Reading Books Again

So, I am reading books again. I love to read, I find also find pleasure from reading, and it broadens my knowledge. I just don't understand why others don't seem to find interest in reading. So.. now I'm reading two books.

Just done reading Fruitless Fall by Rowan Jacobsen. It is about the demise a bee. I find it really interesting.


After this post, I'm going to read Sexual Fluidity: Understanding Women's Love and Desire by Lisa M. Diamond. :)

The Painted Drum

I just thought I'd share this quote from the book I've read, The Painted Drum.

"Life will break you. Nobody can protect you from that, and living alone won't either, for solitude will also break you with its yearning. You have to love. you have to feel. It is the reason you are here on earth. You are here to risk your heart. You are here to be swallowed up. And when it happens that you are broken, or betrayed, or left, or hurt, or death brushes near, let yourself sit by an apple tree and listen to the apples falling all around you in heaps, wasting their sweetness. Tell yourself that you tasted as many as you could."

I love that quote, and the book in general.

New Books To Read

I have been reading a lot of books lately, especially when I couldn't sleep. Well, if you really know me, you'd know I love vampires - the novels and movies.

So, books that I'm currently reading are about vampires. I'm into the whole Stephenie Meyer fascination on Twilight, and her other series. Just like everybody when a new book comes out and it's like for kids or teens, I also get intrigued. I also get my copy.



I enjoyed reading Twilight a lot (I don't like the movie much), though I am not yet done reading the New Moon. So, on Saturday.. two books will be arriving from my sister. Her friend is coming home from Canada, and she got me Eclipse and Breaking Dawn. Sweet!














Well, the movie New Moon is coming out November 20, 2009. That is something I'm looking forward to watching.

The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy

I just resigned from work. Bleh. But I'm not gonna stress out about how it went. So...heeeeyyy I finally finished reading the book The Kreutzer Sonata by Tolstoy, it's a novel, and it's a good book to read. As promised, I will tell you a little bit of something about this book. Well... it is funny and depressing at the same time. I was a little bit concerned by the fact that I seem to agree with everything Pozdnyshev, who killed his wife, was talking about in his monologue about how awful love, relationships and sex were.

As you can tell I'm feeling really positive about all that nonsense as of late. There are good texts that I got from the book..they're snippets. And there was also a bit I liked about music, he is talking about how he hates music because "Music makes me forget myself, my true condition, it carries me off into another state of being, one that isn't my own: under the influence of music I have the illusion of feeling things I don't really feel, of understanding things I don't understand, being able to do things I'm not able to do (...) Can it really be allowable for anyone who feels like it to hypnotize another person, or many other persons, and then do what he likes with them? Particularly if the hypnotist is the first unscrupulous individual who happens to come along?"

Hahaha that just made me laugh though I suppose that explains the reason I actually love music. Anyway anyone who is insane about love like me should read this book. =D

Related post: Book Inscription Voyeur

Book Inscription Voyeur

I really love to read. So, before going home, I went to the National Bookstore and to Booksale at SM City to purchase few books for me to read during my days off and or if I'm tired of the internet. I bought just two (2) Books today - The Kreutzer Sonata, a short novel by Tolstoy. And Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, which I think is beautiful to read.

I was actually looking for old books.. the ones that has personal inscriptions... you know..with handwritten passages in them. I really find it interesting. Some old books that I have read had created big imaginations in me, so I always think about who the person was and what their life was like and what was going on in their life at the time. So.. I think I'm a book inscription voyeur? :p

So I'm hoping I can finish reading them this week. I will just let you know what the books are all about once I'm done reading them. =D

Modern Fiction vs. Classic Fiction

I am again reading Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I borrowed this book from my friend's Mom who is a professor in the University of the Philippines. On the one hand it is an excellent thing to do because F. Scott Fitzgerald could write. It makes me want to write, create, pour myself into the world to read his writing. I've been trying to read more modern fiction, more new writers, because that's what we have to do- support each other.

