Friday Fill-Ins

1. The last meal I had at a restaurant was some vegetarian dishes and they were real delicious.

2. Arrogance is something I intensely dislike.

3. The full moon reminds me of Mid-Autumn festival, mooncakes and all the colourful lanterns.

4. "I'll try my best" is one of my favorite local expressions. (Someone mentioned this in the local papers that "trying" is not good enough, however "do my best" will be more effective! In case you are wondering what this is all about, the article is referring to some of the Olympics participants' comments when they were being interviewed.)

5. Sometimes it's best to leave things as they are.

6. The Dark Knight is the best movie I've seen so far this year! (I didn't watch many movies this year anyway!)

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to reading Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer, tomorrow my plans include doing household chores and laundry and Sunday, I want to spend time with my family and read some more!

Gold Medal Reading

You, um, may have noticed that the Olympics are going on right now, so that’s the genesis of this week’s question, in two parts:

First:

• Do you or have you ever read books about the Olympics? About sports in general?
• Fictional ones? Or non-fiction? Or both?

And, Second:

• Do you consider yourself a sports fan?
• Because, of course, if you’re a rabid fan and read about sports constantly, there’s a logic there; if you hate sports and never read anything sports-related, that, too … but you don’t have to love sports to enjoy a good sports story.
• (Or a good sports movie, for that matter. Feel free to expand this into a discussion about “Friday Night Lights” or “The Natural” or whatever…)

(For the record, I am not a sports fan at all, but I’ll watch almost any Olympics event, have indeed read books about the Olympics–and strongly recommend The Second Mark, which yes, is about Figure Skating, but was a fantastic story and particularly enthralling in its view into life as an athlete in China, so no sneering at the sport, okay? The book was fascinating. I’ve also read a history of the 1896 Olympics (there’s also a good mini-series which just came out on DVD).

I am not really a sports fan, although I enjoy watching the Olympics (especially the gymnastics and the swimming events). And I do not think I have read any books which are sports related, unless you are talking about the characters who have an interest in sports (but the stories focused on other things rather than the sports itself).

So, are you a sports fan and have you read any sports related books?

Eclipse

ISBN-13: 9780316160209
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Published: August 2007
Twilight Saga Series, #3
629pp

First sentence: All our attempts at Subterfuge had been in vain.

Bella has her heart set for her graduation at high school, but that also means she will enter into the immortal world but yet she is torn of hurting Jacob's feelings. She worries about the consequences it will bring after being a vampire. Moreover, it hurts her too much to sever her ties with the werewolf clan, for she knew the vampires and werewolves are never friends to begin with. Then again, somewhere deep in her heart, she is not sure if she is ready to be Edward's bride, although she wants to be with him physically.

Then something happened that freezes the Cullen's family. When they heard of a series of homicides committed in Seattle, they suspected something more dangerous and more sinister on the loose than an ordinary serial killer as speculated. It happened that Victoria is still seething over the death of her vampiric lover and she vowed to seek revenge from the Cullen's family. Thus, a new breed of newborn vampires are created and now they are moving on from Seattle to Forks to get their hands on Bella, knowing her connection with the Cullen's family.

Not willing to alarm The Volturi, the Cullens' have no choice but to seek a truce with the werewolves clan, though it annoys Edward since this also means Jacob will gain more chances of seeing Bella now that she needs extra protection from the newborn vampires.

The strain between vampire Edward Cullen and werewolf Jacob Black continues in this third instalment, as both of them are vying for Bella Swan's attention, a mortal girl whom they fell in love with. Bella is still in a dilemma; though she loves Edward, she does not want to loose Jacob as a best friend either. She shows her vulnerable side and appears to be more pessimistic as compared to before. Unlike the previous instalments, I find this leans more towards the emotional part than the real actions.

The scene about how the werewolves and the legend comes about is an interesting read. I also liked the idea of the vampires and werewolves working together to protect Bella, though at times her negative thoughts annoys me. The ending with Jacob's POV is intriguing, so I cannot wait to devour Breaking Dawn next.

Other bloggers' reviews:
Becky's Book Reviews
Book Binge
Hello, My Name Is Alice
Reading Adventures
Rhinoa's Ramblings
Stephanie's Written Word
Where Troubles Melt Like Lemon Drops

Teaser Tuesdays

TEASER TUESDAYS asks you to:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given!
• Please avoid spoilers!

I am currently reading Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer but I am about to finish it soon. Anyway, here is my teaser (page 500):

"But you left because you didn't want to make her a bloodsucker. You want her to be human."

Musing Mondays: Reviews

Do you read book reviews online? In newspapers? Elsewhere? If so, do you let those reviews stop you from reading a particular book, if the book was poorly reviewed? Or, do you read the book anyway?

The blurb is the first thing that I would read, followed by the reviews. I want to know the gist of the story before deciding if I want to read the book. Reviews come in thereafter, as I am also interested to hear what other readers think of the book. I read the reviews from fellow book bloggers, book magazines and online bookstores. If I came across any negative reviews, I will try to understand them from the readers' point of views. However, they will not stop me from reading the books because I know everyone's reading preference is different. Amongst all, I rely most recommendations on fellow book blogger friends' because I feel that we know one another's preferences from the communications we share through blogging. Sometimes, I will pick up the books they recommend even though if they are not what I will read under normal circumstances but because I am interested to read what they are reading, and morever I want to form my own judgement. And the best thing of all is, I ended up liking them.

Announcement - RSS Feed

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I would like you to re-subscribe to my RSS feed again as I have accidentally messed up with the codes and the previous feed address no longer work. I would like to apologise for this inconvenience and hope you will continue to support my blog.

Thank you!

Northanger Abbey

ISBN-13: 9780307386830
Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
Published: September 2007
241pp


First Sentence: No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be an heroine.


This is the second book I read by Jane Austen. After reading and watching the movie adaption of Pride and Prejudice, the characters and the premise had imprinted on my mind; thus I am not sure if Northanger Abbey will live up to expectations as compared to Pride and Prejudice. However, I find such thoughts to be unncessary, for Elizabeth Bennet and Catherine Morland are heroines in each of her own way.

Since young, Catherine was fond of all boys' plays, and does not have much interest to music and art but that all changed when she reaches fifteen. However when she reached the age of seventeen, she has yet to catch a young amiable man fancy. But opportunity calls on her when she is asked to visit Bath with the Allen family, whom are friends of the Morland family. There she meets Henry Tilney and she falls in love with him, and at the same time she also befriended a young lady by the name of Isabella.

When General Tilney, Henry's father, invited Catherine to spend some time at Northanger Abbey, She is delighted for she has a passion for reading gothic novels and naturally, she is fascinated with the atmosphere of the old mansion. Imagine her thrills when she found locked cabinets and explored the dark passengers in the mansion; and adding to this mystery is the death surrounding the late Mrs Tilney as she let her imagination runs wild. As I read further, I came to realize that the things she discovered in the end is none of the supernatural sort.

Northanger Abbey starts off a little slow in the beginning, but the pace picks up towards the middle. I liked it that Austen created a gothic feeling in this novel; and the exchanges between Isabella and Catherine's brother, James, is also a joy to read. I was intrigued with some of the words being phrased though, particulary the word 'shew' as I had seen this being used several times throughout the novel. It then came to me that it is a variant of 'show' after reading the passages for a second time. Is it not amazing to find some words changed along with the time?


Other bloggers' reviews:
Becky's Book Reviews
Reading Room
Trish's Reading Nook