October '13 Book Haul!

Hello hello! It's the end of October already and it's time for BOOK HAUL! Cheers! Right, I don't know why I'm so excited, I supposed to be shameful because I kind of lost my self-control in buying books this month. Seriously, my best friend was totally intended to eat my brain because I keep saying to him I'd cut my books expenses and restrain myself more. If only he's in the same island as me now, you guys won't see this article because he must have been exiled me for good! But, I'm alive and well, let's continue! Mouahahahaha...

Object of Possession

This is A Beautiful Mess Photo Idea Book by the awesome duo Elsie Larson & Emma Chapman. What? You don't know them? Then you MUST visit their awesome blog, A Beautiful Mess (ABM) at www.abeautifulmess.com! Like, right now. Go. What are you doing still reading my pointless rant? (well, not really pointless though, lol)

Although I don't read their blog every single day (they're extremely productive, it's kinda hard to catch all their posts up), but every time I visit their blog I ALWAYS get inspiration and warm feeling and little happiness and awesome tips and bunch of creative ideas and positive wave and excitement and really you're not satisfied yet with all of those? A must-follow blog. Period.

And this book, is my recent object of possession. I WANT IT. Like, REALLY SUPER-DUPER WANT IT. It's been published since August 2013. I saw the sneak peek of it here, and I was in love instantly. It seems perfect for amateur photographer or just for everyday people who like taking photos. So warm and lovely like all their blog articles. I'm a sucker for printed books, so yeah I want it physically. And I always want a coffee table book that I can actually enjoy and read.

But, I couldn't get my hands on it yet because I'm too poor for this book. LOL. Serious though, this book is expensive for me and I just can't afford it now. Anyone want to be the coolest person ever on Earth and buy me this book? I promise to be the nicest girl who always says nicest things ever if anyone buy me this! Hey, a girl can wish.

Nice like this.

Oh! I almost forgot. I'm doing a challenge offered by Elsie on ABM. It simply challenges ABM reader or whoever interested, to set four simple goals before 2014. Elsie challenges us to make activity oriented goals rather than result oriented goals. See the 'rules' here.

These are my four simple goals, and since this is a book blog, I'm going to update my progress on my Tumblr (sandracattelya.tumblr.com). Let's do this!

Beautiful Nightmares - Farrahnanda [DNF, Sorry!]

DEAR READERS, I'M NOT GOING TO REVIEW THIS BOOK IN ENGLISH BECAUSE IT'S NOT WORTH MY TIME AND ENERGY MORE THAN HOW MUCH I ALREADY HAD GIVEN FOR IT. SERIOUSLY, YOU'RE NOT MISSING ANYTHING.

Farrahnanda. 2013. Beautiful Nightmares. Yogyakarta: de TEENS.

Rating errr enggak berbintang.

Kenapa saya baca buku ini?
Enaknya jadi anggota Blogger Buku Indonesia (BBI), kita punya kesempatan untuk dapat buku gratis yang baru banget rilis, untuk dibaca kemudian diulas di blog. Jadi, waktu Mas Dion menawarkan beberapa buku gratis, saya mengajukan diri untuk meresensi salah satu. Saya belum pernah ikut yang beginian, jadi penasaran. Saya tipe orang yang suka kejutan, jadi saya enggak terlalu cerewet mau pilih buku yang mana, yang begini sih untung-untungan saja dapat buku bagus atau enggak. Dan, ternyata... saya lagi enggak beruntung. Bagaimana pun, terima kasih Mas Dion sudah mengirimkan buku gratis ke saya. Pengalaman yang menarik sekali, hahaha.

The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

Green, John. 2012. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton Books.

Rating 3,5 stars
(review in Indonesian, click here)

Why I read this in the first place?

This is my first John Green’s. I actually surprised myself because I willingly read this book. It’s against my own reading policy, really. But, here’s the story behind it. I was surfing in Youtube and stumbled upon this video. This girl in the video talks about The Fault in Our Stars. She highly praises it and clearly states that she literally bawled her eyes out while reading the book. And, here’s me, a type of reader who doesn’t find utter attraction into tragic fiction stories, or books that are purposely written to made its readers cry it a river.

