Bookworms ahoy!

Sharing of the books I read in May.


The first book is a Chinese Mandarin book a colleague of mine lent to me titled 处女座的医生是这样的 (This is How A Virgo Doctor is Like) by author 欧阳林. A direct Manglish translation of the title is "A Virgo Doctor is Like This one".


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It's a realtively thin book containing several short stories revolving around a male clinic doctor in Taiwan, who is also the author of the book.

It's a light and easy read. It is just like reading a personal blog really, only in good old hardcopy instead of on monitor screen.

The stories are interesting and about the right length for a quick relaxing read, like when doing business in the loo. =P

Comparing it to blogs, I would say it's about as good as Mr Iron Rod's, slightly better than Kenny's, and worse than mine.

*ehem* =P


I am a big fan of the Dragonlance series of fantasy novels, and I have been slowly going through my collection according to the time line of the series after my shipment of stuff from England arrived last year, and after I have gotten my lazy arse to unpack and sort out the books.

So far, I have gone through The Meetings Sextet, the Preludes (only 5 out of 6 since I don't have the 4th book, yet), the Chronicles Trilogy, and the Legends trilogy. Most of them were rereads.

Yes, I reread story books, novels, comics...

The two Dragonlance books I have gone through this month are rereads, and both by my favourite authors Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. Any book from these two is a must read. =)

The Second Generation picked up the story after the War of the Lance. It contains five stories introducing the offsprings of the Heroes of the Lance and bringing the readers up to speed with the happening in the world of Krynn.


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A little excerpt from The Second Generation that I like:

"He's my son. Those draconians- I was afraid-" Tanis gave up. "How could you understand? You've never been a parent."

"If degenerating into a mindless idiot is what it means to be a parent, I shall certainly take care that I never achieve such a dubious distinction."

The Second Generation is a must read for all Dragonlance lovers, especially those who don't want to miss a thing when reading the following novel.


Dragons of Summer Flame, while following the naming convention of the Chronicles Trilogy, really doesn't follow the Chronicles directly. Do go through the Legends trilogy and The Second Generation before Dragons of Summer Flame.


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Forces of good and evil banded together to fight the father of all Gods for the survival of Krynn, that alone should be enough to get Dragonlance lovers to pick up the book, if the death of at least one of the Heroes of the Lance is not sufficient to draw the attention.

I said 'at least one' because this is a reread and I have read books further down the time line of Dragonlance series and found out about the truth of a certain "death" in this book. I won't spoil it here, of course.

After all, don't you want to find out why the Gods depart Krynn and about the end of an age? The story that led to the beginning of the Age of Mortals without the magic as Kyrnn known it.

Here's a little excerpt from Dragons of Summer Flame that I really like:

"Why do I keep lying to him?" she asked herself miserably. "One lie on top of another. All tiny and harmless to begin with, they seem to be growing in size."

A tiny pile of sand had changed to a mountain of boulders. She had to labor* to keep them in place, for if one shifted, they would fall, tumble down and crush her. Yet the mountain of lies was now a barrier, was keeping her seperated from Palin.

Don't lie, kiddo! Especially to someone you love.

The return of my favourite character, Raistlin, in both Second Generation and Dragons of Summer Flame, is enough reason to mark them as must read but really, Margaret and Tracy delivered again in these books. They are fantastic.


* yes, silly American spelling.