Here we are again.
With such slow pace, I can see the hope of reading 50 books this summer vanishing in thin air. Why is everything much more simpler in mind than in real life ?
Second batch, go.
11. 207 الغرفة :
Author : أحمد خالد توفيق
Themes: Mystery, Horror.
Rating : 6/10
Mini-review :
Well, well. This is my first time reading a "horror" novel so I can't judge the genre based on reading this one case, but at least based on the experience of reading this novel, it's not that scary to read something scary. With no real people, shaky cameras, gore, Sound effects .. it's just .. not as effective.
The 6 is there because the story edge on mystery rather than horror, some of the many episodes had that mysterious, enigmatic atmosphere that made the reading quite enjoyable. Other than that, it's really borderline mediocre (unless one day I'll get a key to a room and find out later that it's for room 207 ..).
That being said, I'll really want to read a real (sorry AKT :p) Horror novel .. because a part of me believe that reading a good Horror novel -if such thing exist- would be more of a psychological endeavor, thus more scary than a movie .. and I don't even like Horror movies.
12. Les Fleurs du Mal :
Author : Charles Beaudelaire
Themes: ?
Rating : 7/10
Mini-review :
Now that's another new experience. I've never read a poetry volume and I somehow landed on a very weird one. Weird. That's exactly the word that comes to mind whenever I finish reading one poem out of it.
The poems aren't straightforward and rely heavily on vague symbolism and grotesque imagery. And as Takao said, I actually don't understand it. That, of course, if there is actually anything to understand. It's symbolic so it's up to interpretation, but most of the poems in my opinions are enigmatic for the sake of being enigmatic, which doesn't really help.
I didn't read the whole thing, honestly. It's quite enjoyable at times and some poems are cool and beautifully written, but one of the main reasons I couldn't finish it was the fact that it's written in french, and some vocabulary is goddamn bizarre. So I said maybe I'll keep it for later, when I can truly enjoy it (lie).
13. Brick :
Author : Ryan Johnson
Themes: Detective Work, Mystery, Noir.
Rating : 8/10
Mini-review :
I read this quite unknown novella because I really enjoyed the movie based on it. The writer of this novella is actually a director/screenwriter so technically it's more of a script. The novella is the text counterpart of the movie (because it's the script for it,duh) and if I didn't know of the ending beforehand, I would have enjoyed it better (and rating it higher). The Noir undertones are just so cool, I add that to the list of things I want to read more on.
Not-really-spoiler alert : The language is kind of weird. The movie is Noir/Drug trade themed so many of the terms are proper to those themes and you'll need to look them up (or just guess their general meaning as you go like I did :p).
14. Gilead :
Author : Marilynne Robinson
Themes: Religion, Faith, Novelty, Traditions, Society, Family, Philosophy, Existence, Love, Morality .. Pretty much everything.
Rating : 10/10
Mini-review :
Another entry to the word "Magnificent" in the dictionary should be "the novel Gilead", and I'm not even kidding.
This is one of the novels that I will certainly reread (and fully review) later on, because well, you don't stumble upon gems everyday.
Long story short, it's a unique reading experience. To live through the day and the mind of an old man who wants to transmit as much wisdom (and soul) to his child is heartwarming is every single way possible. The writing style is superb, the imagery range from impressive to soothing, the sensation of racing the emotions and thoughts -at a really slow rate sometimes- in the head of John Ames is just a privilege. I really think that secretly Marilynne is really John Ames, although she's neither a pastor, nor a man. This can't be a fictional autobiography, it's too good to be imaginary.
READ IT !
15. مذكرات الأرقش :
Author : ميخائيل نعيمة
Themes: Philosophy, Meditation, Humanity, Love.
Rating : 9/10
Mini-review :
The name of the author only gives me a good feeling. It's been years now since we've last read any good Arabic text in school, those being already really rare, and I suspect, deliberately left out. One of the few exceptions, however, was Mr. Nouaima. I used to read those few good texts many times when we had a boring text to study, and so I kept wishing that one day I'll read one their real books, entire and unmodified (because some of the texts we studies at secondary school were altered -as I discovered later- to make them easier to understand, yeah right).
Now, I have the honor to read this little curious book, and as the title clearly states, the book is some diaries, but not any diaries.
I can't go on explaining why this book is awesome (because then I'll do a full review, which I might do alter) but it really is, philosophically and stylistically speaking. A journey worth taking.
16. حي بن يقظان :
Author : ابن طفيل
Themes: Philosophy, Existence, Religion, Transcendence, Meditation.