A little out of topic, I never really have a solid reason to explain my reading fondness.... I guess, for most part in me, I read as an escape. That’s why I prefer a story with happy-ending. I want to feel happy, so I read books, I want to entertain myself. Well, the world has already given enough tragedy, so why do I want to spare time to read tragic fiction, right? It’s different if it comes to tragic non-fiction. I could easily accept it as a reality or a figment of human history, because I know that reality is not always beautiful but needed to be faced strong-heartedly nonetheless. And that’s why I feel unthrilled to give chance to tragic fiction books.

So, why the heck did I read this insanely famous tearjerker book? Again, the fault is in that Youtube video. The girl says, after reading The Fault in Our Stars, there’s a song came up into his head, it’s Forever and Always by Parachute. Being me, I was more curious to hear that song than to read the book. So I googled the song. (Illegally) downloaded it. Found the lyric too. Listened to it with lyric on screen. Cried my heart out. Listened to it again. Still made me bawled. Listened to it one more time. I STILL EFFING CRIED! Seriously. Until you read this review, I still will cry whenever I hear that song. It’s painfully beautiful and tragic beyond anything. I like that song so much. And somehow it made me felt responsible to also read The Fault in Our Stars, although both (the song and the book) are completely unrelated.

The Fault in Our Stars – John Green

Green, John. 2012. The Fault in Our Stars. New York: Dutton Books.

Rating 3,5 bintang
(review in English, click here)

Kenapa saya baca buku ini?

Buku John Green pertama saya. Saya juga heran kenapa saya mau-mau saja baca buku ini. Ini menyalahi aturan saya sendiri.... Jadi, waktu itu saya lagi nengok-nengok Youtube dan enggak sengaja sampai pada video ini. Dia mengulas The Fault in Our Stars. Komentarnya sangat positif tapi jelas-jelas dia bilang kalau dia menangis sepanjang buku ini. Dan, saya tipe pembaca yang enggak suka baca buku fiksi tragis, atau buku yang memang sengaja dibuat untuk bikin pembaca menangis.

Agak lepas dari topik, dipikir-pikir, sebenarnya saya enggak punya alasan yang solid sih kenapa saya membaca buku.... Sepertinya sebagian besar alasan saya membaca buku adalah sebagai pelarian. Makanya saya lebih suka buku happy-ending. Saya ingin cari senang, makanya saya baca buku. Yah, dunia yang sebenarnya sudah cukup tragis, jadi kenapa juga bahkan dalam dunia buku saya perlu cerita fiksi yang tragis? Kan? Memang beda halnya kalau saya membaca buku non-fiksi yang tragis. Saya bisa dengan mudah menerimanya sebagai kenyataan ataupun potongan sejarah karena memang kenyataan itu enggak selalu indah tapi harus tetap dihadapi dengan tabah. Makanya saya merasa enggak perlu menyediakan waktu untuk menghayati cerita fiksi yang tragis, karena itu toh bukan kenyataan.

Jadi, kenapa juga saya baca buku yang terkenal karena kesuksesannya membikin pembacanya pada menangis ini? Lagi, karena video Youtube yang saya tonton itu. Dia bilang, setelah membaca The Fault in Our Stars, dia terpikir tentang lagu Forever and Always-nya Parachute. Nah, saya malah lebih penasaran sama lagu itu. Jadi saya cari lagu itu. Download. Cari teksnya sekalian. Dengar lagunya sambil lihat teksnya. Nangis sesenggukan. Dengarin ulang. Tetap nangis. Coba dengar ulang lagi. MASIH BIKIN NANGIS! Serius. Sampai tulisan ini diturunkan, saya masih akan menangis kalau dengar lagu itu. Saya suka lagunya walaupun tragisnya enggak ketolongan. Jadi, saya merasa kayak semacam terbeban untuk baca The Fault in Our Stars karena saya begitu mengapresiasi lagu itu, walaupun sebenarnya keduanya (si buku dan si lagu) benar-benar enggak berhubungan.

