The Time Traveler's Wife

"The choices we’re working with here are a block universe, where past, present and future all coexist simultaneously and everything has already happened; chaos, where anything can happen and nothing can be predicted because we can’t know all the variables; and a Christian universe in which God made everything and it’s all here for a purpose but we have free will anyway."
--The Time Traveler's Wife (2003)

Speaking of Thomas Aquinas:
"He wanted order and reason, and God, too. He believed in both Aristotle and angels.”
--The Time Traveler's Wife (2003)

Free will = meaninglessness?
If everything happens for a reason, is there still free will?

Thought provoking. Which do you think it is? And, which do you WANT it to be?

Summer, summer, time to read

Since I have such a long list of 'to-read' books, I have decided to come up with a list of books I will attempt to read this summer. Hopefully, I can finish them all. 24 in total. That is indeed a tall order for a slow reader like me, but I figured I have approximately 12 weeks, 2 a week should not be too much to ask for. When making the list, I tried to have a balance between fiction and non-fiction, as well as covering a wide range of topics. Below is some brief words about the books, and I hope to review at least half of all of them as I go along. Won't be reading in this particular order, but I will be starting with The Book Thief.


The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
This book has had some impressive reviews and is set in the WWII era. Since it is about the character's love of books (I think), I hope it will inspire to read more.

Candide by Voltaire
This one's said to be one of the best satires ever. I'm a huge fan of satires, so I am looking forward to reading this. It will provide some comic relief too.

Stiff by Mary Roach
This will fill the medical/science part of my readings and, I hope this is funny.

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
This, I hope, will fill the comedy part of my list. And I can't have a list without a book about drugs, can I?

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
I have not seen the movie, but this book seems to have won many prizes. If it's bad, at least its small size will mean it wouldn't take long.

Capital (Vol. 1) by Karl Marx
Can't have a list without a book on politics, right? Hopefully I can understand most of it.

The Holy Bible (International Edition)
We have all heard of fascinating stories from The Bible. This will be an interesting read and hopefully improve my understanding of Christianity. I wanted to read the King James edition, but I found the international edition on the shelve at home, so international edition it is.

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler
After writing an essay on Darwin and the Nazis, I decided Hitler would be an interesting person to read about. What better place to start than a book by the man himself.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
A suspense novel. Just for some entertainment, seeing as this book has had quite the hype.

The Iliad by Homer
I'm trying to learn poetry. Don't know if this is a good place to start, but Trojan War, should be interesting anyway.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
This should perhaps be counted as 2. About 1500 pages, depending on which version, I hope I get through it alive. I will trust the reviews on this one.

Old Goriot by Honoré de Balzac
A novel on social criticisms, I hope it's entertaining and interesting. Can't discount the fact that Balzac is Oscar Wilde's favourite author.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Said to be thought provoking, should be a good non-fiction to add to my list.

Little White Slips by Karen Hitchcock
One more to fill in the medical/science part of my list, not many so far.

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Again, have yet to watch the movie. But I hope the popularity of this book is justified.

Life of Pi by Yann Martel
Similarly, I hope this one is too.

Direct Red by Gabriel Weston
Having too few medical books, this biography will fill the void. Female surgeon, should be interesting.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
A suspense involving a novelist. Might be interesting, or at least, entertaining.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer
Another novel that somehow involves reading. Don't know why but I'm fascinated about that stuff.

Martin Arrowsmith by Sinclair Lewis
A medical novel published in 1925. Said to be underrated. Looks good. We'll see.

The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud
I need to understand my dreams and learn how to psychoanalyse people, just for the sake of it. Good variety for my list too.

Essays by George Orwell
I'm an Orwell fan, so some assorted essays should do me good.

Ideas That Matter by A.C. Grayling
I've read The Meaning of Things by Grayling. It was an interesting read and I hope this philosophical book would be just as good, if not better.

Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
Apparently an amazing journey of self-discovery and self-reflection, hopefully gives me something to ponder over summer.

Stupid White Man by Michael Moore
Another one for politics!

Kaleidoscope

Lost in life? Lost faith in your religion? Depressed? Don't know what to do in life anymore? Lost faith in your God? Facing an existential crisis?

Fear not! Google has the answer to life the universe and everything.

That's right! They have the answer you've been looking for! You don't have to start your own religion, nor jump off a bridge anymore!

If you think I doctored that link, feel free to search it yourself.

On a similar note, do you think I need to write a suicide note if I were to invite all my Facebook friends to an atheist convention?

On another similar note, I am interested in reading the bible. King James Bible to be specific. No, I am not considering converting. It is highly unlikely a radical atheist like me can be persuaded to convert, even by the scariest and most realistic dream, not to mention a book. I simply have an interest in philosophy and history, and the bible seems to fit somewhere in between. There seems to be quite a few interesting stories in there too. Noah and the ark, The Four Horsemen, David and Goliath, to name a few. While I'm there, I could perhaps pick up some "morals" the Christians so readily claim we atheist lack as well.

