I challenged myself to read 20 books in 2019 -- here's what happened.

Back in 2011, I stumbled upon a reading challenge in one of the most unexpected places you could ever imagine -- a dress-your-avatar forum (that I may or may not still visit today) -- and it piqued my interest. Not only was I a self-proclaimed 'book nerd' back then, I was also genuinely curious to know how many books I could actually finish within a year.

I don't really remember the titles that I read that year, but I do remember that I managed to reach my target of 20 books in the end (it was a close call -- I had to include my 'Basic Themes of the Quran' textbook just to reach said target lol).

But that was it. I didn't repeat the challenge again the next year, or the year after that. I guess knowing that I could reach whatever targets I set up for myself was enough back then -- and so I moved on with my life. I didn't think about the reading challenge again until last year -- 2019.

Eight years had gone by since I last did the challenge, and I started to wonder if I had grown at all as a reader within that period of time. To be very frank, I used to only read fiction, and nothing else. What's worse, I've noticed that I've started to lose interest in reading altogether (except for the occasional cheesy fanfics). I used to get all excited whenever I encountered a bookstore, but nowadays, while I'd still browse through the titles, I find myself leaving the store empty-handed more often than not. I've even noticed that whenever I did purchase a book, I did so just to appease the nagging voice in my head that's yelling, "But you're a BOOK NERD, you HAVE to buy SOMETHING!"

I'd become someone who'd buy books just because I wanted to live up to some sort of expectation that I'd set up for myself. In truth, there wasn't much left of that book-lover in me.

And so with this realisation, and a couple of perfectly-timed events, I decided to challenge myself to read 20 books in 2019. Here's what happened!

~*~

IIUM Kuantan Library Open Day 2018

This was how it all started, really -- with a bit of spring-cleaning!

I saw an ad for the Library Open Day on Facebook and thought, well, why not take part? The Open Day included a book drive, where you can donate and even exchange books with others.

Our bookshelves at home were filled with books that we've been meaning to donate for years; we just hadn't found the right time to do it, or the proper place to donate them. So this was more than perfect! While I was at home, I went through our bookshelves and picked out titles that I felt were no longer of interest to any of us.

I ended up donating 38 titles to the library, and got 5 books in exchange -- which wasn't all that bad!

~*~

Big Bad Wolf KL 2018

Now that I've freed up some space on the bookshelves at home, it was time to stock up on some new books! Coincidentally, in December 2018, the Big Bad Wolf himself rolled into a nearby town~ so my brother and I went to check it out.

The place was huuuge!! We also went very early in the morning (very late?? idk) on a weekday, like around 2-3AM, I think? So there weren't many people around. We took our time and I came home with a bunch of titles that made it into my 2019 Reading Challenge.

This was it, really, the event that pushed me to finally starting my reading challenge. I've got new books that I was actually excited to read, so I decided to really commit to it. I should also mention that I've got quite a number of unread books lying around at home -- I was determined to read at least one or two of these abandoned titles, just to clear my conscience lol

~*~

January 2019:

The reading challenge begins!

I kicked things off with a re-read of one of my favourite book series as a kid: Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. This title may be familiar to you, because it has been adapted into a movie in 2004 and a Netflix series more recently in 2017.

I can't remember exactly what year I discovered the series, but I did remember where I bought the first volume (The Bad Beginning): it was at a gift shop at the Seremban R&R (South Bound). It came as a surprise to the whole family that a gift shop at an R&R had a book section!

The reason this particular book caught my eye was the warning on its back cover. The author warns the reader not to read his books, because they contain nothing but misery.

Dear Reader, 

I am sorry to say that the book you are holding in your hands is extremely unpleasant. It tells an unhappy tale about three very unlucky children. Even though they are charming and clever, the Baudelaire siblings lead lives filled with misery and woe. 

...It is my sad duty to write down these unpleasant tales, but there is nothing stopping you from putting this book down at once and reading something happy, if you prefer that sort of thing.

The story follows Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire, who lost their parents and home in a tragic fire. At a glance, it all seemed like an accident, but several books into the series, it became apparent that something dark and mysterious was going on -- the Baudelaire parents seemed to have been a part of a secret organization, and had enemies that wanted them dead.