101 Creative Notes – Yoris Sebastian

Sebastian, Yoris. 2013. 101 Creative Notes. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

Rating 2,5 stars
(review in Indonesian, click here)

Why I read it in the first place?

Well, it is a self-help book, so I did buy and read it in hoping to enrich myself with inspirational material. Once in a while, I like to urge myself to read non-fiction books. Actually, there was this time in my life when I kind of avoided reading fiction (what??? It’s true though). At that time, I was in a campus press in my uni, where I was demanded to know lots of facts and variety of information. And I obtained some of them in my objects of reading which were mostly non-fiction. Anyway, I was interested enough to buy 101 Creative Notes because of its simple and light writing style. I am not into a slow-pace and very-detailed self-help books. Before I read this book, I have no idea who Yoris Sebastian is. Clearly, I didn’t buy this book because of his popularity (which I was not aware of, but I guess he’s pretty popular, maybe?), I was purely interested with its theme about creativity.

101 Creative Notes – Yoris Sebastian

Sebastian, Yoris. 2013. 101 Creative Notes. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama.

Rating 2,5 bintang
(review in English, click here)

Kenapa saya baca buku ini?

Ini kan buku yang tujuannya untuk pengembangan diri, jadi memang saya beli dan baca buku ini karena mau memperkaya diri sendiri saja dengan bahan bacaan inspiratif. Sekali-sekali saya memang suka baca buku non-fiksi. Eh, malah sebenarnya ada masa di mana saya benar-benar membatasi membaca buku fiksi. Waktu itu masih aktif di pers mahasiswa, secara enggak langsung saya dituntut untuk banyak tahu tentang fakta dan ragam informasi, yang sebagian saya dapatnya dari buku-buku non-fiksi. 101 Creative Notes ini saya pilih karena saya lihat format penulisannya yang ringan dan singkat. Karena pada dasarnya saya kurang suka juga sama buku self-help yang bertele-tele. Tapi, saya enggak tahu siapa tuh Yoris Sebastian sebelum baca buku ini. Jadi bukan karena dia (yang sepertinya orang hebat yah?) saya beli buku ini, memang cuma tertarik saja dengan tema bukunya.

Quote #3

The Maze Runner Trilogy (Book 1-3) – James Dashner [SPOILER ALERT!]

Dashner, James. 2009, 2010, 2011. The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure. New York City: Delacorte Press.

Rating 3 stars
(review in Indonesian, click here)

WARNING! THIS ARTICLE (YOU MIGHT NOT SEE IT AS A REVIEW, IT’S MORE LIKE A REACTION) CONTAINS MAJOR SPOILER. IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE MAZE RUNNER TRILOGY, I DON’T SUGGEST YOU TO CONTINUE READING THIS. UNLESS YOU ARE OKAY WITH SPOILER (JUST SO YOU AWARE, I'M GOING TO SPOIL EVERYTHING AND PROBABLY WON'T EXPLAIN BASIC DETAILS) OR YOU’VE ALREADY READ THE TRILOGY, PLEASE PROCEED.

What the...?

Yup! Three books in one article! In my review for this trilogy in Indonesian, I blabber about how I feel that something seems odd with the translated version. I give some examples like the use of words ‘shank’, ‘shuck-face’, ‘klunk’ and many others that are kind of weird when it’s translated into Indonesian. I just felt something was not suit there. I couldn’t really enjoy reading it while the story was actually captivated me. Before I realized why, my reading experience with this book was slow and I was distracted too easily. I even thought to buy the other two books, just so I have a complete trilogy, I even haven’t finish The Maze Runner when that thought came up to me. It’s like I was really trying to distract myself. And somehow, I got my hands on the e-book version for The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure, in English. I also got The Maze Runner e-book because I was curious to read it in its original language.

