They Who Captured My Attention 4

As I already said before (pretending that whoever you are is a constant reader of my blog ;p ) I want to write about my favorite characters from books. This is my 4th They who Captured My attention’s post, it’s about fictional characters.

I admit that I am a book worm, I have been a book worm since I was still in junior high school. Books are really amazing, they took me away from this world and created a new world. I really like observing characters (both in books and movies) and sometimes I found great characters that remain in my mind for a long time. These characters overshadowed the other characters in the book…when I found such amazing characters, I felt really excited and enjoy the book more than before.

• Jupiter Jones (Three Detectives – Alfred Hitchcock)

Jupiter is my 1st favorite character. He is a chubby boy who has excellent ability in figuring out mysteries. He is sometimes a bit snobby. He might not be the kind of boy that going to captured girls’ attention, but he has captured my attention. His way of solving each mystery was amazing. His bossy attitude is also interesting to read. I have to admit that I read almost all series of three Detectives because I want to read about Jupiter. Writing this makes me want to re-read Three Detectives again

• Richard Levine (The Lost word – Michael Crichton)

A genius snobby rich scientist! That is how I describe Richard Levine. His annoying selfish act is so interesting to read. His determination in pushing people to fulfill his scientist dream is such a pain in the butt…but that is what makes him interesting to read. He makes other characters less important. I have re-read this book more than 5 times (and about to re-read it again this year) and every time I read it I fell in love all over again with Levine’s character. It’s a shame that Spielberg erased his character in his version of The lost World.

They Who Captured My attention 3

This is the last series of They who captured my attention, I have written about they who captured my attention in music industry and movie industry…this is the last, they who captured my attention in book industry …in other word, they are authors that I like the most.

I like reading since I was still in junior high school (that’ll be about 19years ago). At that time, my favorite series was The Three Investigators by Alfred Hitchcock (introduced by him NOT written by him). I read almost all the series and enjoyed it a lot. I also read many Manga. It went through my senior high school era.

My Number 1 Authors

When I was in college, I saw a movie called Thinner and Tales From The Creep by Stephen King…and I fell in love with Stephen King at first sight. At that time I was thinking ‘wow…this movie is based on a book! I have to read it!!’ Not long after that, I found Rose Madder and Insomnia, and I am completely becoming his fans. It was very hard to find his books in my country and I was still in college…so money became the biggest issue in finding his other works.

When I finally have a job, I bought Green Mile and Bag of Bones…Green Mile becomes one of my all time favorite SK’s books (I am planning to re-read it someday). And then I got busy and many kinds of books came rushing through my eyes. A few years ago, I came stumbling upon Salem’s Lot…and wham!! I remembered about my love for Stephen King and somehow become obsessed and addicted with his works. Why do I say that I am addicted to his works?? Because for the last couple of years I couldn’t read more than 4 books without Stephen King in it. Book A, B, C, and D may written by various kinds of author…but book E has to be from SK. I tried reading book E by other author and somehow I couldn’t concentrate on that book…so I had to go to a book store to find any SK book.

Creepy isn’t it?? But I don’t mind being creepy when it comes to one of the greatest authors of 20th century, Mr. Stephen King.

SK’s novels are not merely about thriller and suspense or blood and gruesome death…he also wrote amazing stories that touch the heart of non-horror lover.

My other most favorite author who can also be mentioned as my most favorite Mangaka is Eiichiro Oda. So far, I have only read 1 Manga from this crazy man…it is Onepiece. Onepiece is the best Manga ever exist in this earth!! (at least for me). What is Onepiece?? I made my own dedication for Onepiece in here. The longer the series the more amazing the story becomes…It hasn’t bored me although it has reach volume 52 now.

Haruki Murakami is my last most favorite author. His works are somewhat bizarre and unusual but somehow I can’t stop reading his novels. His works is so not my kind of story (I love mystery, suspense, horror…you got the picture, right?)…but I enjoyed his works a lot!! I keep coming back to JF-Library and keep borrowing his novels. He likes to keep his book hanging unconcluded so I can imagine the ending by myself. My 1st Murakami was Kafka on The Shore.

Those three authors have captured all my ‘reading’ attention…I love their works so much!!

My number 2 Authors

But….I do not read books only by those 3 authors

My second degree favorite authors are Michael Crichton, John Grisham and Andrea Hirata. Michael Crichton’s Last World is my 1st English novel, it took forever for me to finish it….I keep re-reading it every year till I have enough money to buy more and more un-translated novels. Crichton has amazing books that required a lot of research before writing it down. I haven’t read any Science Fiction novel that isn’t written by Crichton.

I used to read a lot of John Grisham when I was in college because I can borrow it from a friend of mine. But after college, I haven’t read any more novels by him….but I can still pronounce him as the best ‘court’ author. My most favorite book by Grisham is The Chamber.