However (there is always a however), the book is huge and it is not exactly written in the simplest English either. I guess it just has to go on my "list." There, another book.


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Where Boy Fear to Tread

Here I share with you the picture of the day!

All credits to New Yorker


For the record, Charles Darwin is a genius, and he writes brilliantly. The Descent of Man is a joy to read, not a dull scientific/philosophical book at all.


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Kyoto Song

I loathe ignorance, but not ignorance in those who realise their ignorance. After all, in the words of Louis L'Armour "Only one who has learned much can fully appreciate his ignorance."

It is those who think they are "well-read" when in fact they aren't that gets on my nerves. Shoot them.

In similar veins, my "to-read list" now features over 350 books, and I don't even list more than 1 book by the same author. I finish one first and upon finishing, if I decide to further pursue books by the same author, only will I replaced the read book with the "next book I'd like to read by this author."

At my current reading rate of 1 book a week, the list grows faster than it shrinks.

On the issue of reading, learning and ignorance, here's a quote by one of my favourite author, Douglas Adams.
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."


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River of Dreams

I just read Louis L'Amour's autobiography, Education of a Wandering Man(alright, I didn't finish it). Anyway, here are some quotes I find interesting and one day, would like to revisit them.

From the introduction by Daniel Boorstin:
"We are often told we are what we eat. In our world since the printing press it might be more accurate to say we are what we read."

And from the book:
"The idea of education has been so tied to schools, universities, professors that many assume there is no other way, but education is available to anyone within reach of a library, a post office, or even a newsstand."

"Often I hear people say they do not have time to read. That's absolute nonsense. In one year, I read twenty-five books while waiting for people."
One may say, if you are waiting for me, that would easily be more.

"What is comfort to some is cruel hardship to others."

"We do not at present educate people to think but, rather, to have opinions."

"Adventure is nothing but a romantic name for trouble."

"Only one who has learned much can fully appreciate his ignorance."


Finally, to end it all, one from Charles Darwin:
"I discovered, though unconsciously and insensibly, that the pleasure of observing and reasoning was a much higher one than of skill and sport."


Portugal oh, Portugal!
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My Generation

A couple of interesting quotes from this article.

Referring to Gen Xers:
"a generation who would rather work to live than live to work. Or, in fact, get stoned, eat ice cream and not work at all."
Don't worry, Gen Ys are worse.

"The children of Generation X: sarcastic, bored and a bit spoilt, but nevertheless great at selling the idea of being "sarcastic, bored and bit spoilt" by publishing and publicising each other's work on websites."

It is an interesting article about inter-generational writers. It's not too long. Worth a read.


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Love Me Two Times

I am madly in love with books.

One more week of holiday for me. I've been reading a fair bit during this holiday and I'm more in love with literature than I've ever been. Ironically, the more I read the longer my "to-read list" gets. I am rather picky with the books I read but somehow there are still so many books that seem to fit my taste. For example, I'm not a fan of fantasy, so Harry, Frodo and Stephanie Meyer aren't my type. (Kristen Stewart is though). I don't read most motivational/inspirational books either. Only a few really good ones. Neither Jeffrey Archer or Dan Brown type novels.

I love Penguin Classics though. And that alone perhaps has way too many for my own good. I recently had my first taste of Dostoevsky too. His short stories. He is awesome! I'm currently in the midst of Notes From the Underground, one of his most acclaimed works.
I'm also reading my second J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey. So far, it is as good as Catcher in The Rye, except it seems to have quite a few grammatical errors and that gets on my nerve, especially when it's from such a famous author.

And of cause, I love satires. My favourite genre.
Here's my Goodreads. Come talk to me if we have the same taste. I love talking literature.

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Keep Talking

Now I'm on to An Ideal Husband, also a play by Oscar Wilde. I must say Lord Goring is awfully witty.

"I love talking about nothing. It is the only I know anything about."

"It is a very dangerous thing to listen. If one listens one maybe convinced; and a man who allows himself to be convinced by an argument is a thoroughly unreasonable person."

" I always pass on good advice. It is the only thing to do with it. It is never of any use to oneself."

"It is always worth while asking a question, though it is not always worth while answering one.

"My doctor says I should not have any serious conversation after seven. It makes me talk in my sleep."

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Wave of Mutilation

And now here are quotes from A Woman of No Importance I find worthy. Also by Oscar Wilde.

"The youth of America is their oldest tradition. It has been going on now for three hundred years. To hear them talk one would imagine they were in their first childhood. As far as civilisation goes they are in their second."

"Taking sides is the beginning of sincerity, and earnestness follows shortly afterwards, and then human beings become a bore."

"The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life."

