Finding Wonderland

This weekly recap will not be a consistent feature! Just sayin’.

I’m actually despairing ever catching up with my reviews. Damn unrealistic new year’s resolutions! Ah well.

Today, though, I’m going to talk about this week’s reading adventures. The only reason this week has been particularly interesting is because it’s my birthday week, so I ended up getting books for myself and books gifted to me. Sweet, isn’t it?

Part One: new books I now own

I spent a few hours last Sunday at Kinokuniya KLCC. (I generally hate shopping on weekends. Well, shopping generally, to be honest. The malls are always so crowded and it drives me nuts. However, if I take the train at 9:30 am from Kelana Jaya on a Sunday morning, I could get to KLCC when there are (relatively) fewer people milling about, and get home by lunch time and bypass the crowd of people going out for lunch. Crowds, argh.) I got myself four books and Neil Gaiman’s Endless Nights for my sister — you have to wonder sometimes who’s giving gifts to whom, really, but I don’t really mind, since I like the Sandman books as well, and I like buying books. I bought another three of Dorothy Dunnett’s books — this addiction is getting to absurd levels! Help! I haven’t felt anything like this since I was twelve and felt compelled to read all the Sweet Valley Twins books! — the first two books of the House of Niccolò series: Niccolò Rising and The Spring of the Ram; and the book about Macbeth, King Hereafter. I also picked up Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl.

On Monday I went out with my best friend Aiza for dinner, and she bought me House of Many Ways, Diana Wynne Jones’s latest book, and it’s set in the same universe as Howl’s Moving Castle. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of my favourite books, and Sophie and Howl is my OTP 4EVA! Or you know, something like that. I didn’t realise that the new book was already out until I saw it on the bookshelves, and I was itching to get it though all I did was add a mental note that I should get it later. Aiza noticed me looking at the book and bought it for me. Nice gifts don’t really require that much advance planning, see! :D

Part Two: books I read this week

I somehow ended up reading four books this week, most all of them young adult titles. Here’s a quick recap of them:

• House of Many Ways by Diana Wynne Jones — bookish Charmain is sent to look after her wizard great uncle’s house, and finds herself getting lost since a single door leads her to many places. As far as magical adventures go, it’s pretty good. My problem is I keep comparing it against Howl’s Moving Castle and I just prefer Sophie more, I guess. Sophie and Howl and Calcifer all make an appearance, and it’s not a sneaky-like appearance like in Castle in the Air. And I have to wonder how Sophie manages to raise both Howl and a small child at the same time, poor thing. XD
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak — it’s 1939 Nazi Germany, and this is the story of nine-year-old Liesel, who steals books. I liked the story and characters a lot, but the narrative just tripped me way too many times. Also the book is much, much, much longer than it should’ve been.
• Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr — Aislinn has always been able to see fairies, though she’s always pretended otherwise. She suddenly finds that two of them are following her about, and she can’t depend on all the rules that had kept her safe before. Uh. I had never been much a fan of urban fantasy, really, and this didn’t really draw me in. The starting half is much stronger than the ending half, in my opinion, and now I’m brooding on whether I want to read Holly Black’s Tithe, since it’s another faeries-in-a-modern-setting book.
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green — Oh man, this certainly appealed to the geeky part of me. Mathematics! And relationships! And funny, funny dialogue! I liked this more than Looking for Alaska, which is a great book as well. I swapped my sister my copy of John Connolly’s The Book of Lost Things for this book, and I hope (though I think it’s unlikely) that she would enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Katherines.

Part Three: Books to read next, and not-required readings for not a bookclub!

Books I’ll (probably) read this month:

• Empire of the Sun by JG Ballard, since I suggested we not read it for the bookclub which does not exist. (Come to think of it, I should go and participate in the discussion that is not being held for the book we did not read last month, which happens to be The Book of Lost Things.) It’s set during WWII in Shanghai, where a young boy is separated from his family.
• Fingersmith by Sarah Waters — recommended by my friend Zu. I borrowed this from the library and it’s due on the 24th. Most probably I’ll have to renew this one. Set in Victorian London, it’s a story about pickpockets and girls and, well, I don’t really know because I haven’t read it yet. It’s one of those books that always come up when discussing lesbian fiction, so! Another incentive to read it, I guess.

There are a two books I’m “currently reading” as well. Diana Wynne Jones’s A Tough Guide to Fantasyland is, uh, I don’t know how to classify this one, but it’s pretty hilarious in small doses! Also a short story collection, East of the Sun and West of the Moon by Peter Asbjørnsen which is a collection of Scandinavian folk tales (that I don’t really get), is another book I read between novels.

Other books I might attempt: King Hereafter by Dorothy Dunnett, The Gift of Rain by Tan Twan Eng.

Part Four: watching movies made from books!

I also watched Prince Caspian with two school friends on Saturday; it was a bit of a birthday treat, I guess. Neither of them had read the Narnia books and one of them hadn’t even watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, so it was pretty interesting! Both of them were a bit annoyed with Caspian (I’m not entirely sure why; myself, I was wondering why the actor was so expressionless at the start instead of being against his character in general), and at Peter for being so stubborn at times. I wonder what they would think of Susan if (when?) The Last Battle is made into a movie. I still rile at what happens in that last chapter when I think of her. Anyway, I think the Pevensie children were very well cast. Lucy is especially adorable, and I’ll miss her when we get to The Silver Chair.

The strange thing is I could barely remember the plot of the book, and Prince Caspian wasn’t even the book I liked least — that would be The Horse and His Boy. (I suppose logically they would have to film The Voyage of the Dawn Treader next, and uh, ignore The Horse and His Boy? Where would they slot that one in?)

Now I want to reread the books, hmm.

Part Five: other weekly activities

I didn’t participate in edition #3 of the Weekly Geeks (sad, but I couldn’t muster the energy to put up a post about my favourite childhood books) and I’m regarding #4 with some sort of alarm since I’m essentially pretty hopeless with these social commentary type of things. We’ll see if I can manage to figure something out by next Thursday.

Linking to other reviews from #2 is still ongoing, though! Drop me a line if you’ve reviewed the same books as I have! Hopefully I’ll get my thoughts for the books I’ve read in April posted by Monday — it’s a three-day weekend here this week!