Top-5 Books of 2011

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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

Different Seasons – a Summary

I finally finished reading this collection of marvelous novellas

Since I received my order, I have planned that I will read this book per novellas. I want to capture 1 story after  another in separate time. I started Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption last year,and the other 3  novellas this year. i have reviewed each novellas in separate posts…but I really think a summary is needed.

Different Seasons consists of 4 novellas with a wide range of stories. This book shows the writing ability owned by one of the best writers in the world,Mr. Stephen King. You might think that I am a bit bias here for saying he is one of the best author in the world because I love his works…well, I should say the notion goes the other way around, I love his works because I think he is one of the best authors I have ever read.

I know some people think that his books are crap and not worth reading, and somehow admitting they read his books is degrading their wits…well, do I care about that kind of reactions? Certainly NOT!! They just haven’t read the best out of him yet…and I should say that Different Seasons is indeed one of his best.

Different Season – The The Breathing Breathing Method

This is the last Novella in Different Seasons by Stephen King. This novella is something I like to consider as SO STEPHEN KING! The kind of story that can come out of SK’s imaginative brain. It has elements of scary and yet feels so sweet.

Breathing Method is a story inside a story.

David Norman (I think that was his name, not so sure because he was never mentioned in his full name) was asked to come to a man club where men could tell story, read a book and drink alcohol beverages…just like any other men-club in the world. However, he started sensing something peculiar about the club. The books in the club library were impossible to be found outside the club and to make it more unusual, even the publishers of the books were not in any publisher’s list. Stevens, the club butler, didn’t look like he aged even a day. Every time he wanted to ask Stevens about the peculiar air around the club, he could always sense a threat behind Stevens’s eyes.

A couple of days before Christmas, the men would gather to hear someone’s tale, but the tales were not happy Christmas stories, they were often disturbing tales. David didn’t feel like sharing most of the story, some even made him had nightmare.  However, he shared the story of Breathing Method, a tale told by Emlyn McCarron.

Different Seasons – The Body

The Body is the third novella in Different Seasons. I have seen the movie adaptation of this book long time ago, either in junior or senior high. I didn’t know the movie was based on SK’s book because I didn’t know him yet and even if I have read some of his books…I still not going to relate the movie to him as it is not scary at all. It is about friendship., the movie adaptation is called Stand By Me. I couldn’t remember the details of the movie anymore…I will try to find it again so that I can compare it with the book.

The book feels like a semi autobiographical of Stephen King. This is the second story that I read about friendship of 4 boys. Chris, Gordie, Vern and Teddy used to hang out in a tree house. Gordon, or Gordie, is an ‘invisible’ boy. His parents acted as if he doesn’t exist because the son they loved the most (Gordie’s big brother) has passed away. Chris is the wisest of all 4 but he comes from a bad family, he is often beaten by his father. Vern is the slowest (in brain) of all four. Teddy is the craziest of all, he has bad eyes but often challenge a moving truck.

One day, Vern came running to tell them about news he overheard. He asked them whether they want to look at a dead body or not?

Teaser Tuesday – The Body

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

1. Grab your current read
2. Open to a random page
3. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
4. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
5. Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Some of you probably thinking “eh? she is still reading this book! How long does it take to finish this book?”

Well…the answer is simple…it takes longer time because I am reading it in between other books. I read one novella and then read another novel by another author and then get back to the next novella on this book and so on.

I am now reading The Body, the third novella from Different Seasons by Stephen King.

I am going to cheat because I like a lot of quotes from this book. the story is about friendship.

Page 341

I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was twelve. Jesus, did you?

Page461

I kept waiting for the trestle to start shaking under my feet. When that happened, it would be right behind us.
“GO FASTER, VERN!  FAAASTER!”
“oh gawd Gordie oh Gawd Gordie og Gawd Gordie oh Gawd AWWWWWWW SHEEEEYIT!”

Page 426

Even if I’d known the right thing to say, I probably couldn’t have said it. Speech destroys the function of love, I think – that’s a hell of a thing for a writer to say, I guess, but I believe it to be true.

 

Different Seasons – Apt Pupil

As I already said before, when I was writing about my Mountain of Books, I am going to read Different Seasons in between other books. My reason for doing this is because this novel contains 4 great novellas, 3 out of these 4 novellas had been made into movies. I have seen 2 of them and still looking forward to see the other one. I have reviewed the first novella back in 2010 and will read the next novellas soon.

A lot of people said that Apt Pupil is the worst novellas in Different Seasons, but I have to disagree with them. I might not like Apt Pupil as much as Shawshank Redemption, but I still enjoy it a lot. This novella really defines my objection on Kick-Ass (a movie), I said in my review that I like Kick-Ass less than anyone I know because of the little girl who goes on killing people but turns up to be normal. I find that VERY impossible. Kid will easily corrupted by such killing. Apt Pupil really shows how scary story can turns normal kid into a creepy kid.

The story begins with the appearance of Todd Bowden, a bright 13 year old boy who once claimed as an apt pupil by his school. Todd had been spying on an old man for a couple of months. The day to show himself in front of the old man finally came. Todd knocked on the front door of Arthur Denker’s house. Mr. Denker was annoyed with Todd but his annoyance soon changed into a surprised as Todd called him as Kurt Dussander, a fugitive Nazi who had killed thousands of Jews during the war. Todd told him that he wanted to know EVERYTHING about the war. He wanted Dussander to spill all the gooey part of the concentration camp.

Different Seasons – Rita Hayworth and The Shawshank Redemption

As I already mentioned it before in my Mountain of Books post, I’m going to read Stephen King’s Different Seasons one novella after another and therefore the review will also be written per novella.

The first Novella in Different Seasons is the famous Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption.

I have watched the movie before reading this novella so I have already gotten the idea how the story will flow. I have already written my review of Shawshank Redemption few years back. The movie doesn’t stray away from the book.

The story was told by an inmate with nickname Red. Red is the man who could get anything as long as it is not dangerous. Red didn’t write about his life in Shawshank, he wrote about a man named Andy Dufresne. Andy was charged for killing his wife and her lover. After knowing Andy for years, Red believed that Andy is innocent.