MEME | Sci-Fi and Fantasy Novels Everyone Must Read

From Carl. Bold indicate titles I have read, while italics indicate books I own, but have not found the time to read.

1. Douglas Adams: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (1979)
2. Brian W Aldiss: Non-Stop (1958)
3. Isaac Asimov: Foundation (1951)
4. Margaret Atwood: The Blind Assassin (2000)
5. Paul Auster: In the Country of Last Things (1987)
6. Iain Banks: The Wasp Factory (1984)
7. Iain M Banks: Consider Phlebas (1987)
8. Clive Barker: Weaveworld (1987)
9. Nicola Barker: Darkmans (2007)
10. Stephen Baxter: The Time Ships (1995)
11. Greg Bear: Darwin’s Radio (1999)
12. Alfred Bester: The Stars My Destination (1956)
13. Poppy Z Brite: Lost Souls (1992)
14. Algis Budrys: Rogue Moon (1960)
15. Mikhail Bulgakov: The Master and Margarita (1966)
16. Edward Bulwer-Lytton: The Coming Race (1871)
17. Anthony Burgess: A Clockwork Orange (1960)
18. Anthony Burgess: The End of the World News (1982)
19. Edgar Rice Burroughs: A Princess of Mars (1912)
20. William Burroughs: Naked Lunch (1959)
21. Octavia Butler: Kindred (1979)
22. Samuel Butler: Erewhon (1872)
23. Italo Calvino: The Baron in the Trees (1957)
24. Ramsey Campbell: The Influence (1988)
25. Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
26. Lewis Carroll: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871)
27. Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus (1984)
28. Michael Chabon: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (2000)
29. Arthur C Clarke: Childhood’s End (1953)
30. GK Chesterton: The Man Who Was Thursday (1908)
31. Susanna Clarke: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (2004)
32. Michael G Coney: Hello Summer, Goodbye (1975)
33. Douglas Coupland: Girlfriend in a Coma (1998)
34. Mark Danielewski: House of Leaves (2000)
35. Marie Darrieussecq: Pig Tales (1996)
36. Samuel R Delaney: The Einstein Intersection (1967)
37. Philip K Dick: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)
38. Philip K Dick: The Man in the High Castle (1962)
39. Umberto Eco: Foucault’s Pendulum (1988)
40. Michel Faber: Under the Skin (2000)
41. John Fowles: The Magus (1966)
42. Neil Gaiman: American Gods (2001)
43. Alan Garner: Red Shift (1973)
44. William Gibson: Neuromancer (1984)
45. Charlotte Perkins Gilman: Herland (1915)
46. William Golding: Lord of the Flies (1954)
47. Joe Haldeman: The Forever War (1974)
48. M John Harrison: Light (2002)
49. Robert A Heinlein: Stranger in a Strange Land (1961)
50. Frank Herbert: Dune (1965)
51. Hermann Hesse: The Glass Bead Game (1943)
52. Russell Hoban: Riddley Walker (1980)
53. James Hogg: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)
54. Michel Houellebecq: Atomised (1998)
55. Aldous Huxley: Brave New World (1932)
56. Kazuo Ishiguro: The Unconsoled (1995)
57. Shirley Jackson: The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
58. Henry James: The Turn of the Screw (1898)
59. PD James: The Children of Men (1992)
60. Richard Jefferies: After London; Or, Wild England (1885)
61. Gwyneth Jones: Bold as Love (2001)
62. Franz Kafka: The Trial (1925)
63. Daniel Keyes: Flowers for Algernon (1966)
64. Stephen King: The Shining (1977)
65. Marghanita Laski: The Victorian Chaise-longue (1953)
66. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu: Uncle Silas (1864)
67. Stanislaw Lem: Solaris (1961)
68. Doris Lessing: Memoirs of a Survivor (1974)
69. David Lindsay: A Voyage to Arcturus (1920)
70. Ken MacLeod: The Night Sessions (2008)
71. Hilary Mantel: Beyond Black (2005)
72. Michael Marshall Smith: Only Forward (1994)
73. Richard Matheson: I Am Legend (1954)
74. Charles Maturin: Melmoth the Wanderer (1820)
75. Patrick McCabe: The Butcher Boy (1992)
76. Cormac McCarthy: The Road (2006)
77. Jed Mercurio: Ascent (2007)
78. China Miéville: The Scar (2002)
79. Andrew Miller: Ingenious Pain (1997)
80. Walter M Miller Jr: A Canticle for Leibowitz (1960)
81. David Mitchell: Cloud Atlas (2004)
82. Michael Moorcock: Mother London (1988)
83. William Morris: News From Nowhere (1890)
84. Toni Morrison: Beloved (1987)
85. Haruki Murakami: The Wind-up Bird Chronicle (1995)
86. Vladimir Nabokov: Ada or Ardor (1969)
87. Audrey Niffenegger: The Time Traveler’s Wife (2003)
88. Larry Niven: Ringworld (1970)
89. Jeff Noon: Vurt (1993)
90. Flann O’Brien: The Third Policeman (1967)
91. Ben Okri: The Famished Road (1991)
92. Chuck Palahniuk: Fight Club (1996)
93. Thomas Love Peacock: Nightmare Abbey (1818)
94. Mervyn Peake: Titus Groan (1946)
95. John Cowper Powys: A Glastonbury Romance (1932)
96. Christopher Priest: The Prestige (1995)
97. François Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532-34)
98. Ann Radcliffe: The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794)
99. Alastair Reynolds: Revelation Space (2000)
100. Kim Stanley Robinson: The Years of Rice and Salt (2002)
101. JK Rowling: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997)
102. Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses (1988)
103. Antoine de Sainte-Exupéry: The Little Prince (1943)
104. José Saramago: Blindness (1995)
105. Will Self: How the Dead Live (2000)
106. Mary Shelley: Frankenstein (1818)
107. Dan Simmons: Hyperion (1989)
108. Olaf Stapledon: Star Maker (1937)
109. Neal Stephenson: Snow Crash (1992)
110. Robert Louis Stevenson: The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
111. Bram Stoker: Dracula (1897)
112. Rupert Thomson: The Insult (1996)
113. Mark Twain: A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court (1889)
114. Kurt Vonnegut: Sirens of Titan (1959)
115. Robert Walser: Institute Benjamenta (1909)
116. Sylvia Townsend Warner: Lolly Willowes (1926)
117. Sarah Waters: Affinity (1999)
118. HG Wells: The Time Machine (1895)
119. HG Wells: The War of the Worlds (1898)
120. TH White: The Sword in the Stone (1938)
121. Gene Wolfe: The Book of the New Sun (1980-83)
122. John Wyndham: Day of the Triffids (1951)
123. John Wyndham: The Midwich Cuckoos (1957)
124. Yevgeny Zamyatin: We (1924)