Andrea Hirata is the only Indonesian author that can capture my attention. Most of Indonesian authors write romance and comedy with many gue n lo…those kind of books are the books that will be left dusty in the corner of a room. Andrea wrote an amazing tetralogy about his life. It wasn’t 100% true autobiography…he exaggerates a bit (or maybe a lot) but I enjoy the way he writes the story. I could have easily put her amongst my most favorite authors…but I can’t because I need to read more from him to prove his ability in writing other stories.

Like I said before, I do not read books only by those authors mentioned above!!

I read many kinds of books from many kinds of authors…the authors haven’t become my favorite because I haven’t read more books by them…but I would love to read more

I would love to read more books from these authors: Koji Suzuki (the author of The Ring), Natsuo Kirino (the author of OUT), Jodi Picoult (the author of My Sister’s Keeper), Miyuki Miyabe (the author of Crossfire), and many more.

There are also books that I love so much but I am not so curious about the author’s other books; The Lord of The Rings and The Hobbits by JRR Tolkien; Harry Potter (but I hate the ending) by JK Rowling, Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, Death Note by Ooba Tsugumi, and many more.

Right now…I am trying to read books by John Saul and Dean Koontz because someone from BTT told me that their works are like Stephen King’s. I hope I won’t be disappointed like when I was trying to read a book by Peter Straub.

Here is the list of books I’ve read recently >> Book Reviews

They Who Captured My Attention 2

I have already written about they who captured my attention in music industry, now it’s time to write about ‘They Who Captured my Attention in Movie Industry’. But I will not make this one into groups of likeness like what I did the music industry.

I like a lot of movies that do not depend on the actor and actress BUT I also watch a lot of movie simply because of the actor or actress.

Here are my favorite actors/actresses

Westerners

Keanu Reeves. He is not an actor that has awesome acting skill…I have to admit this one. But he surely is the most handsomest of all actors I have ever seen in my entire life!! I have fallen in love with this down to earth actor since I saw him in SPEED. After that movie, I always try to watch every movie he played, especially when he was the leading Role. Some of the movies are awesome (like Matrix that have become my all time favorite movie), some are okay, and some are not worth to watch (I simply watch it because Keanu was in it, and when I watch it for the second time…I usually fast-forwarded the movie so that I will only see Keanu not the movie).

Sandra Bullock. Just like Keanu, I fell in love with this girl since SPEED…but I think sandy has better acting ability than Keanu. She usually plays romantic comedy, but once in a while she also played serious role like Crash and Premonition. I always try to watch every movie she played. I’m so glad to see her and Keanu back together in Lake House. In my eyes, sandy is so beautiful and nice to look at.

Tom Hanks…I like Keanu and Sandra because of their physic…But it’s different for Tom Hanks, his acting is the one that makes me always want to see his movie. He can play really good in many kind of movie. He had played in action, drama, comedy and even a drama which I called as one man show. I love almost all of his movies. His acting surely is taking my breath away. Too bad, as he got older, Oscar almost never touched him again

Cillian Murphy

I 1st notice him in Batman Begins, he stole all my attention away from Christian Bale. And then I saw him in 28Days Later and I fell in love with his cuteness, but what made me become a fan is after seeing him in The Wind That Shakes Barley. He is not the kind of actor who only uses his cute face, his talent in acting is genius!! He isn’t as well-known as most Hollywood actors because he likes to play both big budget movie and Independent movie. I’ve seen most of his movies and he is always a different person. Critics call him as chameleon.

Japanese:

Mirai Moriyama. I had written about him in my previous post. He isn’t the most handsome of all Japanese actors…hell I don’t think other people will find him as handsome but me..hehe. I like him since I saw him in a drama called waterboy…his face is so comical, and I think his acting is really good…too bad he isn’t as famous as other actors who are better looking than him. I’ve watched all the drama and movie he played as far as my hand can get it…there are still some movies and dramas I still unable to get.

Nakama Yukie. The gorgeous Nakama Yukie had made me her biggest fans when I watched Ring 0, where she played as Sadako. She usually played in drama comedy. She doesn’t seem to mind to make a fool out of herself . And like Mirai, I always want to get my hand on every dorama and movie she played. She played as the amazing teacher, Yankumi, n Gokusen.

These 5 people are my obsession. There are still other actors and actress that I like such as Christian bale, Cillian Murphy, Johny deep, Will Smith, Nicole Kidman, etc (mostly men)…but I do not chase every movies they played…sometimes it also depend on whether the movie has good story or not.

I have written some reviews on their movies…not much tho coz I don’t enjoy writing about movies as much as writing about books…But I decided to write as many movies by these 5 people as much as I can from now on

Their Movies/dorama in my blog

1. Keanu Reeves

2. Tom Hanks

3. Cillian Murphy

3. Mirai Moriyama

4. Sandra Bullock

5. Nakama Yukie’s Dorama Reviews

They Who Captured My Attention

I once wrote about Kasta in Music…it was about giving level of likeness to music based on our like and dislike. But, at that time I was just doing short answers and asked some of my friends to do the same and put their answers on my blog.

