First Brush with Thomas Pynchon

Although I am what others might consider a bookworm, I am relatively an unadventurous reader and I frequently rely on authors that I have previously read (Anne Rice before her Christian series) or books that are in the bestseller list.  I also went through a sort of hiatus from reading and it was only last year that I consciously took steps to rediscover my love for reading.  The result was my "discovery" of authors like Chuck Palahniuk and and Haruki Murakami.  I also made an effort to read the timeless classics like War and Peace, Fountainhead, and Crime and Punishment.
One of the considerable upside with the goal that I have set for myself this year is that it will afford me the opportunity to read authors I normally would not go for.  It shames me to say that I had to google Thomas Pynchon given his notoriety.  I have 4 works of Thomas Pynchon in my list and first up was The Crying Lot of 49. 

 The Crying Lot of 49 is a postmodern fiction that deals with one woman's struggle to prove a theory: the existence of Tristero and the conspiracy behind it.  In her effort to find meaning among all the rambling information and seemingly meaningless events, she struggles between believing that it is real or that it is just an elaborate plan on the part of an ex-lover and that there are two possiblities: "Another mode of meaning behind the obvious or none."

Authors like Haruki Murakami, Gabriel Garcia-Marquez, and Kurt Vonnegut have already initiated me in postmodern fiction and I am well acquainted with "magical realism" but what made TCL49 so challenging were the multiple cultural references that were lost to me and would have offered me a more fruitful experience if only I got them.  But given that I was hampered by my own limitations when I read this book, I still found the experience a gratifying one and is a testament to the benefits of stepping out of one's own comfort zones.

"Oedipa wondered whether, whether at the end of this (if it were supposed to end), she too might not be left with only compiled memories of clues, intimations, but never the central truth itself, which must somehow each time be too bright for her memory to hold; which must always blaze out, destroying its own message irreversibly, leaving an overexposed blank when the ordinary world came back"

Dream a little dream: my wish list for the next 2 years

In one of my earlier posts, I mentioned that I was able find most of the books in my to be read list online.  I am now posting the list of books that I have yet to find as part of my wish list (hint*hint*ahem*ahem)
Wish List

1. A Thousand Cranes by Yasunari Kawabata

2. Against the Day by Thomas  Pynchon

3. Atonement by Ian McEwan

4. Austerlitz  by W.G. Sebald

5. Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

6. Empire of the Sun  by J.G. Ballard

7. Life of Pi  by Yann Martel

8. Nostromo  by Joseph Conrad

9. On the Edge of Reason by Miroslav Krleza

10. Remembrance of Things Past  by Marcel Proust

11. Requiem for a Dream by Hubert  Selby Jr.

12. The Accidental by Ali Smith

13. The Bell  by Iris Murdoch

14. The Book of Daniel  by E.L. Doctorow

15. The Book of Laughter and Forgetting  by Milan Kundera

16. The Grapes of Wrath  by John Steinbeck

17. The Home and the World by Rabindranath Tagore

18. The Human Stain  by Philip Roth

19. The Melancholy of Resistance  by László Krasznahorkai

20. The Plague  by Albert Camus

21. The Portrait of a Lady  by Henry James

22. The Sea  by John Banville

23. The Sun Also Rises  by Ernest Hemingway

24. The Talented Mr. Ripley  by Patricia Highsmith

25. Vertigo  by W.G. Sebald

Of course my wish list would not be complete without some shooting for the stars entries:
26.  Kindle (or an Ipad...hehehe)
27. Asian tour for two (hint hint ahem ahem...hahaha)
28. Shopping trip in HK or Thailand (hehehe)
29. 24" (or higher) flat screen TV
30. Macbook or a pink Sony Vaio
31. Xperia X10

Ok ok, I know the last items in my list are pushing it but there's nothing wrong with dreaming big, right? It may be out there but I won't go as far as to say that it's out of the picture (hehehe)

Exuberant weekend

The long weekend is almost up and surprise, surprise, I am almost 3 days behind on my reading.  I find it somewhat ironic that I get more reading done during the weekdays.  Although I was able to finish "The Crying Lot of 49" last Saturday afternoon, I haven't been able to squeeze in any more reading time after that.  It is almost as if reading is akin to work.  Blasphemy!  But oh well, I just have to comfort myself with the fact that I cooked 3 new dishes over the last weekend.