And if you want to avoid a world of confusion and hurt, I'm telling you now to NOT READ THE BOOKS, I swear to God. Don't be like me. Just, don't even start. You'll be happier, trust me. I thought his warnings were a joke, but look who's sad and confused and unhappy now?? Yep...this gal! D:

Sadness and confusion aside, this series did introduce me to one of the most wonderful online communities ever back when I was an adolescent. We exchanged theories about the plot of the books (back when it was still on-going), sent birthday wishes to the author, and wrote our own fanfictions about what happened After.

I don't frequent the forum anymore these days, but I did visit again after the Netflix adaptation aired. I was shocked and saddened to learn of the death of one of the OG members of the forums, but I was also pleased to know that the members of the forum and her family managed to contact the Netflix people, and in the end, her name was sneaked into one of the Netflix episodes as a tribute (M. Howarth, on the top right).

Now if that isn't an awesome community, I don't know what is.

(P/S: If you were thinking of going to the gift shop with the book section at the Seremban R&R...well, there's no need. It is now a Ramly Burger shop!)

The next book I read was World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks. I think I bought this at a thrift store at home, and just never got around to reading it. It was good and I love how the story jumps from one country to another.

As the title suggests, it's an oral history of the zombie war, so the main character goes around interviewing survivors of the war. The book is therefore made up of several short stories, to be precise -- some parts were interesting as HECK (like North/South Korea part and the South African part of the story), while some parts were like 'meh' and I ended up skipping them lol

I also read A Glimpse of the Past: my life before Parkinson's by Susie Chandy. This is one of the books I got from the Library Open Day. It was okay, I guess. It's one of my 'filler books' for this challenge -- short books that I decided to read in order to achieve my targets quicker lol

And with that, our tally is 3 books in January 2019!

~*~

February 2019:

the month I got terribly sick

I remember February 2019 quite vividly, because I got really sick at the start of the month and had to spend a lot of time resting at home. As a result, I managed to finish some of the heavier books during this resting period.

I started with the book that I bought in 2018 at Phnom Penh airport, on the way back from a humanitarian mission in Cambodia.

If there's one thing you should know about me, it's the fact that I am mildly fascinated by tragic stuff. I mean, I guess that's not really a unique thing or anything, but it is part of who I am. I just find it interesting, and I'd usually try to find documentaries, books, or articles online about these things. Whenever I encounter these things, there's just this overwhelming sense of, "I must know exactly what happened, what led to the stuff actually happening, and what consequences it had on people/places afterwards!"

Some examples of these events include: the assassination of the last royal family of Russia, and the consequent rumours of possible survivors; the sinking of the Titanic; the Chernobyl nuclear disaster; and the formation of North and South Korea, and the on-going war between them.

Having said all this, I was of course fascinated by the history that Cambodia has. I admit that I knew very little of the Khmer Rouge and the terror that they'd brought upon their own country and people before I went to this humanitarian mission. A visit to the Choeung Ek Genocidal Center managed to fix that.

I purchased two books at the airport, and I've only finished one of them. Master of Confessions: The Making of the Khmer Rouge Torturer by journalist Thierry Cruvellier details the trial of Duch, the Chief Prison Officer of S-21 (the central prison for the communist Khmer Rouge).

The book includes accounts from survivors of the S-21 prison, the relatives of the Khmer Rouge victims, and, of course, accounts from Duch, the Chief Prison Officer who denied ever torturing any of the prisoners, despite mounting evidence against him.

This book was followed by another heavy title, this time focusing on North Korea. Dear Leader: Poet, Spy, Escapee -- A Look Inside North Korea is a book by a North Korean defector, Jang Jin-sung, who used to work in the propaganda division (among others) of North Korea.

The author used to have access to forbidden books in his office back in North Korea -- books from the outside world, with certain things blacked out with permanent markers -- to help him write propaganda aimed to gain sympathy from the South Korean government.

These books weren't meant to be taken out of the office -- but Jang Jin-sung lend said book to his friend, who lost it by accident on the Pyonyang train. As the book would undoubtedly be traced back to Jang Jin-sung (they kept track of who was the last one to check out the book, if I'm not mistaken) once it was found, the two friends decided to flee North Korea.

The author, Jang Jin-sung, managed to defect to South Korea in 2004, and still lives there today.

February was also the month during which I managed to finish one of the thickest books in my collection: Under the Dome by Stephen King. I bought this books way back in 2015-2016, during a Popular Bookstore sale in Kuantan, I think. Stephen King has quickly become one of my favourite authors nowadays, and if you're not into horror stories, you might want to try some of the thrillers that he's written.

