Title: Liikkuva Linna (originally Howl's Moving Castle)
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Started & Finished: 12th October
Page count: 323
Where I got it from: Alavus Library

Reason for reading: Howl's Moving Castle. I've read it once before, then I went and wathced the movie, read a couple of other Diana Wynne Jones Books and then wanted to read this too, remembering it was quite good.

Short Summary: Sophie Hatter has an ageing spell put on her, and she ends up living in the castle of Howl, a wizard of terrifying reputation.

General notes, read again, recommend?: It's just amazing. Everything about it is great. I have read the book once before, but because I didn't exactly remember all of it my reading experience remained undisturbed. I will read the book again and again, and hope to read it in the original English next, and hope to get the bokk as my own as well, and I absolutely recommend it to everyone! Those of you who have seen the Ghibli movie and think it's good, you must read this! This is ten times as wonderful as the film.

Disliked & Liked: I liked all of it, except the way some of the sentences were a bit dull, too short-like. Everything else - brilliant! Especially Howl being ill and angsty.

Favourite bit(s): Howl being childish. The athmosphere of it all. Oh and Wales, too. WALES FOR THE WIN. WALES FOR-

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Title: The Lives of Christopher Chant
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Finished: unsure, around 8th October
Pages: ?
Where I got it from: Finland Capital Area library

Reason for reading: In Charmed Life my favourite character was Chrestomanci, and I of course wanted to read his story as well. Easy as that.

Short Summary: Christopher, a boy who can travel from world to another inside his dreams, has tremendous magical powers. He is destined to be the next Chersomanci, for he has nine lives. It is surprising how easily the lives can be lost, however, in dreams and the real world.

General Notes, read again, recommend?: Oh well. It was a bit predictable - a whole lot more so than Charmed Life. For smaller children I see no reason not to like it. The book might have been a bit boring if one hadn't read Charmed Life, because so many things happened that were referred to in the previous book. I would very musch like to read the book again, once I've forgotten enough about it, and would happily recommend it for those who like magic, fantasy, spiritual parallel world travelling, and who can bear predictableness.

Liked & Didn't like:
Nothing much I didn't like. Everything was told from Christopher's point of view, and it was easy to identify with him - even to the point that the people he admired were the characters you liked. The relationship between Millie and Christopher, the part I was most afraid to read, was told very well. Only bad thing was the predictableness, really. Also the fact that Michael Saunders didn't make it into the story.

Favourite bits:
Oh dear. I don't know - most of it.

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Man.

I'm so depressed again.


I read The Lives of Christopher Chant (you might or might not get a review).
-It was good.
I (sort of) watched Code Geass.
-It was really good (sort of).
I read the ending of Tsubasa.
-And for that there are no words.

Now I've nothing to do! Nothing great to read or watch or anything! Argh!

It's no fun anymore! (Betcha didn't get the reference, eh?)



Uagh. I wouldn't have liked Tsubasa to end. I mean, it was good, it was great, it was FOOKING AWESOME, but yaaaargh. Well, okay, to be honest, it was quite long and complex and long and complex and impossible to understand, but still! I don't even know if it was a happy ending! (It was, but still. Sakura was left alone. *sadface* )
Kurogane and Fai were happy though, and that's all that matters to me. Please don't stare.
And the name thing! It was good too. A bit expectable, but still.
And oh! I'd like to know how the vampire twins, Fuuma and that other guy (name escapes, name escapes. . . . . . uhh... something Sakurazuka(mori?)) are doing. I mean, CLAMP is utter fail for not finishing X.
. . .
Seishirou! That was his name! The kill-them-with-your-bare-hands:drive-your-hand-through-their-chests guy! Yeah!

And Code Geass was great ofr being DESIGNED BY CLAMP YES PLEASE and bad for having mecha, cause I'm not actually that much into them and great for being SO VERY GAY. Sorry, had to get that off my chest.

There's always HOLiC, though. I hope it won't end anytime soon, cause THEN I'D BE PROPERLY AND TRULY DEPRESSED, man, I mean, Holic is my favourite manga of all time! Watanuki needs to be happy. I will not take it if Holic ends like Tsubasa - you know, not happy, not sad. Watanuki must either die or be happy. IT'S YOUR CHOICE, CLAMP. Happiness or death could preferably have something to do with Doumeki.

This is a review sort of thingy again.

Title: Noidan Veli (Originally Charmed Life)
Author: Diana Wynne Jones
Started & Finished: October 4th 09
Pages: 262
Where I got it from: an aunt

Reason for reading (a bit of backstory):

The first time I was introduced to the story it was when I was between 8 and should I say 10 years of age. My older cousin wanted to read the book to her younger cousins, me and two others. It was a holiday and we were all at our grandparents' house. She was a good reader and during that time we did nothing but sit and listen to her read. my cousins had to leave before she finished the book, but I stayed and she read it for me.

