Archive for the ‘书籍’ Category
Sunday, December 30th, 2007 |
想问诗巫（Sibu）的乡情父老，诗巫哪间书店有卖九把刀的作品，特别是这部《猎命师传奇》。在广州购书中心购书时，原本以为这本《猎命师传奇：吸血鬼猎人》只是一本小说，没有细看之下就丢进篮子里买走了。拿在手上读时才惊觉这是一个长篇小说，我只是买了《卷一》。
这部小说里讲的是关于猎命师的。何谓猎命师？猎命师的鼻祖始于姜子牙。能为自己和别人猎取不同的命格。如果说要长命百岁，就有一种命格叫做‘万寿无疆’。《吸血鬼猎人》在秦始王嬴政派出自己旗下的猎命师到东瀛（现在的日本）寻找血族人以便让自己能有不死之身。途中这项行动被姜子牙率领的部队中断。然后事情就发展到2000年后的日本。这时血族被称为吸血鬼，并操控着日本的各大领域。除了猎命人、吸血鬼，另外一个存在在世界上的族群就是吸血鬼猎人，还有给人印象不深的城市守护人。
读着这本小说时，会发现到很多人物的关系和出现点和真正的历史有很大的出入。可能就如九把刀在《序》所写的：“每个小说家说故事的方式不尽相同。对我来说，创意是故事的起点，情感则流通故事的血脉，而精密控制说故事的细节，是我的责任。”
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Friday, December 14th, 2007 |
起初读这本书，觉得它没Mitch Albom之前写的俩本《Tuesdays With Morrie》和《The Five People You Meet in Heaven》出色。可是读到后来别有一番滋味。
整本书中，这么一段我最喜欢：
BECAUSE THERE WAS a ghost involved, you may call this a ghost stody. But what family isn’t a ghost story? Sharing tales of those we’ve lost is how we keep from really losing them.
《Tuesdays With Morrie》是讲一个人在生前所做的事，而《The Five People You Meet in Heaven》则是讲述一个人死后的世界。《For One More Day》讲的则是一个人在丧命边缘所发生的事情。
这本书是讲述一名棒球运动员因为家庭、工作与兴趣上不得志， 所以选择自杀。在他生命垂危的时候，他遇到了他的母亲，以及那些想见他母亲的人。以下节选几段我觉得满有意思的，与各位分享。
“You know something, Rose?” she suddenly said. “Charley never let me cut his hair. Can you believe that? He insisted on going to a barbershop.”
“Why, dear?”
“Oh, you know. They get to an age and it’s ‘Get away, Mom, get away.’”
“Children get embarrassed by their parents,” Rose said.
“Children get embarrassed by their parents,” my mother repeated.
其实我想很多人，包括我在内，都有这样子的经历。小时候我们曾经与父母那么近，甚至把他们当作偶像。可是长大后，却不喜欢他们出现在自己朋友的面前。
In college, I had a course in Latin, and one day the word “divorce” came up. I always figured it came from some root that meant “divide.” In trurh, it comes from “divertere,” which means “to divert.”
读过这段后，我不断地玩味其中的意思。Divide的意思就是划分成分开的部分，而divert的意思是转向其它完全不同的方向。这就像两个人在一起过，然后分手了，虽然嘴里说还是能做朋友，不过一定会感到不自然。这就是为什么很多人连朋友都做不成。很多东西发生了就不会再回去以前的样子。就如文中其中一句：“Going back to soemthing is harder than you think.”
DO YOU EVER think while something is happening, about what’s happening someplace else? My mother, after the divorce, would stand on the back porch at sunset, smoking a cigarette, and she’d say, “Charley, right now, as the sun is going down here, it’s coming up someplace else in the world. Australia or China or someplace. You can look it up in the encyclopedia.”