Under the Dome tells the story of a town that suddenly gets trapped under an invisible dome. Anything or anyone that gets too close to it would be zapped to death/destruction. With depleting fresh air and food supplies, dirty politics start to rear its ugly head in the small town. A war starts between the corrupted mayor (backed up by the police department) and the underdogs of the town, which included an ex-army diner chef, the lady who ran the local newspaper business, and a bunch of local kids, to name a few. I was at the edge of my seat the whole time, and let me remind you, this book has over 1,000 pages lol! Definitely give it a read if you're into thriller books!

Another Stephen King book followed this one, which was Finders Keepers. This is the second book in a trilogy about a retired detective. In the first book (Mr. Mercedes), the main character, a retired detective, gets taunted by a killer who drove a Mercedes car into a crowd of people lining up for a job fair -- it's the one case that he's never managed to solve. Finders Keepers follows the detective and his newly-found private detective agency. It's not bad -- I haven't read the final installment of the trilogy yet, and I'm hoping the library carries the title so I can do just that!

Our tally so far: 4 books in February; 7 books in total!

~*~

March 2019:

the Wolf returns!

Yep! In March, the Big Bag Wolf travelled to Pahang, and I had the chance to visit the book fair (again!) with one of my friends~

I picked up some more titles, this time focusing on history books and biographies, having discovered that I don't quite mind them and that I actually enjoyed reading them!

One book that got me hooked was Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie. It is a biography about one of Russia's most prominent monarchs. She was wronged by the former queen (her husband's aunt, Elizabeth Petrovna, who basically stole her firstborn) and her own husband (who became an incompetent king after the death of his aunt -- not to mention he also openly talked about divorce in front of his ministers and had an affair with one of Catherine's ladies-in-waiting). Despite all the odds being against her, Catherine managed to capture the hearts of the Russian people and even managed to overthrow her useless husband. She ruled as the Empress of Russia for 34 years -- the longest of any Russian female leader! You can't help but root for her as you read this book, seriously~

I also picked up a Regency-era romance book at the Big Bad Wolf, called The Vicar's Daughter by Josi S. Kilpack. I had high hopes for it, but the plot turned out to be typical and the characters very disappointing. I've read better fanfictions than this, really. 0/10, would not recommend!

Our tally so far: 2 books in March, 9 books in total!

~*~

April 2019:

more North Korea & Stephen King

By April of 2019, I think I've pretty much figured out what kind of books I prefer nowadays: biographies, history books, and Stephen King books~

I've picked up not one, but two books on North Korea at the Pahang Big Bad Wolf (alongside one book about Hitler and another on RMS Lusitania, a British ocean liner that was sunk by a German U-boat during World War I -- I haven't made much progress with both of these books so far, whoops!).

One book, The Invitation-Only Zone: The True Story of North Korea's Abduction Project by Robert S. Boynton, details the experience of a Japanese man, Hasuike Kaoru, who was kidnapped alongside his girlfriend, Okudo Yukiko, by North Korean spies in 1978. It turns out that this is a common thing in North Korea; lots of Japanese citizens were kidnapped along the shorelines, but North Korea denied this for the longest time, up until 2002. Reading this made me extra paranoid, because the North Korean government not only kidnaps Japanese citizens, but foreigners from all over the world. The Kim Jong-nam episode in KLIA reeeaaally adds to the paranoia in me! It's SO close to home -- no scratch that, IT HAPPENED AT HOME!!!

The other book, The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and the Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom (PHEWH that was a mouthful!! A...handful? To type?? It's a long title, is what I'm getting at!) by Blaine Harden, details the story of No Kum Sok, a fighter pilot who flew across the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from North Korea into South Korea during a routine military flight. He is 88 years old today, and lives in Florida, USA.

Hasuike (left) and his girlfriend Okudo,

victims of the kidnapping project by the North Korean government.

No Kum Sok, the fighter pilot who defected to South Korea

by flying his place across the Korean DMZ -- like a total badass.

And the last Stephen King book I read in 2019 was Pet Sematary (yes, it's misspelled on purpose). Let me tell ya... It's super creepy, okay. I decided to read it because the film adaptation was about to be released at that time (starring John Lithgow, no less!!!!) -- whenever I could, I try to read the books first before seeing any movie adaptations, so this was me doing just that.

