Getting in touch with the "Tookish" side in me

Every once in a while, when you are least expecting it, you stumble upon a book that inadvertently captures you in ways that you can't imagine.  That was the case for me and The Hobbit.  It has been a while since I last posted anything here and as can be expected in such a prolonged absence, I am about five books behind in terms of blog entries.  I know I should really set out in catching up with those entries first but I just finished The Hobbit and I haven't been this excited about a book for a while now.

Simply put, this book took over my imagination and awakened in me a sense of adventure.  I actually lament over the fact that it is only now that I read it.  The book was written by Tolkien for his own children and was the predecessor for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Considered a classic in children's literature, I can attest that this can still be enjoyed by all ages.  I was actually postponing the reading of this book.  Although I have read my share of fantasy fiction, I know that there are books that can be quite daunting.  My own experience with the Lord of the Rings is a proof of that.  The only reason that I started it was because we watched the Fellowship of the Rings last Sunday and after finishing "Falling Man" yesterday, I decided I might as well re-explore the world of Tolkien's Middle-Earth.  And boy, what an experience it was.

I was so immersed in this other world made up of elves, dwarves, trolls, orcs and I found myself rooting for Bilbo and his company.  The experience was amazing.  After finishing the book, I was reluctant to let go and there were moments that I even considered re-reading the Lord of the Rings Trilogy but of course this will have to wait given the number of books that I have on my plate right now.  I have to content myself in re-watching the trilogy and rooting for the movie adaptation of this book to be finally made.

I am humbled by this book and the only fitting tribute that I can give it is that I will give my nephews and the other children in my future a copy of the book when they reach the age of twelve.  Hopefully, it fires up their imagination and sense of wonderment as it did mine and instills in them a sense of adventure and boundless opportunities.

Making a case for the Ipad

Blogging can be quite tricky sometimes, especially if you're trying to be consistent.  My previous posts have mostly been on my personal impressions on the books I am reading as part of my goal for 2012.  The hard thing for me is that there are times that I am able to think of what I want to write about a particular book or thing but I am not able to do so because I am in the mall or whatever and then when I do get the chance to sit down and write, I find myself staring blankly and trying to squeeze out every word.

I guess that makes a good case for getting myself an Ipad.  Bwahaha. I was skeptical about this when it was first introduced (and the fact that the name tends to remind people of something else does not help) but thinking about it, it would certainly be more economical than getting a Kindle. 

The Ipad would have been especially useful last weekend.  Last Thursday, we suddenly decided to go to the province because of the declared holiday on Friday.  I have already finished The Age of Innocence and Their Eyes were Watching God and was supposed to blog about it over the weekend but our change of plans made it impossible to do so.  The lack of internet connection could account for that.  Flashes and glimpses of what I want to write about those two books haunted me during the long weekend.  Oh well, I guess that is the sacrifice one has to pay.  That and about a thousand bucks. hehehe  It was well worth it because I finally got the chance to get some rest and relaxation away from the distractions of the city.  Sometimes I get so caught up in the hustle and bustle of the Internet age that I just want to "disconnect" myself from everything.  No facebook, no twitter, no YM, no cable tv, no nothing.

I was also able to finish Sense and Sensibility during the trips to and from and the down times (somehow, there are a lot more of these when you are in the province..hehehe).  All that seafood (and well food in general) also goes a long way to make up for whatever inconvenience.  The only real downside is that the fact that I spent the whole three days doing practically nothing made the monday blues yesterday even more acute.  But as they say, all good things must come to an end.

Journeying with Stephen Dedalus

James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as A Young Man is a semi-autobiographical novel that tells of the early life of Stephen Dedalus.  The last name of the protagonist alludes to Greek Mythology's Dedalus.  Like Dedalus, Stephen in the story works on bulding "wings" so that he can do away with the things that he thinks is holding him back like religion, society, and family from his aim of being a true "artist".

"I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile, and cunning."