Rating : 9/10
Mini-review :
To the other end of the Philosophy books, here comes this book. It's the first book I've read written in the Middle Age (the Golden Age of the Arabia). And as I expected the language itself is different, but it's something you get used too once you read the first dozen pages.
This philosophical novel is about finding God, justifying both the need and the will to find Him, and argues for Religion. All in that exemplary mid-aged mid-eastern style. The book needs both a little knowledge about the subject and a good amount of concentration to be truly enjoyed.
Some really unexpected pieces of information are presented as the story progresses, who knew the philosophers/scientists (because they were all philosophers/scientists back then) knew that much back then!
17. قصاصات قابلة للحرق :
Author : احمد خالد توفيق
Themes: -
Rating : 5/10
Mini-review :
This is actually cheating, both for my project and from the author. This is not a real book. This is a collection of quotations from other books by the same author (two or three by other authors who the author admires), and maybe just quotations made up by him to fill this book in. Either ways, this work is not really a book.
That point made clear, I thought I'd enjoy it more because it's quite humorous, but sadly the author falls in hole he digs for himself. When there is not enough material to make up a book (which was very short, nonetheless), just don't write it.
I don't mean that it was complete crap (it's 5, a mediocre read at best) but it could have been done better, maybe if there was something other than a man quoting himself. He's funny at times, I confess, bu this should never be a reason to write a book, ever ! Sharing quotes is for Facebook pages .. Oh wait.
18. 13 reasons why
Author : Jay Asher
Themes: Love, revenge, suicide, morality ..
Rating : 7/10
Mini-review :
That's "boo!" for an very exciting idea done bad. I must say that when I first heard about the concept, I immediately liked it. A "treasure hunt" for truth, huh ? Well, the premise is so good that any less-than-perfect implementation would fall short, and this book here is far from prefect, thus it's really a disappointment.
The story starts off strong and thrilling, promising. Everything seems more intensive as the protagonist is still in the shadow. Just as the truth starts to unfold, the story weaken, the characters become stupid, and the whole thing fall apart. The author tries to do things he can't really do (create dept and make the characters relatable, for example), and it just create holes in the fabric of the story that even a good ending wouldn't fix, and guess what, the ending is predictable in a bad way.
It's such a sad thing to know that it could have been done much better, given a better pen and a better imagination.
7 for the concept, meh for everything else.
19. Banging your Head against a Brick Wall :
Author : Banksy
Themes: Art.
Rating : 9.25/10
Mini-review :
Here's a 9.25 for a 54 pages book. And add to my cheat-list the fact that it's not actually a book. It's kind of a book-exhibition-gallery-backstreet-mind-projection-album-collection kind of thing. And it's beautiful.
Speaking of artsy (?), this little stroke of genius here is just what art deserves. Quite simply, this books breaths originality. Don't be fooled by the simple cover, because I do believe Bansky is a genius of his kind.
If using idioms as titles isn't impressive enough, the title that refers both properly and figuratively to the content of the book is (banging your head against a brick wall means trying something in vain. You'll get that feeling once you're into the book). It's both a gallery of his street art (stencil art and graffiti), and a collection of political views, quotations, wordplays, innuendos, double-meanings and visual plays all painted with irony, anarch-ish-ism, and double-meanings, all in a cool way (take note, Mr AKT).
You shall also expect a light feeling of adrenaline while reading (and picturing yourself doing some good old anarchic business) and lot of Walls puns.
(By the way, the paperback book is 145$ in case you wanted to buy me a birthday present.)
20. حديث القمر :
Author : مصطفى صادق الرافعي
Themes: Spirituality, Nature, Meditation, Love.
Rating : 8.5/10
Mini-review :
For the last book of the second batch, I wanted to read something I wanted to read for a long time, something written by MSR and here I am, not disappointed.
I've read some texts off his collection "وحي القلم" and I really enjoyed them. I also believe he has the greatest style among Arabic writers (I didn't read much of that, but I don't think he can't be topped).
Anyways, this book is not his most famous book nor his finest (according to people who read all of his works) and I still find it impressively well-written, if nothing else.
The themes are quite vague because the book is not actually a story (as I expected, I started expected every book to be a novel) but rather the stream of thoughts of a man who can see in the Moon every thing that is beautiful, things that we ordinary people don't see. It's a bundle of messages and meditations that are perfectly written, and heavily adorned with beautiful imagery and figures of speech.
The author set the bar so high that almost any other arabic writing will sound badly unimpressive.