"The only difference between the saint and the sinner is that every saint has a past, and every sinner has a future."

"The world is simply divided into two classes -- those who believe the incredible, like the public -- and those who do the improbable."

"There is no secret of life."

"All thought is immoral. Its very essence is destruction."

"Moderation is a fatal thing. Nothing succeeds like excess."


Ah, sometimes I wish I came up with these quotes!

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Imitation of Life

I've been reading Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, a play. Here are a few quotes that I found interesting.

"Scandal is gossip made tedious by morality. A man who moralises is usually a hypocrite, a woman who moralises is invariably plain."

"Women like to find us[men] quite irretrievably bad and to leave us quite unattractively good."

"What on earth should we men do going about with purity and innocence? A carefully thought out button hole is much more effective."

"In this world there are only two tragedy. One is not getting what one wants, the other is getting it."

"Cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing."

"A sentimentalist is a man who sees absurd value in everything and doesn't know the market price of any single thing."

"Experience is a question of instinct about life."

"Good women may have terrible things in them, mad moods of recklessness, assertion, jealousy, sin. Bad women, as they are termed, may have in them sorrow, repentance, sacrifice."

All by Oscar Wilde, of cause.


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The Modern Age

"There are moments when one has to choose between living one's own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands."
-Oscar Wilde(Lady Windermere's Fan)

Light My Fire

“A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at, for it leaves out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail. Progress is the realisation of Utopias.”
- Oscar Wilde(The Soul of Man Under Socialism)


I have nothing much to write about lately. Don't see it changing anytime soon either, especially since I have so many things I've yet to do and can't seem to get around to doing them. When the deadlines loom, I'll just have to savour the whoosing sound they make as they fly by(Adams, Douglas).

But I love the quotes section of this blog. Such as nice place to keep all the quotes I love together. So it is very likely that in the coming weeks I'll be posting only quotes here.


Currently reading: The Double Helix by J.D. Watson
If you love DNAs, it's a rather captivating book about how they arrive at the structure of DNA as we know it now.


Here's to Utopia.
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Imagine

Apparently he created a whole new language. It wasn't a slang. It's a language he created called Nadsat. I'm talking about A Clockwork Orange.

Reading barely 20 pages of it and I've learn more words that are not in the dictionary than I have in my life. A different language makes sense.

Saturday by Ian McEwan(author of Atonement) is pretty good too.
I found the first half of the book pretty slow but once it took off it was really good.
It's about a day(a Saturday, duh) in the life of a neurosurgeon. The main topics were war, Huntington's disease, neurosurgery and poetry. These all tied in with family life.

Oh and it is a novel, not a biography. Ian McEwan isn't a neurosurgeon.

Wouldn't make my favourite books list, partly because I do not agree with some of his views on certain issues, but story's good. I'll give it a 4/5.

Now, maybe I should read Atonement. I think I'm the only person that has not read Atonement but has read his other works.


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I'm Against It

I don't like substituting Clinically Oriented Anatomy for A Clockwork Orange on train rides. Even though I do not understand all those cockney slangs.

Yes, I have no idea what babooshka or viddy meant...until I googled it.


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Vienna

Hectic, hectic week. Finally it'll ease off a little in the coming week. But things will pick up again after that. It's not all bad, it's just mentally and physically draining. I was so tired last night I couldn't even read a book. Took me 5mins to read a paragraph so I decided to just watch a DVD.

Anyway, here's my favourite song when I'm living life in the fast lane. Not Eagles, Billy Joel.


Best live version I can find.

Just the song.


And my favourite song when in need of motivation.


Oh and I finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns and A Man Without A Country.
Vanessa, A Thousand Splendid Suns isn't 2000 times better than The Kite Runner, maybe 1.5 times. Not enough to put Khaled Hosseini on my favourite writers list though.

Kurt Vonnegut on the other hand, is the funniest writer I've discovered since Douglas Adams(Nobody beats Douglas Adams!!!). A Man Without A Country is the first and only book I've read of his but I'm certain it won't be my last.
"If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts. I'm not kidding."

Currently reading: Into The Wild by Jon Krakauer(still not done!!!)
Saturday by Ian McEwan


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Burning Bridges

I finished reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini last week.
(This was the cover of the one I read, I know there's another cover.)

I thought it was a little below my expectation, though still a good book no doubt. Just that with all the hype around it, I expected it to be mind blowing. Or maybe my taste just differs. I'll give it a 7.5/10 though.

For now, I'm reading non-fiction again. Paul Krugman's The Great Unravelling.
It is a compilation of articles he previously wrote for various publications and though a little outdated, it still seems relevant and interesting. Krugman does have a unique writing style too.

I suspect I'll be back to fiction after this. I've already had A Thousand Splendid Sun checked out from the library. I hope it's better than The Kite Runner. And I need to read some Kurt Vonnegut sometime soon.


