A LarcMuseHolic, Cillianiac, Onepiece-Addict, Bookworm, Moviegoer and Turtle-lover Blog
Is it a science text book or a novel?
Out of all Crichton’s books I have read, state of fear id the one that feels so much like reading a science text book. There are TOO many scientific explanation involved in the story. I do believe that the long explanation can make people bored with the book but NOT ME though…I always enjoy reading all the scientific insert that Crichton wrote in ALL his books, it’s like reading a science text book in a fun way.
The story begins with some people stealing a machine that can create big wave. Then it moved to a man trying to set a deal to buy cavitation unit. The last epilogue is when a man bought half a million feet of wire. These three events connected to what would happen next in the plot.
George Morton was a very rich man who loved to support environmental organizations. NERF is one of the organizations where he shared his money the most. He trusted the man who controlled NERF, Nick Drake. But one phone call made him distrust Drake. He only trusted his lawyer, Peter Evans, and his assistant, Sarah Jones.
When Morton met John Kenner and Sanjong Thapa, he started behaving unlike himself. His unusual behaviour led him to a fatal accident that caused his life. But the story didn’t stop there. Kenner asked Evans and Jones to follow him stopping events that will lead to some kind of natural disasters, but there’s nothing natural about them because the disasters were caused by extreme environmental activists. Read more of this post
It’s been a while since my last Thursday Thirteen. I think I am going to do this list once a month…just for fun 
It won’t have long explanation like my Top-5 list.
Caroline @ Beauty is a Sleeping Cat told me once that I tend to repeat same author and I have to admit that she spoke the truth 
I have tendency to repeat the same author because reading a book is not like watching a movie. We can choose random movies as we pleased and ditch it when it wasn’t our cup of tea, but to choose random book is like high class gambling…and it’s not fun spending lots of hours just to finally ditch the book.
I only chose authors I don’t know when I have strong feeling from the book’s blurb and when I am in the mood for gambling…but when I want to enjoy my self, I avoid gambling and pick the authors I always enjoy.
(Click their names to see reviews of their books) Read more of this post
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. Read more of this post
The Lost Word is my first English book, before TLW I only read translated books. I love TLW a lot, I read it 5 times (and planning to re-read it again this year). I’ve been searching for the 1st book, Jurassic Park for years…and finally I found it
Jurassic Park is written by Michael Crichton. A lot of people have seen the movie (directed by the great Stephen Spielberg) but not many have read the book…my advice is, they should READ THE BOOK!!! The book is as thrilling as the movie.
The story is about an old man named John Hammond who dreams to have a park consist of extinct animal, dinosaurs. He buys an island at Costa Rica and finds people or companies to support the research. His genetic expert, Henry Wu, extract the dinosaurs DNA from insects. He creates 15 species of dinosaurs and claims that everything will be safe because all the dinosaurs are female.
Hammond has some experts for consultation. A mathematician named Ian Malcolm has told him that his park will fail due to Chaos Theory but Hammond doesn’t want to listen to him. He invites all his experts to come and visit the half-done park so that they can tell him what they think about the park. Beside Ian Malcolm, there are Alan Grant, a paleontologist, and his student Ellie Sattler. Gennaro, Hammond’s investor’s lawyer also comes along. Without telling anyone, Hammond invites his grand children, Tim and Lex. A fat man named Nerdy, a computer expert with a mission under his sleeve, also tagging along with this group.
Hammond set out a tour for them in his park…but one bad things lead to another. The dinosaurs are breeding, in spite the fact that Wu controlled them to be all female and now they have more raptors on the park. Nedry shuts down the park power system and the communication so that he can do his things….and this leads to a series or survival games. From one dinosaur to another, escape or fight or be eaten by them.
I always enjoy Crichton’s work…he makes science sound so much fun. Techno Thriller is another kind of Thriller genre that I enjoy a lot. In Jurassic Park, we can fell the tense of being chased by an 8 tons carnivore, or being surrounded by the smart and vicious Raptors, or being spitted with poison by Dhilophosaurus, or simply being followed around by Compys because they think that you are on the brink of death. Reading this book is a great experience, suspense like no other book can offer. I love every word in this book, including those boring theory by Malcolm. Crichton has once again put his magic on me…I love him more and more every time I read another book by him.
After finishing Jurassic Park, all I can think about is finding the right time to re-read The Lost Word so that it will become a complete circle. Without a doubt I give this book 5 stars, it was AMAZING.
Comparison to its movie
The first movie of Jurassic Park only has minor changes (they completely change the lost word) at first. The movie changes the detail on the characters, for example: Grant is a bearded man in the book and the movie he has no beard. Tim is older than Lex but in the movie Lex is older than Tim. Lex (from the book) is so annoying, if I was in the book, I have slapped her so many time…thanks God the Lex in the movie is not like that.
