Of books, writing, and life in general
Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Bloody good story. Since I already knew what it was about I already knew what to expect. Blood and gore, Japanese style.
For those who didn’t know, Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru) is about a class of high school kids who find themselves in an island where they have to kill each other until only one of them survives. That storyline itself is pretty hard core. AND irresistible. When I got hold of the book, I was just itching to know how it all went down.
Presenting my next book for the books to movies challenge… Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. Hells yeah. Okay, I know I made a friggin’ list, but I just gotta read this one next. I’ve heard of Battle Royale lots of times but I’ve never read the book or seen the movie, so when I saw this blood red beauty in the bookstore (I was looking for the books on my original list), I just grabbed it. Also, the fact that it was just less than 400 bucks made it real easy. Yeah, I’m kind of a cheapskate even with books – I always try to look for the cheaper edition. Anyway , this is friggin’ purrrfect for the challenge. I AM SO EXCITED. I did a little jig when I unwrappped it. Seriously.
Aha finally this wretched post is finished. Haha. I have joined this challenge out of my own free will and I must do what I must. I’m being melodramatic, and I must warn you, this is a damn long post. With spoilers. (Do you still call it spoiler if it’s about a friggin’ old movie??)
So, anyway, I think I saw the movie on cable a few years back. When I decided to join the Books to Movies Challenge, I had just bought the book a couple of days before that at a sale for a hundred bucks. That made it book choice #1 for the challenge. Holy convenience, Batman!
The awesome peeps behind Machine of Death are doing it again! They’re putting together a second volume and are on the lookout for writers and artists. If you’re interested in submitting a story or art portfolio, check out the submission guidelines. Deadline for submissions is on the 15th of July. Ain’t that the coolest? :)
I’m trying to decide right now if I should even attempt to write a story for this. Gah I don’t know if I can even commit to writing one with the deadline just a month away. I don’t want to submit anything half-assed and, frankly, I really don’t have the time to sit and conceptualize and write and edit and [insert other lame excuses here]. I think I’ll go read the book again. THAT I can do! Hey, you can read it, too, by clicking here. Yayyyyy. Awesome.
Okay, I’ve updated my list. And then there were six. Yay.
I’ve been carrying Children of Men around in my bag for a couple of weeks now and I still haven’t gotten back to it. GAH. Methinks this is going to be a tough challenge. Ahaha. Plus I’ve to look for the movie versions. I’ve already seen half of them, but I want to watch them again for the challenge, which officially starts tomorrow. Ahaha good luck to me.
Aha! I haven’t read anything in such a long time that I’ve decided to join a reading challenge! I read about it in a post by Jai and I followed the yellow brick road to the challenge host: Two Bibliomaniacs.
The challenge begins June 1st and ends Dec 31st. All you gotta do is read a book and watch the movie adaptation. You can choose any book. You can also choose to read 2, 4, 6, or 8 books. Sounds easy enough, right? I’m going to try to go for at least 2. Haha. If I can do more, that will be great. I just bought a book a few days ago and it was one that was already made into a movie. Guess I’m off to a good start, eh? :P
If you’re up for a book and movie challenge, go to this awesome place and read more about it.
In other news, it’s TGI-Friday and I’m blog guesting at A Taste of T today!
Enjoy the weekend, everyone! :)
Whoa, reading wins! Yay!
Yes, I’ve been neglecting my blog a bit, but I haven’t been neglecting my reading. Yay for me. When I was in CDO for the holidays, I picked up these two books from Booksale:
“The machine had been invented a few years ago: a machine that could tell, from just a sample of your blood, how you were going to die. It didn’t give you the date and it didn’t give you specifics. It just spat out a sliver of paper upon which were printed, in careful block letters, the words DROWNED or CANCER or OLD AGE or CHOKED ON A HANDFUL OF POPCORN. It let people know how they were going to die.”
Machine of Death is a collection of stories about people who knew how they were going to die. It was inspired by this episode of Dinosaur Comics. I want a printed copy but the book costs about $18 plus krayzay shipping fees, and I don’t think it’s available in our local bookstores (unless their online product lists are FULL OF LIES).
But wait! It can be downloaded here! We are such lucky fools. I’m going to torture my eyes and start reading the ebook now.
Photo from TopatoCo
MWAHAHA I finally found a copy of the book after searching high and low. I looked for it in National Bookstore Greenbelt 1, Powerbooks Greenbelt 4, Powerbooks Glorietta, Fullybooked Glorietta 5, before finally finding a copy in the giant Fullybooked High Street. It was the last available copy too and had a teeny weeny chip off the top corner of the cover. Fullybooked lady refused to give me a discount because the book’s “new and in demand.” That foo!
Anyway, I don’t like the cover much. It doesn’t really call me. It’s a scene from the Swedish film version. I wish they had an English version of the book with the Swedish edition cover. If I didn’t know anything about the book, the Swedish book cover is just the sort of cover that would make me want to read the book if I see it in a bookstore. Know what I mean? I’m only on the first few pages and already there’s death – bloody murder to be exact. Ooh, chilling.