Book Review

So I haven't posted in ages, been busy, bla bla bla..yada yada yada..moving on.

The next couple of posts are some thoughts on a few books I've read recently (warning: Some spoilers included) :

Vertigo by Ahmed Mourad
I saw this in a bookstore and after reading the summary on the back and seeing that it was already in its fifth edition, I decided to give it a go .

The short version of my review :

I hated it and I can't believe trees had to die to make paper for this crap.

The detailed version :

Ten pages in, I felt like I was reading a movie rather than a novel. A movie starring Ahmed El Sakka no less (with Karim Abd El Aziz as a possible stand-in in case El-Sakka pulls a muscle). Just in case you're confused, this is in no way, shape or form a compliment. I don't like my novels playing out like bad action movie scripts.

The lead protagonist (Ahmed) and his best friend and partner in crime are in a word: repulsive.

They're sexist and disgusting. They almost always fail to have a conversation where they don't talk about women derogatorily and I just don't understand why the writer insisted on letting us know every time the best friend farts or burps.

I hardly think his intestinal movements are pivotal to the novel's events and if it was an attempt at comic relief, it failed miserably.

I also don't understand the reason for the incessant use of vulgarity in this book. Was this supposed to be some sort of lame attempt at gritty realism by trying to accurately depict conversations between young Egyptian men? So how accurate was this depiction? Do all young Egyptian men have conversations that are this sexist and retarded? In that case, we're even more screwed than I had ever previously thought.

Now that whole alter-ego business...

-An old dude shows up...
-He knows stuff only *gasp* Ahmed himself could possibly know!
-He shows up suddenly and disappears into thin air!!
-And he has a ring with the first letter of his deaf girlfriend's name!!!

It was not only painfully obvious that the mysterious old man was a ~figment of his imagination~, he also had absolutely no use in the novel. Seriously, erase him completely and see if anything's different.

Don't even get me started on the ~big revelation~ when Ahmed suddenly realizes that he and the old dude are actually...*drumroll please*...the very same person!

As Keanu Reeves would say: Whoaaa...

The most tragic part I suppose is the ending. While reading the last pages of the book, the only thing I could think of (besides I can't believe I spent money on this friggin' book) was...damn, they couldn't think of that a couple of hundred pages ago?

I'll admit that I did like the sister's story line quite a bit and even Gouda's although it's hardly original as a viewing of several Egyptian movies can demonstrate.

Next up, A review of 1/4 Gram...

Book Reviews

Thanx to all the time I spent in public transportation, I've just finished 2 books these past couple of weeks. To make this easier for me , I'll give them grades out of 4 and I'll try not to include any spoilers :

Four past Midnight - Stephen King :


A collection of 4 novellas first published by Mr.King in 1990. It's not his best work I'm afraid, or at least in my humble opinion. There were 2 stories I liked. The first is "The library policeman" (3.5/4) which was a good read but dragged on for longer than needed. It was both scary and humane. The second is The Langoliers(4/4) , which was excellent and engaging. It's obviously my favorite story and despite being the longest one, I flew through it quite quickly.

The other 2 stories disappointed me. The first is the story "Secret window, Secret garden"(2/4) which was later made into a movie starring Johnny Depp. It was eerily similar to "The Dark Half" which was a novel published by King in 1989. You could basically guess the ending before you were halfway through the story. The other was "The Sun Dog"(2.5/4). Although interesting at first , it also dragged on unnecessarily and not to a very interesting end. The ending was anti-climatic and confusing to say the least. It left way too many loose ends.

Overall verdict : 3/4

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon :

Now I absolutely loved this book. It was first published in 2003, originally intended for adults but was then published simultaneously as both an adult and a children's book. I had heard a lot of good things about it and I bought it expecting it to be a sort of quirky mystery novel but it turned out to be so much more. The hero of this book is a 15 yr-old by the name of Christopher Boone. His life turns upside down when he discovers the neighbour's (Mrs. Shears) dog Wellington, murdered one night with a garden fork. He decides to take a note from Sherlock Holmes (whose stories he's fond of reading) and sets out to collect clues and facts which could help him solve this murder mystery. The thing is,
Christopher suffers from a mild form of Autism known as Asperger's Syndrome and the story is told in the first person where Christopher explains that he's writing a book about something real and that this was interesting enough to write about. The chapter alternates between events of the story with its unexpected turnabouts and between chapters which give insight to the way Christopher's mind works. Aperger's syndrome (as well as I understood) is a social behavioral disorder where a person analyzes things quite differently. He views people differently and is afraid of social situations most people take for granted. That's what makes this book so interesing. This book was funny and very touching.

I highly recommend this one.

Overall Verdict : 4/4

The Book Fair (and some other stuff)

The Cairo international book fair:

Well, I finally got to go to the book fair yesterday. After I toured the fair ground for a good six hours, I am now finally declaring bankruptcy and I'm quite happy about it XD.
I decided to buy more arabic books and less english novels this yr for a change. Thankyou to my friend A.H. (one of the most well-read ppl I've met in my age group), who gave me some recommendations for arabic books.
These are the books I bought, save for one book my mom borrowed which is "whatever happened to the Egyptians?" and the biography of Ernesto "Che" Guevara currently residing with my friend Spellz:

13 books, just like last yr (with a small number of "rowayat masreya lel geeb") as usual..*giggle*

Things I noticed there and liked :

• It was crowded as usual but there were more ppl actually looking at the books than usual.
• Alot of ppl were donating blood (including myself..yay for all of usXD).
• There were more mini-buses moving ppl around this yr unlike the dreaded "taff-taff" or choo-choo train where the little children tend to get attached to your neck,legs and waist like super-glue with one hand and a greasy sandwich in another while their mommies smile at you in pride. Not to mention the fact that you had to wait for it quite some time and when it actually arrived ppl DIDN'T get off because apparently the ride was lottsa fun and they want to do it again, so you end up walking with your heavy book bags./end rant (can you tell I'm not a fan of the little train?).
  
