Archive for March 2013

March Wrap Up & Book Haul

3 Comments »

Hey Ho Bookworms!
I can't believe March is almost over which means my National Exam is only two weeks away. So not ready!
In the middle of school madness and being really hectic, I've managed to read and buy some books this month. I need to say, this month I've gone crazy with books.

Starting from my March Wrap Up. I read 5 books! I've never read more than two books a month and this is my best achievement in my reading challenge so far.


From the top:
1. Legend By Marie Lu (Indonesian Version)
2. Enclave By Ann Aguirre
3. The Fault in Our Stars By John Green
4. Clockwork Prince By Cassandra Clare
5. The Lost Symbol By Dan Brown

I did enjoy Legend, Clockwork Prince and The Lost Symbol. But I wasn't really into The Fault in Our Stars and Enclave. I don't know if I'm going to get the second of Enclave, but hopefully I can save some money to get it, just to complete my collection.

Next, March Book Haul!
I thought I wasn't going to get new books for this month because I'm currently saving my money for my very long holiday after the National Exam. But I couldn't help myself not to buy Clockwork Princess when it came out. There was also a special discount on Periplus.com. So yeah, at last I got four books for this month.



For this month I got:
1. Beautiful Creatures By Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl; The first book of the Caster Chronicles.
2. Beautiful Chaos By Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl; This is the third book of the Caster Chronicles. Got it for only 25.000 IDR. The book condition is terrible. The top edges has turned yellow. Not to mention the poor condition of the other edges. But for only 25.000 IDR, I guess it's worth it. I'm going to get the second book asap.
3. Uncommon Criminals By  Ally Carter; This is the second book of The Heist Society. I got the hardcover for only 50.000 IDR. I haven't read the first book. I think I'm going to skip the first book and read this first.

My hardback copy of Clockwork Princess hasn't arrived yet. Apparently it's still in process of shipping from the US. Periplus just e-mailed me, telling me that it will takes another week for the book to arrive. I guess I'll just have to wait.
The worst part is the paperback version is already available at all bookstores! Damn..... I'd probably be the last person to read the last book...
This month I got all these books that should be for girls. I know.... Mock me for that. I don't really care. I'm just interested with the whole caster things and the thievery.

***

Last to be mention, my Periplus Elite Card just arrived!


I thought I couldn't spend 500.000 IDR for books in just two months. Guess what people, I'm always wrong about myself.
For the last two months, I'd spent 757.000 IDR for books at Periplus... I think I have problem with book shopping. 

If you're interested to get this Elite Card, just click HERE for more information about it.

Well, that's it guys. My wrap up and book hauls. Hope you enjoy.

Anonymous


Cassandra Clare and Her Shadowhunter World: Don't You Have Enough of It?

4 Comments »


Who doesn't know The Mortal Instruments & The Infernal Devices?
This famous series all are written by Cassandra Clare. All the booktubers have her books. Some love it, some hate it. As for me, I love The Infernal Devices but I don't really like The Mortal Instruments.
The last book of The Infernal Devices, Clockwork Princess, was released a week ago. My copy is still on its way from the US.

So today I just read an article, saying that Cassandra Clare is working on her new upcoming trilogy, The Dark Artifices, which is a sequel of The Mortal Instruments. It will be a trilogy.
It means counting with the prequel, the actual series and the sequel; there will be 12 books about Shadowhunter.
I was so surprised when I heard that Cassandra Clare will also make another trilogy after The Dark Artifices.

RT @nataliebird345: " How many book series about shadowhunters are you planning to do?" I was planning five -- four trilogies and TMI.

RT @MariahSmith234: " so there will be another series after TLH?" one after TDA. It goes TiD-TLH-TMI-TDA-Sekrit unnamed project

RT @angelicamae_s: " TID, TLH and TDA.. that's only 3 trilogies. Will the fourth one be after TDA??" yes.

I'm starting to feel that Cassandra Clare doesn't want to move on. She's in her comfort zone right now. Don't get me wrong, I think she's a really good writer. But don't you think it's time to move on?

When a series has 6 books, I think it's already too much. When the 6 series books have a prequel, it's great. And when the prequel gets a sequel?

Well, time to stop Cassandra. Why?

Imagine this. In the future, 20 years from now, when our kids wanted to read books from our time. We recommended them Cassandra Clare's work and when they discovered there were 20+ books about Shadowhunter, do you think they would still read it? No. They would refuse to read it and read Harry Potter instead.

