Thursday, June 06, 2013

Of Books and Bliss

Music: Terpesona by Glenn Fredly

The past 2 weeks has been bliss.. sleeping in my own bed.. eating home food instead of korean and some other weird fusion food that they make.. and i finished reading 5 books since i came back.. while meeting up with some friends and families.

Its all been great except for the burning hot weather.. however the rain that comes after becomes sweeter and more appreciated.. enduring the blazing sun and humidity was all worth it.. hmm never thought of it this way before..

As ever, Vietnam remains a conundrum to me. I read Catfish and Mandala, written by a viet-kieu, the term used for ppl who fled the country after the fall of Saigon (aka Americans in South Vn, to put it crudely). The confusion comes from the fact that i have some really good Vnese friends. It also stems from the fact that most books on Vn are written by foreigners, American-vnese, most whom only have bad things to say about the country. But my relationships with these few vnese friends that i have only shown me compassionate people who love their country and father (Ho Chi Minh) despite the.. misgivings.. for lack of  a better word. In fact, vnese are the most poetic people ive met, not in the sense that they write poetry... but their characters are poetic.. bordering romantic.. towards their country, their people, their daily life, their culture, their history.. and especially their history.. a thousand years of war.. Chinese, French, Japanese, Americans.. i cannot explain it... but i see it in the songs they write and sing, how they talk about their war-torn country, their rituals and cultural beliefs.. and yet when i read about vietnam, the general tone is that.. its bad, ravaged, lost souls.. you get the drift. Its hard to fathom really.. there are many sides to a story. but then again, my interest in this confusion that is vietnam may have actually started from something else entirely... which i rather not divulge.

Next i finally finished the reading the Chronicles of Narnia.. the final 3 books.. and a few moments ago, i finished Dan Brown's new book, Inferno.. im contemplating to read another, now that my Prof seemed to be okay about me not having done anything during this break.. he replied my email at 2 am this morning.. i dont feel guilty anymore.. but i did promise to work twice as hard when i go back.. not sure whether this is wise.. but oh well..

terpaksa la aku jadi nerd kuasa 8 juta for the next 5 months..

sometimes i wished i was a historian rather blowing my head with reactor physics.. what the hell was i thinking, taking the most difficult subject for my thesis?! smart-ass. anyway, there's no turning back.. all systems go! starting next week that is.

now.. what book should i read next... 

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

have you read John Perkins? The confession of an economic Hitman, very interesting? and the sequence, The secret history of american empire, both are my long time fav. Ive stop reading a while back and now started reading more on big scholars book. It is very very interesting and heart-soul fulfilling(?), (sorry not good in english), so I will recommend you..

K said...

Hello,Anonymous? No I havent read John Perkins,picked up economic hitman but decided not to read it ;p no reason in particular,maybe i should give it another shot,didnt know theres are sequel to it.thanks for the recommendation :)

Anonymous said...

oh i wanted to continue my comment but my comp went jammed(?) haha, its ok, maybe the books' pretty boring for you.. i was kinda in this secret association when i read that book, so i was kinda pretending in that sort of loop

K said...

hehe.. cant say its boring if i havent read it right? nowadays im into history, real life stories, autobiographical fiction.. that sort of books. :)