Seasonal Plume

There was an unexpected 20% off sale at Kinokuniya today, and I’m extremely glad I went. :D I found out only when I was paying for my stash. I’m almost insanely glad I did go ahead and got a lot of books, and am slightly sad I didn’t get another Hanadan volume to grace my shelves. But that’s okay–I shouldn’t spend too much on books. I shouldn’t! This week alone, I bought ten books. Four from the Carrefour books sale, and six from Kinokuniya.

I got these books at $5 at Carrefour:

• Maya Slater’s Mr. Darcy’s Diary (which I talked about here)
• Stephanie Lehmann’s The Art of Undressing
• Edward Charles’ In the Shadow of Lady Jane
• R.F. Delderfield’s Diana

All four are books I wouldn’t really buy at their usual prices, as I am always a bit skeptical. But they looked rather interesting and were in alright quality, so hey, why not? The stash from Kinokuniya were certainly more interesting for me:

• Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn
• Garth Nix’s Across the Wall
• Nix’s Grim Tuesday
• Nix’s Drowned Wednesday
• Nix’s Sir Thursday
• Nix’s Lady Friday

I already bought Nix’s Mister Monday during my last trip to Kinokuniya, and finished it last night (easy, exciting read! Will review sometime), hence I went ahead and bought all the next ones. The available Superior Saturday was in a different edition, so I didn’t get it.

The best thing is, Breaking Dawn is also in tradeback! Like the rest of my Twilight Saga books. Squee! I haven’t started reading yet, because I’d like to finish Isabel Allende’s Zorro first, and Breaking Dawn is a thick book :P No spoilers please! I realize it disappointed a lot of people, but I’d really like to make my own opinions.

There’s yet another book sale at Carrefour Suntec, near where I work, with books starting from S$5. The last time they had this sale, I went home with around a dozen or more books overall. It’s books of all kinds, and in all conditions. I got away with a couple good ones, although it can take a while to soft through the piles and piles of books.

What I like best about book sales like these is that because of the lower price tag, you’ll just go ahead and get a few somewhat interesting titles, or books you wouldn’t buy at the usual prices but you want copies of.

I didn’t go in, though; I have around 20+ books in my bookshelf that are on my to-read list :s and I really shouldn’t add to the stuff I’m going to need to pack up when I move at the end of this month. It’s only the first day; I really hope I’m able to last this one out.

This Thursday’s Booking Through Thursday is Books vs Movies:

Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

Interesting question, and I was actually talking about this in brief with Faye recently. I’m not a book purist, and I think that on average, I do enjoy movie/TV adaptations a lot, certainly on varying degrees of enjoyment. To me, a movie generally has to be more compact, but that’s because it has a lot of power to convey more in a short period of time, since movies and TV shows are highly visual. Show, don’t tell, is definitely the rule. It’s easier to reach a lot more people with movies, because they’re so much easier to stomach — what’s two hours, after all, in one day, in one week?

Books, on the other hand, require a bit more patience than a movie (since it won’t end after two hours I’m sure, unless it’s a very short book or you’re an amazing speed reader) but a well-written book can go so much deeper than a movie has time for, which I feel is great. It gives one the leeway to imagine as one wills, which can give a more powerful impact to the story than a movie, with its “set” visuals, can give. Those imaginings are highly personal, tainted by one’s own preferences, and one can definitely end up enjoying a book more than a movie simply because of the highly personal nature of one’s imagination.

Going back to the book versus movie debate, I sometimes even like it when adaptations deviate from the book, as long as the premise and spirit is the same, and this definitely has a lot of bearing on the skill of the actors and the screenwriter. For example, there was a bit of flack about the BBC 2006 Jane Eyre adaptation being rather, well, “forward”, but I thought it worked well, and I enjoyed the TV mini-series immensely. The 2005 Pride and Prejudice adaptation was also rather different, but it was admittedly pretty (even though I’ve found a lot of ways to poke fun at the movie).

This isn’t always the case, though. Just recently, since I had just finished reading Eragon (and Eldest), I tried watching the movie. Oh shock horror. I couldn’t get past Saphira flying down from the sky suddenly full-grown and wise. (Maybe I should have stuck to it more, since I later on found out that Rachel Weisz had voiced Saphira.) While I don’t think Eragon is omgamazingfabulous, the movie felt quite botched together. Roran not going off to find money to wed Katrina is alright, but everyone knowing about the new farm-boy dragon rider? Uh, no thank you. I don’t think I want to know how else they managed to make a rather stereotypical, predictable fantasy epic worse.