But in the end of the story, things really change…they way the escapes the Raptors are different, some details of death also different. But I can assure everyone that the movie and the book have its own fun. I love both of them.
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I share this review in Read The Book and See The Movie Challenge and Thriller and Suspense Reading Challenge 2010
It’s the last day of the year, and you know what that means … nostalgia and looking back.What were your favorite books of the year? (books that were new to you in 2009, if not necessarily published this year.)
Wow This is a bit hard…Almost all the books I read in 2009 were great books.
After much thinking…I tried sorting it out into
12 books.
Here they are: (Randomly)
1. Onepiece Volume 50-53 by Eiichiro Oda. The story keeps on getting better and better and the actions are incredibly entertaining. I also re-read this the previous volume of this Manga every year and I still find it as great manga with amazing story.
2. Naoko by Keigo Higashino. I picked this up by sheer instinct and I really like it.
3. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami, it’s AWESOME!!! Too bad The Hunger Game seems to steal it’s spotlight.
4. Silence of the Lamb by Thomas Harris. I guess everyone knows about this book .
5. For One More Day by Mitch Albom. A story of a chance to meet our late mothers is so touching.
6. IT by Stephen King. No need introduction here .
7. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King. I love the friendship of the central characters.
8. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult…so beautifuly sad.
9. Supernatural and Mysterious Japan by Catrien Ross.
I guess the title said it all . This is the only nonfiction that I enjoyed this year.
10. Needful Things by Stephen King…love it so darn much. I couldn’t put the book down.
11. Congo by Michael Crichton. I always ejony Chrichton’s books…so full of knowledge.
12. Edensor by Andrea Hirata.
It’s about a difficult trip around europe.
That’s it
How bout you?
And Happy new year everyone…I wish you’ll find great books in 2010
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.
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!!
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
Michael Crichton can easily be called as a genius writer. All of his novels always include knowledge, it’s like reading science book in a fun way.
Disclosure is less scientific than Crichton’s other novels, it is about sexual harassment in a high-tech office. The most common sexual harassment’s cases happened to women…but in Disclosure, it was the other way around.
Tom Sanders had been working in DigiCom for 15years, everyone in the office thought he was going to be the vice president when Conley-White buys DigiCom. But Garvin, the owner of DigiCom, pointed a young and beautiful woman named Meredith Johnson. Meredith was Tom’s ex girlfriend, they dated 10years ago.
On the 1st day of her job, Meredith asked Tom to discuss about Twinkle’s problem (Twinkle is one of DigiCom’s product)…But unexpectedly Meredith forced Tom to have sex with her. Tom refused to do so. The conflict between these two happened after that incident.
Meredith accused Tom of harassing her and wanted him to be transferred. As reader, we know Meredith was lying and Tom had told the truth…but the point of the book is not to find whose lying and whose not…the story is Tom’s effort to prove his innocence and to find the motive behind Meredith action. Read more of this post
Congo was written by Michael Crichton. It is a story about the thirteen days journey of an expedition team from ERTS to the Congo. As most of Crichton’s novels, Congo full with knowledge, mostly about primates. There is lot information that excites me and to cover some of it I decided to write another post (here).
Congo’s story is not as powerful as Jurassic Park but it has its own appeal. There aren’t many element of surprise. The journey was too long and the attack was too short…so it’s hard to find that feeling of tense throughout the story. But the information that comes along the story is very interesting.
The Story (contain spoiler)
The first ERTS expedition team in searching for Type IIb Diamond was killed by unknown creatures. Their head were crushed. R.B Travis reorganized the second team within 96hours. The second team was lead by a woman named Karen Ross. She brought along a gorilla expert, Peter Elliot, and his gorilla, Amy. Amy knew 620 American Sign Language. At first, Ross only took them as a cover up but in the end Amy proven to be a reliable help.
In Tangier, Morocco, they met Captain Charles Munro. Munro was the best guide in Africa. The journey to Virunga, Congo (now known as Zaire) was full of obstacle. Zaire was in the middle of commotion, Kigani Tribe which was a cannibal tribe was on rampage and Zaire dispatched General Muguru. But they managed to get into the rainforest after all.
They tried to get to the lost city of Zinj, it was presumed that the city held a lot of Type IIb Diamond. Type IIb Diamond was predicted to be the best source of powerful semi electrode. On their journey they saw the Kigani Tribe, met the pygmies -little people of Africa-, and survived from hypo attack. Not far from Zinj, they saw the remains of their rival, the Euro Japan Expedition Team.
They stayed in Zinj for 4 days. For 3 nights in the row they defended themselves from the attack of Grey Gorilla. Those gorillas were trained by the people of Zinj and although the people had left those gorillas passed on their trained behavior to their next generation. Basically, for 500 years they had become self trained gorillas. Few of them were able to survive, thanks to Amy. In the end, they left the city of Zinj empty handed because of mount Mukenko’s eruption.
Rating : 3 Stars (I like it)
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