Skip to main content

Shoulda just bought it instead.

There was some confusion with Kinokuniya (and maybe even The Star) and I won't be reviewing Murakami's Running Book. They gave the review copy to someone else instead. Ah well. Alea jacta est and all that.

Wish they could have told me earlier because then I could have just bought the book and read it already instead of having to twiddle my thumbs.

In the meantime I'm reading an ARC of The Hour I First Believed by Wally Lamb which MPH kindly gave me. So far so good, although the protagonist is getting to be a little too flawed for my liking.
Labels:

Comments

  1. ビビ24/9/08 9:28 am

    1. you get 'jerk'y comments as well? surprising...and all you talk about is/are books. (i'm confused with my tenses this morning!)

    2. btw, what do you think of Wally Lamb, really? i'm interested but not too interested.

    ReplyDelete
  2. marineko24/9/08 9:39 am

    i'm sorry to hear that. yeah, we had copies and they sold out pretty quickly. i haven't bought one myself (and i usually buy new murakamis while they're still in the logistics!) pre-orders and reservations and all that. *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ted Mahsun24/9/08 11:14 am

    bibi: Well, sometimes I get jerks dropping by but I delete most of them.

    As for Wally Lamb, haven't read his previous books, but this one's all right so far. It's about a teacher who survives the Columbine School massacre but where I'm at the massacre hasn't happened yet. His characterisation is very deep and I find myself very drawn towards the people inside the story even though I think they're kind of assholes :D

    marineko: I noticed new stock has already come in! (Was stalking Kino almost every day last week.) Hopefully when my paycheque comes a copy will still be there for me :)

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

I'm going to Clarion West!

So yeah! I'm going to Clarion West this year! If you didn't know, Clarion West is a really awesome science fiction and fantasy writing workshop that runs for six weeks in summer every year at Seattle and is usually taught by a faculty of award-winning authors and editors. Many students who attend this workshop also go on to have illustrious writing careers of their own too. I've been meaning to attend this workshop (or its sister workshop, Clarion UCSD, which is the original Clarion workshop but runs in San Diego around the same time) for years now but never had the courage to apply. Many reasons as to why: didn't think I'd have money for the most part, didn't think I was good enough, didn't think I could leave work long enough, didn't think I could leave family behind, etc. But something sparked inside of me late last year. I felt I should at least give it a go this time round. So I did. They requested a sample of my best work and an applicatio...
Post a Comment
Read more

REVIEW: Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami.

UPDATE: My Wind/Pinball review can be found here . ISBN: n/a Publisher: n/a Paperback: 160 pages In Murakami fan circles, simply owning a copy of Pinball, 1973 is a mark of hardcore-ness. Like Hear the Wind Sing before it, Haruki Murakami does not allow English translations of Pinball, 1973 to be published outside of Japan. Back in the 80s, Alfred Birnbaum translated it into English and Kodansha published it as a novel for Japanese students who wanted to improve their English. While the English edition of Hear the Wind Sing continues to be reprinted and sold in Japan (and available for a moderate sum via eBay, see my review ), Kodansha stopped its reprint runs of the English edition of Pinball, 1973 and has now become a collector's item, fetching vast amounts of money on auction sites and reseller stores. Last time I checked, the cheapest copy went for USD$2500. Of course, Murakami addicts or the curious can always download a less than legal PDF of the book, painst...
18 comments
Read more

Reading List Update.

Haven't done one of these in ages! I am currently reading: Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino I am sooooo in love with this book. It's a book that makes you think and reflect on imagination, the human condition, society and life using cities as a frame and guide. Also, Marco Polo is one cool dude. The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins I'm reading this very slowly. I started reading this back in October... only half-way through... Is it any good? It makes for interesting reading but if Dawkins thinks he can stop people believing in God by writing this book, then I can only say that's one heckuva climb up Mount Improbable. I have recently finished: 14 Oct 2006: The Malayan Trilogy by Anthony Burgess because of its many "controversial" elements (racial stereotypes mostly) many people here will pass over it. A pity, because not only is it a very good caricature of Malayan/Malaysian society, it also serves as a warning of what things could become (have become?). Ap...
19 comments
Read more