Clearly the public at large is not going to support new fiction authors if we do not support each other. However, it's hard for me to read modern fiction. I just don't like it a whole lot. It's often cold, overly ironic, relying on pointless twists instead of actual truth. The classics are classic for a reason- you can read them at any period and they are still brilliant. Modern fiction is hard, because you have to sift through a ton of crap for a few moments of beauty. And, to me, it's never quite as beautiful as the beauty in Fitzgerald or Hemingway or Dostoevsky or Milton or Homer. I just love reading books. My Mom, is an English Literature teacher and she influenced me in that way.

On the other hand, it's painful. I can never, ever be that good. No matter what. No matter how hard I try or how much time i devote I will always be a middling, boring, trite, solipsistic writer interested in petty things. But I will still continue on writing and reveling in the sheer beauty of my words.

The Innocent Sleep

My mom, who is an English Literature teacher is reading Macbeth right now. She is telling me what the book is all about when I already have read Macbeth before. I just find her very "makulit" that I couldn't take a nap. hehehe. I just don't get it why she keeps on reading it again. Maybe she was just refreshing her thoughts. Whatever mom. But I love you!

So I better sleep now. And since I am really sleepy.. I just thought I will share this line from Macbeth.

The innocent sleep - sleep that knits up the raveled sleeve of care, the death of each day's life. sore labor's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher inlife's feast.- Macbeth-II.2.

About Me

Ok.. so time for you to know a little bit more about myself and or my interests. I will just sort this out, because describing myself is a really broad subject.


Personal Stuffs

Name: Marie Malacaman
Address: You wish to know huh, uhmm.. somewhere in Molo, Iloilo City, Philippines
Contact numbers: 09279628984 and 09203687726
email: mariemalacaman@gmail.com

Schools Attended:
Assumption Iloilo
Holy Rosary Academy
Iloilo National High School ( a public school where my Mom teaches)
University of San Agustin- BSC Marketing

OCCUPATION:
Frontliner

BODY MODS:
4 piercings. Used to have it with my belly button and tongue. Mom hated it, she had them removed. I always wanted to have a tattoo. I always wanted to get inked when I was in college. My dad was even excited about it. It was last year when I have decided to get inked - that was before I met my now boyfriend, when I told him my plans, he got upset and never wanted me to have any part of my body stained. He calls it as “stain” though. But I still have the design with me.. i want to have wings. I want a white angel wings with shades of colors to add depth to the feathers. and i don’t want black for the outline or in the shading…I don’t know if that makes any sense to you. I want it on my back, like i really have wings. another option would be on my lower back. On my arm, I also want a cute Mizuno Junko style Geisha with cherry blossoms around her. And on the under side of my arm i want a Japanese style picture of a Geisha getting it on with a man. I know a few tattoo artists here in Iloilo, some of them are my friends.. I might get a lil bit of discount hehehe.

SIGNS: Pisces

CIGARETTES: I quit 6 years ago

MY DIET: I don't! I eat whatever I want.

ALCOHOL: Occasionally. I'm a beer person

MY KINK FACTOR: I'll try anything once, especially if you beg for it.

MY POLITICS: Not my cup of tea.

POT/DRUGS: Never!

MY STATUS: In a relationship

I LOST MY VIRGINITY: good grief!

HUMBLING MOMENTS: Taking my life into my own hands. Jumping off the deep end.

Interests

INTO: sleep. video games. music. art. sushi. good food. Pepsi. fashion. flip flops. wedges. chucks. modification. kissing. the summer. flavoured lip gloss. chocolates. GREEN. vampires. vintage. culture. music. books. philosophies.

NOT INTO: attention seekers. insecure bitches.

MAKES ME HAPPY: LOVE. My family. boyfriend. friends. travelling, people who inspire me , conversations. confidence in myself. intelligence. adventures. awareness. surprises.

MAKES ME SAD: Ignorance.

VICES: emotions.

HOBBIES: Surfing the net. blogging. eating. darts.



