Archive for the Books Category

หนังสือสิบเล่มในดวงใจ

Posted on Saturday, October 4th, 2014 at 10:37 pm

สคุณแฟน tag มา ก็ลองนั่งเขียนดู แล้วก็พบว่าการทำรายการหนังสือสิบเล่ม ยากกว่าการทำรายการนักเขียนสิบคนมาก เพราะผมมักจะชอบหนังสือหลาย ๆ เล่ม ของนักเขียนคนคนเดียวกัน ดังนั้นจะใช้วิธีการทำรายการหนังสือเล่มเด่นของนักเขียนที่ผมชอบแทนละกันนะครับ มีรูปประกอบเยอะหน่อย อวดชั้นหนังสือ 😛 Read the rest of this entry »

อย่างน้อยที่สุด – at least..

Posted on Monday, November 27th, 2006 at 1:28 pm

How many roads must a man walk down
Before you call him a man?

Blowin’ in the Wind: Bob Dylan [video from youtube]

I’m in love with Pen-eak’s works when I watched “Last Life in the Universe“. I will not express my opinion about the movie here, because this blog entry is not about the movie. When I heard that there is a book which concludes some interview with Pen-eak, and the writer is Worpoj Panpong, I deadly want to read it. So, I bought it and asked a sister of mine to ship it from Bangkok, of course, I asked her to read it also, and she likes it.

Who is Pen-eak ? I believe the easiest way to answer this question is to watch his movies. Of course, I don’t know him personally, but from his interview, his personality which is expressed in the book is very similar with his movie. I didn’t say that he’s perfect or his movies are perfect. There’s many down-side of his life and also some holes in his movies. But, well, as we know, human are imperfect. The different between human and computer is our imperfection. The different between real life and story in movie is also the imperfection of our life. His life is also.

The point is, he accepts his imperfection and lives with it peacefully. Sometime, we know that we’ve problem or short coming in our life, but we just don’t accept it. We should not seek for a perfect life; instead, we should seek a way to live with our life, even it’s imperfect.

Life is a long journey and it’s shorter than we thought. When you found an imperfection in your life, sometime, fix it, sometime, accept it and live with it.

Shopgirl

Posted on Wednesday, June 21st, 2006 at 2:48 pm

“Oh, no … don’t,” she corrects him: “it’s pain that changes our lives”.

The last rhyme of the song “Iris” is still floating in the air when I finish this book by Steve Martin. Some words from the book still stay afloat in my head. When the love triangle happens, the question of choosing and be chosen will be arise. Of course, at least one of the parties will not be so happy of the outcome.

Steve Martin, acclaimed actor and writer, told us the story of three people, who spin around each other by some unspeakable words, or the words that should be spoken but not. The central of this story is a girl, Mirabelle, whose life is so unfounded. With some brief flashback, the writer told us how she was betrayed by her own father, and how she became a “shopgirl” at a glove counter, “selling things that nobody buys anymore…”. Undoubtedly, that is how she looks at herself, especially when the story is moving toward the ending. The second party, Ray Porter, is a rich man who tries to seek a good love, with a lots of definition and restriction. The final party, Jeremy, tells us that, before you can find a true love, you have to accept yourself truthfully.

By describing itself as “a novella”, the book tells the story of the three parties with “realistic and satiric in tone“[1]. Steve martin doesn’t hesitate to contribute a couple pages to detail a daily life of Mirabelle, and uses only one short paragraph to describe the relationship between Marabelle and Ray in a six months period, and how the relationship was getting worse. The pace of the book is, I guess, control by the emotion of the characters, not by any absolution time frame, so sometime, the book goes very slow, so we can absorb the sadness, loneliness, or depressed of a character. On the other hand, the book can go very fast when nothing is important enough to be written down there. The author may allow the readers to use their mind to illustrate the live of each character by themselves.

To conclude, shopgirl is well written and very tasteful. Also, the story is told wisely, and the author doesn’t look down the reader by telling every detail excessively. I was very delighted while reading the book. Finally, I agree that it is not happiness but “pain that changes our lives”.

[1] http://faylicity.com/book/book1/shop.html

A tragic side of the Pooh

Posted on Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 4:00 am


You may wonder why I give the title like this, but you know, Winnie-the-pooh has a sad ending, kind of. If you read both of the Pooh books, Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner, you’d know the ending of the second book, I copy part of it here,

Then, suddenly again, Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world, with his chin in his hands, called out, “Pooh!”
“Yes?” said Pooh.
“When I’m — when — Pooh!”
“Yes, Christopher Robin?”
“I’m not going to do Nothing any more.”
“Never again?”
“Well, not much. They won’t let you.”
Pooh waited for him to go on, but he was silent again.
“Yes, Christopher Robin?” said Pooh helpfully.
“Pooh, when I’m — you know — when I’m not doing Nothing, will you be here sometimes?
“Just me?”
“Yes, Pooh.”
“Will you be here too?”
“Yes, Pooh, I will be, really. I promise I will be, Pooh.”
“That’s good,” said Pooh.
“Pooh, promise you won’t forget about me, ever. Not even when I’m a hundred.”
Pooh thought for a little.
“How old shall I be then?”
“Ninety-nine.”
Pooh nodded.
“I promise,” he said.
Still with his eyes on the world Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh’s paw. “Pooh,” said Christopher Robin earnesstly, “if I — if I’m not quite —” he stopped and tried again — “Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won’t you?”

You may wonder why this is sad. When Christopher Robin said “doing Nothing” (capital N), it has a special meaning, it means the time when Christopher Robin just hang around with Pooh and friends in the Hundred Acre Wood. So, from the ending, Christopher Robin told Pooh that he cannot “doing Nothing” anymore, maybe because he is growing up or he has to go to school, it means that he cannot come and spend time with Pooh and friends as frequent as before. For me, it’s a kind of good bye message, like the story of Puff the Magic Dragon or Jessie, the Yodeling Cowgirl in Toy Story II. When children grow up, their toys, their memory are left behind. That’s sad, isn’t it?

Anyway, it can be interpreted as a promise between friend and friend, that’s whatever happen, they will still be friend and will understand each other, that’s what friend are for, right?