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Factory Girl

Just a compilation for those of you who feel the same as I do on material culture. And also to remind me many others feel the same too and have expressed themselves in books and music and even wild adventures.

Pink Floyd - Money(Live at Live 8)

Perfect song choice for the occasion don't you think?

Blur - Country House

A Humourous take on Greed.

The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger
Brilliant.

Into The Wild
The book by Jon Krakauer
Or the movie by Sean Penn(based on the book)

And perhaps countless more that slipped through my mind.

But for the sake of including one of my favourite bands and because the song title reminds me of the social circle that directly or indirectly produced/influenced some of my favourite stars(ironic I know), bands and songs, I shall include this.

The Rolling Stones - Factory Girl


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Shine A Light

PARIS HILTON'S LATEST STUNT!!!

Oh My God! Like so Totally Hot!



Hah, suckers! I bet I had 2 extra clicks on that link than I usually would get thanks to my "stunt".

Good article though, Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision Australia, writes brilliantly about what I've tried unsuccessfully to write about in more than a 100 posts now.

You really shouldn't blame your boyfriend for treating you as an "object" rather than a person if you idolise Paris Hilton.

Hopefully she turned up on time for the New Year's countdown. I don't think there were many Sydneysiders sober enough to accompany her for the countdown to the first 1am in 2009.

Anyway, I haven't been writing in a while because I didn't have anything to write about. Lately I've been doing lots of reading and watching lots of DVDs, and that's about it. I'd like to mention one book in particular though, as it brings a glimmer of hope back to humanity, despite the world being dominated by people like Paris Hilton. It's aptly titled too.

The Hospital by The River : A Story of Hope

by Catherine Hamlin

Here's the Amazon page.

If you're lazy enough to click on that, it's a story about a husband and wife, both gynaecologists, that took up a job in Ethiopia back in the 50s, and eventually staying on there and establishing the world's first Fistula Hospital. It is an entirely free hospital that is sustained mostly by donations.

The first few chapters are rather boring but once they get to Ethiopia, the story was just amazing. Highly recommended for anyone interested in Africa, especially Ethiopia, as it does have quite a bit about Ethiopia in general and life over there, not just about the hospital.

In other news, I have been considering starting another blog. Not to replace this one, but in addition to this. To write perhaps, about my academic life. But so far the decision is leaning more towards "no", as I feel selfish occupying a blog address for one post a year - hardly anything interesting about molecules and bacterias.

Anyway, the blog title comes from a song of The Rolling Stones, which is also the title of a Martin Scorsese film that follows a gig of The Rolling Stones' themselves in 2006. Truly amazing film/gig. I ought to dedicate an entire post to one of the greatest Rock N' Roll bands of all time sometime soon.


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That's The Way

This post is about

Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, the winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Literature, and more particularly, his Nobel lecture.

Click for Lecture

That's his lecture in text form. There is also a video version on there, but I read the text instead. I don't know why, maybe because I'm crazy.

He truly amazes me with the amount of knowledge he has and the amount of reading he has done. 90% of the references he made was never seen before by me, further substantiating my ignorance. (But of cause I shrieked like one of those teenage girls catching sight of Zac Efron when he made a reference to Catcher In The Rye.)

But most importantly, the message he sent out in his lecture rang loud and clear in my head. Seeing that it is likely none of you would read the lecture, and the lack of writing capability on my part, I will paste his conclusion here.

"For all his pessimism, Stig Dagerman's phrase about the fundamental paradox of the writer, unsatisfied because he cannot communicate with those who are hungry—whether for nourishment or for knowledge—touches on the greatest truth. Literacy and the struggle against hunger are connected, closely interdependent. One cannot succeed without the other. Both of them require, indeed urge, us to act. So that in this third millennium, which has only just begun, no child on our shared planet, regardless of gender or language or religion, shall be abandoned to hunger or ignorance, or turned away from the feast. This child carries within him the future of our human race. In the words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, a very long time ago, the kingdom belongs to a child."

Perhaps the only thing I do not agree with him on is that he believes poverty and illiteracy should be eliminated by the end of the millennium, whereas I believe it should be achieved much, much sooner. Perhaps in my lifetime.

But nevertheless, the message is clear. "No child on our shared planet, regardless of gender or language or religion, shall be abandoned to hunger or ignorance."

Similarly, I too, feel a sense of un-satisfaction, knowing that the people that this message should get across to, will never read this. Time and again, I have wrote about ignorance and how it shouldn't exist, knowing damn well that what I wrote would make no difference, as the truly ignorant have long ago ceased visiting my blog. Despite my ignorance, I am very aware of that fact.


Perhaps my next post should be about Paris Hilton or Jay Chou. Or I should write stories using pop culture or materialistic things as metaphors to get my point across. I'll think about it.


TY