With such slow pace, I can see the hope of reading 50 books this summer vanishing in thin air. Why is everything much more simpler in mind than in real life ?
Second batch, go.
11. 207 الغرفة :
Author : أحمد خالد توفيق
Themes: Mystery, Horror.
Rating : 6/10
Mini-review :
Well, well. This is my first time reading a "horror" novel so I can't judge the genre based on reading this one case, but at least based on the experience of reading this novel, it's not that scary to read something scary. With no real people, shaky cameras, gore, Sound effects .. it's just .. not as effective.
The 6 is there because the story edge on mystery rather than horror, some of the many episodes had that mysterious, enigmatic atmosphere that made the reading quite enjoyable. Other than that, it's really borderline mediocre (unless one day I'll get a key to a room and find out later that it's for room 207 ..).
That being said, I'll really want to read a real (sorry AKT :p) Horror novel .. because a part of me believe that reading a good Horror novel -if such thing exist- would be more of a psychological endeavor, thus more scary than a movie .. and I don't even like Horror movies.
12. Les Fleurs du Mal :
Themes: ?
Rating : 7/10
Mini-review :
Now that's another new experience. I've never read a poetry volume and I somehow landed on a very weird one. Weird. That's exactly the word that comes to mind whenever I finish reading one poem out of it.
The poems aren't straightforward and rely heavily on vague symbolism and grotesque imagery. And as Takao said, I actually don't understand it. That, of course, if there is actually anything to understand. It's symbolic so it's up to interpretation, but most of the poems in my opinions are enigmatic for the sake of being enigmatic, which doesn't really help.
I didn't read the whole thing, honestly. It's quite enjoyable at times and some poems are cool and beautifully written, but one of the main reasons I couldn't finish it was the fact that it's written in french, and some vocabulary is goddamn bizarre. So I said maybe I'll keep it for later, when I can truly enjoy it (lie).
13. Brick :
Author : Ryan Johnson
Themes: Detective Work, Mystery, Noir.
Rating : 8/10
Mini-review :
I read this quite unknown novella because I really enjoyed the movie based on it. The writer of this novella is actually a director/screenwriter so technically it's more of a script. The novella is the text counterpart of the movie (because it's the script for it,duh) and if I didn't know of the ending beforehand, I would have enjoyed it better (and rating it higher). The Noir undertones are just so cool, I add that to the list of things I want to read more on.
Not-really-spoiler alert : The language is kind of weird. The movie is Noir/Drug trade themed so many of the terms are proper to those themes and you'll need to look them up (or just guess their general meaning as you go like I did :p).
14. Gilead :
Author : Marilynne Robinson
Themes: Religion, Faith, Novelty, Traditions, Society, Family, Philosophy, Existence, Love, Morality .. Pretty much everything.
Rating : 10/10
Mini-review :
Another entry to the word "Magnificent" in the dictionary should be "the novel Gilead", and I'm not even kidding.
This is one of the novels that I will certainly reread (and fully review) later on, because well, you don't stumble upon gems everyday.
Long story short, it's a unique reading experience. To live through the day and the mind of an old man who wants to transmit as much wisdom (and soul) to his child is heartwarming is every single way possible. The writing style is superb, the imagery range from impressive to soothing, the sensation of racing the emotions and thoughts -at a really slow rate sometimes- in the head of John Ames is just a privilege. I really think that secretly Marilynne is really John Ames, although she's neither a pastor, nor a man. This can't be a fictional autobiography, it's too good to be imaginary.
READ IT !
15. مذكرات الأرقش :
Author : ميخائيل نعيمة
Themes: Philosophy, Meditation, Humanity, Love.
Rating : 9/10
Mini-review :
The name of the author only gives me a good feeling. It's been years now since we've last read any good Arabic text in school, those being already really rare, and I suspect, deliberately left out. One of the few exceptions, however, was Mr. Nouaima. I used to read those few good texts many times when we had a boring text to study, and so I kept wishing that one day I'll read one their real books, entire and unmodified (because some of the texts we studies at secondary school were altered -as I discovered later- to make them easier to understand, yeah right).
Now, I have the honor to read this little curious book, and as the title clearly states, the book is some diaries, but not any diaries.
I can't go on explaining why this book is awesome (because then I'll do a full review, which I might do alter) but it really is, philosophically and stylistically speaking. A journey worth taking.
16. حي بن يقظان :
Author : ابن طفيل
Themes: Philosophy, Existence, Religion, Transcendence, Meditation.