King tends to drag things out in his books sometimes, and more often than not, you'd find yourself wishing that he'd 'just get to the point already!!!' -- but all that aside, this book just gets under your skin...I mean, REALLY gets under your skin... The most recent movie adaptation made some key changes to the plot, which I totally understand, but I think the original plot is better. Seriously...!!

I don't own a copy of Pet Sematary, by the way -- I borrowed a copy from the university's library; the cover was seriously falling apart...come to think of it, I should've patched it up a bit with some tapes while I had it... Ah well.

Anyway! The tally now is 3 books in April, with a total of 12 books overall!

~*~

May-August 2019:

the long pause

Yeah...You read that right. With 12 books under my belt by April 2019, I stopped reading from May till August. I'm not even sure why, but I'm pretty sure some Real Life stuff kicked in, so I abandoned my reading challenge temporarily.

After this long break, I found it kind of hard to start reading again, and you'll soon see that I ended up reading a lot of 'filler books' just to reach my target of 20 books lol

Your interest just comes and goes when it comes to reading -- just like everything else, I suppose. This especially applies to me at the moment (I'm attempting another reading challenge in 2020) -- all my interest in biography and history books is gone in 2020. Instead, I'm in the mood for children's books, short and delightful ones like Enid Blyton's works. I've been in this mood since December, and you'll see this reflected in the last few books that I read in 2019!

~*~

September-November 2019:

gotta go fast!!!!

Having slacked for 4 months, I started to pick up several filler books and read through them as fast as I could. I started with a YouTuber book that I found in a thrift store -- a very lucky find, considering I had actually gone to Kinokuniya looking for it; I decided to not buy it because it costs RM80!!! It doesn't matter how big of a fan you are -- if the merchandise is worth how many months' worth of lunch and dinner, I ain't buying it!!

Anyway -- I think I bought Dan and Phil's The Amazing Book is Not on Fire for only RM12 at the thrift store! A total bargain!

Zen Cho's Spirits Abroad quickly followed. The book consisted of witty short stories about hantu and langsuir and other local spirits mingling with modern-day people. And yes, the author is a Malaysian~

Another filler book followed this one: M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman is a collection of short fantasy stories. The first story is definitely the strongest, in my opinion. The rest was okay, but not memorable.

So the tally is 3 books for September-November, bringing the overall total to 15 books!!

~*~

December 2019:

we're on the home stretch now!

As I approached December, I really tried my best to finish whatever books I had in mind, but some things are just not meant to be. I was reading two biographies, but I knew realistically that I was going to finish only one of them at the end of the month.

But that's not a reason for me to quit! Oh no!! So I really sprinted through the one biography that I'm more interested in, and looked for other more manageable books to read in order to reach my target of 20 books.

Remember how I told you that I was (and still am!) in the mood for short and fun children's books? Well, it all began with my third Big Bad Wolf trip since starting this reading challenge (yep, I went AGAIN, this time in KL -- same place as the last time -- and it was fruitful, as always!). I found a delightful book called The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry.

Set in the Victorian era, it tells the story of the girls at St. Etheldreda's School for Young Ladies, whose Headmistress died suddenly at breakfast. Instead of reporting the death to the authorities, the girls decided to bury the Headmistress in the garden so that they didn't have to go back home (they each had family conflicts at home) and continued living at the school. The summary on the back cover was just too delightful for me to resist, so I bought it and finished reading it in one night~

Now that I was in the mood for adventurous/witty young adult books, I decided to actually finish reading my copy of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs. I bought this book a while ago, and even managed to read several chapters of the book, only to abandon it because the plot was too slow for me. This time though, I decided to soldier on. It's the first book in the series -- there's like, five or six books in total. I forget.

I thought the first book had a lot of potential, especially The Thing regarding the main character's grandfather -- but I dunno, it just fell flat. The main character is a spoiled brat -- which I don't actually mind, for once! -- but yeah, it's a real shame. I ended up just reading the Wikipedia to know what happens in the other books lol...

I know the first book got turned into a movie -- I might just watch that to see what they changed in the plot to make it more interesting for Hollywood~ hahahaha...

