Dear Grandma,

Abandoning mr Jobs

Okay, I have been plowing my way through the Steve Jobs biography for quite some time now and I have had it with this book.

I grow increasingly frustrated with Jobs the more I get to know about his past and how horribly he would act and treat people. He would berate his employees and put himself on a pedestal because he knew he wasn’t stupid and had creative ideas for the future. The book makes him sound like he thought himself a gift to mankind.

I won’t go on, because this will just go to an incredibly unpleasant place so I’ll just end it here. Maybe I’m just sensitive to biographies as I don’t tend to read them at all..? I don’t know. All I know is that I will probably say some really mean things about Jobs if I keep reading the book.

So I decided to give up on it. I might pick it up later on when I’m less irritable but I’ve learned my lesson on forcing yourself to read a book you absolutely detest….COUGH.

So on to the next one!

I’ve been dying to read the Book Thief (by Markus Zusack) for quite a while, and now was a better time than any. So far it seems rather promising, it has been written with well-chosen words and beauty, a real difference to what I’ve been reading for the past few months.

Let’s see if I get disappointed this time.

Hunger Games…The movie!

I finally got to see the Hunger Games yesterday!

Yes, I know I’m probably one of the last people who’s actually read the books who got to see the movie but it was worth the wait!

[image source]

The actors were great and fit the rolls like a hand in a tailor-made glove, all besides president Snow….. He’s supposed to be evil, how can you take him to be an evil person when they made him look like Santa Claus’ younger brother?

All in all I really liked the movie and how it managed to follow the first book pretty well. I’m not sure if I agree with the general “OH MY GOD THE MOVIE IS SO AWESOME IT’S LIKE A UNICORN THAT SHOOTS FREE CHOCOLATE OUT OF ITS HORN”-praise that it’s been getting lately but I liked it enough to want to see it again. If nothing else, I’ll probably read the books again…

I’m mostly glad that I didn’t start bawling my eyes out in the middle of the movie. They didn’t make the sad parts all too sad [besides, I think I’m pretty cried-out from reading the books…] so I didn’t ruin the movie for the people next to me.

Speaking of books, I’m still on the Steve Jobs one. I really have incredibly mixed feelings about him. Actually no, I have mostly negative feelings about Jobs right now. I’m about one fifth into the book and I am getting more agitated and annoyed at him by the page. I have no idea how anyone could put up with his arrogance and horrible personality. The thought that he even saw himself as an “enlightened” person and called everyone around him “shithead” doesn’t make me like him more, and even his brilliant innovations can’t overshadow his dark personality. I know one shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but really, how horrible can you get?

Moving on to the next book, Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.

Finally finished Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu. I don’t know what I was expecting when I picked that book up. I just needed something happier than the Bell Jar, I guess….. I don’t exactly regret reading Breadcrumbs [I do, however- regret reading the Bell Jar…This can never be emphasized enough…], I just didn’t appreciate it?

I think that maybe a much younger Ashley would like the book. Probably not love it, but she wouldn’t hate it either.

Okay I didn’t hate it.

Breadcrumbs in a nutshell is; a book about a girl (Hazel) who has lost her best friend (Jack) after an evil monster creates a magic mirror that shows all evil in the world and accidentally breaks it into a gazillion pieces, scattering it all over the world. A shard of mirror lands in Jack’s eye and his heart changes for the worse, until he is abducted by the ‘evil’ snow witch [think Narnia..] …. Hazel is of course the only one who notices that Jack is actually gone and runs into the forest looking for him. At some point she crosses into the fairytale land that we all wished existed when we were younger, except that she soon realises there is no good that comes out of it. People are not what they seem and they have all their selfish intentions at heart.

Yadda yadda yadda, she finds Jack and brings him home.

I think the book is too much of a rip-off from a lot of different H.C. Andersen stories as well as very vague and crappy references to books like the Dark materia series, Narnia, Coraline etc. It’s all very jumbled and if this book is for 8 year olds and up, my guess would be that hardly half of them would get the references.

It’s like the book was written in a hurry, there’s no detail in any of the writing and it isn’t a classic touching children’s novel. I remember so many children’s books I loved as a child because of the emotion I could feel in the written word.

Okay enough rambling, I didn’t enjoy this book. I thought it would be a fun idea to read it but it wasn’t at all what I expected and I’m hoping the story of Steve Jobs life [may he rest in peace] provides more substance than this one did.

Now I really need to get to bed…

So I finally finished the Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath….. I don’t even know what to say, I had such difficulties even getting started with this book.

By the time I was halfway through with it, I still hardly had a clue on what was going on and then it just got more and more depressing to read.

I guess it was a bit too abstract for me to grasp, relate to, understand or otherwise ‘enjoy’. I will not be reading this book ever again.

And after 300 pages of negativity, confusion, LOTS of hopping back and forth to the point where I have no idea what I’m reading about is past or present… I’ll move on to Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu.

A trip to faraway Stockholm-land…?

Today has been a tipsy-turvy day.

I woke up, got to Lund for a lunch meeting with D-Chip, got on the bus to get back to Malmo. Initially planning on going to the library to study until it was time for training but missed my bus stop in town and decided to go home anyway.

Once I got home, I opened my programming books and fell asleep on the couch.

When I woke up again, I felt horrible- and really needed to move. So I marched off to the bus to go to training.

I slept all the way to the gym, worked out like a crazy person, my entire ponytail drenched in sweat by the time I was done with my two hours of spinning and bodybalance.

And when I finally got home I sat by my computer, reading stuff.

I’ve finished reading the recent Sophie Kinsella book today, and took my chances on The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. I have no idea what the book is about at all, only that it’s loosely based on Plath’s life and her struggle with depression… I hope I don’t get depressed from reading it… Well written books can have such an impact on me.

It’s been a rather unproductive day today, and I’m quite angry at myself for it. But since I kept falling asleep everywhere, I’m sure that means I’ve been needing a break. Or either that I’m just too lazy for my own good. I’m not sure which.

Another funny thing is that I’ve been swamped with text messages today. For some reason, people decided to inform, ask, randomly text me about things at the same time- and all of a sudden, I’ve signed up to go for “Swedish Game Award Conference” in Stockholm next weekend. That means I’ll be missing out on a huge party that’s being thrown in Lund on Saturday but heck, I’ll just go for that next year instead, I don’t want to miss out on the event in Stockholm. Plus, it’s free. I just need to pay for my ticket there and back… But that’s not a problem. I haven’t been to Stockholm in forever, I think I was 8 or 9 the last time, and that’s too long ago to remember.

I’m excited.

reading

I’ve started reading Can you keep a Secret, by Sophie Kinsella.

I find her books entertaining enough and the storylines are usually pretty bizarre.
Besides which, my brain needed a break from fantasies and too-exciting storylines that I read for hours on end instead of doing things I really need to get done…..

And what better than chicklit to get that done. You get to read but the read is predictable enough to just flip through whenever you crave some extremely light reading, and chicklit is entertaining in its own way- just not as stimulating as other books, I guess.….

Am I strange for still liking chicklit either way?

I finished the last book of the Hunger Games trilogy last night.

I had mixed feelings about the ending, but I guess it worked. The last line was a good one though…. And I don’t dare to say too much as I know there’s at least one person reading this who hasn’t finished the books yet.

All in all, I heavily recommend the Hunger Games to people who:
a) Appreciate adventure-like stories
b) Easily get bored with story lines that are ‘slow’
c) Are okay with reading some gory bits. [I still can’t believe these books are for 12-year olds…]
d) Are planning on seeing the movie in March
e) Are currently reading this right now.

…..Now I have to find a new book to read…