wafblog v3.0

So I ended up going to Kinokuniya yesterday, instead of today as planned. I didn’t go to the gym after work and needed to get an xD card for my camera so walked to JB Hi-Fi. Thought I might as well go to Kino cos it’s in the same building anyways. I’ve seen some good reviews for the Nick Hornby novel “A Long Way Down”, and wanted to check it out. Funnily enough, it’s featured in the Books Alive! thingy that they have on at the moment so it was real easy to find a copy.

I’ve started reading it, it’s quite interesting. For those who don’t know, it’s about these four people who meet at the top of a building on New Year’s Eve and they’re all there to commit suicide. Morbid, I know. I think the story sort of continues from there. I haven’t read enough to really know yet :P But I do like the way Hornby writes, it’s easy to read and there’s something amusing about the way he writes. It’s like, so real and honest but that sort of honesty where you can see it in your own life and then laugh at it. There’s no real chapters to the book, but it takes turns showing you the unfolding story from the eyes of the four characters. So you keep having to remember who is currently talking and what their story is. It’s a bit more work than I’m used to when reading, but I’m getting used to it. I don’t think it’ll take long to finish and if it’s good (which I think it will be) I might go check out his other books - High Fidelity, Fever Pitch and About A Boy (were the movies based on those? It can’t be a coincidence…).

Of course, going into Kino, as with any book store, has its dangers. It’s physically impossible for me to leave with just ONE book. So naturally I also bought “Ash Wednesday” by Ethan Hawke and “Space Demons” and “Shinkei” by Gillian Rubinstein. I loved Ethan Hawke’s first novel “The Hottest State”, which is now out of print. I had to go through abebooks to get my copy. It was so worth it though. I have high hopes that “Ash Wednesday” will be just as good. I’m thinking of taking it as my holiday reading. It’s a fairly compact book and should fit easily into my hand luggage (if I’m allowed to take hand luggage). But I’ll be bringing my guide books with me, so we’ll have to see about the weight. I bought the Gillian Rubinstein books because I really enjoyed them when I was in high school. There’s actually three books in the series, but they were missing the second one “Skymaze”. Hopefully they’ll have it next time I go and with a cover that matches the ones I’ve got. I was really disappointed they didn’t have “A Cage Of Butterflies” by Brian Caswell, but a new shipment should be coming in soon so they should be calling me when that happens.

So many books to read, so little time. I feel bad that I bought new books when I haven’t read all the ones I’ve got. I’ve only skimmed The Grimm’s Fairy Tales that my uncle bought me and there’s like three or four long fantasy novels that I have yet to sink my teeth into. I find it hard to read on trains though, I get too engrossed and am likely to miss my stop or I get headaches from all the movement. Still, it’s probably my fault for spending so much time on the computer instead of reading. If I’m really good I’ll set aside half an hour each day to read and I should be able to progress through the books at a good pace then.