I also managed to quickly read The Terrible Terror Book by M.D. Spenser. This is also one of the books that I got from the Library Open Day back in 2018~ Haven't got much to say about it... It's not as creepy as some of the Goosebumps books I've read in my childhood... It's just -- another filler book, I guess? Yeah~

Moving on... The one biography book that I managed to finish in December was Diana: Her True Story -- In Her Own Words by Adrew Morton. I've always believed that the British Royal Family had something to do with her death... I dunno... Just seems fishy, ya know?

Anyway~ I felt deeply for Diana when I read the book -- the things she had to go through, the treatment she got from Charles... Ugh. I just don't get how people are just OK with the fact that Camilla is married to Charles today. How are William and Harry OK with that?? The stuff she's done to their mother, though! UGH!!

Speaking of the British Royal Family... Things are getting interesting now, no? With the whole Prince Andrew sex (rape) scandal and the whole Harry-Meghan leaving the Family thing, I can't wait to see what happens next and how it affects the dynamics and the structure of the royal family!

Anyway~ I digress!

With the book about Diana, the current total is 19 out of 20 books! I just need one more to reach my target for my reading challenge -- and I was reading Nicholas II: The Last Tsar by Michael Patterson. It's a title that I picked up at the most recent Big Bad Wolf -- it's a book about something I'm really interested in (the last royal family of Russia), it's not a very long book, and the author uses simple language... I should be able to finish it by the end of December...except that my interest in biography and history books have started to wane by this time.

So instead, I decided that the last book should be another re-read -- since I started the whole challenge with the re-read of The Bad Beginning by Lemony Snicket, the last book should also be a re-read~

The book I ended up choosing to close this challenge was J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard. I had fun re-reading it, especially when it came to Dumbledore's forewords for each story, and also his footnotes lol

And with that, we've reached the end of my 2019 Reading Challenge~~~!!

As I've mentioned earlier, I'm currently attempting another reading challenge for the year 2020. My target is still the same (20 books), and I've got one book down (an Enid Blyton book, lol!! -- told you I'm still in the mood for simple stories!). I'm also slowly reading the Tsar Nicholas book each night (well, almost) before bed~

I'm looking forward to the next KL Big Bad Wolf, whenever that will be, hehe. But of course, I still have TONS of unfinished books lying around, so I shouldn't have any problem finding something to read for this year's challenge!

~*~

Stats for Nerd

(because I can lol)

I thought it'd be fun for me to plot some graphs to find out about my reading habits from my 2019 reading challenge. While it's not much, I think it'd be fascinating to compare it to this year's books (if I managed to finish the 2020 reading challenge, that is!) just to see how/if my reading habits have changed.

I guess the logical place to start is by charting how many books I read per month in 2019, so here it is:

With the amount of 'filler books' that I read in December while I sprint towards the finishing line, it's no surprise that December becomes the month during which I read the most books, LOL!! We'll see if this becomes a trend this year, eh~

The next thing I could think of is plotting the books by genres. Let's see, shall we~~

Again, with the amount of 'filler books' that I squeezed into my list in the end, I'm not surprised that my reading list is dominated by children's books hahaha~

I also find it hard to categorise some of these books -- the ones whose genres are not immediately given by a simple Google search reeeaaally got me scratching my head... Mainly because the books I've read tend to fall somewhere between history/biography. Ah well -- I got there in the end~

~*~

Aaaaaand that concludes this long-ass blog post LOL!!

If I had to pick my favourite book(s) for this challenge, it would be Catherine The Great for non-fiction, and Under the Dome for fiction~

My hope for this year's reading challenge is to find some Malay history books -- wish me luck! (I am a naturally slow reader, but for some reason, I am an ever slower reader when it comes to Malay books!!!)

I also gotta say that if you've got the chance to go to Big Bad Wolf, go for it!! Books are (sadly) quite expensive here in Malaysia, so book fairs such as BBW is a really good opportunity for you to grab as many titles as your budget allows! For real, though!

If you've got kids, introduce them to books as early as you can! (My own lovely Mak introduced me and my sister to books at a very young age by telling us bedtime stories~) Buy them as many books as you can, and with any luck, they'll grow fond of books as they grow older!!

Okay, I think that's all for me... (Seriously, this has been a REALLY long one...)

Till next time!! 

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

Charm bracelet

~*~

To be honest, I have always loved the idea of charm bracelets.

There's something oddly fun in having a bracelets with charms that represent who you are -- even more exciting is the hunt you'd do to find these charms (usually in shopping malls, in my case).

