclined to buy a book that has a nicely designed cover and more importantly, if there's lots of endorsement-praise-quote things printed all over. OR, it's been shortlisted for an award or better still, it actually won one.

So anyways, I'm still looking around for a nice book to read for the next few days. Any suggestions?
Fiction only. And no Tom Clancy military bullshit, ok? Or Dan Brown.
Thanks.