Top-5 Books of 2011

Click this button to see my other top-5 list

You have seen my top-5 movies of 2011 few days ago….now, it’s time for my top-5 books I read in 2011

My reading record in 2011 was not as good as 2010, I read less books in 2011, but I promise to have a better reading year in 2012. You can see the entire book I have read in 2011 in HERE.

Without further introduction, here are my top-5 books of 2011: (I am excluding Manga)

#5 1984 by George Orwell

A book I read because of Muse. I have heard so much about this book but Muse’s song United State of Eurasia was the one that made me finally decided to read the book. The idea of this book is insane!! It’s amazing how Orwell managed to create such world into something we really believe it could happen.

Summary: 1984 is a dystopia book where people no longer had the privilege to feel. The government controlled everything. The government slogan was WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

Battle Royale – A Book I Will Read Again and Again

The first time I read this book was in 2009, which is about 2 years ago…and now I have just finished reading it for the second time. Quite fast to be reread, don’t you think? The truth is I have missed this book since last year. I wanted to read it again since last year but I have searched it everywhere in the book stores near my house and I was out of luck….all I could find is that book with similar theme, Hunger Game…a book that I vouch not to read unless everyone who had read that book also read Battle Royale. Why bother spending my time reading a book with similar theme to one of the best book I have ever read in my life!

Luck finally came last November when Nat of In Spring It Is Dawn told me that I won a $15 prize to buy any book I want. I was ecstatic when I heard that news…there’s no other book I wanted but Battle Royale…I really really really want to read it again. I felt like a lover who was told that I can finally meet my loved one. The book came on December. I was shaking out of happiness, I was literally hugging the book. I thought I can read it after I finished the book I was currently reading at that time….but the temptation was TOO high. I abandoned the book and picked Battle Royale once again. Thank you so much Nat, you’re an angel

Battle Royale is not a book with great writing style. Koushun Takami wrote in a very ordinary way, he delivered his story in a word we used daily. But the amazingness of Battle Royale does not lie on the writing style but in the powerful story that takes me to another world full of violent and distrust, but a strong friendship proves to be stronger than anything.

Musing on Book and Movie: No Movie is Greater Than The Book

Time for another Musing
Somehow, it is always related book and movie.

As far as I have seen & read them, all movies adapted from books are either worst than the book or as great as the book, none has surpassed the book.

I wanted to write this since ages ago, but nothing had triggered me to finally write it up…till yesterday when I started rereading Battle Royale. I was actually in the middle of reading The Constant Gardener by John Le Carrè … but when my prize from Hello Japan (Lots of gratitude to Nat of In spring It Is Dawn) finally arrived, I couldn’t concentrate in reading The Constant Gardener, I have wanted to reread Battle Royale since last year. So, I put down The Constant Gardener and reread one of my all time favorite novels. This paperback is different with the one I read before. This one had a foreword by Max Allan Collins. I like this quote a lot:

“Film is an exterior experience: we see the outside of the tale. But a novel takes us inside, where it can play out in the theater of our minds, without budget considerations. Watching film is a passive experience; we sit and the images flash before us. Reading a novel is active and puts the reader in the thick of the action.”

Reading that quote finally set me to write this post

I am both excessive reader and watcher; I love books and movies equally. However, when it comes to movies based on books…so far, I haven’t seen movie that is better than the novel. Even the movies that are equally as great as the novel can easily be counted…most often, they ruined the book.

I have read that some people think that The Fight Club – the movie is better than the book, I haven’t read nor watched it…so I can’t vote for it or against it. This post is purely based on what I have both read and watched. I’d like you to share your opinion later in the comment.