Rather than start with a list of books I’ll try to read, I thought that this time I’d change it up and list the books I have read so far this summer (with a general rating), then also list books I would like to read by the end of the summer. Hopefully by the end of the summer most will have migrated into the top section!

Feel free to ask about any of the ones in the Finished Reading section

Finished reading:

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood  (4/5)

When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro (3.5/5)

Wicked by Gregory Maguire (3.5/5)

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon (4.5/5)

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (4/5)

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (4/5)

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (4/5)

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens (3/5)

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins (4/5)

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller (4/5)

To Read (in no particular order)

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures by Vincent Lam

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace

Hopefully I’m not being too ambitious, cause some of these are quite lengthy…

Akaoni Ramen

Spicy Akaoni ramen (not too spicy for my tastes, but perhaps better for a colder day) from Benkei Ramen following the cravings of a certain J.  This was after a flagrant abuse of the system in order to spend a ridiculously low amount of money on apparel. Seeing that being cheap frugal is part of the core ideology of my demographic (university students) I shall relate this particular example of flagrant frugality.

From my everyday perusal of Red Flag Deals , H&M had a 5 dollar off coupon (NO MINIMUM PURCHASE) on their iphone app and so we decided to use that to make some purchases on some already cheap clothing. Seeing that some of their shirts are already 7 dollars… this could lead to some really cheap buys. Of course, being the smart ones that we are (university students), the H&M store is right next to the apple store… which has free wifi. This could be used re-download the app again (once it is deleted), enabling there to be a new coupon ready for use once. Repeat and rinse.. over multiple locations of H&M (not that this was done by myself of course) and you have large savings. So yes, the take home message of this story was that cheap purchases were made by cheap people.

I shall have more tales of frugality to impart (including using the privileges of a UBC student while I still can), but that will be saved for another time (possibly including more pictures of noodles)

For brevity’s sake I’ll just say that I should take the lessons from my creative writing class to heart (from a lot of different writers) who say that the best way to improve your writing is to keep writing and that it doesn’t have to be something super complex or amazing – you can just write about your everyday experiences!

Without much more further ado I bring my return to this blogosphere (hopefully to be kept up with much more regularity than I did), with posts containing the simplest of items, food! (in particular, noodles, which I seem to have been eating a lot of recently)

Shio Regular Ramen

Was craving ramen (again) so I went for lunch at Benkei Ramen with D. Didn’t want to trek down to the Denman and Robson st. area for the other ramen places so we settled for the slightly less far Benkei location on Thurlow. Interestingly, the Benkei website says this about the Shio Ramen: “Boiling the pork and sapping out the rich taste, this Fukuoka-born ramen contains collagen and calcium – a source for beautiful skin and strong bones. This is a recommendation for our female ramen lovers.“  Hmm. I guess it can only help my skin and bones to have eaten that particular dish.

After lunch, we went to check out Macleod’s (largest used bookstore in Vancouver). I could spend so much money there on used books (which I have over the last few years, even though their prices are usually cheaper than the other used bookstores I frequent) – my pile of books at home that I have yet to read is slowly but certainly increasing, making my 101 challenge even more difficult. It turns out that Macleod’s is far larger than I even thought, as I went down to their basement for the first time and was greeted with this sight.

In an area marked "Staff Only". I wonder why.

Pretty amazing eh? I can’t even imagine how they would inventory all their books and sort through this pile, let alone the rest of the basement which is very cozy (read: cramped) and almost labyrinth-like in the arrangement stacks of books and boxes I would estimate that there are at least 1.5 times more books along the stairs and in the basement than there are in the street-level floor (which, if you’ve seen the place, is already a lot as the bookshelves can almost reach the ceiling in some places). I had thought that the basement only had a sparse amount of books which was why I haven’t been down there before; thanks to D for encouraging a venture forth into the basement and discovering that this place is even grander than imagined .

This paper was for my (required) Canadian lit. class …and of course, it was due the very next day (Thursday).