The book traces Stephen's journey through his formative years.  I was amazed at Joyce's use of language to depict the growth of the character.  As the character matures, the words used for the narrative becomes more complicated.  The thought process also becomes more complex.  Stephen studied in a boarding school when he was young and was heavily influenced by the Catholic faith.  As a teen, he tries to reconcile his physical desires with his faith.  Stephen eventually abandons everything in favor of pursuing his dream of being an artist.


"I go to encounter for the millionth time the reality of experience and to forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race."

I liked the book because I think it more or less captures the process of self-discovery that we all go through. As Stephen puts it: "I was not myself as I am now, as I had to become."  

Falling in love with A Room with a View

I am not a big believer in coincidences but there are times that life seems to work in mysterious ways.   Last Wednesday, I talked about my experience watching Daniel Day-Lewis in There will be Blood.  At that time, I was reading A Room with a View by E.M. Forster.  Imagine my surprise when I learned that Daniel actually played Cecil Vyse in the movie adaptation of the book.

For me, the book is a love story, first and foremost.  It is the story of Lucy Honeychurch and how she attempts to reconcile her passions against the repressed society and its definition of what is polite and proper.

 Although I don't believe that there is complete freedom in our society compared to that of our ancestors, I am no less thankful that I do not have to deal with the same limitations.
Mr. Emerson accurately describes how archaic society can be:"Do you suppose there's any difference between Spring in nature and Spring in man?  But there we go, praising the one and condemning the other, ashamed that the same work eternally through both"

Making things more complicated for Lucy is her feelings for George, a man frowned upon by the polite society. 
"The contest lay not between love and duty. Perhaps there never is such a contest.  It lay between the real and the pretended, and Lucy's first aim was to defeat herself"

One of the things that I will always remember about the book is how some people can only be associated with "rooms" and some people can be associated with "views".  Rooms represents constraints and the need for structure while views are represented in the book as freedom and spontaneity.  There are also some people who are only made to be acquaintances and can never know anyone intimately.
"He’s only for an acquaintance. He is for society and cultivated talk...He is the sort who are all right so long as they keep to things—books, pictures—but kill when they come to people...Every moment of his life he’s forming you..."

As I said earlier, this book for me is a love story first and foremost so I don't have to expound on what happened in the end.  Besides, I really would recommend that one reads this book for oneself.  That is how much I love this book.  I just wish I can find a copy of the movie.  I want to see if I will be just as in love with the movie as I am with the book.

"It's so fluffy, I'm gonna die"

Just in case you live under a rock or something, I got the title from my previous post from the movie Despicable Me.  We had no plans of watching this movie but fortuitous events would have us do otherwise.  Thanks to the birthday of one of my friends, we were able to watch the movie in 3-D last Friday night.

Steve Carrell plays a super-villain who plans to steal the moon in an effort to get the spotlight and all the related perks from another super-villain.  To complete one essential part of this plan, he contrives to use three orphan girls but he gets more than he bargained for in the process.

Agnes is so adorable.

Kind of reminds me of me when I don't get my way (something my fiance can surely attest to...hehehe).  The movie isn't really catered for small kids but I found it thoroughly enjoyable and so endearing.

Miserable Me

I dived into the weekend determined to get as much rest and relaxation as I possibly can, after all, that is what weekends are all about, right?  But there are times that it doesn't matter how much you want something if your body is just as determined not to cooperate.

Last Sunday was one of the most miserable days I had in recent memory. My tummy woke me up at 3 am after only 3 hours of sleep and refused to give me a moment's rest (I will spare you the gory details).  I was only able to get some sleep when the sun was already up and the roosters have long stopped crowing.  To make up for the miserable start of my day, I decided to make a well-known comfort food here in the Philippines, Arroz Caldo.  After some searching in the net (get the recipe here), I came across a fairly easy recipe to follow and with some improvising (we did not have sticky rice and chicken thighs or drumsticks), I made my first Arroz Caldo ever.  Although I originally planned it to last until Monday breakfast since I also cooked Adobo for lunch and dinner but it didn't even last until Sunday dinner. (hehehe)

Back to my uncooperating tummy, even though I can't really blame anyone (no one made me eat all those popcorn Friday night), I was still so miserable about being sick and I actually had tears at one time.  It is not really the pain but the feeling of helplessness that gets me.  Another thing is that it made me think about my mom.  Although my fiance does a pretty job of taking care of me even when I'm not sick, it's still different.

