Reading is Good (Mar 09)

Read 3 novels and 42 comic books since previous review.

Not going to write about the Dragon Balls comic, just going to say it's wicked! =)

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First novel was ruthless.com by Tom Clancy and Martin Greenberg. It's one of the novels from Tom Clancy's Power Plays series.


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The story is about the dark side of business, where the competitor of Roger Gordian went with whatever it takes to bring down Gordian's company, and more. Including but not limited to, corporate takeover, pirate operation, smuggle, kidnap, murder, et cetera.

The story involves high tech communication and sophisticated encryption system. The flow is gripping, the pace fast and often violent.

It's an action-filled novel and there's icing on the cake in the form of Chinese dialect and Malay language since Malaysia and Singapore are among the few countries involved in the storyline.

The authors did their homework well enough, while not getting everything correct, they did fairly well when they tried to include conversations in Chinese dialect and Malay, words like mata puteh, rotan, ah beng, and even the Malaysian/Singaporean beloved lah can be seen in the novel, plus some other.

Tom Clancy delivered another great read.

Quotes from the novel:

"sometimes it's a matter of recognizing when you've gotten a genuine inspiration"

"power itself is never to be feared. Its uses are determined by the hands into which it falls. With passion and intelligence anything is truly possible."

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The second book is only 230 pages long, but it took me forever just to struggle through it.

The Hours by Michael Cunnigham is simply not my cup of tea, being adopted into a movie or what not.


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I finished the novel through sheer stubbornness, my perseverance was sorely tested, I assure you. Took me quite long to finish the book since I could only take so much of it everytime.

The story, what I could understand of it anyway, was of three stories of three women in three different time, throw in AIDS, homosexuality (both lesbian and gay), insanity, suicide, and just mash them together whichever way you like, the results would be the novel.

Definately not a pleasure read for me. I felt like pulling my hair out (what's left of it anyway) and go crazy if I read the novel for too long.

Maybe some artsy-fartsy people would like this book, and maybe Nelson/Nancy too since it has homosexuality, but for me, it's just...

*Urk!*

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I flew through the 468 pages of the third novel though, it was a blast!

The 5th Horseman by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro is about a psycho killer, the Night Walker, who walked the corridor of hospitals to commit murder by giving the wrong and lethal medication to the patients, and watched them die.


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The storyline was fantastic, one plot after another, pacing so well and written in that short chapter style that I love. It's simply a page turner.

I will probably be scared if I ever had to be hospitalised, thanks to the novel.

A fantastic read!

Quotes from the novel:

"You make peace with the fact that love doesn't conquer all, or that life can be unfair... And somehow you move on. You move on."