Timeline:

Wednesday:

4 pm: Arrive back from lab. Browse web for any shopping deals. Facebook aimlessly

4:45pm: Look at novel which was be analyzed and mark off any significant points with post-its.

6:15 pm: Facebook aimlessly. Read comics.

7:00 pm:  Start to cook dinner. Decide that now would be the best time to try out new cooking techniques

7:45 pm: Realize that new cooking techniques actually take much longer than usual techniques. Continue doing so anyways. Youtube in the interim.

8:00 pm: Start eating dinner. Open Word to start working on essay.

8:30 pm: Finish dinner. Word document is still blank. Go online on MSN.

8:50 pm: Resolve to finally start working on paper. Sign out of MSN and turn phone off (!).

….still logged in on Facebook.

9:00 pm: First words pop up in word document. Yay!

10:05 pm: 600 semi-incoherent and bombastic words later, decide that its time to take a break. Time to go for a bubble tea run! Turn phone back on (…it doesn’t get turned off for the rest of the night)

10:30 pm: Having just bought bubble tea, realize that its a smoothie and there’s no actual tea content to keep you awake. Shrug it off.

10:50 pm: Arrive back in room. Sip contently on bubble tea. Book is closed because obviously the bubble tea/condensation on the outside might drip onto it.

11:00 pm: Book is still closed. Facebook is not.

11:05 pm: Word document is open once more. Woot!

12:00 am: 300 more rambling words. Time to take a shower

1:00 am : 400 more fightin’ words. Turn MSN back on.

1:10 am: Go into roommate’s room. Engage in critical discussion about random topics

1:30 am:…Back to work.

2:00 am:  200 more words! (~60% done) Realize that pace is slowing. Time to go to sleep.

7:00 am: Wake up. Groggily turn off alarm. Trudge to kitchen and make breakfast. Turn computer on

7:20 am: Stop browsing Youtube aimlessly. Open essay document once again. Type like a madman.

9:00 am: 1000 more ingenious words. DONE!

After much consideration, it has come to my understanding that your paradigms must be redefined, your limitations delineated, and your boxes thought out of. The bottom line is, I will recommend that you accelerate your search for expanding your improvement opportunities as we both move forward from this point onwards. However, I look forward to re-establishing our mutually beneficial relationship and thoroughly appreciate your time and effort.

Helloworld.

I had been meaning to read Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go for a well over a year now, periodically looking here and there in shops, but after hearing  great praise for Ishiguro (“the best living writer in the English language” – from an UBC english prof) I decided that the time was well nigh to buy some of his work. I picked up Never Let Me Go, When We Were Orphans (both from that treasure trove of used books known as MacLeod’s Books) quite recently this summer (still looking for a cheapish copy of The Remains of the Day though). Digressions aside – onto the novel!

Set in a dystopian world that seems to be just a step away from ours, Never Let Me Go follows the story of Kathy, Tommy, and Ruth from childhood onwards. The narrative is set in the present day, but it often takes multiple jumps back in time as Kathy relates numerous events throughout the course of their school lives; these jumps were all done with great care and lucidity and were never confusing.

Ishiguro’s prose is elegiacally paced and intensely personal, while also tinged with a sense of sadness and melancholy.  Although the novel is clearly set in a world gone wrong, he manages to make the novel almost primarily about the common struggles of growing up, relationships, and love; the story is never politicized (where in his place a lesser writer might have gone offtrack and lose both plot and characterization). Indeed, the characters are  beautifully drawn in their innocence; from their struggles to their triumphs, we manage to empathize and sympathize with the three main characters who are painted with both the honest brush of versimilitude and the allure of child-like hope and naivete.

That being said, this is not to say that the plot is lacking. Although full of melancholia and sometimes reminiscent of a long-ago summer day, the story manages to drive itself forward with a slightly unsettling air of suspense and drama.   The story starts off by plunging the reader into what seems like the midst of a narration from Kathy, as she never diverts from her dialogue to explain the details of their world.  This may be off-putting to some, but I felt that this lack of  side-exposition benefited the pace of the novel as well as allowing the reader to  figure it out and believe what they wanted to believe about the world of Never Let Me Go. Besides, this also allows the novel to maintain its focus on the deeply moving and haunting events that befall Kathy, Ruth, Tommy, et al.

