Season's Greetings!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I got two new books to read: "Wicked" by Gregory McGuire and "Odd and the Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman. Hope you have a fresh stack of "to-be-read" books too!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows screen caps

Two images from the upcoming "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" has been released over at Yahoo! UK.

My guess is that both scenes are from the part where the trio escapes the Death Eaters during Bill and Fleur's wedding, then flee to Grimmuald Place.

I'm obviously a big fan of the series. I can't wait for this!

Updated book list

Hi folks. I have a stack of books that I had finished reading the past few weeks. I haven't had time to write about them yet, mostly because writing about a book I've read aside from the "It was good" or "It was bad" is something that I rarely do.

Anyway, here's a list of the books I've finished. Hopefully I could post at least once a week about these.

By Diana Wynne Jones
The Merlin Conspiracy
Conrad's Fate
The House of Many Ways

By Rick Riordan
Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters
Percy Jackson and the Titan's Curse
Percy Jackson and the Battle of the Labyrinth
Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian

By Dan Brown
The Lost Symbol

My thoughts: After Dark by Haruki Murakami

Though a popular writer, this is the first time I have read Murakami's work. When it comes to Japanese literature, my education is limited to manga adaptations. I am often of the impression that many such writing is lost in translation, especially given the nuances of each language.

Reading "After Dark" was, for me, similar to reading a manga that's a bit dark and melodramatic (a story from George Asakura's "A Perfect Day for Love Letters" comes to mind), or watching an anime like "Perfect Blue."

The story occurs at times between night and dawn, from sometime before midnight to just before 5 am. In between those times, so many things happen, intertwining the lives of the various characters of the story. Due to the "real time" treatment of the story (think of something like 24), where the events happen in a specific time, the reader becomes a part of the story, even if just as an observer.

Though I am far from impressed, I am intrigued. "After Dark" may not be a favorite of mine, but it's enough for me to want to pick up Murakami's other works.