hungry-eyed and weather-stained
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twenty-something who likes reading, orange & oranges, & science fiction, among other things. often dreams of parallel universes, multiple timelines & the purpose of her existence; however she has yet to find a satisfactory answer to that last point.
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back again
16 April 2015 | 0 COMMENTS
I've been away for quite a while because life threw me some horrible curveballs, but I'm back! I've got more time to read now, and still spend way too much money on books, so everything's good.
Some minor updates:
- I am finally graduating!
- ...and am currently unemployed, but that's about to change soon (which means more money for books! yay!)
- I started reading comics / graphic novels in January and
I think I might have gotten a bit too lazy to read books without some form of art in themI could just spend hours looking at all the art alone (let me know if you've any recommendations!)
The Real Warnings Are Always Too Late — Rhett Iseman Trull
18 January 2015 | 0 COMMENTS
I want to go back to the winter I was born and warn you—
that I will flood through your life like acid
and you will burn yourselves on me.
On my sixteenth birthday, I will use the candles
to set the basement aflame and run out laughing,
wearing smoke like a new dress. With a pocket knife,
I will try to root out that life you so eagerly started.
I'll dent the garage door with my head, siphon Crown Royal
from your liquor cabinet, jump from a gondola in Venice. I'll smash
my ankle with a hammer, drive through stop signs
with my eyes closed, cost you thousands
in medical bills. Forget about sleeping.
I'll dominate the prayers you keep sending up
like the last of flares from an island no one visits.
For every greeting card poem, I will write four
to hurt you. Some will be true.
Other people's lives will look perfect
as you search the house for its sharper pieces.
And when they lock me up I'll tell the walls
I'm sorry. But these warnings will come like candles
after a night of pyres. I already know
how you will take one look at that new life screaming
into the world, and open your arms,
thinking, if it looks this innocent,
it cannot be so bad.
I found this on Livejournal and the last few lines are still seared into my head.
Labels: poetry
S. — Doug Dorst & JJ Abrams
17 November 2014 | 0 COMMENTS
This is a beautifully designed book, and I'm not just talking about the exterior and end pages. I've been itching to write about it ever since I got it last year, and since I have this space now, why not?—
S. is a collaboration between Doug Dorst & JJ Abrams*, and is essentially a story nestled within another story, with parts of the plot hidden within codes and ciphers scattered throughout the book — for some reason reminds me of those Usborne Puzzle Adventures I was obsessed with as a kid (still am pretty obsessed with them actually, even though I get lazy these days and just flip straight to the answers), so if you loved those books / solving puzzles you will probably love this one.
The book comes in a black slipcover, and beyond that there is nothing much on the actual book itself to indicate the real authors or the plot — it looks pretty legitimate. There's even a small library sticker on the spine itself with the book classified under the Dewey decimal system, which gives us a tiny hint as to where the story begins; or rather, where the story in the story begins — you're essentially reading two stories simultaneously (or not, if you choose to read both parts separately).
The first thing that came to mind while flipping through the pages for the first time was "this must have been a really tricky book to print & bind". All pages are printed in full colour — besides the coloured handwritten notes in the margins the pages have been printed to look old and yellow (the book smells new though). Not all the notes are made in chronological order, and the colour of the ink used changes as the story moves along, but read closely and you will be able to piece together a rough timeline.
What makes this book truly special though (and why you should get a physical copy over the ebook), are these:
There are a couple of loose supplementary materials tucked between the pages; I did a search and it appears that the pages where these are inserted are the same for every physical copy.
As with the handwritten notes, not all of the inserts are placed in chronological order, some might want to take them out and keep them separately; personally I like having them in their original place so I left them there. I taped mine down with some washi tape because I am a huge klutz who tends to leave things lying everywhere...
The front matter isn't anywhere near the front, but disguised and hidden within the library return stamp at the end of the book — so incredibly clever and sneaky!
As mentioned above, S. is a story within a story, and starts off with our two main characters bickering on the title page of a high school library book that was never returned** — the Ship of Theseus. Their bickering soon transforms into deep discussions about life, the universe and everything else in between, alongside a collaborative search for the true identity of the author behind the Ship of Theseus: who exactly is the mysterious V. M. Straka? Reading between the lines they soon find clues and hidden messages, scattered throughout by Straka himself, and his translator.