Only 21 read. Not good at all.

What I Really Want for my Birthday

CAD - Starbucks mug design @ © SplitReason.com

So frakking fun!

MEME | 25 Random Things About Me

I was tagged for this meme on Facebook. So.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

1. I hate snowpeas. It's ugly, it's flat and it's hard.
2. I was in kindergarten when I first tried beer (I was 5 or 6 years old?). My dad believes a girl should have a tolerance for alcohol so that they can take care of themselves later in life.
3. Hates it when people try to argue with me about my being vegetarian. It's my choice.
4. I am actually very shy. But people are often deceived into thinking otherwise. I wonder why?
5. I am no longer a fan of Angelina Jolie. After the Brangelina rubbish, she just grew boring.
6. My mother wanted to name me "Wanjun" when I was born. Thank god my dad intervened. I will always be grateful for my Chinese name, because I know the alternative - and I hate it.
7. I share the same birthday as Alyson Hannigan, who plays Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
8. I absolutely love the Rachel Maddow show. It's current affairs delivered smart and sharp.
9. I could never finish "Moby Dick"
10. I almost failed English in school when I was 10.
11. Once, I sat right next to Neil Gaiman for lunch. He offered me his fish.
12. The one band I really want to see "live" in concert (preferably upfront - within groping distance) is Sleater-Kinney.
13. I never got to vote in my entire life. Oh, the beauty of our country's democratic system.
14. I think being allowed to just sit in a cafe and read is one of life's greatest pleasures.
15. My earlobes have never been pierced.
16. I don't make my bed when I wake up. Why bother?
17. I bought my first mobile phone when I was 25.
18. I can't drive. Don't have a license. Not interested in getting one.
19. I think spiritually I am a red-head.
20. I have just reached Level 184 on Mob War
21. I would like Tracy Chapman's "Say Hallelujah" to be played at my funeral.
22. When I was younger, I thought Patti Smith's "gloria" was the anthem of my life - especially with the opening lines, "Jesus died for somebody's sins/But not mine." Now that I am older, I think I prefer Patti Smith's "dancing barefoot" - for the way it celebrates life.
23. I have been a vegetarian for 5 years, but from time to time I do miss a good beef steak, fresh salmon sashimi and fresh oysters. But the feelings will pass.
24. I think the person who loves me the most in this world is my mother.
25. Hates to tag people for meme.

The Books That Maketh Obama

I've been pointed to this article about Obama's reading. You probably have read it, but it's good to just take a look at the books that maketh a person:

Mr. Bush and many of his aides favored prescriptive books — Natan Sharansky’s “Case for Democracy,” which pressed the case for promoting democracy around the world, say, or Eliot A. Cohen’s “Supreme Command,” which argued that political strategy should drive military strategy. Mr. Obama, on the other hand, has tended to look to non-ideological histories and philosophical works that address complex problems without any easy solutions, like Reinhold Niebuhr’s writings, which emphasize the ambivalent nature of human beings and the dangers of willful innocence and infallibility.

