Books I read this summer

I thought I’d take the chance to catch up on my reading this summer since I haven’t really read anything last semester aside from the books that we discussed in class (The Plague, The Mother, Things Fall Apart, God of Small Things, etc.). So I was quite excited in coming back to California and being able to borrow from the immense and updated collection of the library there.

• Gossip Girl: The Carlyles, Cecily von Ziegesar

Okay. My only excuse for reading this is that I’m seventeen, and a girl. ’nuff said.

• Shoe Addicts Anonymous, Beth Harbison

I love shoes! I adored the first line of the book: Sex in a box. That’s what it was. Spine-tingling, heart-stopping, decadent sex in a box. Utterly delicious (not that I know what sex is really like) wording. Unfortunately, it went downhill from there. It was very predictable, very chicklit-ish, and it was a relief that I didn’t expect much.

• Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami

This is a breath of fresh air after reading SAA. Murakami never fails to compel me with his ideas, absurd and otherwise. I found myself drawn to Midori, one of the characters, because her personality is so indescribable. I think I think and act a bit like her.

Here’s an excerpt:

“Waiting for the perfect love?”

“No, even I know better than that. I’m looking for selfishness. Perfect selfishness. Like, say, I tell you I want to eat strawberry shortcake. And you stop everything you’re doing and run out to buy it for me. And you come back out of breath and get down on your knees and hold this strawberry shortcake out to me. And I say I don’t want it anymore and throw it out the window. That’s what I’m looking for.”

“I’m not sure that has anything to do with love,” I said with some amazement.

“It does,” she said. “You just don’t know it. There are times in a girl’s life when things like that are incredibly important.”

“Things like throwing strawberry shortcake out the window?”

“Exactly. And when I do it, I want the man to apologize to me. ‘Now I see, Midori. What a fool I’ve been! I should have known that you would lose your desire for straawberry shortcake. I have all the intelligence and sensitivity of a piece of donkey shit. To make it up to you, I’ll go out and buy you something else. What do you like? Chocolate mousse? Cheesecake?’”

“So then what?”

“So then I’d give him all the love he deserves for what he’s done.”

“Sounds crazy to me.”

“Well, to me, that’s what love is. Not that anyone can understand me, though.” Midori gave her head a little shake against my shoulder. “For a certain kind of person, love begins from something tiny or silly. From something like that or t doesn’t begin at all.”

“I’ve never met a girl who thinks like you.”

“A lot of people tell me that,” she said, digging at a cuticle. “But it’s the only way I know how to think. Seriously, I’m just telling you what I believe. It never crossed my mind that my way of thinking is different from other people’s. I’m not trying to be different. But when I speak out honestly, everybody thinks I’m kidding or playacting. When that happens, I feel like everything’s such a pain!”

• I Need You More Than I Love You and I Love You To Bits, Gunnar Ardelius

It’s a novel in a different form since it’s comprised of passages, but you kind of get the story. The book as a whole is not commendable, but there are parts that are capable of striking you (like lightning?). I was browsing through the “young adult” section of the library and I came across this book. I liked the cover (it’s blue!) and the title (it’s a stand).

• Be With You, Takuji Ichikawa

This is a manga! I do hate reading a series that I can’t fnish, so I resisted borrowing mangas (like Platinum Garden and Nosatsu Junkie: mangas I started reading from the lib that are still unfinished). But this is, as it says on the cover: Complete in one volume! Yes, with the exclamation point. The story is cute and touching, and for a second there I was tearing up. though I’d like to find and watch the movie because I’m hoping that the story will be told better.

• Too Far To Go, John Updike

Also known as The Maples Stories. I’m finally able to read a whole book by Updike. I admit I didn’t “get” how some of the stories became remarkable, but the other stories are just so good and it made me think. I also can’t quite relate because one, I’m not having problems my marriage because I’m not married, and two, it’s set in the United States in the 60’s. I liked the last story, though, when they were divorcing. It’s a good book, and I’m not giving up on Updike just yet (meaning: I’ll read more of his stories).

• Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman, Haruki Murakami

I’ve finally finished this. I was reading this a year ago, but I wasn’t able to finish it. So now it’s official: I like Murakami-sensei’s stories more than his novels. With that said, I think he’s a brilliant writer whether  in novels or in short stories. I like that some of his ideas are ideas I’ve thought of as well, while others are so extraordinary that he may be the only one who has thought of that. Some of his stories just defies the laws of reality that you won’t know how the story will end unless you’ve read it, and even then, you’ll still be left wondering what exactly happened. His stories are not exactly sci-fi or horror, but rather supernatural. I observe this from his stories because the two novels of his that I’ve read deal with reality, at least at the level that I can still call reality, if a little warped. Simply put, he has secured his spot in my top three list of foreign authors.

• POSEUR: The Good, the Fab and the Ugly, Rachel Maude

What? I’ve read the first book (POSEUR) and I liked… the sketches. Really. I almost skimmed through this second book (in the series; the 3rd book is coming this June). The story is interesting but the way it was written? Gahd. I like imagining the ensembles, though. What can I say? I needed a breather before I dived into another Murakami.

• Elephant Vanishes, Haruki Murakami

Loved it. Hmm. So I’ve read three Murakami books this summer. Not bad. This was the last of my library-borrowed books. I wished I could stay there longer and read more books. Okay, I don’t really wish that, not really. I wanted to go back home and start the sem already!

There. I admit they’re not many, considering that I was in CA for almost two months. But what with the cartoons (who could resist Spongebob and the Fairly Odd Parents?), the movies (I’ve watched most of them so long ago but I like watching them again), and the documentaries (on Nat Geo, Discovery, History, Travel, and others), and even the classic movies shown on AMC and TMC (Audrey Hepburn’s Roman Holiday and My Fair Lady and such), not to mention the animes (watched and finished Toradora, Nodame Cantabile, Nodame Cantabile Paris Hen, Special A, Death Note) and series (Korean Boys Over Flowers and British Lost in Austen) I started and finished watching on my laptop through live streaming (gotta make the most out of the fast internet connection!), and the lure of the keyboard and the bike, I really didn’t have time. (That was one long sentence!) Plus, I only get to do (and watch and read) all of these when I’m not talking to my hon, because he always has to come first. You know, for world peace. LOL

This is the last carefree summer I’ll have, I suppose. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be in the Philippines next summer taking summer classes and making up for lost time—like it’s my fault I had to migrate. Sigh.

I did have a fun summer, but now I’m back here at home, excited as always for the first day of school. Just the first day, though. XP

**I started this entry a couple of weeks ago and was only adding bits and pieces as I finish reading the books.