2 Book Review - The Night Bookmobile - Sat 29 Jan 2011

The Night Bookmobile by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


The Night Bookmobile is an interesting and imaginative graphic novel written and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger (of The Time Traveler's Wife fame). It follows Alexandra, a girl who comes across the night bookmobile while wandering aimlessly one night and discovers that the collection is made up of every book she has ever read. When she discovers that the bookmobile is gone the following night, she begins a kind of journey to find it again.

The Night Bookmobile is a melancholic tale, but it is this melancholy that makes it so painfully beautiful. Like Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry, there is a compelling sadness to this story and both books seem to have parallel themes of solitude and loneliness, that I feel I understand completely.

I enjoyed The Night Bookmobile much more than Her Fearful Symmetry - possibly because the plot moved at the right pace, and because I deeply understand Alexandra's love of books. Just like Alexandra, it is this love of books that lead me to become a Librarian - and just like her, I now know that the dream and the reality are often quite different. In this way, The Night Bookmobile reminds us to be careful about what we wish for - it's important to have dreams, of course, but they don't always turn out quite how you might imagine.

I would heartily recommend The Night Bookmobile to anyone - even if you don't like graphic novels - because it is a quick and easy read and is a comfortable step out of the ordinary.


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4 Eternity Not - A Haiku - Tue 25 Jan 2011

All comes to an end.

Even that rock you sit on

will erode away.

Inspired by Sunday Scribblings (#251 - Eternity).

1 CAPTCHA - Mon 24 Jan 2011

"Thou aren't so beautiful when thou first wakest"

It would seem that some other blog services (such as WordPress) use a different word verification system to Blogger. That is, they still have those crazy (sometimes barely legible) picture words, but to double the joy, they have TWO of them! Oh yes!


Since my previous post about word verification, I've been advised by the man (who always seems to know these things!) that one of the most commonly used word verification systems is CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart). This system generally uses two words, and at times if you're lucky, they can make funny phrases.


Which leads us to Captcha Comics. This hilarious website, has a plethora of user-created comics based around the CAPTCHA words people have encountered. I implore you to check it out! My favourites include Saucy Chapiter and Judicial Sequobo, and I think GozzieHoon will appreciate Lightery Karl.


Let me know your faves by commenting, and don't forget to include a link!

0 Time - A Haiku - Sat 22 Jan 2011

A new year begins,

but time is cruel and constant.

Does it ever change?

Inspired by Sunday Scribblings (#250 - Invisible). 

2 Book Review - Her Fearful Symmetry - Sat 15 Jan 2011

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger is an interesting tale about the complexities of love, grief and family relationships. Strangely, it is also a ghost story.

When Aunt Elspeth dies in London, she leaves her apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina from Chicago, with two conditions - that they live in the apartment for at least a year, and that they never let their parents Edie (Elspeth’s twin sister) and Jack inside.

Little do the twins know, their aunt Elspeth is still inhabiting the apartment also.

Complex and multi-layered, Her Fearful Symmetry isn’t your average ghost story, but more a treatise on the difficulties between siblings, lovers and parents. It follows a number of characters, all on their own distinct yet inter-twined paths and is a slow and subtle read. Fantastically, there is a lot of time spent on character development, but unfortunately very little time spent on plot development. Sigh.

Her Fearful Symmetry reminds me a little of Paul Auster’s The Brooklyn Follies in that it tells a story about everyday people in a way that is still interesting and compelling. Where it differs from the Follies however, is in its dark and macabre turn of events, as the secrets of each of the characters are slowly revealed and the choices they have made come to fruition.

I am left feeling a little confused after reading this one - I’m both saddened and horrified, and am still not sure whether I like the book or not. I guess some would say this is the mark of a truly good book - that it has left me with questions requiring further contemplation, but I guess you’ll only know for sure if you read it for yourself.

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2 Playstation Move - Sat 8 Jan 2011

So, I bought the man a Playstation Move Starter Pack for Christmas. He was impressed (of course) and promptly challenged me to a game (or 20) of Sports Champions.