So yeah, I think it's great for Cassandra to keep writing but she needs to find a new world, new characters. Shadowhunter world is amazing but leaving it behind will make everybody remember it, miss it. By keep writing it, people will get bored and for people who haven't read her works will have no intention to read her works because it's too much.

This is just my thought.
Don't kill me.

MOVIE REVIEW: The Host

2 Comments »

I'm still remember getting this book as my 14th birthday gift from my friend. I got the Indonesian translation. I'd only managed to read half of it. Why? Because the book was so boring. Too much talking. Nothing was really captivating. Then a year later, I gave it another chance. I reread it and once again, I failed. I couldn't finish the book. Few months later, I saw the English version at my school library which was really surprising. I (once again) gave it another try. I thought maybe if I read the English version I'd have liked it better and maybe I could finish it. Guess what, guys? I didn't finish it. I just couldn't. The book was too boring and I just couldn't stand it. I didn't even give a fuck about the ending and stuff.

When I heard The Host was becoming a movie, I don't know, I just got so excited about it. The movie trailers were good and I thought maybe the movie would be so much better than the book. I was wrong..

***


Earth has been invaded by aliens. They call it, Souls. All the human body are taken by Souls. Only few survivors left, including Melanie Stryder. Unfortunately, she's found by Seeker whom job is too find the survivors. Wanderer who gets Melanie's body as her host, tries to get the location of other survivors. Too bad for Wanderer; Melanie wants to live. Melanie's soul still stays in her body. The journey begins when Melanie force Wanderer to find the location where all the people she loves are staying.

We have Saoirse Ronan as Melanie Stryder. Everybody knows her as Susie Salmon in The Lovely Bones. I love Saoirse Ronan and no doubt her performance in this movie is really great.
I love the movie set. Visually, the movie is really great. The desert, the cave, the town... everything is just beautiful. My eyes were like having an orgasm. The concept of this movie sounds interesting which makes lots of people just curious about this movie. Beware people, it's a trap.

Well, here is the thing. If you imagine this movie as any other Sci-Fi, you're absolutely wrong!
This is no any typical Sci-Fi. This is a romance, a cheesy romance that uses Sci-Fi as it theme. This is Twilight all over again just with a different genre.
I think the plot is just poor. The movie is so different from the book, maybe they're trying to make it better than the book. Trying to take all the details that would probably make the audience bored. Guess what people, they don't success. The movie is still BORING!
The world building is just suck. I mean this is a Sci-Fi, we're talking about aliens that have invaded earth. At least, give the audience the world details. We want action. We want to see how the earth is after Souls have taken it.
But no, everything in this movie is just about Melanie and her love-life. There were several scenes where supposedly to be scenes with suspense and action, but it was all terrible. Not impressive at all.

Whoever wrote the script, I don't like him/her. Why? 
There were a scene where Jared kissed Wanderer. Then, Melanie got angry and she controlled Wanderer's hand to slap Jared. And then Jared went all shock and said, "I knew it. You're there Melanie. You slap me because you're angry I'm kissing Wanderer."
Really? When you kiss a girl, in this case, not longer your lover and she slap you, I don't know.... maybe she just doesn't like it? Because it's rude? But no, Jared make a weird assumption.

Overall, this movie is SUCK. Boring and it's not like what I'd expected. If you're into Twilight Saga, you will definitely love this movie. If you're a true fan of Sci-Fi, I warn you don't watch this movie. You'll hate it and curse Stephenie Meyer just like I did.... ( I tweeted "Thanks Stephenie Meyer for ruining Sci-Fi)

If you're Stephenie Meyer's fans, please don't be mad at me. I'm just writing my opinion based on the truth. I don't like this movie at all.

I give this movie: 1/5



Nicely Wrapped Sunday #2

No Comments »

Hey guys!
How's your Sunday so far?
Mine? Despite from all the exams I'm still having this week, it's nice.

This morning, I had my first violin concert. I was so nervous, thank God it went pretty well. I did some minor mistakes, but you couldn't be perfect at your first time, right?


Rainy Tunes Concert.
So I played duet with a girl named Angela, we played The Prayer. I really love that song, so yeah I did enjoy playing it for my first concert.

Right after the concert finished, I went to a book store.. Well, after a long exam weeks and being under pressure, I need to buy books. Just to cheer myself.

