Kataklicik's comments (member since Jul 21, 2008)

Kataklicik's comments from the The Next Best Book Club group.

Loved Angela's Ashes, loved 'Tis. I didn't find the books depressing at all, but I remember relentlessly thanking God that my children do not know that kind of misery, and hopefully never will.

They were sad stories. Very sad stories. And I disagree - aren't there snippets in our memories that surface from the time we were that young? :)

But I lurrrvvvved Lord Of the Flies...!!

Best thing for loooooong flights - chick lit! Fluff reads work for me, don't have to think a lot hahahahaha

truckle - "... I thought you had too much pride and sense to truckle to any mortal woman just because she wears French boots and rides in a coupe," said Jo...

From Little Women (the chapter when Amy planned to have her friends over)

v. meaning : to submit obsequiously
n. meaning : lower bed on wheels which can fit under a larger bed, as in 'truckle-bed'

Catch-22

Worst book ever. And yes, I did finish it. Needed lotsa fluff-reads after to get rid of the confusion in my head.

Got this book at a clearance sale about a month back -

Cromartie v. the God Shiva acting through the Government of India
by Rumer Godden

Haven't read it, but really, doesn't the title just make you want to run the opposite direction? :)

Hold on, people..! I'm a little winded here - Judith McNaught trashy..?

Define trashy please..! :)

Beloved too..?! But they made a movie out of it didn't they..?!

Just goes to show we don't all like the same stories hahaha

Isn't it sad though, that when you come across a book that bores you out of your mind, you tend to avoid other books by the same author?

I have a pile of Toni Morrisons that are gathering dust, and just because I couldn't get into Paradise.

It probably has something to do with the fact that sooo many books have been made into movies!

For instance, I KNOW I haven't read Great Expectations, but having seen at least a couple of films adapted from it, somehow at the back of my mind I'm fairly convinced I've read it hahahaha

Despite being asthmatic, I LOVE the smells books give out.

Although, last month I read a book I'd bought a couple of years back, and ugh, it stank of cockroaches. It was an old book already when I got it, sooo ... :) No amount of rose attar on tissues stuffed in between pages made the roach smell go away!

Interesting about the abridged books - because I'd only recently come to realise that (blush!) I too was thoroughly convinced that I'd read the books I'd read in my early teens. I really was convinced, I tell you, until it dawned on me that no way did I read all those tomes at 13 years of age hahahaha

And yes, I'm trying to rectify the situation. I'm on Anna Karenina, and Little Women is sitting pretty waiting to be read. I've also got Crime and Punishment somewhere, and yes, Call of the Wild is now calling calling calling....

Phillip Pulman's His Dark Materials - the Polar Bear! What's was his name again....?

My grouse as to where do I keep my books?

Everywhere - so much so that I have noooo idea where some are, although I'm pretty good at cataloguing them into the computer. (So basically, I KNOW I bought that title but.... can't find it)

This thread asks where are my books? The answer seems to be - not where they're supposed to be! Hahahaha

Malaysians have varied accents when speaking in English. Comes from the multiracial & multicultural hodgepodge (Malays/Chinese/Indians etc).

Our benchmark is still the Queen's English (that from Malaysia being a commonwealth country) but these days I hear more American English twang spoken by the younger ones (my kids esp!). And that, ladies and gents, comes from too much exposure to Nickleodeon and Disney on the idiot box. :)

So in short, ours is a global mix hahaha

We say:
fridge
fizzy drinks
sandwich

and

breakfast
lunch
dinner
(anything between lunch and dinner is tea; and anything after dinner (yes, including that meal at the roadside stall at 2 in the morning) is supper. Let's just say Malaysians eat round the clock hahaha)

My mother was a teacher and she had a student everyone called "Nonamie". One day my mom came across her birthcert, and there, where the little girl's name should be, was written "NO NAME" in big letters.

Poor thing. Maybe the parents couldn't quite decide what name to give her. Or maybe they couldn't understand the procedures at the registration office. Maybe there were language barriers. Who knows? But the person who wrote "Noname" there should've realised that the little girl would be called just that!

I hope the little girl (not so little now) has done well in life.

I've just finished Brisingr, the latest instalment of the Eragon series and well, allow me to point this out :

Christopher Paolini has the imagination. The plot has its twists and turns, and really, for a fellow his age, the story he paints is quite stunning.

However, where on God's earth are his editors? He promised an Inheritance Trilogy but then Brisingr was published as the 3rd instalment of a four-book saga. Fine, I thought, maybe there's much more to the story than one last book can handle.

And then I read Brisingr and find that two thirds of the darned book is dedicated to Paolini waxing lyrical about anything and everything. He describes anything and everything to it's zenith that the book became tiresome. Finishing it became a chore of plodding thru much tautology and not much plot.

So there. Editing is not just about beautiful sentences. No amount of correct grammar and words-that-stab-you-in-the-heart is forgivable for the dithering that comes with this book. His editors should've told him to keep it simple. His audience is YA after all!

Sorry. Long rant. :)

Okay, am I the only one in awe of all of you re-readers?

I don't re-read, sorry. Apart from my Enid Blytons in my childhood (because there was always a shortage of books then!) and the literature texts in school, I never re-read anything, because, well, these days, too many books, too little time I guess.

Jeane, my daughter (12 yo, never heard an Abba song her whole life, until the movie that is) is so enamoured with the songs that she's literally sleeping with them playing in her head!

I didn't expect to enjoy Mamma Mia so much, but I did. Sang along to all the songs. And then, while driving back home, was appalled that I KNEW not only ALL the SONGS, I even KNEW ALL the LYRICS! Aiyah, soooo old!

Anything by Rosamunde Pilcher is feel-good. Also anything Maeve Binchy. But only if you like long country walks and know what an Aga is (teeheehee)

Movies? Sooo many! The recent Mamma Mia was brilliant. And has anyone seen Kinky Boots?