We played Disc Golf and Bocce, which were both great fun, but Bocce, in particular, had me thinking about the comic strip Clarity on Penny Arcade. You know, all you really need is your own Bocce set and you're playing Bocce - you don't really need a game console ...


In any case, I have to say I am quite liking the Move, and its the girl in me that must admit, I'm liking it for its social aspect. So many games for the Playstation are single player games, that its nice to have a bit of social fun now and again.


Of course, I can't forget to mention the joy of competition that it brings! If your household is anything like mine, you'll know that gaming competition is thinly veiled by clench-teethed commendations and passive-aggressive praise; and many a game has ended with the loser sullenly claiming they have "had enough for now".


One of the funnier parts of playing the Move, is that when you are a winner, the Eye Camera takes a photo of you for posterity. I am the Disc Golf champ in our house, and am already on my way to winning the Silver Cup. Here's my Victory Pose, after winning the bronze (yes, I am wearing pyjamas):

The big purple circle near my head is the "disc" (also known as a frisbee) that the Move superimposes into your hand where the Move controller should be. Pretty cool. 


The Playstation Move is great fun, really, and I see it quickly becoming one of our favourite toys. Now if only dish washing evoked the same level of interest ...

1 Movie Review - Gamer - Thu 6 Jan 2011

Movie Review - Gamer (2009)


My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Gamer is set in a world where you can either be the player or the played - where real people are used as avatars in two real-life video games - Society and Slayers.


Society is much like the real "game" Second Life, where you control an avatar, making them go anywhere in the game and do anything you please. The difference here is that Society’s avatars are real human beings - usually people down on their luck, who have agreed to be “played” as a way of earning money.


Slayers is much darker. The avatars in Slayers are death-row inmates that have opted to become a part of the game in the hope that they may actually survive and not be put to death. If they are able to make it alive through 30 games, they are pardoned and set free. Suffice to say, it has never happened.


Enter John Tillman a.k.a Kable (played by the handsome Gerard Butler), who has made it successfully through 27 games, and is looking to be the first avatar ever to be set free. Kable has become a global celebrity, with almost everyone wanting him to make it through, except for Ken Castle, the creator of Slayers (played by TV’s Dexter, Michael C. Hall), who has other things in mind.


I love the concept of this film. It is both original and imaginative, and really makes you think about the ethics of life, death and self-control, but alas, it is poorly executed. The plot is too erratic, and to match this, the cinematography is so frenetic it could send a healthy person into seizures. All at once, it’s colourful and noisy before going dark and quiet, and so many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it images are flashed at you over and over again that it’s hard to work out what is actually happening.


Butler is handsome, but that’s about it. He’s a cardboard cutout with a heartbeat. I guess that’s to be expected given the nature of his role, which is a character being controlled by a 17 year old boy.


The movie’s saving grace is the performance of exquisitely evil Michael C. Hall, who does psychotic oh so well. He is both likeable and detestable - managing to reel you in quickly with comedy before suddenly pushing you away with his sub-human indifference. My favourite scene would have to be Hall’s choreographed rendition of “I’ve got you under my skin”. Given that it’s towards the end, it makes having watched that much of the movie seem almost worth it. 


This film could quite possibly appeal to Gen Y viewers who supposedly love the frenetic - but for me, it was just too surreal.

Here's the movie trailer on Youtube (if you work where I do, you won't be able to see the embedded video below, but you can check it out at home):

0 Time to Start Tweeting - Sat 1 Jan 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let's hope 2011 is a fabulous and exciting year for everyone!


Nothing is better at the beginning of a new year than setting yourself a few goals and challenges, and one "challenge" I have decided to get involved in is Read It 2011.


I discovered this through Swan Libraries on Twitter and think it's a great idea! Each month, a theme for reading is set, and everyone is encouraged to read a book in that vein and tweet about it on Twitter. Easy!


So why don't you join us and get reading and tweeting too!


The theme for January is "Scare up a good book". You can read more about it here. I'm not sure what book I'm going to read yet, but once I've decided, I'll be sure to mention it on Twitter.


You can follow me on Twitter by clicking the link on the top right hand side of my blog, or click this one here:

Happy reading!