Ultimately, after finishing the novel, I was satisfied by the novel’s sense of closure, but also saddened and moved by its powerful atmosphere, characters and plot, which really hit you as you fly through the final pages; hoping, dreaming, daring, wishing, loving. Perhaps the review from The Guardian said it best as it describes Never Let Me Go as making you “want to have sex, take drugs, run a marathon, dance” – making you want to run out into this beautiful yet fragile world and touch the miraculous pulse of life.

Twas the middle of a leisurely Tuesday afternoon. Trying to come up with ideas for my term paper, I was flicking between the pages of an open book in the sanctum that was the Koerner library basement.  As usual, my attempts to amass the knowledge required for this literary jaunt were being sidetracked by the tantalizing titles presented by the other tomes in surrounding shelves.

“Enough!”  thought I – it was time for me to make my exit and recoup my losses. Opportunity was ringing for far greater endeavours (such as dinner). I briskly stacked my selections and sauntered out of the section into the area near the stairs. Two options presented themselves. Do I dare traipse up the (assuredly) treacherous steps two whole floors? Or, would the shiny and sleek metallic doors of the elevator be my gateway to a speedy ascension?

Dear reader, what would you do in my situation? I think the choice was obvious.

I scampered towards the lift, pressing the fateful button that would lead to my delay. Ah! The sound of blissful ignorance rang over me in the guise of well oiled machinery as the doors opened. I entered confidently, swiftly selecting my next station with a slender and tender touch.  A creak in the armour of today’s well-maintained miracle machines resounded among the  chamber as the doors closed; the elevator did not move. It was stuck!*

A pregnant pause soon followed. Then, a strange feeling and thought soon arose in the depths of my mind.  I think it ran something like “lolwut”**. Adroitly, I began to consider my options. There was no one else in the elevator, which meant that an awkward period of  looking at one another and wondering what to do was out of play; nor, I may add, did the library exercise enough foresight to provide me with comically incongruent elevator music.

I pressed the open door button first, hoping that it would stay true to its name.  A clink; a clank; a clock; a tock. The door opened ever so slightly; however, the gears remained locked. Bashing at the doors would not do (such a faux pas, indeed). Then, the open rear door button presented itself to my careening vision. Pressing said button successfully managed to open the rear doors of the elevator (such was the advanced state of this contraption). Next, peering out this chasm revealed the sketchy sight of a storage room; unfortunately, no clear exit path was visible, much to my consternation. To add to this outrageous situation, a large pile of folded multipurpose plastic and metal chairs formed a formidable blockade near the entrance. If this wasn’t a indicative declaration of highly suspect asset management and organization, I don’t know what would be. As such, I did not venture to enter the room.

Turning back to the portals’ control panel, the crimson choices coyly called themselves to me. To press the alarm button was to raise a lil’ hell; to press the speaker button was to try my luck with university services. I chose to confront the chimera that was the bureaucracy and pressed the speaker button.  An amusing ” ring ring” sound emanated before I was connected to the heart of it all. Weary she sounded at initial address, but I managed to some how keep my wits about me in this (indubitably) most distressing of situations with great grandiloquence, limiting my rambling to only the beginning, middle, and end of my story. Options were soon proposed and she urged me to pass through the back door where euphoric freedom inevitably awaited; this was before the front door was to be opened and serviced.

But  – mysteries of mysteries! I was never to discover the rendering of these services with TV-drama like emergency, for the front door was wrenched open by a janitor with a wry smile. Stuck in the elevator, eh? – said he. Blissfully answering this most rhetorical of questions, I exultantly bounced out the door and informed him of my scenario. To his side was a patient potential elevator passenger, her perplexed pose possibly indicating something of minute importance.  Shrugging and grinning, scenarios of flighty cliched romance scenes failed to strike my mind as I turned and gallivanted up the stairs. It was dinner time, and a man needs his food.