What’s more, Mr. Obama’s love of fiction and poetry — Shakespeare’s plays, Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” and Marilynne Robinson‘s “Gilead” are mentioned on his Facebookpage, along with the Bible, Lincoln’s collected writings and Emerson’s “Self Reliance“ — has not only given him a heightened awareness of language. It has also imbued him with a tragic sense of history and a sense of the ambiguities of the human condition quite unlike the Manichean view of the world so often invoked by Mr. Bush.

WHAT TYPE IS THAT BLOG

Typealyser, where they analyze what type are you from your blog.

The result from my blog is:

ESTP - The Doers

The active and playful type. They are especially attuned to people and things around them and often full of energy, talking, joking and engaging in physical out-door activities.

The Doers are happiest with action-filled work which craves their full attention and focus. They might be very impulsive and more keen on starting something new than following it through. They might have a problem with sitting still or remaining inactive for any period of time.

This was fun for about 5 seconds.

People Got A Lotta Nerve

Neko Case's first single, “People Got A Lotta Nerve,” from her new album, Middle Cyclone, is now available for download.

For every blog that reposts the song and/or iLike user who adds it to their profile, Neko Case and ANTI- will make a cash donation to Best Friends Animal Society.

Neko Case explains it in this video:

Download the song here:http://www.anti.com/media/download/708

The promotion will run from January 13 to February 3, 2009. Five dollars will be donated for every blog post and one dollar for every user of iLike that adds the song to his/her profile.

More details here.

So, go post this song, or better yet - buy Middle Cyclone when it is released 3rd March.

Brandi Carlile Singing Hallelujah

I first posted a Brandi Carlile cover of "Hallelujah" here. But soon after, the video was taken offline by the powers that be. My friend calls them Youtube-Nazis. :)

Here's another video of Brandi Carlile's rendition of the Jeff Buckley version of "Hallelujah". Here she's playing the piano, while the previous video I posted has Brandi Carlile on guitar, accompanied by an orchestra. Nevertheless I am impressed by how different this version is from her usual acoustic cover of "Hallelujah". She takes this one song and it becomes a part of her, and it expresses how she feels at that moment, so that it is her song, even though many people have covered it along the years.

I love how it ends, with that anguished cry of Hallelujah.

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:5618a944-27f6-49a3-8499-7beb7934b1c7&showPlaylist=true" target="_new" title="Brandi Carlile - Seattle - 20071102 - 21 - Hallelujah">Video: Brandi Carlile - Seattle - 20071102 - 21 - Hallelujah</a>

Screw you, Youtube-Nazis!

Rachel Maddow on The Daily Show

Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart - two of my favourite people in the world - in the same room together - talking. How can I not post this?

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Rachel Maddow

Barack Obama Interview
John McCain Interview

Sarah Palin Video
Funny Election Video

QUOTE | Real Courage

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”

- To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

MONDAY LYRICS | Total Eclipse of the Heart

My friend HobbitGirl has a quirky, acerbic sense of humour that I seriously enjoy. She kills with her deadpan one-liners. On top of it all, she is sweet and kind. She tries to see the best in people. She forgives easily. Through her quiet little gestures, you can tell she genuinely cares about you.

Facebook is so important to my social life right now. It's how I keep in touch with my friends back home. HobbitGirl posted this video of Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on her Facebook. I totally GET why it's so bad it's good. The big hair, the campy background dancers - check out 1:19 with the dancing ninjas. Absolutely nothing to do with the song, but they are there.

I have been watching this video continuously. Can't seem to get enough of it. It's little things like this that remind me of why HobbitGirl and I are friends. We share some dubious tastes - we both like Grissom from CSI (but I prefer Grissom bearded, HobbitGirl prefers him clean-shaven); we laugh at some of the same things: Like dancing ninjas in dubious 80s MTV. How did this happen? Well, one day at work, when the bosses were out of the office, HobbitGirl streamed the YouTube video for "Total Eclipse of the Heart" on her PC. Both of us giggled like hysterical schoolgirls. Then HobbitGirl pointed out the dancing ninjas and I laughed even harder.

Before I left for Dubai, last request I asked of some of my colleagues, was to help look after HobbitGirl.  I couldn't help it. She is one of the people I am most worried for. She is mild-mannered, so she is often bullied at work by my ex-manager. I wouldn't be around to watch her back anymore. I know she will be okay. But I worry.

I call her HobbitGirl because she is not tall. :) But HobbitGirl is a petite powerhouse of positive vibes. As I'm typing this, just thinking of her makes me smile. She makes me laugh too - which is a precious gift.

