Monday, March 12, 2012

ATTEMPT at blogging

I've lost the will to write.

Or maybe it's the capacity. There's drive but no content, which can only result in frustration.

Since Peri asked, the books I've read during March Break are:

- Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin Abbott (do not be fooled... not a Harlequin or a joke about flat-chested women!)
- Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser
- On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
- Suicide Notes by Michael Thomas
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood
- Practical Astronomy by Storm Dunlop (... crazy name)
- A Very Short Introduction to Superconductivity by Stephen Blundell
- Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
- A Series of Unfortunate Events: A Terrible Tale by Lemony Snicket

Obviously they aren't all recommended to the general public in the sense that some of them are very specific and probably dull to most people... BUT:

Flatland was amazing, it's a book about a Square who lives in a two-dimensional world and discovers the three-dimensional world. It's also a satire of Victorian society. It really makes you think about other dimensions that exist mathematically but are beyond our perception... Also it's pretty funny.

You should definitely read Oryx and Crake if you like Dystopian fiction. Margaret Atwood is a renowned Canadian writer (so she's probably virtually unknown everywhere else) but she has a lot of talent and Oryx and Crake is probably my favourite novel of hers, along with its sequel Year of the Flood and another dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale.

I heard of Suicide Notes from Amaris Starshine. The first half feels like any other Young Adult novel about psych wards (somehow mental disorders have become glamorous and trendy- what the fuck?) but the second half is very insightful in its exploration of teenage acceptance of (spoiler alert!) homosexuality. I'm pretty sure that last sentence made no sense in the English language. Mais au moins je parle le français!... même si au Québec, c'est une langue un peu hideuse. Et assez anglaise merci.

Finally, Fast Food Nation was an eye-opener: I mean you'd guess these things about the food industry as a worst-case scenario, but you don't REALLY expect it to be true... I'll let you read the book! Not fancying a big, greasy burger anytime soon.

Well, I hope you like books because that's all I have to write about. Maybe in the springtime I'll feel creative again... Nothing I write is beautiful anymore... Maybe it never was. (maybe it doesn't even really matter in the long run)

1 comment:

Rachel said...

I've been meaning to read Fast Food Nation. You've convinced me.