Sight

"See better, Lear, and let me still remain/
The true blank of thine eye"

King Lear Act One Scene One (The Arden Shakespear Edition)

Great stuff. I defy anyone who disagrees about the timelessness of Shakespear.

Today, I wore my new glasses properly for the first time (I got it on Monday), and even though I was already wearing glasses, I was struck at how clear everything was (again). My degree had slowly gotten worse such that I didn't realise how blur my world became. It really reminds me of Gloucester's situation, where he had metaphorical and literal blindness.

Anyway, I meant to say, I just read a new book that really opened my eyes (metaphorically). If everything goes according to plan, I should get a post up by Friday on IntoTheBook. I would post again sooner, but I have exams, and I really need to think through this first.

P.S I just checked IntoTheBook.net and it seems like they've already reviewed this book, so I suppose I will just be posting here(:

Never Hit A Jellyfish with a Spade by Guy Browning

I'm not sure where my genius-of-a-friend Rachel gets her books. After looking at the books she has, I feel like mine are so boring. She has cool books about cats and them taking over the world (well, something like that), and I have... Anna Karenina (I love that book though).

Because I've been banned from borrowing books from the library *coughfinalexamscough*, I've resorted to:

a. Borrowing from kind friends
b. Buying more books (which has already started to hurt me financially)

Well, this state of affairs cannot continue, but on the bright side, in less than 2 months, I'll be free to go to the library. Till then, I guess I'll have to continue borrowing books and try my best to keep away from places that sell books.

Well, so one of the brilliant books that Rachel lent me was "Never Hit A Jellyfish With A Spade: How to Survive Life's Smaller Challenges" by Guy browning. The book is a satirical take on life (the tone is such that there's no way you can believe that it's a serious manual), although the humour is very British.

The testament to how effective this book is, is that Euphe, who hardly reads anything other than Sarah Dessen (I can't believe it took me till last year, or was it two years ago? to recommend that to her), when I asked her to read the first chapter, just continued reading.

In fact, when I tried to recommend some particular chapter, she actually brushed me off to continue reading in sequence. That's a rare occasion, and really, a good book is one that can get a non-reader to read.

There is, however, one flaw with the book: The humour at times, can be very crude. Some sections, like "How to be religious" is quite offensive (at least, it doesn't talk specifically about Christianity, but that's not much of a balm) and should be skipped altogether. In fact, the entire love section, which is on "Love and Marriage" should be skipped because it promotes the wrong types of values; not to mention that it is the section where the humour is the crudest (mostly because of the subject matter).

I'm quite interested in looking for more of Guy Browning's books. So far, Littered with Books doesn't have it (although they have other fantastic looking humour books), but I think a big store like Kinokuniya will have it. I do know, that he has published other books, and if they're anything like this one, then I will definitely be entertained.

How we show ourselves

I really love sharing parts of books I read, but sometimes, there's nothing much to say about the book (for one reason or the other), so from now, I'm going to start posting quotes which has moved me in one way or the other.

"Perhaps we reveal ourselves too much in the small things because we have so little of the great to conceal. The tiny incidents of daily routine are as much a commentary of racial ideals as the highest flight of philosophy or order".

From: The Book of Tea by Kakuro Okakura, Project Gutenberg Version

Booktracks and other stuff

Incidentally, I'm going to add Mong's tumblr http://onlyheldbygravity.tumblr.com/ to the site links. Although for some reason, I related to Amanda's writing more, Mong feels more poetic somehow. And he's the most literary person I know (even if he does like to troll people). I don't know if I'll keep in touch with AC people after IB (these two years, quite frankly, weren't the best), but the writing's too good to ignore. Besides, the reason I even thought of going onto Tumblr was because of him. But the reblogging thing still puts me off.

Anyway, the main topic of this post is supposed to be a review of Booktracks. If you've been reading other sites/blogs about reading/literature, you'll probably have come across Booktracks. For the uninitiated, booktracks is simply another way to read books: by adding appropriate soundtracks. So far, they've released several new books on iTunes (like Hansel and Gretel, The Selfish Giant, etc). So far, I've downloaded all the free books (only one, which is not a classic, isn't free)

I've got to say though, the soundtracks, to me, aren't very impressive. I understand that the longest one, The Power of Six is supposed to be the best, but the others, like Sherlock Holmes, don't make much of an impression. But I must admit, it's probably my fault. The nice thing about Booktracks is that you can take a test for your reading speed. Unfortunately, even when it's at the maximum speed (700 words/min), it's still too slow for me. Hence, I regretfully cannot appreciate the soundtracks because I'm way too fast.

On a side note (it's more of a complete digression), I've just signed up for Dropbox (thanks Amanda!), and I've got to say, "Why only 2GB free?". I don't foresee myself using it that much after all.... Maybe I will, since I have to go to Japan, but maybe not (If I can find the photos of 107E, I will though). But ok, actually, the main point was: They have the clearest terms and conditions I've read so far. It's not in legalese or any of the fancy dissertations that make me turn off, which is why I actually finished reading it. They really should be copied, because making your terms of service accessible to the common reader is the best way to let your users know about their rights under the program/service/etc