Books and Goings On
As I've just finished a book in under 4 hours for the first time in a while, almost missing a lunch date with Ez because I was so intrigued (sorry I was late Ez, you know me, one moment I was in the library because wandering around Raffles Place killing time is a recipe for disaster - not that wandering around the library isn't! - and the next it's 10 minutes past the absolute latest time I'd intended to leave!) I figured it was time I updated about the books I've read recently.
Yup, this is the time y'all can wander off. Nothing interesting about the non-life of a Ngee Ann Poly student here. Except maybe the part about wandering into the Biostats lecture 7 minutes late and getting an earful of "T01! THERE YOU ARE!!" Or getting fed up with my teacher after she kept chasing us out of the classroom (we were still early, as it turned out) and when she replied to my query with, "Common sense should tell you where to put the word count - at the end of the paper!" I snapped and replied "I'm sorry, I don't have common sense!" after which I headdesked and kissed any chance of receiving a good grade in that class goodbye. (I obviously haven't had to count words in way too long. And I was completely irritated - we didn't have time to complete the paper, but we had time to count the number of words we'd written?!)
Then again, I'd like to see how she's going to grade me badly on that paper. The mark allotment is 10 for grammar/vocab/subject-verb agreement, for crying out loud, are we in pre-university education or not? 10 for structure/fluency/use of language, and 5 for content; she can possibly take away half the content marks, but I'll dearly like to see her give me less than 8 for each of the former two categories, especially with the competition I'll be up against. Though this paragraph would possibly bear out anything she would say. xD
Aaaanywaaaaay. I meant to write about the book that, illogically, completely fascinated me. It was a murder (*shock*) mystery (*HORROR*) written in a rather heavy style (*shudder*) that I really didn't like much at first glance. Well, at second. I obviously was attracted to it in the first place, right? Yeah, well...straw poll: who here doesn't yet know I have a slight obsession with swing? If so, you obviously haven't been reading my blog or been anywhere around me for the last...oh, 3 years. Or you're one of my Ngee Ann schoolmates, but none of you have this address, so. (Please tell me if it is otherwise....:D)
So. The book is Swing (*headdesk*...no, that's not part of the title) by Rupert Holmes. It caught the corner of my eye while I was wandering through the library, like so many things swing-related do. In smaller font, the subtitle reads A Mystery, and that's almost enough to make me not pick up the book at all, despite the almost magnetic attraction I have towards anything to do with swing.
It's a rather lesser known fact about me, but I'll read almost anything except mysteries and horror stories (and romances, but I'll finish one - skimming - if you can fool me into starting one, whereas I'll stop reading a horror or mystery altogether), for rather different reasons. The genres have a tendency to overlap, but that's a different (though fortunate) matter. So the fact that this book had the words "A Mystery" on the cover, and I still picked it up, is already a feat unto itself. That it involves...what, 5 murders? and I still finished it, makes it an even larger one.
Of course, what makes it all better is that it involves musical transposition codes (whee crytography! musical ciphers!), concert and instrument pitches, scores, big band music, mentions of Fletcher Henderson, Chick Webb, Count Basie et al, World War 2 (yes, they managed to incorporate my WW2 obsession as well!), St Louis Blues played on carillon bells, random storylines tying neatly together at the end, music drawn in the book, and while some parts are unbearably cliched and predictable, some parts are surprising and unexpected. And, of course, a complicated, involved, convoluted, international intrigue storyline. I think the jury is still out on whether it's too unbelievable or not.
And I think I squeed out loud, I don't remember where I was, when I read the words "Lindy Hop". *embarrassed grin* Yeah I'm insane, ignore me. The focus was definitely far more on swing music than the dancing; I think the word 'dance' was mentioned all of twice. I don't mind though. That has its own charm.
So. The book had cryptography, swing, and WW2. What's not to like? xD I can live with a little intrigue for that. It was, I felt, rather heavy-handed writing, and a bit overly descriptive, too liberal and dramatic with the adjectives (rather like my own writing, maybe? :D) I guess it was a good mystery, detective writing style, kind of page-turning, though, as it worked, as was evidenced by my picking it back up after a lunch date, a tuition session, and dinner. And of course, I read everywhere I travelled, as usual.
Apparently, you can download the score for the book from the website. But according to the book, the music sucked. Heh. xD
Yaj lent me Contact by Carl Sagan, and I've kind of finished that too - properly read it up to the last few chapters and scanned the rest. Should finish them properly and return it, though she doesn't seem to care much either way. Good book, that, too. *nodnod* Definitely a different take on the message from the stars thing - or maybe it was overwritten back then and now no one does it anymore, so I see it as different. Whichever, I found it different and I liked it. I don't know how much I liked the way it tried to tie back into her personal life at the end...but I definitely liked the way it tied into pi. 3.14159! xD
Been rereading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, since we're studying Things Like That in OChem and Cell Bio - kinda - the respective teachers try to bring in real life applications in an attempt to make classes interesting for their students, as well as relevant.
Speaking of which, try this one: It is the mid-1600s, at the height of summer. A ship in a harbour goes up in flames. There were 40 men and horses, with hay for the horses, packed in a small area on board. What happened? (OChem class on alkanes.)
*blinks* Have I read nothing new? That can't be right.
Oh, I read the first few chapters of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life, and I could have sworn I've read something else, but I can't think what right now. I keep thinking someone commented that I'd been reading the same book for a while, not Agile Gene, but whatever I'd been alternating with that, but...what?
Anyway, I'm currently only on one book, which is weird and wrong, so I think I'll start on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Morituri te salutamus.
