Friday, November 10, 2006

Will you ever notice me...

The school expects us to record every single book that we read and hand it to teacher for marking, like a homework. I never like that task, I like reading, but I don't like the idea of recording all the books I read in a stupid, little book. I'm aware this is an effort by the government to encourage reading (yea, no kidding, Malaysians seldom read), but to me, it's quite pointless... In the end, I merely borrowed my friend's record book and copied all her 'book reviews'.

However, this time, I'm going to type out a book review... I wanted to write about the Inheritance series, but considering the fact that the movie is going to be released at the end of this year, and everyone is pretty excited about it, I decided I wouldn't write about it. Instead, I want to write about Memoirs of a Geisha.

Yes, yes, I'm aware that Memoirs of a Geisha was shown in the cinemas like...er...6 months ago? But I didn't watch the movie (I think even if I were to watch the movie, they wouldn't even sell me the ticket -underage, I think). When my friend borrowed me the book, I was not having very expectations of it. I'm quite used to reading books of the Fantasy Genre and switching to something more serious might not be to my liking...but glad to say, I was proven wrong.

The book depicted how the geisha lived, their pride and their sorrow. I must say, the geisha doesn't seem to have any honour, they flirt and they give their bodies to their clients... But still, they are not stupid. Lose their pride, yes; stupid, definately not. They way they plan, how to get the richest man in town to fancy them, how to fleece money off their clients, how to revenge... They are pretty much as cunning as a fox (no offence).

But they are humans too, they also have emotions. They could not show it when they are forced to be with a man they hate. They couldn't have a proper relationship with men (everything is based on how rich that man is, status and power). They can only stay in a corner and watch the man they love, and all the while entertaining another they utterly dislike. They are not treated as human (or to put it in another way: they lost their rights as a human), they are treated as sex toys, and I'm disgusted.

The Japanese culture is written very well in this book, at least I learnt stuff about Japan without getting bored with all the facts.

When I told Father that I'm reading Memoirs of a Geisha, he told me solemnly: "You are reading the Japanese's yellow culture..." I don't know what my father thinks, but next we launched into a mild discussion about Geishas...though, I forget the details about it... Still, I wonder, what my Father thinks about me reading something like that? Will he be thinking "My eldest daughter is more destructive than I thought..." or "She better keep an opened mind...".

Anyway, I'm contented with the ending. The female leading character (the geisha) finally has the chance to be with the man of her dreams and everything goes happily ever after like a typical fairy tale (a yellow fairy tale which is not suitable for children).

Talking about children, I accompanied my younger brother(only 6 years old) to attend a 'Story Reading Session' held by his kindergarten in MPH (Malaysia Publishing House) bookstore last Saturday (4/11). I heard MPH invited my brother's kindergarten to tell stories there to promote their 'Junior Readers Club' among the kindergarten kids, and the kindergarten, on the other hand, accepted it because it can also attract parents to send their kids to this kindergarten. There's nothing bad about it, everyone benefits, it's only I marvel at their strategy (I don't know does this qualify as a a marketing strategy) although it is seriously flawed (because this particular shopping centre that MPH is situated in, it's frequented by teenagers and NOT families with little children).

Having nothing to do, I wonder around the bookstore for anything that might catch my interest. There, I heard a mother enquiring about how to get her daughter's book published. This is not something I hear everyday. I hovered around the mother and the sales girl, but they keep moving further. In the end I give up (and I'm fully aware that eavesdropping is very impolite, still...), but I manage to hear things like the sales girl saying she could recommend publishers to the mother and stuff like that.

To publish a book... many would like a chance like that... I would also jump at such an opportunity... but to publish a graphic novel... would be a dream...

I saw books like 'Peter Pan in Scarlet', it's very interesting but too expensive. I saw a book regarding the making of Eragon, and I'm extremely interested in how they presented that graphic dragon... I saw various sketches of the dragon, the changes done to the imaginary dragon (eg. the snout was altered, they gave the dragon something that looked like a goatee, but it is not a goatee), the computer graphic of the baby dragon just out from its egg... Fascinating, but the book is also expensive.

In the end, I saw a series that I read when I'm still very young (like my brother's age) and we (the elder sisters) excitedly bought one for him. I don't know what the series is called, but it composed of very cute, round figures called Mr. or Mrs. 'something' . Each have their unique character, like: Mr. Impossible can do impossible things like walking up a tree. Still, till now I didn't see my brother reading that book... *sigh*

So, that's pretty much all I want to type about. To round up this post, I present L from Deathnote (yea, everyone-including me are crazy over it) and a picture from Final Fantasy (but I don't know which game of Final Fantasy...the picture is given by a friend).