And... oh boy. I found out that Dashner uses ‘uncommon’ words and sentences in this trilogy. I actually like it, and I wouldn’t notice this fancy thing if I read the Indonesian translated version. Since I started to read the trilogy in English, I COULDN’T PUT IT DOWN. After I finished with The Maze Runner, I didn’t have it in me to sit still and patiently write the review for it. The freaking mysteries were killing me! So I just continued reading the rest of the trilogy. I purposely review it in one go in order to be more efficient, and it will be one long article (for my standard). So be it.

Trilogi The Maze Runner (Buku 1-3) – James Dashner [SPOILER ALERT!]

Dashner, James. 2009, 2010, 2011. The Maze Runner, The Scorch Trials, The Death Cure. New York City: Delacorte Press.

Rating 3 bintang
(review in English, click here)

TULISAN BERIKUT (AGAKNYA BUKAN ULASAN, HANYA SEBUAH REAKSI) MENGANDUNG SPOILER, YANG BELUM BACA TRILOGI INI TIDAK DIANJURKAN MEMBACA TULISAN INI. SILA LANJUT MEMBACA BAGI YANG TIDAK KEBERATAN AKAN SPOILER MAUPUN BAGI YANG SUDAH PERNAH MEMBACA TRILOGI INI.

Apa-apaan?

YAP! Tiga buku sekaligus! Pengalaman saya membaca trilogi ini agak berbelit-belit, jadi kalau enggak penasaran-penasaran banget, langsung loncat saja ke bagian selanjutnya. Jadi begini ceritanya, awalnya kan saya baca The Maze Runner terjemahan Bahasa Indonesia, saya bacanya memang entah kenapa jadi agak lambat dan lebih gampang enggak fokus, tapi tetap senang dan bahagia. Lama-lama, kok saya merasa ada yang enggak ‘klop’? Malahan, saya kepikiran ingin beli buku kedua sama ketiganya. Padahal yang buku pertamanya juga belum kelar. Akhirnya pilihan saya jatuh ke e-book buku kedua dan buku ketiga, dalam Bahasa Inggris. Sekalian juga saya coba baca e-book buku pertamanya karena saya ingin coba baca versi bahasa aslinya.

Ternyata oh ternyata... James Dashner memang bermain di kosa kata dan bentuk-bentuk kalimat yang tidak biasa, dan pembaca baru bisa benar-benar menikmati tulisan Dashner kalau membaca bukunya dalam bahasa aslinya. Misalnya penggunaan kata ‘shank’, ‘shuck-face’, ‘klunk’. Kemudian pola kalimat Dashner yang tidak biasa itu jadi hilang di versi terjemahannya, contoh, “just slim yourself nice and calm” diterjemahkan jadi “santai dan tenang sajalah”. Jadi kalimat yang biasa banget kan? Padahal di trilogi ini ceritanya para Glader punya cara ngomong yang unik.

Intinya, saya jadinya baca trilogi ini dalam bahasa aslinya dan benar-benar ENGGAK BISA LEPAS dari buku ini. Setelah selesai dengan The Maze Runner, saya enggak bisa langsung duduk manis menulis ulasannya, karena penasaran habis-habisan sama kelanjutan ceritanya. Jadi, ya sudah saya selesaikan dulu triloginya baru bikin ulasannya. Digabung saja biar efisien, tapi bakal jadi panjang banget nih ulasan. Biarlah.

Quote #2

September '13 Book Haul!

Hi guys! This is my September 2013 Book Haul. This is my first book haul post in this blog, so... yeah, I'm kind of not very sure what to say, so bear with me. And I made it in a hurry because I just didn't notice it's October already! I suppose post things like this exactly in the end of the month, oh well. Actually that's my excuse for bad qualities photos of my books *grin*. You know, there's no sun because I realized it too late, that I want to post my first book haul in the end of the month and I should have taken the picture before the sun goes down. So I just did the shots on my desk, with my over exposure desk lamp... and I have to major-edited it you probably will see it weird. Gosh, I'm talking too much crap. Here's my September 2013 Book Haul!