So much for the reading

I think prelim just drove everyone crazy. Even nerds are going on shopping spree in Orchard, meaning that the impact of this test is huge! You don't get to see that everyday.

But I think it sucks in the sense that I usually wake up and forgetting my own name nowadays. It's like a desperate mechanism to escape reality but ineffective as I always manage to find answers for my own questions after a few seconds. I mean, seriously, wouldn't it be cutting me some slack if I am to wake up one day, no knowing anything about who I am (and by anything I mean everything, including basic personal information) ?...This sounds irresponsible and totally ignorant of the dangerous aftermaths, haiz, but I could not come up with anything better or more logically reasonably acceptable for my mind than that.

The plan for today outing was canceled. Good. I need some sleep because I have crazily stayed up late every night recently...not to study (I wish, but my brain traffic is heavily jammed by the time the clock strikes 12)...but to read and read, hoping that anything in the book that is beneficial for A levels will automatically sip into my head. So at least, I won't feel so guilty doing something irrelevant to the emergency of A levels now.

I guess I'm quite a selective reader, not because I'm picky and particular about writing style or ideas but because I easily get bored if the flow of the stories is sluggish. It's a must the sentences are short. Ideas are clear and vocabularies do not pass the level of conversational usage. I bet that all comes from the short attention span I've developed (deteriorated) into from regularly reading comic strips and surfing the net. I BLAME THE MEDIA for that!

Anyway, I'm not very keen on reading originally. Anyone knows me beyond my name would understand that giving me a serious book as birthday present is never a good idea, not to mention some tensions might even ensue as I will take it as the sincerest form of sarcasm. My biggest deed in the reading endeavor so far would be finishing "The Chronicle of the Wind up bird" in one summer. Yet, what a shame. That is the only book I managed to read from beginning until the end without cheating i.e. flipping to the back or skipping pages....in my entire 3 years in SINGAPORE. That's why I'm so proud of it. And if you want to have any book discussion with me, I'd just go on and on about "The Chronicle of the Wind up bird" until you get really sick and tired. I have no choice.....

By the way, good news is the movie adaption of the book is said to be directed by a Vietnamese-born director according to Murakami's request. I'm really excited about this as I've watched the guy's works before and they are totally amazing. Very Vietnamese and Westernized at the same time. I hope he'd successfully and discretely sneak in some Vietnamese traits into a supposedly purely Japanese movie. It seems like an abusive inauthentic distortion but me and my patriotism can't help it.

Ok, so far I've finished "PS I love you". Really admire myself for finishing it in 2 days. Yet, it's an easy-reading book and the texts are printed so scattered throughout the pages, it took me less than half a minute to finish each. Love the idea although it's such a flawed story and I still could not understand why it was a best-selling book few years back then. Or has the pop literature become so bad, such mediocre book are bound to be phenomenal? It leaves no impression in me whatsoever after I flipped to the last page. Except that I do have to admit I cried reading parts about Gerry most of the time because death has been a very sensitive topic for me. And I am more than generous to give my most sympathy to the passed away. But for the living ones, well, the story do not really do the justice for their struggle, mind you, to solicit any of my tears. All the characters interact in a way that you thought every scene in the book was a little comic strip square with 2 talking heads and they somehow always find a way to resolve the most difficult dilemma with a few cheesy speech bubbles. The book also succeeded in proving on very pivotal philosophy in life: "Every person exists for a reason". In this case, it is for the sake of filling in juicy details of protagonist's life so it would be exciting enough to qualify for a novel. Everyone knows each other and somehow directly responsible for others' suffering or happiness as if they were all born, grew up and cohabited in a stuffy hamster's cage.

I would not say that the book is poorly written. Indeed, it's very entertaining and powerful in compelling the readers to greedily swallow in every lines. Indeed, it's very meaningful and heart-warming fable for adult. Only if it does not come with all the unnecessary hypes. I'm still thankful that I did not have to bear watching through 2 hours of its movie adaptation. I heard it was bad. But oh well, unless the director possesses some kinda of superpower to hypnotize the audience, there is no way this novel could make a convincing silver screen plot. Producers would have foreseen that by accepting to do this project, they were totally throwing themselves on the viewers' mercy.

Now I realize that there IS an enormous barrier that is unlikely to collapse any time soon between literature and movie. Any attempt to blur out this boundary will take a good deal of guts, lucks and talents....

Expecting to read to watch more decent literature-movie collaboration soon!