A book: Another attempt at studying harder (not its title)

The title is actually The Ultimate French Review and Practice and I found it in Kinokuniya in KL and although it was quite expensive, I got it anyway because we don’t have it here. I’ve leafed through it and so far it looks friendly but I know it’s going to be difficult working it into my schedule. [...]

A book: American Psycho

I don’t know what to say about this except: Oh my god I think I’m going to be sick. I had a ham with lettuce and tomato sandwich for a late lunch and I thought I was going to throw it all up. I kept imagining the ham to be raw human flesh and the [...]

A book: Haroun and the sea of stories

It’s a cuddly book! I was very wary at first because I’m not a big Rushdie fan (I thought Shame was a disaster) but Paula is and she lent me this book, probably to change my mind. Well good on her (good on you, Paula!) because it has and I am very grateful! I was [...]

A book: Suite Française

My sister borrowed it from her library in Melbourne for me. They’re leaving this evening and I’ve only gotten as far as chapter 20. Nooo! It’s really amazing how consistently the author (Irène Némirovsky) depicts the depth and range of emotions the refugees go through as they flee Paris. Also, the clarity of insight [...]

A film: Hard Candy

Saw this about a week ago and I’m still thinking about it. Psychologically intense and painful but so worth watching. Google it if you want actual information. There’s enough information about it online.
After talking about it with friends, we decided that it was a Canadian film. Lots of good, obscure and disturbing films are Canadian [...]

A book: Freakonomics

I’ve always been fascinated with economics but have never been able to go beyond a basic course because the information comes all at once (it seems that way to me anyway) — the type that gets very boring very fast, and in frighteningly large amounts of it too — so I give up. I’m still [...]

A book: Streetwise French Dictionary / Thesaurus

I bought this over the weekend and started reading it straight away. So far, so good. This is my first slang dictionary and it’s exciting. I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to develop a proper interest in the language, considering the fact that I studied it in university. I can’t remember exactly [...]

Films: The Castle, The Experiment

The Castle
Directed by Rob Stich, stars Michael Caton as the main guy (the dad).
This came out a long time ago (1997 I think) but I didn’t hear about it till Donny forced us to watch it to “learn more about Australians”. If you liked Napoleon Dynamite, you might like this. It’s a lot more [...]

Books read recently

Got loads of reading done while in Oz:
Utterly Monkey by Nick Laird
I liked the writing and the story was nicely told but I couldn’t warm up to the characters properly. Set in the UK and Northern Ireland (I think, can’t really remember now).
4.2 chrismiss stars
Animal Farm by George Orwell
I don’t know why I haven’t read [...]

Books: The Panda and its Parody

BLG lent me another book before he left for Istanbul for a conference. It’s this one on the left. I’m halfway through it and I don’t want to read it anymore. I’ve been halfway through it for 2 days now, I’m trying my best to finish it but I just can’t do it. I guess [...]