I only started to really considered getting one late last year. I was on tumblr just scrolling through "tumblr.com/tagged/charm-bracelet" and I guess I got too excited at those pretty images that I decided to go through my and my sister's collection of old trinkets to see if anything can be used to make a charm bracelet.

Finally I managed to detach a short length of metal chain from an old neckalce -- my makeshift bracelet -- and then I went on to look for old lockets that my sister and I don't really wear anymore to decorate the bracelet. The "Q" one in the picture is one of the lockets I found in our old trinket collection (my name has a Q in it, and I think it's a unique letter that not many people have in their names, so).

The result was an amateur charm bracelet, but I was damn proud of it anyway.

Later, my sister and I went to Alamanda to search for some proper charms, and I did found some that sort of appealed to me. But I gotta tell you, for a supposedly "in" shopping mall, Alamanda's got very little to offer when it comes to charm bracelets.

(Unless you count the Pandora ones -- which are, a) waaay too expensive and b) not even that pretty.)

Anyway, I ended up buying some of the charms in the picture above: the letters T and K (my nickname back at school), the robot (I named it after a character in The Hour), and a cheese charm (not in the picture).

I also swapped the makeshift metal chain bracelet for a nicer bracelet. It's been in our trinket box for so long, I didn't really wear it much. Actually it was my roommate's suggestion to put the charms to the purple bracelet, and I thought, why not?

I later found the treble charm (I play the piano) and the book charm (I'm quite the bookworm) at East Coast Mall. ECM's collection managed to put Alamanda to absolute shame: not only were there MUCH MORE to choose from, it was a lot cheaper too, I kid you not.

I've been looking to expand my charm collection since then, but I haven't really found any charms that describe me. I bought the rose charm and the key charm on a whim at Meru's TESCO. It's a lot cheaper than both Alamanda and ECM's charms, but again, nothing appealed to me.

(I guess the rose charm kind of describes me now because I have been making tissue flowers~~~ Maybe I'll write more on that later? Yeah. The key charm is just nice, I suppose. I can always say that it represents my (now-non-existent) love for Kingdom Hearts. . .)

The leaf charm on top isn't actually a charm, even though it looks like one. It's actually from a brooch that, again, I never really wore. And again, the leaf doesn't really represent anything. It's just nice, I think. xD

I've been looking for a piano charm, but haven't found any yet. I found a violin, a harp, a guitar, and even a trumpet charm, but no piano charms so far. ~sigh

Ooh, but I saw a fountain pen charm at ECM once! Think I'm gonna buy it because, a) I do love to write, and b) I do write calligraphy stuff.

I think I'll but the pen charm once I return to uni...

(It'd be super awesome if I can get my hands on a pair of headphones charm, eh?)

~*~

Anyway, what really drove me to make this post is this:

Harry Potter book charm!

Look at 'em!

Who doesn't want one of these?!

I have seen book charms before on tumblr and I've always wondered how they made them. I never bothered to investigate more, but tonight, I did because, a) my old friend recently just told me that she's into this polymer clay business, making key chains and whatnot, and b) I wanted to expand my charm collection!

So...

I really wanna make this.

It looks easy enough, but I'm just a tad bit intimidated by the whole polymer clay thing because I've never used it before.

But other than that, it looks doable, don't you think? :3

I think I'll go for PoA if I ever decide to make a HP charm. Because it's one of my favourite books in the series~~

I wonder if I can get away with making a reeeaaaaally small book charm. Like...will the cover be visible? Hmmmm...

~*~

Well, that's it for now, I guess.

I'm gonna try to get my hands on some of that polymer clay before the week is over...

Okay.

BYEEEEEEEE

You're READING and WATCHING the WRONG stuff! D:<

Hello. :)

It's been a long day today. We've spent almost the whole day in the frickin' car, weh. (=__=). The whole family slept at Meru yesterday and on Saturday morning, we left for Sabak Bernam to attend one of mak's staff's wedding. The scenery was boring -- just kampung houses and coconut trees and palm trees...and the road was...really straight. Which was boring, too.

After the wedding, we went to Abang Ari's shop because Abah wanted new spectacles. When we arrived, he and Kak Mas were rather busy so we waited a bit. I think Along and I managed to flip through every available reading material in Abang Ari's shop. XD

Ujai seronoklah dapat kaco Abang Ari pasal Mafia Wars... (=__=).

