January 2011 Reads

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

I just read this now, but well, better late than never. Despite the plot and character inadequacies people might condemn the series for, it’s still a delightful read. I rediscovered why I loved Harry Potter so much when I was a kid.

For me, there’s just no other book which has that kind of magic and pull and hugeness of a world that can envelope me in quite the same way. It’s always enough to make me forget merienda and stay in bed the whole day. Of course, there are countless more insightful and profound books, but this series has an altogether different, definitely special place in my heart.

Also, I just have to say: a) I am glad I never hated Snape in the prequels, and b) I did not cry. Haha!

A Wrinkle in Time, Many Waters, and An Acceptable Time, all by Madeleine L’Engle

I liked A Wrinkle in Time best. The parts on the dystopian universe reminded me so much of Lois Lowry’s The Giver, which I also liked.

The planet Sandy and Dennys stumbled into in Many Waters reminded me of the world in His Dark Materials, the one Dr. Mary Malone went to. Well, come to think of it, both books are YA fantasy and retold Bible stories. Hmm.

I didn’t like An Acceptable Time so much, mostly because Zachary Gray is an ass.

Warrior of the Light: A Manual by Paulo Coelho

This is one of my favorites:

“The most important quality on the spiritual path is courage,” said Ghandi.

The world seems threatening and dangerous to cowards. They seek the false security of a life with no major challenges and arm themselves to the teeth in order to defend what they think they possess. Cowards end up making the bars of their own prison.

The warrior of light projects his thoughts beyond the horizon. He knows that if he does not do anything for the world, no one else will.

So he fights the Good Fight and he helps others, even though he does not quite understand why.

The Plague by Albert Camus

Currently reading. Stuck on page 150, thereabouts, for a good two weeks now. I just find disease depressing.

Anyhow, here is a very, very good quote:

The evil that is in the world always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding. On the whole, men are more good than bad; that, however, isn’t the real point. But they are more or less ignorant, and it is this that we call vice or virtue; the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.

Again:

…the most incorrigible vice being that of an ignorance that fancies it knows everything and therefore claims for itself the right to kill. The soul of the murderer is blind; and there can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-sightedness.

This is said so perfectly, I want to cry. I could very well love the book just for this quote alone; never mind the plague and the disease.

5.5 books in 27 days

Which is a pretty good start for my 2011 reading, if I may say so myself. :)