Almost a Techie!

I'm enjoying my Kindle. A lot. For someone who abhors credit cards, that's saying something. Though I must admit I only downloaded a public domain book via Whispernet this past week that I acquired my ebook reader. Yeah. Public domain book. I need to read more of them. That and I don't have a credit card. Seriously. Hahaha. On a side note, big thanks to my big sister for the Kindle! 

As for my Kindle, I only have time to read for about thirty minutes before I zone out to neverland. And then back to "making a living" early the next day.

Hence, the lack of posts. And reading. Well, weekends are a good time for it. At least for reading. I finished the lovely, lovely I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith awhile back. I didn't even know there's a film version until I checked the Amazon link. Then again, I think the rest of the book blogging people I know probably have read (and reviewed) the same. I love Cassandra! I feel like writing the words "I love you, I love you, I love you" in the margins of my notebook, imagining Simon and knowing fully well that my heart has been broken. Enough of that.

I was also intrigued by the search for Margo Roth Spiegelman in John Green's Paper Towns. I learned about actual paper towns. Such a nice piece of fiction from something trivial as an intended copyright infringement trap.

But now I'm off to an X-Men type of story. I'm reading The Rook. Sometimes I sneak in a bit of Goliath if only to spend time in steam punk heaven. I don't want to finish it yet because I love Deryn (Dylan) and Alek. No, not that really. I love Tesla. The real Nikola Tesla. I just can't seem to figure out his part in this fictional story, hence my hesitation to finish this otherwise thrilling story. So blame my irrational affection for a man long dead.

It's already April. My last post was in January. So much for vowing to spend time trying to write. The good thing is, I'm still reading, no matter how slowly.

Have a great week, all three of you readers of mine. Four if I'm being lucky.

True to Life, Almost

Child 44
Tom Rob Smith

This is the first book I finished this year, a carry-over from the last day of 2012, right after I finish my reread of Howl's Moving Castle and attempts at starting John Green's The Fault in Our Stars. There's nothing wrong with the latter. I just didn't feel like reading a book with a lot of eh, feels. Trolling the internet mostly for the past two years and I got used to the jargon, mainly by going through Doctor Who blogs. Yes, that's another thing I started doing last year - I watched Doctor Who from Matt Smith's incarnation. Sometime soon I'll go back and watch the reboot with Christopher Eccleston and then David Tennant, who's an absolute cutie. A couple of weeks back I trolled YouTube for the First Doctor's appearance. But I'm rambling.

Why I picked this book? I heard that this is a serial killer story from the heydays of the Soviet union, or something to that effect. Way back, I've always adored crime stories, international spy stories, detective stories and the like. As I was used to Western novels, this one intrigued me. It's a story set in Stalin's Soviet Union. Communism as a way of life. How to solve a crime when the State deems that there's no crime to begin with? Oh dear.

The story tells the tale of Leo Demidov, an MGB agent whose faith in the Soviet system was tested when he realized that an alleged spy was really just a veterinarian. Demoted in rank and sent to Voualsk, he realized that that there is indeed a serial killer on the loose. In order to solve the crime and prevent other kids, not to mention so-called tortured, confessing murderers from dying for a crime they didn't commit, he has to learn how to trust others. But in Stalin's Soviet, trust is expensive. Trust can get you and your family killed.

Oh dear, I feel like I'm typing a back-of-the-book blurb.

It's easy to get lost in the pages of the story. It's a different world, indeed. The author gave me a glimpse in the day to day life of an MGB agent torn between the quest for truth and his own survival. Of someone's life falling apart at the seams and trying to stitch it back again.

The murders are gruesome, the killer as methodical and as coldblooded. In this story though, I found myself hating the State officials as well. And the kind of life lived by the people there. I think Leo's wife summed it up:

"I married you because I was scared, scared that if I rejected your advances I'd be arrested, maybe not immediately but at some point, on some pretext. I was young, Leo, and you were powerful. That is the reason we got married. That story you tell about me pretending that my name was Lena? You find that story funny, romantic? I gave you a false name because I was worried you'd track me down. What you took for seduction, I took for surveillance. Our relationship was built out of fear. Maybe not from your point of view - you have no reason to fear me, what power did I have? What power have I ever had? You asked me to marry you and I acquiesced because that's what people do. They put up with things; they tolerate in order to survive...."

It's a cold, scary world out there. And it warms the heart that, in this story at least, love and hope is still abundant. As well as caution. Then again, if you live in Stalin's Soviet, with people reared in fear of the State, being cautious is a good thing. What shocked me in the end is the fact that the serial killer is based on an actual murderer named Andrei Chikatilo, hence, the title of this post.

If you're up for a page-turner, pick this. A serial killer in the dreary, snowy Soviet. Makes me glad I live in a tropical country.

The Post Where I Try to Blog Again

It's 2013 already! My last post was in the first quarter of last year! What happened to me?