It was kinda surprising when my mom let me buy a book. She never really liked my reading madness. But today, she bought me one.


Beautiful Creatures By Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. I really wanted the original cover of it, but Periplus only had the movie tie in edition so I guessed, Why not?
In Indonesia, the movie hasn't come out yet. So I still have plenty of times to finish this before I watch the movie. I don't really know why I'm so curious with the Caster series. Right after I watched the Beautiful Creatures movie trailer, I fell in love with it. It captivated me. Not to mention the soundtrack!
I love Florence & The Machine and their song, Seven Devils, fits perfectly with Beautiful Creatures.

This book is quite thick. Around 500/600 pages, I'm not sure. Well, I'm still reading The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown which is super thick!  I don't know when exactly I'm going to start with Beautiful Creatures, hopefully soon enough.

My copy of Clockwork Princess is still in its way to my home. It will probably arrive next week. Lots of booktubers have it in their book haul and I just can't wait!

Oh yeah, I have to mention this!
I'm doing a quite fun thing for christmas (Call me a weirdo), so I'm saving all the small change in this ugly moneybox which I bought for only 3.000 IDR


So what's the point of doing this?
I never got any christmas gift, since my parents don't celebrate christmas.
So I guess, why not buy myself a christmas gift?
That's when I have this idea of saving all the small change until the christmas. I'll buy lots of books as my christmas gift then, using the small change I've been saving. Pretty fun, right? (Or not)

Wish me luck for my yet another exam weeks. Just few weeks away from the national exam. I can't wait... Hahahaha

Have a nice weekend!

Anonymous

Most Wanted Books (March 2013)

6 Comments »

Hey guys!
This month is mad. School has been really hectic with all the try outs and the exams. I can't believe I'm only two weeks away from the National Exam. It's really freaking me out. I'm not a smart guy, so I'm concern that I'm going to fail, but hopefully I have to get this through and I know I won't fail the exam!

This month, I've had make a long list of my most wanted books. Here it is..

1. Delirium By Lauren Oliver


As most of you guys know, Delirium is going to be a TV Show soon with Emma Roberts as the main character, Lena. I'm a big fan of dystopian and it's a shame that I haven't read this best selling dystopian. I'll definitely read this before the TV Show comes out.

2. Uglies By Scott Westerfeld


This is like a really old dystopian before The Hunger Games & Divergent were released. I know lots of people been talking about this dystopian and I really love the concept of this book. I'll totally buy the box set since it's so much cheaper.

3. Gone By Michal Grant


Another dystopian in my list. Gone By Michael Grant. This cover is a reprint edition and I hate it so much. I prefer the old cover, it's so much cooler. This cover make this book look like a cheesy romance book. Heard lots of good reviews about this one, I'll buy this possibly next month.

4. Battle Royale By
















February Book Haul

No Comments »

Oh finally, it's March! I can't believe I've passed the first two months of 2013. Anyway, I'm doing another Book Haul this month!


The books I got last month:

1. Warm Bodies By Isaac Marion
2. Legend By Marie Lu
3. The Power of Six By Pittacus Lore
4. The Fault in Our Stars By John Green
5. My Life as Film Director By Haqi Achmad
6. Clockwork Prince By Cassandra Clare
7. The Lost Symbol By Dan Brown

Last month, I'd only got three books in English, Clockwork Prince, The Fault in Our Stars and this the ones I bought on the last day of February;


Enclave By Ann Aguirre
. I saw this book on January at Periplus and it just caught my eyes. The cover was okay, but the synopsis was amazing. I think I'm going to love this book.

I didn't actually buy all the books I got on February. Some of them, I got from a giveaway on Twitter.


Both in Indonesian and now I have two copies of The Power of Six....

I'd only managed to read two books last month. School's been really hectic and I've no time to sit down, relax and read books.

The worst book of the month goes to:


I hate the cover in every way. I was hoping to get the original cover and I got the movie cover instead... Suck. So does the story.
I hate it. This is the most boring and predictable book. Everything is about LOVE and DRAMA and I don't like that kind of book. In fact, I'm now selling this book on KasKus because I can't stand seeing this trashy book in my bookshelf.

Guess what, my bookshelf is once again, full. I don't know where all the other books need to be placed.


February was amazing. March is so much better. I can't wait to get Clockwork Princess and Dualed. Hope you have a nice weekend!

Anonymous