这么一段就是想表达说这世界上会发生任何事情。或许眼前你所看到的是太阳落山，可是地球的另一头却是日出。
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Thursday, December 6th, 2007 |
Walter是一本我在二手书店找到的书，只需要澳币两块，想都不想就买下来了。
考试前几天，随手拿起来读读，就这样断断续续读了两天把它读完。我觉得这本书的价钱不值两块，应该值更多。找不到任何形容词来形容这本书，觉得自己应该读更多书来扩充自己的词汇库。
Walter的作者是David Cook。第一次publish是在1978年，而我买的这本是Penguin在1980年出版的，只能感慨说好书真的是经得起时间的考验的。
书的内容是这样的，Walter是一个天生身心障碍的小孩。自小他就被人取笑，他的妈妈Sarah曾经一度不顾一切的照顾他。可是后来他妈妈开始厌倦他，也质疑为什么上天对他的不公平。Walter的一生也被他父母影响深远。Walter的父亲Eric过世后，Sarah也在不久后跟着过世。Walter为了不让Jesus带走他的妈妈，就不离开妈妈的尸体，最后导致妈妈的身体被鸟粪盖满（自己去读书看为什么）。后来Walter被送进一间专门照顾有身心障碍的人，可是里面犹如地狱，过着非人生活。Walter就在那里度过他的余生。
在这本书里，David Cook描述了一个身心障碍的心理以及他的世界观。虽然整个故事情节似乎没什么高潮迭起，不过却暗藏汹涌，以一种很诙谐的方式来写出人性的黑暗面。
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Monday, November 19th, 2007 |
读了Paulo Coelho的Veronika Decides to Die，觉得是一本很有意思的书。以下就quote书中的某些段落，还有很多好料，各位可以去买来读读。
Madness is the inability to communicate your ideas. It’s as you were in a foreign country, able to see and understand everything that’s going on around you, but incapable of explaining what you need to know or of being helped, because you don’t understand the language they speak there.
这书的主要主题就是”Mad”。如果一个人和周围的人有着不同想法做法时，那人是异类。就如我在《神或兽》quote Aristotle讲过的话一样，这异类有两种结果，他不是被万人敬仰的话，就是被众人唾弃。
The Indians believe the murderer to be guilty, not society, not his parents, not his ancestors. Do the Japanese commit suicide because a son of theirs decides to take drugs and go out and shoot people? The reply is the same: no! And, as we all know, the Japanese will commit suicide at the drop of a hat. The other day, I read that a young Japanese man killed himslef because he had failed his university entrance exams.
什么是文化？文化就是一个社群里的某些行为、信仰、思维。文化不是一天两天就有的。在英文里，文化叫做‘Culture’。而Culture的另外一个意思就是培育/耕种。文化是慢慢养成的，如果用英文来解释的话，我会说文化是‘man among men’。
Everyone had their own theory about everything, and they believed that their truth was the only one that mattered. They spent days, nights, weeks and years talking, never accepting the fact that, good or bad, an idea only exists when someone tried to put it into practice.
没有自己想法一味跟着众人去做，我觉得可怜。有自己的想法可是什么都不做，我觉得可悲。有自己的想法而且也会去做，我觉得敬佩，就算理念不同。有自己的想法，做了后很成功，我欣赏你。
在这里看到一个印尼人写的文章。
When Malaysia air their famous tourism promotion on TV all over this earth and boldly illustrate a strong statement as the “Truly Asia”, I just stood in awe and even half-admiring the beautiful beach of Langkawi while thinking, “How I wish Indonesia’s Tourism Board has enough money to create such a inviting ad”. However I was a bit displease with “Truly Asia” tagline. So the other country is not really Asia? It seemed Malaysia challenge the rest of South East Asia to stand up.
—— sapimalas: Malaysia: Is it “Truly Asia”?
知不知道马来人其实也不是马来西亚的原住民呢？马来人的定义是什么呢？建议读者篇：《谁才是马来人》。
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Thursday, November 15th, 2007 |
我不是周杰伦迷，其实我是方文山迷。方文山的最新文章将送出十本他的新书——《青花瓷─隱藏在釉色裡的文字秘密》。
你所需要的就是在选出《青花瓷》里自己最喜欢的一句歌词，然后在那篇文章里留言。
我反复读了几次《青花瓷》后，选了这句：“月色被打撈起 暈開了結局”。
为什么在这里公开这个抽奖活动呢？这么做不会让自己制造更多竞争者吗？其实此次抽奖，方文山将从人气歌词里选出十位得奖者。所以你就去那里留下“月色被打撈起 暈開了結局”吧。
Link: 【方道‧文山流】 - 《青花瓷》裡你最喜歡那一句
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Friday, November 2nd, 2007 |
《红楼梦》我一直都没读懂。
《西游记》我反而读得津津有味。
如果有机会我还会再次挑战再读《红楼梦》。
读那些文言文的书很有意思，都要懂到脑去思考。
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Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 |
最近很常买二手书，例如这本P.J. O’Rourke的The CEO of the SOFA，只花了我两块钱。
虽然不是什么很正经的书，不过如果想让自己放松，这是不错的轻松小品，诙谐有趣。
在这里quote几段自己喜欢的段落给各位看看。
Women are successful in the business world because the business world was created by men. Men are babies. And women are… good with kids.
