Category: #amreading

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#amreading Review Time

Ryu Murakami’s "Coin Locker Babies": Drawing in an Audience


For the past week, I’ve been engrossed in Coin Locker Babies by Ryu Murakami (see the picture, left). My friend had shown it to me about a month ago, and, just by reading the front cover flap, I felt intrigued by the subject matter.

The book is roughly 300+ pages, but already I’m nearing the end of the book after only reading it for one week. The first sentence immediately drew me in, and, although a few parts have been a little slow in reading (Murakami likes to focus on descriptions/lists), the book in general has been very satisfying for me to read.

It’s books like these that make me feel really inspired: the writer takes a unique topic, twists it into this fantastical plot, and keeps going with it. Murakami is really talented in drawing the audience into the book fully. Although I haven’t read any of his other works yet, the reviews I have come across for his other novels have been nothing but positive ones.

I have to admit, the subject matter in this book may not be for those who get a queasy stomach (some parts become a bit too graphic), but it’s all very well written. I didn’t even realize that this book was meant to be somewhat “futuristic” until I noticed the story’s timeframe and the publication date of the novel (the novel was published in 1980; the story is set in the late 1980s).

I’m certainly looking forward to reading more of Murakami’s works, and I do believe I have found some spot of inspiration from this reading episode.

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#amreading challenge community goals Novel 1 Novel 2 Novel 3

Resurfacing.

I was MIA this past month due to a slew of events: family visiting, new projects at work, and, simply, the continuing Writer’s Block. I didn’t complete Writo de Mayo again; I probably quit earlier this year than last year due to the unforeseen busy weeks in May.

However, this past week I have been trying to get myself back into writing again with some exercises from The Pocket Muse. It’s a good change of pace from reading all the reference/self-help books I’d read in the past month; after awhile, my mind turns to mush if I read too much of similar material. I need to get back to reading fiction again.

This next week, I anticipate finally printing out the first drafts of Novels 2 & 3, Dark Prayer’s Song and Time Abroad. I’ve also revisited my plot for Novel 1, Writing the Past, and realize that probably part of the reason why I’ve avoided revising the novel is because I’m still a little iffy over the restructured plot.

Slowly, but surely, things will get done.

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#amreading goals photography Work in Progress

Too many goals? & Author Photos

This past weekend I took some time off from the Internet and a lot of things that might have been keeping me stressed. It felt so nice to relax a bit and not think about things that I “needed” to do. I spent all of Saturday just reading and working out to my Wii games. Sometimes it’s best to just slow down and relax, enjoy the present.

I’ve been reading a couple of self-help books lately, and one line from Dave Ramsey’s The Total Money Makeover has struck a chord with me: to successfully accomplish something, one must have focus and take small steps at a time. It’s not the exact wording of the phrase, but that’s the general idea. It’s stayed on my mind for a couple of days because it has made me wonder if the reason why I haven’t made much strides in my writing projects is because I haven’t had focus. I’ve set out a lot of goals for myself in the field of writing, and a lot of them I’ve been attempting to work at simultaneously, e.g., finishing the first draft of Novel 4 and rewriting Novel 1. Aside from those two big goals, I’ve had smaller goals as well: blog daily in each of my blogs (three of them!), write reviews on Yelp! as often as possible, and so on. The smaller goals have become more habitual just because they are daily things for me; however, even with those, I have fallen behind.

It’s probably due to the fact that I keep just giving a little progress into each area, so it feels slow and frustrating right now. I wonder if I should reduce the amount of goals I have and try to just focus on one. What is more important to me right now?

In other news, late last week I finally received my author photos from NaNoWriMo‘s “Night of Writing Dangerously”. I had nearly forgotten about those photos until I saw the email in my inbox; they were initially supposed to be ready by February, but they probably got backlogged in their work. No worries; I was still glad to see the high-quality pictures. I’ll be posting them up on my website and my profiles as soon as I crop them down a little (they are very large files). I think it’s time to update my author photos anyway; haven’t updated in awhile! The pink jacket can only hold the audience’s attention for so long.

Here’s to (hopefully) a productive week ahead.

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#amreading #amwriting Novel 4

Writo De Mayo, Day 4

Well, today is technically “Day 1” for me in terms of actually writing so far this month. However, Writo De Mayo officially began over at the NaNoLJers community on May 1, so yes, I am a little behind. I wrote a little bit in Novel 4 right now, and, when sending the draft to my email account (as a back-up), I noticed that the last time I worked on the novel was at the beginning of March. Yikes, has it really been two months?

I was stuck in a sort of limbo over the weekend, and only today am I able to focus a little better. I couldn’t fully sleep the past two nights since I found myself adjusting to yet another new schedule due to my brother’s changing shifts at work. It’s unfortunate that I am a light sleeper, that any light noise wakes me up and keeps me up for some time.

I finally finished Catch-22 late last week, and all I have to say about that book is that it’s confusing. It’s probably a more enjoyable read for people who enjoy reading anti-war books; not to say that I like reading pro-war books, but that genre in general isn’t of interest to me. Plus, the whole book itself was a huge contradiction/Catch-22. That was probably the whole point of the book; well, it was decent enough to read for a month, but I probably won’t go back and read it again anytime soon. I’m back to reading some nonfiction this time around; a couple of self-help books to shake things up.

I’m hoping I’ll be able to update a little more this month due to the Writo De Mayo challenge. I need to pull together more motivation to get this writing done. I have no problems writing daily entries at my other blogs, but somehow, I just can’t muster enough strength to get back to writing fiction. Gotta keep plowing through somehow.

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#amreading feelings life memories

Planting Thoughts & Fountains of Conversation

This day has already started off on a strangely nice note.

I was perhaps a little groggy this morning before my commute; couldn’t muster up enough energy to have a full-blown workout so I did yoga instead. I didn’t even have my morning tea or coffee before I hopped onto the bus…

While on the bus, I immediately whipped out the book I’ve been reading, Three Cups of Tea, which one of my sisters had recommended to me. I began reading this book last Monday and already I’m over halfway through with the book. It’s a truly inspirational read, and what makes it even more inspirational/invigorating to my spirit is that it all is true. I was reading Chapter 15, which was about Mr. Greg Mortenson in action with building more schools in Pakistan (after the initial school in Korphe was completed). It’s a series of encounters that were destined, of meetings that were more than mere coincidences.

The chapter planted a thought in my head as I prepared to get off the bus; I was lost in this thought for a few seconds when suddenly I was jarred back to reality by a kind fellow bus rider’s comment about the book I held in my hands. “That is quite a wonderful read, isn’t it?” the man said to me. I was taken aback by his comment, but I nodded quickly in acknowledgement. By that point, we were both getting off the bus, so there was no time to really seek a further conversation. That small encounter itself was enough to put me in a good mood….

And then, I entered into the building where I work, and the bodyguard downstairs was a different person from the usual morning bodyguard. She stopped me before I went up the elevator and also made a comment about the book I held in my hands. “Wow, that book, I’ve seen it everywhere–“

That icebreaker broke open a fountain of conversation over general life topics, how our parents’ outlooks on life differ from ours, the opportunities/hardships we ourselves seek out in the circumstances we are given, and so forth. Most of the time I was just the listener in the discussion, but it was still refreshing to have such an encounter, even before work. It wasn’t at all awkward, either; just good, genuine talk with a new acquaintance.

It was a great way to start off an already full day, and I can’t help but keep this smile upon my face. Just goes to show that, even in this anonymous world of a city, personal touch can still exist.