Anyway, after that we went home. Seriously, today felt so long.

~*~

Now...back to the title of this entry: I was stalking just now. You know, blogs. Most of the bloggers were teenagers -- 15 to 18 years old. And I stubled upon the words New Moon, not once, but many many many times lah.

Ish, TENSION AKU. D:

If you don't already know, I am not a fan of the Twilight 'Saga'. In fact, I dislike it with a great passion. :)

Actually the concept is already okay -- like, a girl falling in love with a vampire -- but everything else is just K.O.

What do I have against the series? Well, first, Stephenie Meyer (who will be refered to as SMeyer from now on) destroys mythological beings. Like, vampires don't effing sparkle in the sunlight, okay? They BURN in the sunlight. Plus, SMeyer simply didn't do a good enough reaserch before she wrote the series.

IF you're going to say, "This is a fantasy novel! Anything is possible!", well, it's okay, but really -- mythology is a study of myths. People DO study them. You do NOT simply screw up something like that.

If you're still rooting for the fantasy-novel-anything-can-happen rebuttal, well...all I can say is SMeyer doesn't do her research very well. Regarding her sparkling vampires, here's what she has to say:

“My reasoning was, why should the sun burn them? That seemed like a very mystical kind of thing, and my vampires are more science than magic to me."

"Their skin hardens into a diamond-like substance (only harder). This material has prism-like qualities. The sun does not damage the skin regardless of the reflecting.”

Those are SMeyer's words -- she's said it herself that her vampires are based on science rather than magic.

The Skin
So Meyer's vampires (who will be refered to as Meyerpires from now on) have "diamond-like" skin that has "prism-like" qualities, yes? And if I'm not mistaken, Edward Cullen could run and jump from tree to tree pretty quickly, yes?

Well...if their skin is made of diamon-like substance (and HARDER, too, she says!), how on earth could Edward Cullen move so fast? Diamonds aren't exactly flexible. They are HARD. Meyerpires shouldn't even be able to move.

Why they shouldn't be able to have a daughter. AT ALL.

Another thing that contradicts SMeyer's "science-based" vampires is Bella and Edward's daughter, Renesme Cullen.

Now. Vampires ARE dead, yes?

Bella DID mention that Edward's body was cold, yes?

Okay. Edward's been a Meyerpire for decades, AND he's a virgin, ZOMG. Now, if unused, the sperm would only survive inside the testes for a few days, let's say between 3-7 days. Outside the body, they survive a few hours. Inside the female, they can survive up to three days.

So...how old is Edward supposed to be in the series again? 107? How could he possibly have a daughter if he's dead? How could he possibly have a daughter if he's been a virgin for 107 years, if the unused sperm could only survive between 3-7 days ONLY? How could his sperm have survived that long?

Additionally, sperms need a specific temperature to survive, around 36 degrees celcius (if I'm not mistaken). So, Edward has been dead for 107 years -- how the freak could his sperm have ever survived if his body's been as cold as a corpse that long?? It's ILLOGICAL!

What science, SMeyer?? What science? You said your vampires are MORE SCIENCE THAN MAGIC -- then WHERE IS THE SCIENCE IN THIS????????

So:


This is why I dislike Twilight. SMeyer is not that good of a writer. Compare this poor excuse for a sparkly vampire and a vampire daughter (whose existence, I think, is just so that SMeyer could make up for the lack of plot in the books...just to take off the readers' minds off the non-existing plot...) to JK Rowling's carefully-planned characters.

Why don't they SEE this??? D:

~*~

The second reason why I dislike the series -- yes, I DO have other reasons... I don't just go on saying, "Oh, she can't write! I hate her books already!" -- is because SMeyer sends the wrong messages to the readers. I really would worry if my daughter is a rabid Twilight fan. Here's why:

Why did Bella fall in love with Edward?

An easy question -- which has an easy answer: Because Edward was a handsome guy.

I don't think Bella loved Edward for who he was inside -- she only loved him for who he was outside. I mean, don't tell me after reading the first 300+ pages of Twilight, you've FAILED to notice the frequency of Bella's "ZOMG, Edward is so HOT~!" ?

Obsessing over someone just because of the looks? That's just shallow.

Bella couldn't survive without Edward. 8(

In fact, she even jumped off a freakin' cliff and nearly got herself drowned when Edward left her in New Moon!