I have once read the book after this - at least, I intended to, but I can not remember if I ever got to reading it.

Now some days ago I felt the terrible urge to read the book again. I'm not sure where it came from, but it might have been because I watched the Ghibli movie 'Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi' one day. (Thought process, in case it seems strange how a Japanese 200x animation brings me to a British 1977 book:
Spirited Away (the movie)
> Howl's Moving Castle (other movie by Ghibli)
> The book on which the movie was based on
> Diana Wynne Jones , the author of the book
> another of her books, this. Charmed Life.)

I then proceeded to see if my mother had the book in her bookcase, which was not the case. My aunt, however, did, and she lent it for me.

Short Summary: Eric "Cat" Chant's sister is a powerful witch. Then there's a big mansion owned by a strong magician, a violin that got turned into a cat, lots of magic and parallel worlds, a garden you can't get into and nine mysterious matches.
And those dressing gowns.

General Notes, read again, recommend?: Having been read the book to (whoah?) at such a young age it was amazing to read it again now when I'm older. For example I noticed many things that probably have affected me at some un- or subconscious level, like how Michael Saunders had too small clothes (I myself can not bear to have my wrists and ankles seen). I also noe see where my particular belief in parallel worlds and the way they work might come from.
I will read the book again, as soon as I get the original english version from the library. I would also love to got the book as my own.
I also totally recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy. Though a bit short (I read it in a couple of hours) the book, in my opinion, is at least as good as the Wizard of Earthsea and the first Harry Potter.

Liked & Didn't like:
The book was , in a way, almost like a detective story. Just like in the best Christie books there were clues scattered throughout the book and then in the end they all came together and everything seemed so obvious.
Though clearly written from the POV of Cat, my perfectionist senses were a bit disturbed as sometimes the feelings of Gwendolen and other characters were there too, when Cat could never have known.

Favourite bits:
Well. I just loved both Saunders and Chrestomanci. I don't know why, but they both were that kind of strong, intelligent, a bit mysterious and scary male characters I've always loved. The big showdown in the garden was good too and the whole book was just a big nostalgiabomb for me.

All in all, a good read after all these years. Now just waitnig for the next part in the series to come to the library.

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So I posted a short finnish-language rant on shittiness of life in here.
(And this: I bet you have never really given thought about the order of the adjectives in the English language? Because I have, and though they usually come out in the right order, but if you add something as an afterthought you have to think where you put it.)


And then to nice stuff.


I first saw the book in Suomalainen Kirjakauppa not long after it first was published. It was on a stand-sort of thing and it got my attention the moment I laid my eyes upon it. The red cover and the picture on it. I didn't buy it then though, the price of nearly twenty-five euros for something seemingly not that interesting was too much.

One day I was wandering around the net, doing those online tests made to determine my philosophical views. Surprisingly (or not) they all indicated that my way of thinking corresponds to that of existentialist writers, like Jean Paul Sartre.

Then yesterday I was in Suomalainen Kirjakauppa again, and it struck me. I wanted the book. That book which according to the back cover text drew from Tove Jansson's Moomin books and existentialist philosophers.
I bought the book. It's a 2009 release written by a Jukka Laajarinne, and I've gotten to around page 65. The things in it describe my thought processes and opinions on life and freedom very well. There even is a whole chapter for this feeling of distress and anxiety that is a big part of my personal life.

Makes one wonder, of course. Could it be that these assumed that if these kind of views were indeed delivered through the Moomin books, I might have absorbed them - at least partially - from them?


/awesome English, yes?

Manga:
I sense there's ending in the air. Chapter 186 of xxxHolic, which I will read soon (like, right after I've finished this sentence) begins with the same words as the very first chapter.

...
I read it. It didn't end (not yet). And it was only like thirteen pages long (then again, they rarely are longer than 18 pgs). But I'm happy, because Doumeki is as awesome as ever, and I'm a bit sad too, for Watanuki, but at least it will continue. Now off to see if Tsubasa has been updated as well.

...
Apparently it hasn't. Doesn't matter really, though, 'cause Holic is my love, not Tsubasa.

... oh and YEAH! Maru and Moro welcoming Doumeki home was pure Aww.

Music:

The first ever the Beatles album I consciously listened to was Help!.

On the ninth all the Beatles albums were re-released as remastered versions. They went straight to the charts.

Yesterday I went to Itäkeskus, my intention to buy one of those records. I ended up in Anttila, and walked out with

The Deram Anthology by David Bowie (5 euros)
Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin (8 euros)
and
Live in Pompeii DVD by Pink Floyd (10 euros)

No Beatles, no nothing.
Had I known which album I wanted to buy I believe it would have been easy for me to just take the album and buy it. In stead, I had five from which to choose from: Help!, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, The Beatles and Abbey Road. I was totally at a loss.