One day, I was complaining about someone at work that I do not like. HobbitGirl instead defended the person in question. I got a little agitated, and HobbitGirl asked, "Why do you always think people are out to harm you?"

I was about to make a rude retort - but I looked at HobbitGirl, and I could see that she meant when she said. She really believes people are good, and she accepts people in spite of their weaknesses. So I said nothing. Maybe she is right. Maybe the reason I am unhappy is because of the way I perceive them. Maybe HobbitGirl's way is a better way: to trust people more. To give them the benefit of the doubt. To recognize that they are human.

She is a better person than me, and I love her to bits. 

I am blessed in many ways. Most of all, I am blessed with my friends. My friends often remind me that I can be a better person than this.

Maybe it's just the idea of a new year in a new country. Maybe I'm just homesick for my friends. But every time I watch this MTV, I just think of a friend who made me laugh so hard at dancing ninjas.

"Total Eclipse of the Heart" by Bonnie Tyler

Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit lonely and you're never coming round
Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit tired of listening to the sound of my tears
Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit nervous that the best of all the years have gone by
Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit terrified and then I see the look in your eyes
Turnaround bright eyes, Every now and then I fall apart
Turnaround bright eyes, Every now and then I fall apart

Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit restless and I dream of something wild
Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit helpless and I'm lying like a child in your arms
Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit angry and I know I've got to get out and cry
Turnaround, Every now and then I get a little bit terrified but then I see the look in your eyes
Turnaround bright eyes, Every now and then I fall apart
Turnaround bright eyes, Every now and then I fall apart

And I need you now tonight
And I need you more than ever
And if you only hold me tight
We'll be holding on forever
And we'll only be making it right
Cause we'll never be wrong together
We can take it to the end of the line
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time
I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark
We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks
I really need you tonight
Forever's gonna start tonight
Forever's gonna start tonight

Once upon a time I was falling in love
But now I'm only falling apart
There's nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart
Once upon a time there was light in my life
But now there's only love in the dark
Nothing I can say
A total eclipse of the heart

INSTRUMENTAL

Turnaround bright eyes
Turnaround bright eyes
Turnaround, Every now and then I know you'll never be the boy you always wanted to be
Turnaround, Every now then I know you'll always be the only boy who wanted me the way that I am
Turnaround, Every now and then I know there's no one in the universe as magical and wonderous as you
Turnaround, Every now and then I know there's nothing any better and there's nothing that I just wouldn't do
Turnaround bright eyes, Every now and then I fall apart
Turnaround bright eyes, Every now and then I fall apart

And I need you now tonight
And I need you more than ever
And if you'll only hold me tight
We'll be holding on forever
And we'll only be making it right
Cause we'll never be wrong together
We can take it to the end of the line
Your love is like a shadow on me all of the time
I don't know what to do and I'm always in the dark
We're living in a powder keg and giving off sparks
I really need you tonight
Forever's gonna start tonight
Forever's gonna start tonight

Once upon a time I was falling in love
But now I'm only falling apart
Nothing I can do
A total eclipse of the heart
Once upon a time there was light in my life
But now there's only love in the dark
Nothing I can say
A total eclipse of the heart

This is so CLASSIC!

POEM | The Chambered Nautilus

For the new year, a poem about out-growing the things of the past, and leaving them behind.

The Chambered Nautilus
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894)

"This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign..."
This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign,
Sail the unshadowed main,--
The venturous bark that flings
On the sweet summer wind its purpled wings
In gulfs enchanted, where the Siren sings,
And coral reefs lie bare,
Where the cold sea-maids rise to sun their streaming hair.

Its webs of living gauze no more unfurl;
Wrecked is the ship of pearl!
And every chambered cell,
Where its dim dreaming life was wont to dwell,
As the frail tenant shaped his growing shell,
Before thee lies revealed,--
Its irised ceiling rent, its sunless crypt unsealed!

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year's dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more.

Thanks for the heavenly message brought by thee,
Child of the wandering sea,
Cast from her lap, forlorn!
From thy dead lips a clearer note is born
Than ever Triton blew from wreathed horn;
While on mine ear it rings,
Through the deep caves of thought I hear a voice that sings:--

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!

2009 | To Be More Mindful

I scorn New Year Resolution. Nonetheless, I have decided that in the new year, I will strive to be more mindful of my behaviour. I will strive not to say anything negative about someone - unless I am willing to say it to the person directly.

Bad-mouthing others is a bad habit that I'm still trying to quit. It's counter-productive, it's hurtful - and it's bad for the soul. It also shows a narrowness of spirit.

I also want to read more, write more, move through life more mindfully. I want to live my life as compassionately as I can.

I also want to finish reading all the books I have with me right now - the books I bought, and ones I brought with me to Dubai.

Anyone has any New Year Resolutions?