Faves Of All Times

Heroes:

My Mom - bravest and toughest. she makes the best of everything despite hard times.
Batman

Music:

• Imagine - John Lennon

• Don't Matter - Akon

• One - U2

• Nothing Else Matter - Metallica

• Stairway to Heaven - Led Zeppelin

• Cheater's Dillema - Kay-B

Till I Hear It From You - Gin Blossoms

• Lightning Crashes - Live

• Nothing Compares To You - Sinead O' Connor

• The World I know - Collective Soul

Films/Movies

• Exorcist, 1973. (Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, Jason Miller, Lee J. Cobb, Linda Blair)
• Interview With the Vampire, 1994 (Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt)
  
• I Am Sam. (Sean Penn)
• Batman Movies! - Batman, 1989. (Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger), Batman Returns, 1992. (Michael Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer). Batman Begins, 2005. (Katie Holmes, Christian Bale), Batman Forever, 1995. (Val Kilmer, Jim Carrey), Batman and Robin, 1997. (Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Clooney), The Dark Knight, 2008. (Heath Ledger, Christian Bale.
  
• Dogma. (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, linda Fiorentino, George Carlin)
• Independence Day, 1996 (Will Smith)
• Legally Blonde 1 and 2, 2001 and 2005. (Reese Witherspoon, Luke Wilson)
• Vanilla Sky, 2001. (Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz)
• Behind Enemy Lines, 2001. (Gene Hackman, Owen Wilson)
• The Patriot, 2000. (Mel Gibson, Heath Ledger)
• 300, 2007. (Gerald Butler, Vincent Regan)
  

Ahhhh.. horror and war/action movies!

Books

Mythology - Edith Hamilton

TV Shows
I don't watch TV that much, but I have time I do watch these shows:

LOST
Heroes
7th Heaven
Grey's Anatomy
True Blood
Project Runway
Miami Ink
Buffy
Prison Break
Two and a Half Men
Pimp My Ride


Video Games

Super Mario Bros. (one of the best games played hahah)
Sims
DOTA

Paradise Lost

The past few days have been boring, so I was just reading the Reader's Digest, Magazines, newspapers and what interests me most is reading the book Paradise Lost.

And so I checked google.
This is the book cover of the 2005 Hackett Edition, with illustrations from the 1688 edition. See Wikipedia.

First published in 1667, "Paradise Lost is considered to be the greatest epic poem in English literature. Written in twelve books, the blank verse poem tells the biblical story of Adam and Eve's fall from grace and subsequent expulsion from Paradise. In sublime poetry of extraordinary beauty, Milton creates a rich and complex Christian mythology that has inspired countless writers and artists. It continues to be required reading in high school and college literature courses and is a long-standing favorite with lovers of English poetry."

What we have at home is just a photocopy of these 12 books, which mom borrowed from their school, (aha!.. unauthorized publication huh, hehehe sshhh). Anyway, the book is incredible! There are so many lines and ideas in it that have echoed throughout Western culture.

And Milton's interpretation of the Bible is the one that has stuck in the popular imagination- Lucifer as the rebellious angel banished to Hell, who tempted Eve and the as vengeance against GodMessiah.. the war in Heaven... the concept of "true" love being without lust. It makes me shiver about every other page because I read a line that I've read or heard so many other places, or a concept comes across that I always took as Biblical truth that it turns out was mainly Milton's conception of the Biblical truth.

So my personal views about the book is.. Lucifer, for a variety of reasons, resembles many modern anti-heroes. And as a modern person, it's hard to sympathize with the all perfect angels, Jesus, and God in the book. They don't make mistakes, they don't question their creator, they don't want anything but what they've got. Satan wants to know more, or at least convinces other characters that they want to know more. What was it that Eve got in exchange for Paradise? Not riches, not beauty, not pleasure....but she got knowledge. How did Satan convince the other angels to rebel against God? He convinced them that they were, or might be, their own creators. that the story God had always told them might very well not be true. He is a questioner, a wonderer, an explorer.

I'm only halfway through, I'm still reading the poem. I'm sure I'll post more about this as i read on, but here are two of the lines that have been repeating in my head since I read them.

"Farewell happy fields, where Joy forever dwells- Hail, horrors, hail."
"Abashed, the Devil stood, and felt how awful goodness was."

P.S.
I'm still a believer of God, though.

Only Revolutions: A Novel

Damn, I want this book!

Only Revolutions: A Novel
Author: Mark Z. Danielewski

[Covers]

The story of two 16 year old lovers (never aging). The book is printed on two sides. One side tells the story of Hailey.. and flip it over to read Sam' s side. It has 360 pages, with 360 words on each page. Cool, huh?

I have read his book House of Leaves before-- a horror fiction, and I loved it.