As a spur of the moment thing, we bought sapsap or ponyfish last Saturday night.  I only had a vague idea of what I was going to do with it, more like a dim remembrance of how my lola used to cook it.  Good thing I came across a recipe for Pangat na Sapsap (find the recipe here) and we cooked it for lunch yesterday.  I find the dish really simple and it goes perfectly with rice (one proof of that is that Fil consumed twice than what he normally eats for lunch...hehehe)

We went to Greenhills last Saturday and I tried out the Raspberry yogurt of Golden Spoon.  It was nothing spectacular and Fil even went as far as to compare it to Tempra but it was not as bad as that.  I definitely prefer it compared to the chocolate icicle passing off as yogurt from Tutti Frutti. It just made me miss White Hat's Green Apple Yogurt even more.

After Greenhills, we went straight to Robinsons in BF to do the groceries (well, our main destination is really the building beside it...hehe).  We tried out the pizza place in the 2nd floor of Robinsons and it was a good thing that we did.  As a rule, my fiance and I don't really eat in pizza places because he is not a fan but the Buffalo Wings of that restaurant (for the life of me, I cant remember the name of the place) quickly made a convert out of him.  I opted for the traditional pepperoni pizza and I loved it.  Can't wait to taste their other pizzas and stromboli.

The Sunday and Monday was spent lazing around and catching up on DVDs.  Fil made me watch "Cinco" and as my revenge, I made him watch "I'll Be There" with me. As they say, all is fair in love and war.

On a totally unrelated side-note, I was really happy to hear that Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) won in the Emmys for Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series.  I am so in love with him and I am even willing to learn Klingon for him.  Can't wait for the new season of the Big Bang Theory.

Re-acquainting myself with Sherlock and Holly

Holly Golightly and Sherlock Holmes are both iconic in their own rights.  Simple black dress, string of pearls,  sunglasses, and holding an oversized cigarette holder, Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly succeeded in creating one of the most memorable images in cinema.

I watched Breakfast at Tifanny's back when I was still in HS and I am rather ashamed of myself to say that it took this list of 1001 books to make me read the novella by Truman Capote.  What can I say, I love the book just as I love the movie.

As expected, the movie has already been given the "Hollywood" treatment as compared to the book.  The book is no love story (although half the characters are in love with Holly just like in the movie).  Instead, the book's ending is more open to interpretation.  The book also focuses on how Holly threw everything away in hopes of finding something akin to home.  One of the most memorable things about the book was Holly's relationship with her cat who she refused to give a name only to realize that they do belong together.

As embarrassing as it is to admit, my first encounter with the Sherlock Holmes was also thanks to Hollywood's Robert Downer Jr.-starrer.  But of course we all know that Sherlock Holmes has already become an archetype for detectives together with his trusty sidekick Watson and for this, I included The Hound of the Baskervilles in my list.

I was kind of let down by the experience.  Part of the reason is that I don't really like reading detective stories.  I have a problem with reading whodunit stories because I find myself constantly distracted with the desire to just skip to the ending and find out what the whole hullabaloo is all about. But another reason why I was disappointed was that I was able to guess the culprit was very early on in the story and I was also spot-on with regards to one of the villain's secret.  But I still consider reading Sherlock Holmes an enjoyable experience and I still plan to read The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (it is part of the 1001 books but I did not include it in my 151 books) after I have accomplished my goal for 2012.

Perusal of Notes from Underground

I finished Notes from Underground yesterday morning and I can't help but compare the experience with the one I had for other works of Dostoevsky.  His works draw you in.  I found myself struggling to stay with the book for the first 3-5 chapters.  Then I just found myself immersed in the whole experience.  Even after I put the book down for a breather, there is still a part of my brain that stays absorbed in the story.  When I reached the end of the book, I found myself feeling strangely cut off.  I find myself so involved with the characters that I can't let go that easily.    

