tumble, tumble, japan

1. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
2. The Woman in the Dunes – Kobe Abe
3. Midnight’s Children – Salman Rushdie
4. What the Dog Saw – Malcolm Gladwell
5. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
6. A Cold Faint Fear – Karin Slaughter
7. Then We Came to an End – Joshua Ferris
8. The Mysterious Benedict Society – Trenton Lee Stewart
9. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey – Trenton Lee Stewart

That’s the list so far for this trip. In another two days and it would be two months. Two whole months of layering clothes; it will be fun readjusting to Singapore weather. I’m not really looking forward to that, even if I’m somewhat glad to not have to don the same winter jacket every single time I head out. Even the mirror is getting bored.

Let’s not get distracted. Spent the last two nights reading stories of The Mysterious Benedict Society. Enjoyble, though I’m obliged to draw more Harry Potter parallels than I think the author would like. Unfortunately, I found the first book a better read than its sequel so I guess I shall give the third book a miss for now.

Am, however, immensely grateful that I did not have to end up reading Stephen King. Did read, at least for half an evening which felt like several, half of a story from this book called Skeleton-something. It was quite painful. The book was on the communal book shelf, and having no other option (I picked up the only other book – the Karin Slaughter one – the other day), I thought at least, having not read any of his books, King would be entertaining. Um, nope. Halfway through his preface, I wanted to hit him over the head.

So to summarise, he and I won’t see much of each other’s company.

As much as I like holding a real book in my hands, I have to admit that reading on the phone isn’t that bad. True, I don’t get to flip through pages to do some belated or overlooked fact-checking and there is something unreal about reading 6,450 pages, but I don’t have to worry about lugging the books around and I can quit rummaging through the handful of bookstores here that do carry an international section for ¥900 paperbacks (and only small paperbacks get that pricing; not many books make it that far) that are actually decent reads.

Happiness is a good book.

Am incredibly jealous that the Japanese-language books are wicked cheap here. Their fiction paperbacks go for ¥500 thereabouts or less! Now, that is a good way to encourage reading.