Books

Lets see here... I can't remember the last book I updated...

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold:
I liked this book. It is a fast read. Good characters. Something very sad, but very happy about it at the same time. It is told from the point of view of a young girl who was murdered and she is watching all her loved ones from heaven.

The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins:
Still in the process of reading this one. I am still deciding what I think about it, and will report more when I finish.

Curtain by Agatha Christie:
A good old detective story. I good crime story, but I didn't like the end all that much. I think I need to read some other Agatha Christie books.

Karka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami:
Wow! Awesome book! I have never read and Japanese literature before, and now am interested to read alot more, and also to read alot more Murakami. This was the strangest book, but it made sense so much! Follows the paths of two people, a young boy named Kafka who runs away from home and an old man named Nakata who can talk to cats, and how their lives sort of intersect. The book was intersting because it was so open and frank and forward, and this is sort of the opposite of what I think about Japanese culture in general. Maybe since the Japanese are sort of conservative and closed (? maybe not the right word) their inner emotions, feelings, ideas come out in their art and literature. Anyway, I can't wait to read more. A+! I highly recommend this book.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts:
I am still in the process of reading this book, actually should be done with it today, I hope. It is a massive thing, almost 1,000 pages, most of it, in my opinion not needed. I was really excited for this book because a great deal of travellers have recommended it to me. "10 out of 10!" some one told me, "The best book I have ever read" someone else said... Well, I completely disagree with them. I have been sorely disappointed with it. It has some entertainment value: shallow love stories, fighting scenes (that drag on WAY too long), living in a slum. This book supposedly is based on Roberts life: he was sentenced to jail for 20 years in Australia for armed robbery, heroin, etc.. then broke out of jail and went to Bombay where he does all this crazy stuff. Well, it's curious because the back of the book says "Literary Fiction." Maybe he stretched the truth a little too much to call it an autobiography. Anyway, I don't like the characters, they are shallow and bland, and underdeveloped. The narrator is egotistical, and I don't really like him at all. This book should have been half the size, maybe 400 or 500 pages, then maybe it would have been good. I suppose it is good if you want an adventure story... I was thinking it would be better as a movie, only to find out it actually is soon to be made into a major motion picture, starring Johnny Depp as the main character, Lin... Anyway, I am pretty excited for this book to be over with.