On a positive note, no Monday blues for today because of the president's declaration that September 10 is a holiday.  I plan to catch up on my reading then since I was not able to get any reading done last weekend,  I just hope my body will cooperate with me this time.

"I drink your milkshake"

Watching There Will Be Blood in DVD made me regret not watching it in the big screen when it first came out.  It might not have CGI effects that seem to embody almost every major Hollywood movie that is being released.  Its cast can hardly be called stellar.  But what it does have is Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview.  No, let me rephrase that, Daniel Day-Lewis IS Daniel Plainview.  His performance as an oil prospector gave me goosebumps, to put it mildly.  He was nothing short of brilliant and truly deserving of all the awards he got for his performance.  

 The performance of Paul Dano as Eli Sunday should also be commended.  I hated him at sight. One of the most memorable moments for me were the last scenes between Daniel and Eli.  The title of this post is actually taken from that confrontation.  I think I need to have myself checked because of how much I relished what happened to Eli during those last moments.

The movie is almost 3 hours long but it is so rich and so vibrant that in the end, it seems as if 3 hours is not enough.  I know that I don't have the words to fully capture the brilliance of this movie so I won't even try.  My only wish is that they make more movies like this.  Kudos to Paul Thomas Anderson, Daniel Day-Lewis and the rest of the people behind this masterpiece.

Catching Up: The Great Gatsby

The novel captures the decadence of post-World War I American society and is considered to be an example of the Great American Novel. It has been included as required text for most high schools and colleges in the US. An interesting tidbit about the book is that there was a time that the author wanted to call the book "Trimalchio in West Egg"

One of the things that struck me was the narrator's description of Gatsby's dream and eventual fate. "...and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night." There are dreams that we hold sacred in our minds, picturing over and over again our moment of attaining it but when you finally achieve that dream, you realize that the dreamer that you were and the person that you are now cannot be reconciled anymore.

So, there, that's 7 down and only 89 more to go (hehehe).

Catching Up: The Island of Dr. Moreau

The Island of Dr. Moreau holds the distinction as being one of the few science fiction novels in my list.  This story vividly describes the experiences of Edward Prendick and his observations of another man's quest to "humanize" animals by performing vivisections on them. Although Moreau succeeds in making them walk upright and gives them a grasp of human language and comprehension, they revert back to their animalistic tendencies.

When Prendick finally returns to human society, he had a hard time assimilating himself with other people. "I could not persuade myself that men and women I met were not also another Beast People, animals half wrought into the outward image of human souls, and that they would presently begin to revert..."  I cannot help but wonder, are we not all beast people inside, capable of reverting at any moment?

Catching Up: Silas Marner

I thought I have been fairly conscientious in updating this blog on my progress on the books I have finished so far but, lo and behold, when I did a quick check, there were 3 books that I haven't posted here.  Well, actually, only 2 since I only finished Silas Marner last night.

Reading Silas Marner immediately after finishing The Crying Lot of 49 can be quite jarring.  I would even consider saying that they are different as night is to day as an understatement.  George Elliot is a perfect example of a realist novel.

It is a story about the redemption of a man; how he lost his gold, only to find something more precious. "As the child's mind was growing into knowledge, his mind was growing into memory: as her life unfolded, his soul, long stupefied in a cold narrow prison, was unfolding too, and trembling gradually into full consciousness."  This is one of the most heartwarming stories that I have read in a while and the happy ending goes to prove that good things happen to good people.