Rating : 9/10
Mini-review :
To the other end of the Philosophy books, here comes this book. It's the first book I've read written in the Middle Age (the Golden Age of the Arabia). And as I expected the language itself is different, but it's something you get used too once you read the first dozen pages.
This philosophical novel is about finding God, justifying both the need and the will to find Him, and argues for Religion. All in that exemplary mid-aged mid-eastern style. The book needs both a little knowledge about the subject and a good amount of concentration to be truly enjoyed.
Some really unexpected pieces of information are presented as the story progresses, who knew the philosophers/scientists (because they were all philosophers/scientists back then) knew that much back then!
17. قصاصات قابلة للحرق :
Author : احمد خالد توفيق
Themes: -
Rating : 5/10
Mini-review :
This is actually cheating, both for my project and from the author. This is not a real book. This is a collection of quotations from other books by the same author (two or three by other authors who the author admires), and maybe just quotations made up by him to fill this book in. Either ways, this work is not really a book.
That point made clear, I thought I'd enjoy it more because it's quite humorous, but sadly the author falls in hole he digs for himself. When there is not enough material to make up a book (which was very short, nonetheless), just don't write it.
I don't mean that it was complete crap (it's 5, a mediocre read at best) but it could have been done better, maybe if there was something other than a man quoting himself. He's funny at times, I confess, bu this should never be a reason to write a book, ever ! Sharing quotes is for Facebook pages .. Oh wait.
18. 13 reasons why
Author : Jay Asher
Themes: Love, revenge, suicide, morality ..
Rating : 7/10
Mini-review :
That's "boo!" for an very exciting idea done bad. I must say that when I first heard about the concept, I immediately liked it. A "treasure hunt" for truth, huh ? Well, the premise is so good that any less-than-perfect implementation would fall short, and this book here is far from prefect, thus it's really a disappointment.
The story starts off strong and thrilling, promising. Everything seems more intensive as the protagonist is still in the shadow. Just as the truth starts to unfold, the story weaken, the characters become stupid, and the whole thing fall apart. The author tries to do things he can't really do (create dept and make the characters relatable, for example), and it just create holes in the fabric of the story that even a good ending wouldn't fix, and guess what, the ending is predictable in a bad way.
It's such a sad thing to know that it could have been done much better, given a better pen and a better imagination.
7 for the concept, meh for everything else.
19. Banging your Head against a Brick Wall :
Author : Banksy
Themes: Art.
Rating : 9.25/10
Mini-review :
Here's a 9.25 for a 54 pages book. And add to my cheat-list the fact that it's not actually a book. It's kind of a book-exhibition-gallery-backstreet-mind-projection-album-collection kind of thing. And it's beautiful.
Speaking of artsy (?), this little stroke of genius here is just what art deserves. Quite simply, this books breaths originality. Don't be fooled by the simple cover, because I do believe Bansky is a genius of his kind.
If using idioms as titles isn't impressive enough, the title that refers both properly and figuratively to the content of the book is (banging your head against a brick wall means trying something in vain. You'll get that feeling once you're into the book). It's both a gallery of his street art (stencil art and graffiti), and a collection of political views, quotations, wordplays, innuendos, double-meanings and visual plays all painted with irony, anarch-ish-ism, and double-meanings, all in a cool way (take note, Mr AKT).
You shall also expect a light feeling of adrenaline while reading (and picturing yourself doing some good old anarchic business) and lot of Walls puns.
(By the way, the paperback book is 145$ in case you wanted to buy me a birthday present.)
20. حديث القمر :
Author : مصطفى صادق الرافعي
Themes: Spirituality, Nature, Meditation, Love.
Rating : 8.5/10
Mini-review :
For the last book of the second batch, I wanted to read something I wanted to read for a long time, something written by MSR and here I am, not disappointed.
I've read some texts off his collection "وحي القلم" and I really enjoyed them. I also believe he has the greatest style among Arabic writers (I didn't read much of that, but I don't think he can't be topped).
Anyways, this book is not his most famous book nor his finest (according to people who read all of his works) and I still find it impressively well-written, if nothing else.
The themes are quite vague because the book is not actually a story (as I expected, I started expected every book to be a novel) but rather the stream of thoughts of a man who can see in the Moon every thing that is beautiful, things that we ordinary people don't see. It's a bundle of messages and meditations that are perfectly written, and heavily adorned with beautiful imagery and figures of speech.
The author set the bar so high that almost any other arabic writing will sound badly unimpressive.
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