Oh, did I mention? (Probably not, it just happened today.) I managed to get our communications group to call itself Cognomen. I am such a bad influence on these kids. Three years from now, the most corrupted batch of NP kids ever will be unleashed upon the world. Watch out, world. xD
Yup, this is the time y'all can wander off. Nothing interesting about the non-life of a Ngee Ann Poly student here. Except maybe the part about wandering into the Biostats lecture 7 minutes late and getting an earful of "T01! THERE YOU ARE!!" Or getting fed up with my teacher after she kept chasing us out of the classroom (we were still early, as it turned out) and when she replied to my query with, "Common sense should tell you where to put the word count - at the end of the paper!" I snapped and replied "I'm sorry, I don't have common sense!" after which I headdesked and kissed any chance of receiving a good grade in that class goodbye. (I obviously haven't had to count words in way too long. And I was completely irritated - we didn't have time to complete the paper, but we had time to count the number of words we'd written?!)
Then again, I'd like to see how she's going to grade me badly on that paper. The mark allotment is 10 for grammar/vocab/subject-verb agreement, for crying out loud, are we in pre-university education or not? 10 for structure/fluency/use of language, and 5 for content; she can possibly take away half the content marks, but I'll dearly like to see her give me less than 8 for each of the former two categories, especially with the competition I'll be up against. Though this paragraph would possibly bear out anything she would say. xD
Aaaanywaaaaay. I meant to write about the book that, illogically, completely fascinated me. It was a murder (*shock*) mystery (*HORROR*) written in a rather heavy style (*shudder*) that I really didn't like much at first glance. Well, at second. I obviously was attracted to it in the first place, right? Yeah, well...straw poll: who here doesn't yet know I have a slight obsession with swing? If so, you obviously haven't been reading my blog or been anywhere around me for the last...oh, 3 years. Or you're one of my Ngee Ann schoolmates, but none of you have this address, so. (Please tell me if it is otherwise....:D)
So. The book is Swing (*headdesk*...no, that's not part of the title) by Rupert Holmes. It caught the corner of my eye while I was wandering through the library, like so many things swing-related do. In smaller font, the subtitle reads A Mystery, and that's almost enough to make me not pick up the book at all, despite the almost magnetic attraction I have towards anything to do with swing.
It's a rather lesser known fact about me, but I'll read almost anything except mysteries and horror stories (and romances, but I'll finish one - skimming - if you can fool me into starting one, whereas I'll stop reading a horror or mystery altogether), for rather different reasons. The genres have a tendency to overlap, but that's a different (though fortunate) matter. So the fact that this book had the words "A Mystery" on the cover, and I still picked it up, is already a feat unto itself. That it involves...what, 5 murders? and I still finished it, makes it an even larger one.
Of course, what makes it all better is that it involves musical transposition codes (whee crytography! musical ciphers!), concert and instrument pitches, scores, big band music, mentions of Fletcher Henderson, Chick Webb, Count Basie et al, World War 2 (yes, they managed to incorporate my WW2 obsession as well!), St Louis Blues played on carillon bells, random storylines tying neatly together at the end, music drawn in the book, and while some parts are unbearably cliched and predictable, some parts are surprising and unexpected. And, of course, a complicated, involved, convoluted, international intrigue storyline. I think the jury is still out on whether it's too unbelievable or not.
And I think I squeed out loud, I don't remember where I was, when I read the words "Lindy Hop". *embarrassed grin* Yeah I'm insane, ignore me. The focus was definitely far more on swing music than the dancing; I think the word 'dance' was mentioned all of twice. I don't mind though. That has its own charm.
So. The book had cryptography, swing, and WW2. What's not to like? xD I can live with a little intrigue for that. It was, I felt, rather heavy-handed writing, and a bit overly descriptive, too liberal and dramatic with the adjectives (rather like my own writing, maybe? :D) I guess it was a good mystery, detective writing style, kind of page-turning, though, as it worked, as was evidenced by my picking it back up after a lunch date, a tuition session, and dinner. And of course, I read everywhere I travelled, as usual.
Apparently, you can download the score for the book from the website. But according to the book, the music sucked. Heh. xD
Yaj lent me Contact by Carl Sagan, and I've kind of finished that too - properly read it up to the last few chapters and scanned the rest. Should finish them properly and return it, though she doesn't seem to care much either way. Good book, that, too. *nodnod* Definitely a different take on the message from the stars thing - or maybe it was overwritten back then and now no one does it anymore, so I see it as different. Whichever, I found it different and I liked it. I don't know how much I liked the way it tried to tie back into her personal life at the end...but I definitely liked the way it tied into pi. 3.14159! xD
Been rereading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, since we're studying Things Like That in OChem and Cell Bio - kinda - the respective teachers try to bring in real life applications in an attempt to make classes interesting for their students, as well as relevant.
Speaking of which, try this one: It is the mid-1600s, at the height of summer. A ship in a harbour goes up in flames. There were 40 men and horses, with hay for the horses, packed in a small area on board. What happened? (OChem class on alkanes.)
*blinks* Have I read nothing new? That can't be right.
Oh, I read the first few chapters of Rick Warren's The Purpose Driven Life, and I could have sworn I've read something else, but I can't think what right now. I keep thinking someone commented that I'd been reading the same book for a while, not Agile Gene, but whatever I'd been alternating with that, but...what?
Anyway, I'm currently only on one book, which is weird and wrong, so I think I'll start on Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. Morituri te salutamus.
Oh, did I mention? (Probably not, it just happened today.) I managed to get our communications group to call itself Cognomen. I am such a bad influence on these kids. Three years from now, the most corrupted batch of NP kids ever will be unleashed upon the world. Watch out, world. xD