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Phy
Former makeup enthusiast and bookworm. Currently adopting a minimalist lifestyle. Contact me at phylliciarobert@gmail.com for inquiries.
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Thursday, December 01, 2011

Venturing Into New Genres

Hi there..
I had always been an avid reader since I was young. I mean, you can leave me anywhere as long as I have a good book. If I could live in Kinokuniya Bookstore, I would. My dream house would have a huge library in it. You get the picture.

I haven't been reading much lately because I used to read historical romances when I was growing up until my early twenties. Now, I feel that the cheesiness is unbearable. Although I also love other genres like mysteries, "chick lits" and a sprinkle of fantasy, I still felt a bit lost trying to figure out what new genre of books might appeal to me.

I was able to pick up a couple of books recently and they are definitely not the type that I would usually read. The first two books are from the House of Night series which is about teenage vampyres and the third book is Pillars of The Earth. Pillars of The Earth tells the story of the building of a magnificent cathedral during the turbulent times of twelfth-century England.

After Twilight came out a lot of TV shows and book series based on teenage vampyrism (is that even a word?). Now I'm sorry Twilight fans but I have never really liked Twilight, both the movie and the book. I feel that the movie is over-rated and the only reason why it was such a huge success was because Robert P looked good playing as Edward Cullen. The book was dark, hungry and depressing so much so that I didn't even bother to complete it. Because of all this, I never really took notice of any of the TV shows and books series of this genre.

I've seen the House of Night series (comprising of between 9 to 11 book I think) a few times when I went to bookstores but I never flipped through it. Then on one fine day I took the first book off the shelves and read a bit, only to find myself pleasantly surprised. Although it's not as fabulously awesome as Harry Potter (I'm a Harry Potter fan, can you tell? Hihihi...) but it's nowhere near as bad (in my opinion) as the Twilight series. It was interesting enough so I bought the first two books, Marked and Betrayed.

The Pillars of The Earth made it on Oprah's Book Club selection. Just as with the House of Night Series, I've seen it a few times in bookstores but never bothered to flip through it but not because I thought that it wouldn't be good but because I get intimidated when it comes to books that rely heavily on the history of England. Silly right?

In my defense England's history has never been a good one. Injustice, poverty, women being raped and treated like chattel, cruelty and incest among other things ran rampant during those times. It's not really something that I personally think would make an enjoyable and relaxing read.

However, Pillars of The Earth has been made into a mini TV series (Every Sunday at 10PM to 11.45PM) and I find it quite interesting. I've always been the type who would prefer to read the book before watching the motion picture that it's based on. So I gathered my courage and bought it.

I've read the first 100 pages of it and I regret that I remembered the one reason why I have always preferred to read books over watching motion pictures much too late. The reason is that books relate the exact feelings and thoughts of the characters. I could really feel the pain, frustration, fear and raw need of survival. I don't see this novel as the type that I would breeze through as usual. I find myself taking breaks and feeling conflicted of whether to go on reading or not.

I have pictures of  the books I mentioned above but due to my "excellent" connection to the Internet I am unable to upload them. Sorry peeps. Anyway that's all for now. Have a great start to the month of December 2011! Cheers and wassalam.

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