Books For A Better Life

LOL. I sound like some herbal TV commercials with the title. Anyway, I would like to share that I’m starting to read, er, no, technically finishing reading books from cover to cover recently. Hooray! This is just one big achievement granted that I used to never find pleasure in reading books (educational, novels and the like) unless it contains a lot of pictures or it is a requirement to get a good grade (in short, forced to read). Just this May 2008, I finished reading 3 books and I feel extremely proud and happy for myself for this.

ZORBA THE GREEK by Nikos Kazantzakis. This is the first book that I intentionally forced myself to read not because it is a requirement or anything but because I want to finish reading a book while I am still a living creature. It was one summer in my high school that the idea came. So I found the book on the shelf looking untouched for how many years then finished reading it. Aside from feeling fulfilled after reading the almost 2 inched thick book with a font of the so old generation, I felt so overwhelmed. Finally, I have finished reading a book that I personally want to read. Honestly, I don’t remember much of the details in the story maybe because I continue reading without understanding. That was how it was; after all, my goal was just to finish reading the book.haha!



CONCISE 48 LAWS OF POWER by Robert Greene. This is my favorite book in high school. Why? That is because of three things: a lot of interesting stories (most are from historical figures), the content really is so powerful and lastly, IT IS SO SHORT!



THE RULE OF FOUR by Ian Caldwell, Dustin Thomason. The most recent book I’ve read. I SO LOVE THE BOOK. The solutions of the mysteries contained in the book seem so real, though the truth is still debated by scholars on the book’s mystery (I mean the book in this book). I love the plot and the smart (maybe the adjective should be ‘symbolic’) conversations of the characters.



THE 33 STRATEGIES OF WAR by Robert Greene. I’m still reading the book. I have difficulty finding time reading the book (chaar..! feeling busy. Haha!) But almost everyday I bring the book with me so that when I’m bored, I’ll just read it. However, reading the book in very public and noisy places doesn’t work for me that much. I understand it but can’t really absorb it.


So here’s the link of the shelf of the books that I have read and still reading.
http://www.shelfari.com/haifabaluyos

Linking the child you once were

Do you believe how powerful music can be as it penetrates to the innermost cells of your brain? I do. Surely, many instances of you having your melancholic state being intensified by a particular genre of music or adding up the wild atmosphere in a party with the loud music on air have taken place. In the same way, total change of mood by the music can happen.

At one moment, when you have nothing in particular to work on, you lie in your bed then suddenly feel the urge to listen to music, then everything in your atmosphere as well as the way your innermost feeling changes.

Unintentionally, you bump at one of your favorite Disney animated film soundtrack. As you listen to the wonderful beat of the music, you all of the sudden feel like going back in time. You are so moved that you already felt like dancing in the air, feet moving from left to right, shoulders go up and down, hands waving from one side to the other, head moving with the melody, singing the lyrics with a facial expression mimicking of that of the character who was actually singing in the scenes that are still so flawlessly crystal clear as you recall for back in time, you have been watching the same film day by day as if there were no end to it. You feel the moment as if you were really part of the scene and you are wearing a big smile on your face. Reminiscing the time when you have nothing to think about but savor each moment as how important the scene to the story is as it was to you, you begin to feel like the child back there.

Then abruptly, the jolly music ended. You can only pause, feel amazed and think that for a moment you feel ecstatic of being the child you once were. You smile, take a hold of your music player and replay the same song that caused you to be unreasonably happy.