When I finish a (really) good book, I want to share it with someone. I
want to say "this is really something, it blew my mind" or
even "it changed my life" and I can only hope that it can
change yours. I mentioned a few books before, and only in that
context. I don't have a need to
write reviews but I wish I wrote
more about my thoughts on particular books or ideas and concepts
presented in them. I just never got into the habit of writing this
stuff down. That's why I re-read my favorite books often.
These days I was reading a wonderful book,
"The Book
Thief" by Markus Zusak. Death narrates the story of a
little girl growing up in Nazi Germany, and revolves around
books. It reminded me of how I learned to read, my parents had the
presence of mind to buy me a reading primer when I was 4. Unlike some
other countries in the region we don't have dubbed TV shows, instead
everything is subtitled. It didn't take me long to start pairing what
I heard with subtitles displayed on the screen and I learned (or
better to say understood) English by the age of 6. I'm very grateful
for that as today I am able to enjoy most books in their original form
and
language, unspoiled
by translators.
Unfortunately I don't know many people who read, and I even know a
bunch of them that never read a single book. So maybe someone who will
read this doesn't read books either, or just has a short attention
span. If so, maybe I could interest you in some great short stories. I
found
"0wnz0red"
just recently and didn't have the chance to finish it, parts of it
that I did read were excellent. Author
is Cory
Doctorow and just this winter I read his book
"Little Brother" and
loved it. I wanted to write about it earlier too, just didn't have the
chance. By the way it was released under a CC license, so you
can download a copy for free. Reading "0wnz0red" I was
reminded of another short story, by my favorite author. It's called
"Jipi and the
paranoid chip" and it's about a girl that has to disable car alarm
systems, which have personalities of paranoid schizophrenics. It's set
in the (not too distant) future, obviously, and it's a great story.