How about a book review or two?
[excerpt from my online diary]
The last two books I read were Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays With Morrie" and Tracy Chevalier's "The Lady and the Unicorn". The former proved to be a very disappointing read (to me, at least). If I could choose only ONE word to describe this book, it'd have to be 'overrated'. I mean, it was an extremely ordinary piece of work to me, I just don't understand all the acclaims and praises that Albom got for this book. Yes, Morrie Schwartz's life was anything but ordinary and yes, the man had a LOT of spunk and spirit. But still! Overrated, overrated, overrated! Let me explain. Firstly, I think that lots of the 'pearls of wisdom' that Morrie imparted were really cliched - stuff like 'You only live once, live it to the fullest'... you know?? Okay, not THAT cliched.. I admit I exaggerated. But yeah, any attempts to 'inspire' and 'motivate' the reader (read: ME) with all those 'wise sayings' simply fell flat in the face and only served to annoy me. Nope, no chills down the back, no moments of silent reflection and no tear-jerking moments for me. Secondly, the way the book was written was also extremely plain and boring. Okay, so maybe some people see that as a plus-point - the special thing about the book - that it doesn't try to sound flamboyant. I DO appreciate simplicity in writing but somehow this just didn't work for me. This book could have been written by a tenth-grader, for all I know. I've read other 'simple' pieces of work, whether poems or prose, which impressed me anyhow. But not "Tuesdays With Morrie", uh-uh. Thirdly, speaking from a Christian point of view, I just don't agree with some of Schwartz's opinions, about the meaning of life, love, success and all that. It's a very commercialised and worldly point of view but I do admit that it I weren't a Christian, I'd probably have found it quite meaningful. So there you go, my take on the oh-so-critically-acclaimed "Tuesdays With Morrie". Disappointing.
Now Tracy Chevalier's novel didn't let me down. This is one of the aforementioned books whose beauty lies in its sheer simplicity. Nothing great about the language or plot/storyline, but Chevalier did a great job in bringing her characters to life and really giving them, well, character. Gave me insights into how tapestries are made too. However, I'd say this definitely wasn't her best book of the four. Somehow it lacked drama (although I'm not really into overly dramatic plots) and the romance was kinda, ummm.... unfulfilling, in a sense, because the main character did not end up with his love interest. Hehe, yeah. I still go for 'happily-ever-after' kind of endings....
Now I'm reading Philippa Gregory's "The Other Boleyn Girl". Quite an intriguing story. I'm now more fascinated with English history and especially the tudor court, than I have ever been. Only problem is, I don't know the facts from the fiction in this book, coz I'm not well-versed with English history, thanks to our Malaysian education system. *smirk*
I'd better read a really 'heavy' book like, say, Nadine Gordimer after this. Something that will boggle my mind reading it like "The God of Small Things" did, something that I would have to read and re-read its sentences a few times over to truly grasp their meaning, something that plays around with literary devices and challenges grammatical rules...
Oh well, you can't blame me for indulging in easy-to-read stuff like what I've been reading in the past two weeks - my brain's taking a well-deserved vacation after faithfully serving me throughout 2 years of A-Levels. *wink*
The last two books I read were Mitch Albom's "Tuesdays With Morrie" and Tracy Chevalier's "The Lady and the Unicorn". The former proved to be a very disappointing read (to me, at least). If I could choose only ONE word to describe this book, it'd have to be 'overrated'. I mean, it was an extremely ordinary piece of work to me, I just don't understand all the acclaims and praises that Albom got for this book. Yes, Morrie Schwartz's life was anything but ordinary and yes, the man had a LOT of spunk and spirit. But still! Overrated, overrated, overrated! Let me explain. Firstly, I think that lots of the 'pearls of wisdom' that Morrie imparted were really cliched - stuff like 'You only live once, live it to the fullest'... you know?? Okay, not THAT cliched.. I admit I exaggerated. But yeah, any attempts to 'inspire' and 'motivate' the reader (read: ME) with all those 'wise sayings' simply fell flat in the face and only served to annoy me. Nope, no chills down the back, no moments of silent reflection and no tear-jerking moments for me. Secondly, the way the book was written was also extremely plain and boring. Okay, so maybe some people see that as a plus-point - the special thing about the book - that it doesn't try to sound flamboyant. I DO appreciate simplicity in writing but somehow this just didn't work for me. This book could have been written by a tenth-grader, for all I know. I've read other 'simple' pieces of work, whether poems or prose, which impressed me anyhow. But not "Tuesdays With Morrie", uh-uh. Thirdly, speaking from a Christian point of view, I just don't agree with some of Schwartz's opinions, about the meaning of life, love, success and all that. It's a very commercialised and worldly point of view but I do admit that it I weren't a Christian, I'd probably have found it quite meaningful. So there you go, my take on the oh-so-critically-acclaimed "Tuesdays With Morrie". Disappointing.
Now Tracy Chevalier's novel didn't let me down. This is one of the aforementioned books whose beauty lies in its sheer simplicity. Nothing great about the language or plot/storyline, but Chevalier did a great job in bringing her characters to life and really giving them, well, character. Gave me insights into how tapestries are made too. However, I'd say this definitely wasn't her best book of the four. Somehow it lacked drama (although I'm not really into overly dramatic plots) and the romance was kinda, ummm.... unfulfilling, in a sense, because the main character did not end up with his love interest. Hehe, yeah. I still go for 'happily-ever-after' kind of endings....
Now I'm reading Philippa Gregory's "The Other Boleyn Girl". Quite an intriguing story. I'm now more fascinated with English history and especially the tudor court, than I have ever been. Only problem is, I don't know the facts from the fiction in this book, coz I'm not well-versed with English history, thanks to our Malaysian education system. *smirk*
I'd better read a really 'heavy' book like, say, Nadine Gordimer after this. Something that will boggle my mind reading it like "The God of Small Things" did, something that I would have to read and re-read its sentences a few times over to truly grasp their meaning, something that plays around with literary devices and challenges grammatical rules...
Oh well, you can't blame me for indulging in easy-to-read stuff like what I've been reading in the past two weeks - my brain's taking a well-deserved vacation after faithfully serving me throughout 2 years of A-Levels. *wink*
posted by may at 1:38 PM
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