Somehow…it didn’t feel enough…so I decided to re-write my band/singer classification. I’m going to use group 1 to group 4 from the ones I like the most to the one I never listen to.

Group 1

Group 1 is the musician I always hear everyday…not hearing any of them for just one day makes me feel like something is missing. And no matter how many times I have heard them, it never made me bored. The more I listen to them the awe it gives me. Right now I have 2 bands in this category. 1st is L’Arc~en~Ciel, I’ve fallen in love with this band since 2000 and everything they do has made me love them more and more. Their skill is getting better and their songs are getting deeper. They’ve been around for more than 15years…and hopefully it’ll last another 15years . 2nd is Muse, I’ve fallen in love with this band since 2006 and become deeply in love with them after seeing them live in Jakarta. The only word that can describe them is GENIUS!! This band combines music from many era, they are totally different with most bands that showed up in the early 2000…they are in the different league with the others. Totally awesome and it keeps getting better. For these 2 bands, I always tried to get my hand on their original CD or DVD…buying pirate things or simply downloaded their works is not enough for me. For them, I spend my money gladly.

Group 2

This group consists of bands that I like the most. I collect a lot of their works. I like them so much, but not as much as Laruku and Muse. They are: Guns n Roses, they used to be my number 1 band but after separation and no new music available for years, it was easy for me to fall for another band…but although they are not my number one band anymore, I still love listening to their music (I wrote this article while listening to them ). They are so talented, the best vocalist and guitarist at their time. I wish they could last forever but 2 geniuses in the same band proven not to last forever. The Beatles, I can’t remember how long has it been since the 1st time I heard them. My dad used to play their songs and somehow it stuck in my head and shapes my feeling toward music…because of them, rock becomes my favorite music genre. Queen, well…I think I don’t have to write anything about Queen coz everyone knows how great they are!! Just like The Beatles, their songs are timeless. They made incredible music like no other, they have become an inspiration for many musician, including Muse. Led Zeppelin, the grandfather of Metal. Their music sounds old but captivating. It’s kinda hard to find other fans of Led Zeppelin. I honestly said that those people are missing a great music. Green day, this is the only band that still exists up till today. The way I see it, they are becoming more and more famous than before…that’s really a good thing to know. They’ve been together for more than 18years and they keep getting stronger. Some people said that they aren’t pure punk anymore…I don’t care!! For me, their music is always good to hear. The last two of this group is not a rock band, they are pop singers. Out of so many pop singers, only 3 pop singers that can capture my attention, two belong in this group and the other one in the next group. Celine Dion is a true diva, a woman with incredible powerful voice and yet so down to earth. Her songs are strong, nice and timeless. She is the only female singer that I like whose singing pure pop. Her voice captured my heart since a long time ago. She can be described as amazing voice. Shakira, her strength lies in her music. She wrote most of her songs and all of those songs are a great combination of pop, rock and Latin. She mixes the sounds of Latin and Middle East. She is the most creative female singer I’ve ever heard.

Group 3

This group consists of those I really like, I don’t listen to them daily and I don’t have complete collection of their works…but I often listen to them, they give extra color in my heart. Most of British bands are in this group, such as Sting and The Police, Rolling Stone, Radio Head, Suede, Blur, Cold Play, Keane, Mika, U2, Cranberries and many more. Most of American Bands that exist in 80’s and 90’s are also in this group, such as Metallica, Mr.Big, Skidrow, Aerosmith, The offspring, Halloween, R.E.M, RHCP, Nirvana and many more. This is the era where American bands could stand up alongside British bands…after that American Bands sort of drift away and sink under British Bands. The only nowadays American Band that I like is The Killer, and as we all know they sound like British rather than American. The King of pop is also in this group. Some Japanese bands also in this group, such as La Cryma Christi, Luna Sea, Monoral, X-Japan and many more. Two Indonesian bands made it into this group, they are J-Rocks and The S.I.G.I.T.

Group 4

This group doesn’t consist of certain bands…it only consist of songs that I like so much without caring for the singer or the band. A lot of one hit wonder kinda songs made it into this group.

This group below is an exception.

Group 5

This group belongs to those who can’t catch my attention…not the slightest bit. They are nowadays American Bands…all of them sound the same to me. They have no characteristic that’ll make them stand up above the other bands. Every time I heard something from a new American band I always end up saying “eh? What’s the different between this group with the others?” I tried to like them by paying attention to Secondhand Serenade @java Rockin’land and ended up bored to death, at the same I was amazed by a band from India I had never heard before. In my opinion, American needs to change their stereotype in music!!

Well…that’s all about music that captured my attention (and an extra of those who doesn’t capture my attention). I know that everyone has different taste of music, so I hope this does not provoke anyone coz…hey man, this is my taste not yours!!