• All of the ppl working there were very helpful so kudos to them for that.

Places I recommend there, though I'm probably stating the obvious to anyone who's been there:

• Dar el-Sherouk
• AUC bookstore
• The Egyptian-American book centre in ITALIA hall.
• EL-Ahram library.
• Akhbar el Youm.

And to my dear friend R.A. who tried to donate blood but almost passed out halfway and actually cried because she couldn't ; I know you were sweet, but I had no idea that you were that sweet :D!

Now on to utterly trivial matters:

Today is Actor Christian Bale's birthday, so here's a little feature about him just to satisfy the little *cough*actually really big*cough* fan girl in me:

Basic Stats :

Name:Christian Charles Philip Bale
BD&BP:30/1/1974 in Wales.
Height: 6 ft.
Spouse: Married to Winona Ryder's former assistant, Sibi 'Sandra' Blazic since 29/1/2000 who is quite possibly one of the luckiest women on earth and at the same time gives hope to average looking chicks everywhere (lol I'm so sorry, that was just awfully bitchy of me *hangs head in shame...well sorta*)
Children: Has one baby girl rumored to be named Emmaline( her name has never been released to the press..good for them), born on 27/3/2005.
Latest movie(s) released: Harsh times and The Prestige in 2006
Latest movie(s) not yet released: I'm not there (about Bob Dylan apparently) and Rescue Dawn.
Favorite charcter of mine he ever did: Patrick Bateman in American Psycho.

Now some pictures:
Christian Bale looking intense















Christian Bale looking like he's pissed and about to choke a bitch.









Christian Bale looking thoughtful.



















Christian Bale looking like he's drunk and about to mug you.












Christian Bale about to whack somebody's head off with an axe.















Christian Bale all smiley and stuff.


















Christian Bale looking emaciated and about to fall over and die in "The Machinist"











and finally, little Christian!













*****Expect something equally awful whenever it's a birthday of a favorite Actor/Actress of mine****

Atrophy of the brain

Do you ever go through days when you get the feeling that in your brain somewhere in a deep place is a whole lotta 'smart' that just seems to be blocked by a gradually thickenning shell of 'stupid'? I've been feeling that way recently. I heard med-school would make me go through days like this and apparently the rumors are true. I used to think I was intelligent when I was in highschool now it seems like my brain functions a lot slower. Early senility?Maybe. The lead in the air is finally affecting me? Perhaps. Maybe I'm just using it a lot less than I used to. Maybe it's because I haven't been reading or sketching or writting something, anything during the past few months.
I hope all of that will change though...because the annual Cairo book fair just started...weeeeeeeeeeeyeaaaaaaaah!!!
I patiently wait for those 2 weeks every year when I walk into the ginormous Cairo fairground and become surrounded by nothing but books of every sort. I go broke at the end of those 2 weeks but I'm always quite happy with what I buy and sad that I didn't get everything I wanted. Hunting there for that single book I've been looking for and finally finding it is one of the most enjoyable experiences I could possibly have in the month of January.
I turned a friend of mine back to reading last yr (you tend to stop reading anything besides text books when you start med-school unfortunately) and she's been reading Pride and Prejudice recently. She had read it before when she was like 13, she didn't like it much back then but I knew that she would love it now. She fell in love with not only the book but also with Mr.Darcy as I expected. It's difficult for a straight female to read that book and not fall in love with him. *Sigh* it's like he's the perfect man with imperfections. If only there were actual men made of flesh like him...

not in my rounds, that's for sure....ahhh well.

Now I have to go and count my money to see how much I'll actually be able to spend this week...

Guts? Well, wow...and ewww.

I've just read 'Guts' by Chuck Palahniuk. All I can say is Holy Shit, that was amazing. I was both mesmerized and repulsed . I found the first part of the story highly amusing and I did not expect the rest of it to end up the way it did.The events are so disturbing to think about yet I can't get my mind off of it.If you have a strong stomach, I highly recommend this story. It's a short story and it's online. I'm definitely going to check out more of his books.

It reminds me of another book which both fascinated me and disturbed me ; American Psycho. Except that this novel actually made me gag and throw up in my mouth a few times and I have a pretty strong stomach. Anyone who's read it will understand this; cheese, a tube , a hungry rodent and a vagina *gag*. I hate that I have the memory of reading that part in my brain yet I enjoyed it thoroughly and will probably read it again(once we move into our house which is being decorated at the moment, since all of my books are lying in a big box in its basement*sigh*). The movie on the other hand, well Christian Bale kinda distracted me from the whole psycho-killer-cuts-up-women issue. He's a fucking amazing actor (IMHO) but he's just.. awfully pretty...