Yes, I read novels too. It had been quite a while since I’ve been reading frequently. The last books I had read were Dan Brown’s and the Harry "Potters".
Anyway, it felt like a had a little more free time at night and I started reading again and I feel like sharing so, here’s a small collection of thoughts.
(You can also notice that I ended up using my own country’s published covers. Mainly because)
First book I bought this year was Haruki Murakam’s After Dark. Anime and manga actually had a say in this, I mean, I see Japanese series, movies, graphic novels, I love them, why not Japanese written novels? To say the truth, it wasn’t something much out of the ordinary for someone new to "Japanese books", (if you could ever make that a genre). The book is really nice, much about life, short encounters, night in Tokyo, the underground, people looking for themselves, trying to fill their existential emptiness. I really liked it, it’s not the kind of book I go for. If it was an anime or manga, I would probably describe it as seinen/slice-of-life, and it feels quite real. Anyway, really nice read, and original in it’s setting, Tokyo Japanese lifestyle provide a fresh setting for someone too used to American novels.
I’ll definitely read his works again but, not sure when, the themes seem pretty random. For now, nothing that catches my interest much.
Some stuff from the internets:
- "His After Dark is a potent and disturbing work, one that is all the more effective for the familiar aspects it presents. He reminds us that the essence of horror in the post-modern narrative is not some Gothic extravagance, but the realities that await us outside our doorstep." by Ted Gioia
Then, I bought Jeff Abbott’s Collision. His book covers tend to catch your eye and the reviews were nice. You get what it promises, it’s a fast pace thriller heavily based on agents, agencies, missions, terrorism. Much like 007 or the Bourne series. Still, this one’s main character feels real and human. It’s nothing that will stay with you long but, the book is really good as far as this kind of fiction goes. For example, I really liked the "side story" in Indonesia. What happens to an agent abandoned in one of the worst places possible? It’s also pretty brutal, it doesn’t really spare characters.
Nice read, I’ll surely come back to this author once I feel like reading this sort of thing again. Not sure of his other books’ themes but, it seems this is one of his worst so.. lol I’m expecting even better
Third book, something that really caught my attention completely. Really, never happened the same with another book. First, I’m talking about Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo a.k.a. The Men Who Ate Women. It first started when I was in cinema and suddenly saw a strange poster with a cool/emo girl with the titles "Millennium" and "The Men Who Ate Woman" (which is the original title, translated accurately, also the one used here in Portugal), this was really unique and the kind of thing that gets me really curious. I found it strange that I didn’t know anything about that movie. Anyway, I went home and forgot. Later, at a book store, a book strangely gets my attention. The cover art itself was nothing more than the rest but, the book cover was filled with fake newspaper headlines, notes and plot facts. It really gets you curious, add that to the already strange title, and I was sold lol. Anyway, reading the synopsis, Lisbeth Salander really reminds me of an anime hacker in a neo-punk world, like Ghost In The Shell. The story seems interesting, the book has rave reviews, the author died before any work was published, it’s part of a trilogy..
On to the book itself, it’s basically a crime thriller but, completely original. It’s not just the best I’ve read yet, it’s also completely different from everything else, mainly do to it’s main character. About the characters, most of them are also given quite a great deal of depth, much more than you would normally see. Some might take this as boring but, I really enjoyed this and the characters made a lot more sense, instead of being just devices to move the plot. Because of all the depth, the book ends up having a lot of side plots, not really needed to support the main one but, really good on their own which makes the book so good and different. By the way, some of the stuff I read, related to the sadism and sexual content, surprised me a lot because it was something I would be expecting to see in a twisted seinen manga and not really anywhere else.
Some stuff from the internets:
- "The novel offers a thoroughly ugly view of human nature, especially when it comes to the way Swedish men treat Swedish women. In Larsson’s world, sadism, murder and suicide are commonplace — as is lots of casual sex." by Alex Berenson
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You can also notice that I ended up using my own country’s published covers. Mainly because After Dark’s just looks gorgeous and the other two are mentioned.
So, until next time, there’s some fabulous books out there. What’s awesome about this is that, contrary to anime, music, live action movies, etc, (nearly) every book out there is really good. If you chose one that goes along with your genre tastes, it’s hard to go wrong. Although that’s just my personal experience.
The way it interacts with the characters is really awesome and well accomplished. It really feels like nature at it’s peak. I don’t ever remember a movie doing something so unique like this. 
It’s also completely astonishing to look at in 3D, it literally took my breath away. I think I could be entertained for hours just watching Na’vi’s normal lifestyle lol and I wouldn’t mind becoming on myself and live there.
I know some people didn’t like the new twist on Sherlock Holmes but, I think this is just the right example of how to push a "franchise" forward, re-invent and modernize it and still stay true to it’s origins.