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book — great plot/s, beautiful writing, and puzzles (if you need help you could always use a search engine), all combined into one charming package. The narratives may be a little confusing if you're not used to reading multiple books at once though, but the plot is pretty easy to grasp.
There are a couple of reviews out there that compared S. to Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves because of their experimental narratives, so naturally I got my grubby hands on a copy; it was a little harder to grasp the story in House of Leaves, but I found myself enjoying it very much. I'd even go as far to say that it's my favourite out of all the books I've read so far in my limited existence — but I'll leave that for another entry!
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* To be honest I only discovered this book because I was stalking the internet for stuff on JJ Abrams — basically what happens when you're going through major Fringe withdrawal symptoms and desperately hoping for some ~*bonus material*~, ha ha, fat hope.
** It just so happens that there's a library book on my shelves from high school that I never returned...
P/S: As much as I hate writing in sentence case I decided to capitalize everything that should be capitalized because I figured no one else could probably stand reading long rambly entries set entirely in lowercase... Everything looks extremely odd right now; I am this close to changing everything back to lowercase.
x
| 0 COMMENTS
...well that was a really long absence. i should probably start working on those few entries in my drafts; maybe in a couple of weeks because everything has been so overwhelming. but i guess things have been going well — i am still reading whenever i can, especially while procrastinating!also, it's pretty surprising to see that there are actually people visiting this place.
EDIT: i just uploaded one of those drafts, hope you enjoyed it!
Labels: life
The Silent History — Eli Horowitz, Matthew Derby & Kevin Moffett
17 August 2014 | 0 COMMENTS
I should start off my first proper review (!!!) by stating that I often get distracted by nice book covers, and I am a very picky reader — I don't like spending necessary time & money reading books / things I will not enjoy (which explains my horrible grades back in high school), so I will usually trawl through the internet to see if there's anything interesting (while avoiding spoilers; very tricky).—
I was pleasantly surprised when I stumbled upon The Silent History at the bookstore (I really liked the cover), and found myself tearing through the first few chapters on the spot without googling a single bit about it. As luck would have it I didn't have enough money in my wallet that day, so I went back a few days later and bought it home.
Here's some background information: The Silent History started off as an award-winning iphone / ipad app released in late 2012, with downloadable installments and interactive features, such as location-specific content. The paperback edition was released in June this year, and as you can probably tell, the content in the interactive features are not included (where's the fun in that?). I don't own an iphone / ipad so I can't really say much about that aspect of the original, but from what I've read online it's pretty intriguing; download it if you can! For now, the paperback shall entertain me.
As mentioned above, I really liked the front cover — the title, handwritten and set within the white blocks, along with the subtle debossed lines, make a rather interesting combination, like filling in the blanks, which is essentially a huge part of the plot: how do you get through to people who do not possess the ability to communicate verbally?
The Silent History is told from a set of testimonials spanning from 2011 to 2044, and begins with a spike in children born without the ability to speak — as a result, these children don't learn to read and write (they're pretty much illiterate), so testimonials are told from the point of view of the families, friends, impostors, researchers, etc. Truth to be told when I first read the blurb at the back I was nearly convinced that the events that took place within The Silent History actually happened; if it weren't for the year stated in the prologue I would have been fooled. As it turns out, the part of the human brain in silents where speech & language is processed is completely dead, and you have doctors and other people racing to solve the issue, but is the inability to process language even a problem in the first place?
I like how the testimonials are spread over 33 years; it allows the story to develop at a pretty comfortable pace instead of cramming it within a few years. You get to observe the silent children transforming to adulthood, and starting silent families of their own, while society slowly adapts around their presence, but then shifts abruptly from reluctant acceptance to rejection and fear.
Since there are a number of characters narrating their testimonials, you can see how the three different authors come into play — it would be pretty tough to pull off all the different characters if it were just one of them writing the entire story. There are a handful of recurring characters that serve as the backbone of the story, and it was interesting seeing them develop as the story moves along. Parts of these characters' monologues are just heart-achingly beautiful — a father whose every move to form a closer bond with his silent daughter simply serves to push her away, an imposter who wonders what it would be like to be one of them, and the teacher who pays a little too much attention to her silent students.
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Overall, I really enjoyed The Silent History. The only thing I didn't like was how abrupt the ending was — it left a couple of questions unanswered, but don't let that discourage you from reading it though! I hope this ~*review*~ wasn't too rambly and made you want to read the book (:
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