Bookish News February 2024
I’ve been planning to have this kind of blog about reading stuff since last year. I used to write book reviews in my Instagram Feed. But slowly I turn bored and a bit under pressure with the content, because it forced me (although no one forces me ) to write every single review every time I finish a book. Sometimes I just don’t want to write any review at all if I finish a book. And if I want to talk in-dept about a certain book, the limited space doesn’t allow me.
So, I want to write it in a blog instead. This may be my new content about reading stuff. It will contains the common ‘wrap-ups’ style a.k.a. the books or manga I’ve read in the month and my active current reading books that I do also want to talk about.
MY ACTIVE CURRENT READS:
1. Mushishi, vol. 6, Yuki Urushibara
Genre: fantasy supernatural
I’ve made a short review about this in my Instagram.
I’ve watched the entire anime, so reading the manga is just an act to re-visit the world. Besides, now that it has been a long time ago since I watched it, I forget some of the stories – they’re basically an episodic chapter – so it’s refreshing to be able to visit the story again.
I may be saying this dozens of time already in the internet, but I’ll say it out loud once again: Mushishi is my all-time favorite world in the whole fantasy genre.
2. Lupus, Hilman Hariwijaya
Genre: YA contemporary
For a brief information: this book is an Indonesian YA slice-of-life contemporary from the 80s about a teenage boy called as Lupus – yea, kind of a morbid name but back then child me didn’t know, or maybe also most of the Indonesian back then didn’t know that Lupus was a name for an illness.
Reading this for nostalgic purpose. I bought this during my trip to Indonesia last year. My first reading of this book was when I was in elementary school; one of the books that inspired me to write my first (self-published) novel in the sixth grade. (Don’t tell me where the book is, it’s long vanished. The only proof I have is one of my friends from junior high as a witness for remembering about a school announcement about me writing a book lol.)
3. The Maths that Made Us, Michael Brooks
Genre: non-fiction, science/history
I’ve been reading it since last year on and off. Currently putting it once again in the back burner despite of ~100 pages left because I’m in the least favorite chapter right now. It’s about Information Technology, the sub-field of mathematics which I’m always the weakest since taking Engineering Major (no wonder I dropped out my uni lol).
Aside from that, I like most of the chapters so far. I had a long reading history of devoring science non-fict, but mathematics was something I rather avoided of. This one surprisingly is enjoyable for me, because Brooks tells about the historical part of the inventions of the math sub-fields that we’ve known in the school. Algebra, Trigonometry, until the, yeah, as I mentioned before, Information Technology. This book has the potential to be my Top Three Favorite Non-Fiction, after ‘The Hunt for Vulcan’ by Thomas Levenson and ‘What If?’ by Randall Munroe.
I think, “historical science field” is my special interest on non-fiction.
MY ACCOMPLISHED READS:
Manga
1. The Way of the Househusband, vol. 3, Kousuke Oono
Genre: slice of life
I’ve been following up this series slowly since last year. Slowly because I have the first two volumes, then decided to read it further from the public library which is mostly unavailable.
A great casual light reading especially for public transportation ride. Sometimes it’s hillarious during the rush hour in the middle of filled metro and faces of gloom, I’m smirking silently like a crazy person.
2. Crayon Shinchan Movie, Mirei Takata & Yoshito Usui
Genre: slice of life
Also another book/manga haul during my trip to Indonesia last year. Reading this is also for nostalgic purpose; Crayon Shinchan was every Indonesian millenial kids’ anime eventhough the genre is ‘Seinen’ (For a brief information: in manga/anime world, seinen is a demographic genre, meaning it’s for ‘mature/adult men’). Crayon Shinchan is about a life of a kindergarten boy, Shinnosuke or Shinchan, who loves to show off his naked butt and adores pretty women.
A casual light reading, especially for this particular volume, it’s a standalone manga.
3. Kaikisen, Satoshi Kon
Genre: folktale, mystery
Another decent standalone manga. It’s about a mermaid who’s inhabited the sea of Japanese coastal village whose egg brings fortune to the villagers through generations, under condition that in sixty years after the mermaid gave her egg, it must be returned.
A tale about environmentalism, although it’s kind of cliché, a black-and-white conflict depicting “modern infrastructure harms the environment”. But I’m glad the conflict has the satisfying resolution in the end, something I didn’t expect.
4. Planetes, vol. 1-2, Makoto Yukimura
Genre: sci-fi
If Mushishi is my favorite story across fantasy genre literature, then Planetes is for the science fiction one. As an all-time favorite book, right now I can’t talk about it in-depth; I’ll save it for a seperated blog for that. Even as I’m typing this out I’m still speechless about the manga.
If you’re curious what’s the story about: it’s a heavily character-driven story about janitorial space worker.
Book/Short Story
1. The Body Snatchers, Robert Louis Stevenson
Genre: short story, horror
Stevenson’s ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ is one of my favorite stories, but I couldn’t get fond of his other short stories collection. So, before I got rid of Stevenson’s short stories collection book (that also contained Jekyll & Hyde) for donation, I stumbled upon his short story ‘The Body Snatcher’. I thought it was the source of the sci-fi film ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’ (I’ve watched the 1978 version). Turns out, the both have completely different plot – and I found out that the film was based on the other book with the same title by Jack Finney. At least I learn about the term of “body snatcher” as a thief who stole dead bodies from the graveyard to be sold to the anatomists back in the 19th century.
I also found an interesting quote from the book: “[…] No rest for the wicked.” Is this well-known quote meme coming from this book?
2. Jacob’s Room, Virginia Woolf
Genre: literary fiction
Also like Planetes, I save this book for a seperated blog. For your information, I’d been reading this book since the summer last year, reading it slowly to savour Woolf’s immaculate prose. Finally finished it in early February, and it also left me a void inside my soul.
This is one of Woolf’s early novels, so I’m surprised that it doesn’t contain her known stream-of-consciousness prose. But Woolf did remain Woolf with her experimental narrative style. So, I think for those who want to start Woolf but too intimidated with her SOC style, I would give ‘Jacob’s Room’ a shot. But yeah, if you’re diving into Woolf’s, you won’t expect any plot-driven story. You’re here just for the sake of her language crafting, which that alone can drag you into the world of escapism.
PASSAGE OF THE MONTH
“If we live alone and we die alone, what’s the point of living in the first place?
Space is too big for that.”