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Spoons and books!
So, I walk into the stalls in the first floor bathroom in the building where I work, and I find myself confronted with a perplexing sight: sitting on the toilet, just behind the seat where the flusher would be (the flusher itself is mounted on the wall, so there's basically a blank spot) was a spoon. Arranged neatly. Like it was supposed to be there.
I stood there for a good couple of minutes trying to figure out the scene before me. Input error. Reboot. The spoon waited patiently while I tried to explain its presence. However, *nothing* made sense in my mind as to why it would be sitting on the toilet. I mean, what was so boggling was how neatly arranged the spoon was on it. Is it some sort of new bathroom benefit? A toilet spoon? No! I've got it! It's a loospoon! A LOOSPOON! XDD
Anyway, moving on, books!
9.) Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror (Steve Alten) A free book I got from the tail end of the school's annual book sale. I like to think of it as "Jurassic Park" meets "Jaws", as, well, it features a prehistoric shark that eats everything. And...that's it. I found this book to be the equivalent of a summer blockbuster--lots of action (actually some good action points), not a very deep plot, and characters with whom you can play the "Pick the Ones Most Likely to End Up as Shark Poo" game. Some of the biology and technology described in the book was interesting to read, but ultimately, it's not exactly something that I found to be particularly enriching, which can be a good thing if you're in the mood for something fun, but mindless. So depending on what you're looking for, this can be a good read. You don't need to exercise your brain too hard on it.
I also found out shortly after I finished reading it that there's some plans to actually make it into a movie. Can I call it, or what? XD
10.) The Bohr Maker (Linda Nagata) Another free book, this one part of the stack I got from that guy at anime club. It poses the question of, in a world where genetic manipulation is the norm, what would an illiterate slum-dweller, who perceives all this manipulation as magic and plagues, do when she is suddenly given power over a set of nanomachines that allow her to perform that very same 'magic'? At first, I found the book to be *very* hard to follow, as some of the terminology, such as atriums and the Makers, and the concept of Summer House, was hard to wrap my brain around. However, once things got moving, I found it hard to put down. Phousita is a likeable character, and I was quickly drawn into her plight. Many of the characters, in fact, were well-rounded, being neither completely good or bad. Even Arif, who was making me rather upset at several points, had his sympathetic moments. In fact, I could even say that there are really no 'bad guys' in the story, but simply people with radically different viewpoints. In general, when it came to characters and setting, the book was very well-rounded. You see both the priviledged side of the world, where there is a debate about how far one can manipulate life, and the dark underside, with slums and where rogue Makers wreak havoc on people's bodies, giving them clown faces and slowly turning them into stone. But while the book was really good with characters and setting, I felt it fell flat on the plot. It was like a parabola--slow start, *really* good middle, ending that kinda fizzled out. The way the ending was resolved, it almost felt to me like the pivotal part of the story didn't even need to happen for it to reach its conclusion. But the debates on genetics, the glimpse into our potential future, and the ways in which the characters use their power, make the book an interesting read.
Also, on a side note: natural honey locust trees? SCARIEST. TREES. EVER.
I stood there for a good couple of minutes trying to figure out the scene before me. Input error. Reboot. The spoon waited patiently while I tried to explain its presence. However, *nothing* made sense in my mind as to why it would be sitting on the toilet. I mean, what was so boggling was how neatly arranged the spoon was on it. Is it some sort of new bathroom benefit? A toilet spoon? No! I've got it! It's a loospoon! A LOOSPOON! XDD
Anyway, moving on, books!
9.) Meg: A Novel of Deep Terror (Steve Alten) A free book I got from the tail end of the school's annual book sale. I like to think of it as "Jurassic Park" meets "Jaws", as, well, it features a prehistoric shark that eats everything. And...that's it. I found this book to be the equivalent of a summer blockbuster--lots of action (actually some good action points), not a very deep plot, and characters with whom you can play the "Pick the Ones Most Likely to End Up as Shark Poo" game. Some of the biology and technology described in the book was interesting to read, but ultimately, it's not exactly something that I found to be particularly enriching, which can be a good thing if you're in the mood for something fun, but mindless. So depending on what you're looking for, this can be a good read. You don't need to exercise your brain too hard on it.
I also found out shortly after I finished reading it that there's some plans to actually make it into a movie. Can I call it, or what? XD
10.) The Bohr Maker (Linda Nagata) Another free book, this one part of the stack I got from that guy at anime club. It poses the question of, in a world where genetic manipulation is the norm, what would an illiterate slum-dweller, who perceives all this manipulation as magic and plagues, do when she is suddenly given power over a set of nanomachines that allow her to perform that very same 'magic'? At first, I found the book to be *very* hard to follow, as some of the terminology, such as atriums and the Makers, and the concept of Summer House, was hard to wrap my brain around. However, once things got moving, I found it hard to put down. Phousita is a likeable character, and I was quickly drawn into her plight. Many of the characters, in fact, were well-rounded, being neither completely good or bad. Even Arif, who was making me rather upset at several points, had his sympathetic moments. In fact, I could even say that there are really no 'bad guys' in the story, but simply people with radically different viewpoints. In general, when it came to characters and setting, the book was very well-rounded. You see both the priviledged side of the world, where there is a debate about how far one can manipulate life, and the dark underside, with slums and where rogue Makers wreak havoc on people's bodies, giving them clown faces and slowly turning them into stone. But while the book was really good with characters and setting, I felt it fell flat on the plot. It was like a parabola--slow start, *really* good middle, ending that kinda fizzled out. The way the ending was resolved, it almost felt to me like the pivotal part of the story didn't even need to happen for it to reach its conclusion. But the debates on genetics, the glimpse into our potential future, and the ways in which the characters use their power, make the book an interesting read.
Also, on a side note: natural honey locust trees? SCARIEST. TREES. EVER.