I'm here to read again or at least try. The past two or so years had been a blur; this year I need some focus. So I'll start with the pile of books I brought home from the metro since I moved out and relocated back to my hometown. Yes, that's right. I bid the traffic and the hustle and bustle life of metropolitan Manila to the almost-quiet, peaceful living in my hometown more than a hundred kilometers away. While I kept my flat in the metro (as there's no way my books there could fit into my room here), I'm in the process of re-acquainting myself with the city I grew up in.

In the meantime, there's this Long Awaited Reads Month that Nymeth and Iris came up with late last year. And it's a good time to read leisurely again, at least when I'm home from work. Wow, starting the year with a challenge! Feels like a challenge, alright.

Lest you think I haven't been reading, well, I have. Sort of. Insert guilty face here. Hahaha. For the past year or so it's been slow. Sloooow. Like, no door stopper books at all. And I think I progressed far better in graphic novels and fantasy than in other genres. Not that I'm complaining. I think life has a way of making you pause from doing things that you love. Now I look forward to reading and working and reading and working at the same time.

Let me backtrack a bit and tell you guys why I haven't really posted nor read much in the past couple of years: it's because I read and write most of the time at work. When I'm home I try to rest my eyes. I don't even watch tv regularly (except if it's The Vampire Diaries, simply because of Damon Salvatore). Now that I've paced myself at work (since one of my staff told me that the work keeps coming in and I'll never be able to finish everything even if I wanted to) , I'm not as tired as I used to be. Lately, I've been reading a lot of stories again, which is always a good thing.

So what are my choices for this month's challenge? Hmmm. I've a short list. I already finished Tom Rob Smith's Child 44 a couple of days ago, which makes this short list a day or two late. Now I'm reading Nathaniel Rich's The Mayor's Tongue. I'll add Diana Wynne Jones' The Merlin Conspiracy, Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Dashiell Hammett's The Thin Man and Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle to the mix. Don't ask me about my long list. And if I don't feel like reading the other stuff there, I do have other stuff in the pile of books I brought from the metro.

There, I hope I get my reading back on. Happy 2013 to all of you.

More Local Flavor

Zsazsa Zaturnnah sa Kalakhang Maynila
Carlo Vergara

I first encountered Zsazsa Zaturnnah years ago, in the first compilation titled Ang Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni Zsazsa Zaturnnah: Collected Edition. It's a graphic novel for mature readers that I adored. I had so much fun reading it. So much fun indeed that when the comicbook was translated to a musical [Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal], my friends and I wasted no time booking seats and laughing our hearts out. I even had my copy signed by the author who was in the audience when we watched, years back.

To say that I waited patiently for the sequel is an understatement. But when I had my hands on the copy, a much-waited for copy, it underwhelmed me. What's that movie where the characters asked why there isn't just plain “whelmed” or something? Am I even making sense?

I have to say that the reasons it underwhelmed me is simple: the story is not complete. I expected the sequel to be complete, as if my brain didn't process the first of three parts note at the front cover. I wanted the second and third parts already. Now, I have to wait again.

That being said, it's a good start and I can't wait to read the rest of the story if and when the second and third parts come out.

The collected edition ended with Ada and Dodong leaving for the metro. And the story picks up from there: the long drive to Manila and the two starting a new life together. We get a glimpse of Ada's past, of how his former lover milked him for money hence his doubts into entering a relationship with Dodong. Of course there's the return of that magical stone that turns him, a gay beautician, into a luscious, female superhero. And then we meet other characters: Gwyneth, the Manila-based friend and perennial gay beauty contests candidate, the tv network owners cashing in on the new superhero in town, and that Zsazsa Zaturnnah is not the only superhero in the metro, among other things.

I miss Didi, though. Ada's bestfriend in the first story. Didi brought comic relief with fantastic timing. This sequel is serious and darker, even the cartoony Kuka Manster isn't smiling (so unlike the giant frog in the first outing).

On a side note, I read a a couple of Filipino graphic novels last year and both of them are in the superhero genre. I like it that writers are imagining superheroes to fit our third world needs. Given the teaser last page for this sequel, I am looking forward to meeting the other superheroes and whether or not Ada, I mean Zsazsa Zaturnnah, can fit in. Plus, there's a looming love triangle. Ay!

Life

I planned to post later tonight but apparently I will leave the house to attend a wedding reception of a relative I do not know in a place about three or so hours drive from where I'm staying. Ergo, my night's plans are cancelled, including the latest The Walking Dead episode.

Blogging to resume hopefully by next weekend.

A shoutout to the lovely Care. Got your letter. I'll mail mine next week when I'm back in the metro.

On the book acquisition front, got myself the following titles: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano. Out by Natsuo Kirino. Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson. Rebel Angels by Libba Bray. Little Bee by Chris Cleave. And Atmospheric Disturbances by Rivka Galchen. Save for the first two, the rest are totally impulsive buys.

I get plenty of reading time after next week as I transition from one job, hopefully to another. Do you think any of my recent books are worthy reads to while away the waiting time?