finished two books in the past two days. 'how to live safely in a science fictional universe' by charles yu and 'of mice and men' by john steinbeck.

I liked both of them very much, although the ending of HTLSIASFU was a bit of a disappointment... in a sense I knew what was going to happen. it was quite inevitable but I kept wishing the protagonist changed something. disappointing in that sense. anyway it's basically about a super advanced science fictional universe where time travel has been made possible, although it's impossible to change the course of history. the protagonist is a time machine repair man who has lived a decade in the 'present-indefinite' gear, which is to say that time has stopped moving for him. one day he sees his future self and kills him, effectively trapping himself in a time loop. amidst all this he wants to look for his father who has left him and his mother and drifted off somewhere in the space-time continuum in the search for happiness. sounds complicated, but is a really nice story. the father-son relationship comes to a very touching moment near the end that I loved, but the exploration of the meaning of time to human memory and thinking was what really intrigued me. my favourite paragraph:

"Time isn't an orderly stream. Time isn't a placid lake recording each of our ripples. Time is viscous. Time is a massive flow. It is a self-healing substance, which is to say, almost everything will be lost. We're too slight, too inconsequential, despite all of our thrashing and swimming and waving our arms about. Time is an ocean of inertia, drowning out the small vibrations, absorbing the slosh and churn, the foam and wash, and we're up here, flapping and slapping... and sure, there's a little splashing on the surface, but that doesn't even register in the depths, in the powerful undercurrents miles below us, taking us wherever they are taking us." 


Good read, I liked it a lot. it was on TIME's best books of 2010 list. the other book was 'of mice and men' by john steinbeck, of 'the grapes of wrath' fame. that book is so damn long I don't even want to try. anyway, 'of mice and men' is a penguin classic, so you can get it for like $8 or something in those green or orange covers. that book is sad as hell. when you add crazy people in the mix, you always get a sad book. I've known of it a long time, never read it until now. it's a straight out narrative book, so you really don't get any real character reflection laid out for you. it's plot all the way, which is not so bad because the characters are simplistic, and they say what they want to say. it's essentially about two lost and displaced migrant ranch workers and their place in the then-world of the 20th century's Great Depression. I mean there's not much to it: it has a sad ending. a meaty, though mostly predictable plot, but the twist at the end is heart-wrenching.

the last book I bought at borders is 'the golden compass', which is the first book of the 'his dark materials' trilogy by philip pullman. haha it's 'young adult' but I've heard it's really good (x one million better than the movie) so I'm all up for reading it... the one I originally wanted to buy was 'skippy dies' by paul murray, but borders ran out, so I have to go to kino and look for it. I really wanted to read that one. I was so disappointed they didn't have it.

anyway yes so if anyone's wondering what books to read, I think the two I just read are quite recommendable! just my two cents worth