Then today I went in there again and bought Revolver.

Books:

I had this amazing moment of realization during our Geography lesson on Thursday. We were talking and writing about different kinds of marshlands, and one of them was called luhta. I then proceeded to realize that Litiluhta (a swamp in Middle Earth, no less) is indeed not a name invented by Tolkien, but a translation. Luhta (the type of swamp) that is wet (litisevä). Wonderful!
(Apparenly the original name is Wetwang, in case you're interested.)

Look look look at the pretty picture I found:


Happy Birthday Freddie!

Doing stuff with people:
T was here overnight, left not half an hour ago. We watched some *ahemahem* Tarantino films, namely Kill Bill I and Pulp Fiction. We were invited over to my cousins to watch Watchmen too, which we did.

Shopping:
I have this terrible need to go shopping. It started when I was lying on the sofa in the morning. It's unexplainable - I don't even have anything particular in mind, well, except for that one poster, but yeah. I'm still making up my mind whether or not I'll be going, however, cause I have loads to do here too. I need to read.

Literature:
As you can tell by the sidebar box, my list of books being read does not decrease in size, in fact the quite opposite. I bought that Counter Clock World -book the day before yesterday and I need to read it as well. But it's not something I need to hurry with. It's in Finnish and all, imagine that!

School:
On Friday we had Art and Maths. And the yearly photoshoot-session-thingy. I have no idea how I looked, but at least I had nice clothes. In Art I began painting my acrylic painting, a big clock, or more like a wheel-kind-of Map of Time. It's going to be really cool and detailed, and everyone totally underestimated my ability to paint details, they were all aking 'How are you going to paint all the details?' and I say 'Just like I paint it all, with some paint and a brush.'

Movies:

I cannot stop watching listen to Johnny Depp and good lord Elfman's music is epic aaaaargh.

So. Many things.

Books:
1. I Bought Philip K. Dick's Counter Clock World, and it took me ages to find that name in English (couldn't be bothered to get the book) from the net.

2. They're going to write and publish new Moomin books for children.

School:
1. We just watched an episode of Moomins in Finnish on Thursday, (The one with the Lady of the Cold) and read a bit on Moomins and answered some questions. I found it great, but, then again, I have always loved Moomins, even more now that I'm a bit older.

Movies:
1. I watched the first, uh, fifth of The Man Who fell to Earth ( You know, like, David Bowie?), and will finish it some time, but the thing I'm telling you is that they've planned a remake. No way they'll find anyone as awesome and, uh, awesome as Bowie.


More or less disturbing stuff:

There's this:

I'm not sure if this is the greatest win of the decade or the worst thing ever happened to Finnish papers. Hans't this got the suspicious feeling of a very discreet commercial about it?

I never was a great lover of zombies, but they are quite fascinating as a, well, popular culture phenomenon. There's so much of them too, the different kinds, portrayals in movies and literature and so on.
Zombies might be my subject for the article we need to write for Finnish but I really am not that interested in them and haven't got any sort of emotional attachment, so think I actually might prefer something else. My other potential subjects are Mirrors, Crows, Clowns, Butterflies, Candles, The Devil and something else too, can't remember what.

Movies:
I have not seen Yellow Submarine, the animated film. It's not my fault I haven't, I just haven't been able to get my hands on it, and never really thought it necessary to download it.

Robert Zemeckis directed Back to the Future, Forrest Gump and Beowulf.
And now he's going to remake Yellow Submarine, in 3D. Even though I haven't seen the original film, I am not sure I want this to happen. I mean, there is no reason, is there?

Books:
I finished Into the Silence yesterday, and put up a bit of review in my Books Read list (found in the sidebar). I'm reading The Bay of the Dead now, and that's what actually got me thinking about zombies in the first place.

Literature:
I've nearly finished Into the Silence. I'll put a brief review of it in the Books Finished list you can find in the sidebar sometime soon.


Journal (with a bit of Personal life):
So, if I had that proper, working camera I would use it to photograph my clothing (when it's good, that is) and post pictures here. Cause it's two people (in my class, I know everyone wond$ers about it - they're just too shy to ask, or I'm too scary) now that have asked me about my clothing and I personally thing I dress quite fine too.

School:
In Finnish our this period's major piece of work is an article on a culture magnet. A culture magnet is a thing, object or animal, that has some cultural meaning. We have been given two examples, the book's squirrel an our teacher's ring.
I'm going to dive into my symbolism books (a funny thing. Our teacher had one exactly same book as I do) later and see if I find something that'll be good. I'm thinking mirrors or a raven or something like that.