What kind of message is SMeyer trying to send to her readers? And need I remind you that Twilight falls under the Young Adult category? Young girls with, you know, unbalanced hormones are reading your books, Meyer, couldn't you at least give them a strong, independent heroine?

Imagine what a young, inexperienced Twilight fan who admires characters from books could do if her boyfriend leaves her:

Fan: "Oh, what do I do? My boyfriend's left me! Oh, I know! Bella went cliff-diving when Edward left her, so I might as well do that too!"

And what? The next day, a thirteen-year-old Twilight fan dies??

Let's compare this to Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter.

Ginny had a major crush on Harry in the second book, and yet she was too shy to approach him. In fact, Hermione later revealed to Harry that Ginny had never quite given up on him, even when Harry and Cho got together.

Did Ginny jump off the Astronomy Tower when she found out Harry fancied Cho?

No, she didn't!

Now, let's compare Bella with Hermione, shall we?

When Ron left Harry and Hermione in book 7, what did Hermione do? She "cried for weeks", according to Harry, but she didn't go and deliberately get herself caught by the Death Eaters or anything, did she?

No, she didn't!

My point is, both Ginny and Hermione carried on with their lives even after their love life had crumbled.

What Bella did wasn't just careless and stupid, but it was also selfish. What if she'd drowned when she jumped off that cliff? How would her parents feel about it? Didn't she think about them at all? Was Edward the only one she was thinking of?

Imagine what would have happened if Ginny had jumped off the Astronomy Tower when Harry and Cho got together -- Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and the rest of the Weasley family would surely be devastated. And imagine what would happen to Harry and Ron's friendship!

Ron: "My one and only sister killed herself because of you!"

Harry: "D'you think I want her to jumjp? She's my friend, too!"

Ron: "I hate you! Avada kedavra!"

Harry: "LOL, I is dead!"

And what would have happened if Hermione had given up and gotten herself killed when Ron left her? Harry wouldn't be able to find the horcruxes and the war would go on until Harry's been killed.

Well, thank goodness Ginny and Hermione were smarter than Bella. I mean, look! Don't these two characters make better role-models than Bella Swan??

Let's go back to our thirteen-year-old heart-broken girl. Let's say she reads Harry Potter instead of Twilight. What would she do if her boyfriend leaves her?

Fan: "Oh, what do I do? My boyfriend's left me! Oh, I know! Ginny didn't give up when Harry got together with Cho, and Hermione didn't give up helping Harry finding the horcruxes when Ron left her -- I should do that, too, and be strong!"

~*~

This is just one example of the wrong message SMeyer put in her 'books'. There are a LOT of other bad messages in there (don't get me started...seriously), like

1. Pedophilia (Jacob imprinting on an infant and saying he's destined to fall in love with her)
2. Anti-feminism
3. Abusive relationship (Edward taking out the engine of Bella's truck because he didn't want her to meet her friends...what?)

etc, etc.

I don't just hate it because it's got illogical characters and boring plots and horrible grammar and uselessly long descriptions of how gorgeous Edward is and a Mary Sue for a heroine -- I hate Twilight because of these potentially dangerous messages SMeyer put in the books.

I certainly do NOT want MY children (if I have any) to read this piece of crap disguised as 'literature'. Seriously, for the sake of their young minds, I do not want them to read it.

So people! Why are you guys watching this stuff?? Why are you wasting your money over those books??

Here, Robert Pattison was quoted saying these:

“When you read the book,” says Pattinson, … “it’s like, ‘Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself.’ I mean, every line is liked that. He’s the most ridiculous person who’s so amazing at everything. I think a lot of actors tried to play that aspect. I just couldn’t do that. And the more I read the script, the more I hated this guy, so that’s how I played him, as a manic-depressive who hates himself. Plus, he’s a 108 year-old virgin so he’s obviously got some issues there.”¹

"I read the book and was like “Well this is really dumb, I’ll never ever… This is so pointless going up for the role.”²

Ha-ha. You're great, RPattz. I like you already. 8)

So...the conclusion is:


*sigh* Such was my attempt to convince people to not read this piece of epic failure. If you love your sanity, your children and the civilisation -- well -- become and anti-Twilighter today. 8)

We can still save the Earth, my friends.

~*~

Credits: Azrim's Rebuttals, twilightsucks.com