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i had meant to do this before, but sandy reminded me by asking about “memoirs of a geisha”. so, here are some 30 second reviews.

memoirs of a geisha

overall, i would say i liked it. the first 100 pages were a bit slow for me. it took about that long to get to where the main character was actually becoming a geisha. i found the parts that talked about during world war 2 interesting. it highlighted how wars really aren’t good for anyone. bush? i’ll have to see the movie to see how it compares. as usual, i expect it won’t be as good. the details are, to me, what makes the book worth reading.

is it just me or is everything shit?

i enjoyed this one. there were a few bits about people i didn’t know who they were. the target audience was british. however, the majority of the book revolved around things that aren’t specific to any first world country and equally apply. it’s also an encyclopedia style thing with mostly short entries so would be a good book to have in the bathroom. the unfortunate thing about this book, and similar books, is that it will only be read by people who already agree with the premise, like myself. therefore, you are preaching to the choir. i can’t imagine someone picking up this book and then going, “you know what, i think everything’s shit”. obviously, the book is targeted for truthful humour.

collapse: how societies choose to fail or survive

so far this has been an interesting read. i’m only about 100 pages into it. very detailed and academic, but well written. it should be required reading so that you’re prepared when the u.s. collapses from its own stupidity. hopefully, he covers how to prepare for collapse at the end. you might try watching the pbs series based on his other book “guns, germs and steel“. i haven’t read the book, but the series was excellent.

random

not much happened today. slept 10 hours. the shower sprayer was broken at the flat so i offered to go get a new one. the only flatmate here, loic – french guy, said they weren’t supposed to come to fix it until saturday. is there every really a point to calling the landlord? i sorted it out no problem. the new one rocks. i might have to steal it when i leave.

tomorrow night, i’m thinking about trying to catch the qpr game. i actually didn’t end up getting to see the arsenal v juventus game tonight. unlucky. i couldn’t find a good place to watch it as all the pubs were packed and i still had to eat. i also don’t really like crowded bars. i also just tonight realized a small problem with the fact that there’s not a television in the flat. i won’t have a good way to watch “match of the day”. that’s going to be a problem. i wonder how cheap of a television i can get? however, i was kind of looking forward to not having a tv. maybe i would quit wasting so much time.

stop

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 28th, 2006 at 21:34 and is filed under books, eurotrip-2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.