* This is where the first part of the story would end, if serialized. Also, no, don’t even think about saying TWSS.

** Other common variations: lolwhaaaa, lolwhat, lolwuttt, and lolwat.

Moral: From this story, one learns that nondescript and mundane situations can definitely be flowered up for the fantastic. Ambiguity is for the weak, so if it’s not important, make it so, yo.

Another Moral: Take the stairs.

There are times where things happen that will be life changing

… some other times? Not so much.

In alphabetical order:

Emma – Jane Austen √

The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins

The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes – Arthur Conan Doyle √

Middlemarch – George Eliot

Jude the Obscure – Thomas Hardy √

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro √

Le Morte D’Arthur – Thomas Malory

The Reader – Bernhard Schlink √

Antony and Cleopatra √,  Henry IV, Part 1/2 – William Shakespeare  (yay for Bard on the Beach)

East of Eden – John Steinbeck

Before the concert (From the upper deck... and with a cell phone cam ; must have been pretty crazy on the floor tho)

Muse finally started playing around 8:15 and they played for approximately two hours (complete set list here ). When I first saw the stage, I thought that the three tower like structures were simply backdrop for the performance and Muse would come out in the middle of the stage.

However when the lights went out….

Whoa.. thats a pretty good use of a screen

But wait- there’s more?!

....PEEKABOO!

I’ll have to admit, I was pretty surprised when they popped out of the building-like structures.

They started off with the first single from the Resistance Album – the catchy “Uprising” .  I’m a bigger fan of their older stuff though, overplaying Absolution at the tail end of grade 11 cuz I liked the overarching concepts and cohesion.  Nevertheless. they had a good mix of older and newer songs, as you can see in the set list.

Crazy lazers

I really like it when bands improvise and combine musical elements from different songs (instrumentally), so the highlights of the main set for me would probably be New Born (which included elements of Micro Cuts in the jam section and ending); Supermassive Black Hole – where Chris (the bassist) did the singing instead of Matt.  After that, Time is Running Out and Starlight were also great – as he let the crowd sing the choruses in the middle (Of course, I was singing all the songs no matter how hoarse my voice got heh. Apologies to the people around me : P)

Yes, the screen/buildings showed close ups of the band members as well

One of the great things I found was that they never really took too long of a break. If some one had to switch instruments or prep for other songs, then the other band members would play some kinda instrumental jam to keep the crowd going.

Of course, you don’t earn the title of the “so-called” best band in the world without having great special effects besides the music, and their total production crew was pretty intense as well.  They even had a entire booth/island thing on the floor (behind the rabid fans of course) with like at least 5 people controlling all the lights and apparatus.

After they finished their main set with “Plug-in Baby” , I was quite satisfied even though they didn’t play two songs that are at the top of my list of favourite Muse songs (and probably for most of the crowd as well).  Pretty much everyone knew that they would be saving it for the encore tho, so after they left for a bit of a break and the arena went dark…. it got loud. REAL LOUD lolll.

After a slow build up for a few minutes and the illumination of one singular stage light.. the classically inspired hymms of the Exogenesis suite came on. I was actually quite surprised that they would play this first for the encore…but hey, if you’re pompous enough to compose a 15 min classical music inspired rock concerto at the end of your album, why not bring it out for the encore lol. After this epic overture, they moved on to my first favourite Muse song, Stockholm Syndrome.I was pretty much jumping around at this point haha,  especially in the rockier parts; the same was true when they moved on the over-the-top bombastic excellence of “Knights of Cydonia” (the video of which is AMAZING if you’ve never seen it before   )

After the concert, being the genius with tremendous foresight that I am, I forgot to take into account the massive amounts of people leaving the arena and transitting back.  Sooooo, being the hyped-up energetic people that we were, we decided to dash all the way back to Renfrew station from the PNE fairgrounds in the rain hehe : D

Add in a late night dinner/snack of cheapp chinese food, and it was an AWESOME night WOOT

(Clap-Clap.)

What do you get when you have strong episodic memory and a heightened feeling of duress and fatigue… and some delightfully rom-com circumstances? This.