Notes from Underground is stark and existentialist in essence.  It deals with the darker side of a person and what we as individuals, fail to admit to ourselves. 

 One of the things that struck me was the argument of the narrator on why people do the thing that seems to be against all common sense and defies rational thought. "...reason is an excellent thing, there's no disputing that, but reason is nothing but reason and satisfies only the rational side of man's nature, while will is a manifestation of the whole life, that is, of the whole human life including reason and all the impulses."  He argues that one of the things that people fail to consider is the presence of choice and that individuals will sometimes go as far as doing the thing that is most harmful to himself just to prove that he has a freedom of choice.

"And who knows (there is no saying with certainty), perhaps the only goal on earth to which mankind is striving lies in this incessant process of attaining, in other words, in life itself, and not in the thing to be attained, which must always be expressed as a formula, as postive as twice two makes four, and such postiveness is not life, but is the beginning of death."

As always, reading Dostoevsky is a heady experience and although Notes from Underground is not at par with The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment, I still find the experience well worth it.

Multi-tasking Weekend

Last week, I posted here my goal of finishing 151 books from the 1001 books you must read before you die.  In order to gain some headway, I spent several hours finding electronic copies of the books on the list.  It is actually surprising the amount of literature that is already available for free in sites like the project gutenberg.  You just have to download it in the format readable by your favorite reader.

It is not really that practical for me to buy the hardcopy version of every book in my list.  Aside from the obvious economic concerns on my part, there is much to be desired in the bookstores here in the Philippines.  Everytime I enter a branch of the leading bookstore here, I can't help but compare it to one of the bookstores along Orchard Road that I visited when I went to Singapore.  One can actually get lost in that place.  But of course I still plan to buy the actual printed copies of some of the books in my list, especially the long novels (e.g. 2666).  There is a different thrill in reading an actual book...the actual act of turning the pages, leaf by leaf...so tangible and old school.  Many of the contemporary works in my list are also not available so I have to scour for them in the bookstores here.

But I am happy to report that I now have enough ebooks to keep me occupied until end of this year.  On a side note, I was also able to finish "The Island of Dr. Moreau" over the weekend.  I know, I know...it is really not that much of an accomplishment since the book is relatively short.  Still, I am happy to count 1 book down and only 95 more to go.

I am actually happy with last weeked as far as weekends are concerned.  My fiance and I cooked Pork Binagoongan (Pork in Shrimp Paste).  Well, he actually did all the prep stuff and I just supervised. Hehehe.  We were also able to finish all season 21 episodes of "The Simpsons" and we also watched a HK movie (Magic Kitchen).  The series was mostly funny (I still prefer the older seasons), movie was so-so (to think that it stars Andy Lau...so disappointing), and the food was uber yummy. I am actually looking forward to the next weekend already.

Bad case of the Monday blues

So it is Monday yet again and I am once more a part of the general populace that is continually grinding and toiling amidst the hustle and bustle of the city...sorry for the touch of melodrama back there...Mondays and I have a hate-love relationship (with more emphasis on the hate part).

It doesn't help that this particular Monday was previously announced as a National Holiday (by previously, I mean, January this year).  But what can we do?  There was a new president elected this year and he sure is hell-bent on distancing himself from all the policies of the previous government...even the ones that work.  I am all for holding the past administration accountable for whatever they did but when you try to change everything just to prove a point then it becomes counter-productive and even petty.  Stick with what what works great, improve on everything else.  Instead of dwelling on discussions on which holidays should be abolished, there are actually more important issues to be tackled, as the president himself raised on his first SONA. We get it MR. President...you are not anything like the ex-president...When you already have your mind set as early as 8 months ago that you will NOT be working on this particular day, it is a little hard not to go all political on the one person that got you stuck behind your desk.

I could have been lying on the beach sipping an ice-cold pinacolada, Mr. President...well, not really that but you get my point.