…….
One type of practice for winter driving doesn’t even require any physical activity. It’s strictly a matter of mental preparation. After all, driving on icy roads has a lot to do with how you think about them. Conceive of a metaphor for icy roads so you’ll know how to behave. Think of icy roads as politicians, for instance–crooked, slippery, and treacherous. If you hit a politician on the nost (equivalent to hitting the brake pedal on an icy road), you’ll go to jail. If you kick a politician in the butt (equivalent to putting your foot onto the accelerator), you’ll go to jail also. (Going jail is the equivalent of getting stuck in a snowbank.) Using the politician metaphor, wintertime is one long election day. Do what any sensible person does on election day and stay home.
……
When we gather in a big public crowd, we want the political system to do something. If we wanted to do something ourselves, we’d be at work. If we wanted to learn something, we’d be at school. And if we were really interested in natural resource conervation, we’d conserve some resources by staying home. Politicians don’t fix scientific and economic problems. The last time political types were totally in charge of scientific research and economic planning they built the Chernobyl nuclear plant.
逛二手书店常常有很多惊喜，例如你会发现一些便宜的好书，或者一些已经绝版的经典书，甚至你会有艳遇。
读这本书时必须对当时美国的情况有大概的了解，还有对一些历史上重大的事件有些认识，不然这本书是不会达到你的笑点的。
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Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 |
这本《Evelen Minutes》（十一分钟）是Paulo Coelho的另一本作品。这里面包含了一个妓女对性的探讨。
Paulo Coelho在他的作品里并不常写关于性爱的东西，他觉得这话题虽然很有趣，可是写起来并不简单。书名Eleven Minutes是讲述一个妓女与顾客那做爱的十一分钟。
书里说，每个人都会做出自己的选择，朝着自己的梦想出发，可是有时候无可奈何的你选择的和你想要的并不同，然后自己选择堕落下去。每个人心里都有些渴望的东西，永远都不会满足。
书里有句话觉得满有意思的：“people talk as if they knew everything, but if you dare to ask a question, they don’t know anything.”
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Wednesday, July 4th, 2007 |
又败了一次家，买了Carol Bolt的《The Book of Answers
》。
这本书什么这样神奇呢？就是你有什么问题你问了一下然后随便翻一页来给自己一个答案。
1. Hold the CLOSED book in your hand, on your lap or on a table. 把关住的书握在手上，或者腿上或者在桌子上。
2. Take ten or fifteen seconds to CONCENTRATE on your question. Questions should be phrased in the following style: ‘Is the job I’m applying for the right one?’ or ‘Should I Travel this weekend?’ 用十或十五秒时间来专心问问题。问题应该如下：“我申请的工作是对的吗？”或者“这个星期六我应该旅行吗？”
3. While visualizing or speaking your question (one question at a time), place ONE HAND palm down on the book’s front cover and STROKE THE EDGE of the pages, back to front. 当在问问题时（在一个时间内只有一个问题），把你的手掌向下放在书的前页书皮上，然后慢慢的在书页角由后到前移动着。
4. When you SENSE the time is right, simply open the book and there will be your answer. 当你觉得时间对了，你就随便把书打开然后你就会看到你的答案。
5. REPEAT the process for as many questions as you have. 重复同样的步骤来问更多问题。
我觉得这本书很神，当朋友用华语来问时，我鸟他说：“你用华语问他怎么懂？”然后当他翻开书时竟然出现这个答案：“Your answer might be in other languages”。
那我现在问一个问题，“Should I Buy This book As a gift to My Readers?”
答案是：“Yes. But don’t force it.”（要，可识别勉强）
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