But naturally, there are also exceptions for me when a movie is better than a book. I quite enjoyed the 1999 Mansfield Park adaptation more than the book, even though I’m a staunch Jane Austen fan. Sadly, this is the only one example I can give of a movie being better than a book, but then my sister would say the same about Lord of the Rings (she couldn’t get past Fellowship of the Ring) — something we obviously disagree about ;)

Your mileage may vary.

Courtney posted on her reading blog a few days ago about What’s in a Name?, an interesting reading challenge that spans one year, and requires one to read at least six books in that span of time. Seeing as this merges well with my 50 book challenge practice, I’ve decided I’ll join.

Basically, one has to read six books whose title match a certain, predefined criteria (see the challenge post for more information), and post the list somewhere. And then one just has to read the six (or more, I suppose!) books between January 1, 2008 and December 31, 2008.

Sounds interesting. I took a bit from my to-read list, since that makes a lot of sense!

Last updated: 11 August 2008
Note: books read are emphasized!

My Challenge List

I listed a few possible books for each criteria, and some still don’t have a set book for them. If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment! :)

1. A book with a color in its title.

   The Golden Bowl by Henry James
   Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
   Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt
   Red Azalea by Anchee Min

2. A book with an animal in its title.

   The Kestrel by Lloyd Alexander
   And Condors Danced by Zilpha Keatley Snyder
   Zorro by Isabel Allende

3. A book with a first name in its title.

   Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country by Rosalind Miles
   Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
   Katherine by Anya Seton
   Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

4. A book with a place in its title.

   The Knight of the Sacred Lake by Rosalind Miles
   Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
   Petersburg by Andrei Bely
   Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
   Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho
   Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson

5. A book with a weather event in its title.

   The Silent Storm by Sherri Garland

6. A book with a plant in its title.

   Juniper by Monica Furlong
   Frangipani by Celestine Hitiura Vaite

I found a Book Crossing book! There were lots more at The Cafe Cartel; Apparently it’s an official hotspot, as Singapore has its own Book Crossing thing going on, called BookCross@SG. Apparently, they are partnered with the main Book Crossing movement. It’s curious how they don’t link back to the main Book Crossing site somewhere prominent, however.

I realize having official hotspots is more “organized” and will prevent books from getting destroyed (i.e., rain) and that’s a good thing — no use sending off a book only to have it rendered unreadable. But somehow, I really like the randomness of the original Book Crossing, and it makes the novelty of finding one so much more meaningful, I think.

Take for instance when I saw a book over at Cafe Cartel with the running book logo and I felt like I’d found a treasure (much to the confusion of my friends, I’ll bet…) and grabbed it up immediately. And then right under it, there was another book with the same logo, and then I started to feel a bit confused. I noticed suddenly that the URL was different from what I knew the URL to be, but I surmised it was a local chapter. I did take the first one anyway since it felt like finding a completely random book is the whole point.

So tonight I finally went to check the website out. Apparently, this local movement is managed by the National Library Board here, and there are official hotspots or venue sponsors for the books: SMRT taxis, and Cafe Cartel and Cafe Galilee outlets. Also, one cannot simply release a book into the wild; according to the FAQ:

I have a personal English Fiction book that I’d like to donate to BCSG. Can I leave it at any hotspot?

Not at the moment. It is highly recommended that donation of books for BCSG must be passed to the Customer Service Counter at any of the 23 public libraries.

Uhm, okay. That’s quite different from the original stance on released books:

Where should I release books? Are there places where I should not release books?

The list where books can be left or released is really limitless. You can release them at cafes, restaurants, coffee houses, those newspaper boxes for free papers, a bus, hospitals, doctor’s offices, anywhere people have to wait, on top of ATM’s…

The latter definitely sounds more fun and dynamic, and personally makes finding one quite a gem; after all, since I know I can get books in the hotspots, it’s just like going to the library and picking something up.

Anyway, the book I have with me is Linda Howard’s Open Season. The sticker covered the whole title. :P It’s a crime thriller sort of thing, so it might prove a good read.