A little before Christmas, Mig of eWritings tagged me with an interesting meme, one aimed at preventing people from wasting money on books that have no real value to offer them.

I’ve been lucky enough to have only bought books that either taught me something, or made me dream, or laugh, or think. I’ve never seen a book as a bad investment, unless I count some crappy text books. But those don’t count, as I didn’t exactly bought them because I really wanted to.

In order to complete the task, I thought of helping book lovers save money by offering advice that’s in the spirit of the meme, but doesn’t quite follow its guidelines to the letter. I hope Mig does not mind, as she means the world to me.

So here it goes: if you’re Romanian and want to buy a translated book but speak the language it was written it, don’t waste your money! Buy the original version through Amazon of whatever comes to mind and read it. It will save it quite some disappointment. Continue reading

Popularity: 7% [?]

Relentless is a crime/thriller novel written by Simon Kernick. I discovered this book (mine has the exact same cover) in front of a pet store in Oludeniz. The owner was selling used books for one Turkish lira each (about 1.5 EUR) to raise money for an animal charity. I got three books from there and gave an extra lira for the sake of the animals.

It was an interesting read about what cruel, scary and out of the ordinary things can happen to careless man who has no idea what crimes are going on in near him. It is also a story about what seems to be a perfect relationship is actually on the verge of a major break down, with hidden affairs and divorce plans.

Everything happens in a few days, the rythm is allert and it really is the kind of book you can’t put down once you’ve started it. But I don’t know if I’d read a second book by Kernick. At the end of Relentless, there was an excerpt from his recently published (at that time) novel and the beginning seemed to follow the same pattern as the book I had finished. An initial paradise that turns into the mother of all crimes, all happening in a couple of days. It’ reminded me of Dan Brown, whose Angels and Demons is written using the same type of pattern as The Da Vinci Code.

I did love reading a book in British English for a change, I missed both the spelling and some of the phrases .

Have you read a different book by Kernick? What do you think?

Popularity: 10% [?]

I had seen Haruki Murakami novels of book store shelves years before I bought my first. Quite a few of my friends had read one or more and warmly recommended his works. So I finally bought one of his novels a few months back. The title simply took me by surprise: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. An interesting combination of words as Joanna Young mentioned on Twitter. And you can’t imagine what a special sound it has in Romanian!

This is the story of two very different worlds: the first one, Hard-Boiled Wonderland, is what the world we know is supposed to be: modern Tokyo ruled by a war over information. Its System governs everything and sends out its Computecs (human data processor/encryption systems whose unique encryption key is their mind) in search for fresh information, while the Semiotecs, who are mostly fallen Computecs are trying to steal data from them. Incredible research and modern technology mixed with underground, human eating creatures of extraordinary and terrifying beliefs, the INKlinkgs.

The second world, the End of the World, is actually a city surrounded by a dark wall, where everyone has their given place and follow strict rules. Unicorns come inside the city every day and have to leave it at night. No one can leave the city and once you arrive there, you are separated from your shadow. The shadow dies and once it’s dead, you lose your soul. Every rule seems normal to the inhabitants, no one doubts them or even things of changing them.

Haruki Murakami creates two amazing worlds and takes readers by surprise with the twisted yet clear plot, the complex possibilities and the simple life choices characters make. I’d tell you more of this troubling book, but I’m afraid I’d allow too many important details to be guessed, when discovering them page after page is much more entertaining. If you come across this book, you should definitely read it and let me know what you’ve thought of it.

Disclaimer: I haven’t given up on the initial challenge, but as my glasses are broken and it takes three weeks to get new ones, each book might take longer than a week

Popularity: 9% [?]