| | - Neither One Of UsI was going to weigh in on the alleged attempted coup in the Philippines, but I really am not feeling it. Suffice to say I am deeply saddened that my home country, in the grand cyclical tradition of many former colonies, keeps electing power-hungry, avaricious individuals who impede civil liberties. The people then proceed to get angry, attempt to vote out or overthrow those in power, and then proceed to elect more power-hungry, avaricious individuals who impede civil liberties, and then wonder how it happened.
At any rate, in lieu of my deliberately cursory and simplistic analysis of Philippine politics, I am instead going to use the remainder of my break to talk about all the recreational reading I've done. As many of you know, law students don't have much time for recreational reading. (Props to all my law student friends who actually found time last semester to read George R.R. Martin's latest.) Actually, I think that I could make time for reading during law school, but I have this fear, not that I'd never actually finish the book, but that I'd rather be reading for fun than reading case law. In fact, I'm sure of it. Therefore, the only time I can do this is during break.
If you'll look to the right of my blog, you'll see that I've made three additions to my "recently read" list. As you can see, I finally got around to reading Watchmen. I thought it was rich, lush, complex, and thought-provoking. Usually, a book needs a few days to sink in for me, so maybe in a week I'll be raving about it and swearing up and down that reading it was a religious, life-changing experience. For now, however, I'll say it was very well-done. The morally ambiguous ending (indeed, the moral ambiguity of the entire novel) was jarring, as was my incertitude as to what, if anything, the work was attempting to endorse, but what is art's purpose if not to challenge assumptions? And does anyone besides me who's read it think that Willem Dafoe would make an awesome Rorschach?
I read Ha Jin's critically acclaimed novel, Waiting, as well. It was the best book I've read in a while. Jin's prose is very sparse and straightforward, yet strangely poetic. Additionally, despite the simplicity of the plot and language, Jin manages to pose many questions about morality and human nature in general.
And then there was Freakonomics. Truth be told, I was not dazzled by it, despite Malcolm Gladwell's assurance on the book jacket that I would be. It's an easy read, though, and certainly a lot of what Steven Levitt says is plausible. Yet something about it never quite came together for me; never quite convinced me. I don't really know thing one about economics, and have only dabbled in social science, however, so what do I know.
While at the bookstore, I realized that I was pretty close to accomplishing my goal of reading everything Gabriel García Márquez has ever written. However, I don't currently feel motivated to actually meet this goal. I feel that the bulk, if not the entirety, of García Márquez's oeuvre is incredibly well-written, but at the same time, how many times can someone write another Love In The Time of Cholera or One Hundred Years of Solitude?
By the way, if any of you want to recommend anything for me to read, by all means, please do.
As far as non-literary pursuits, I also got Season 1 of Arrested Development. Jorge and I still had $50 on the gift card we got for Christmas, and we needed to go to Sears to get a rice cooker anyway. So we picked out the DVDs as well. Best damn $34.50 I ever spent.
Next up: Oscar predictions.
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| | Posted 3/2/2006 2:28 PM - 34 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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