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.