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perfect_leaves's reviews
452 reviews
Death Note, Vol. 1: Boredom by Takeshi Obata, Tsugumi Ohba
4.0
While this wasn't the page turner I expected it to be, I'll continue reading Death Note because I'm genuinely curious. The novel made me start thinking about human nature. Light's (Raito?) vigilantism is punctuated by boughts of remorse which give way to self-affirmation. However, I'm not sure whether that makes him inherently evil or inherently good. I'm interested in how this will turn out.
Inner Dimensions of Islamic Worship by Imam Al-Ghazali
4.0
Because I was reading a translation of this novel, I feel I have to divide the review into two parts: ideas and translation.
Ideas
Ideologically, I very much enjoyed this book. Ghazali focuses first on each action's merit (using the Qur'an and hadith as evidence) then goes into what/how our inner selves should think/feel/gain from each actions. In most instances, however, he does not say how to achieve these inner states; the how is left to the reader. Still, just being conscious of the purpose of prayer (and other acts of worship) has improved the quality of my prayers tremendously.
Translation
The reason I gave this book four stars instead of 5 is the clunkiness of the translation. At times it felt like modern speech and at times the phrasing felt a little bit awkward or outdated. I'm not sure how much of that is the translation and how much of it is the author, but I would have liked a bit more consistency. I also felt jipped, for lack of a better word, in the end. The last two chapters were exceedingly short, and the comparison is even paler when I consider how long and thorough the preceding chapter (the one regarding Hajj) is. The book feels like it just ends. I'm aware that this book is the extremely abridged version of Ghazali's several-volume work, and I believe the brevity of the last two chapters is a result of the truncation of the larger work because the chapters don't follow the same thought process as the chapters before it. I see no reason why the rest of these chapters would have been left out, but the abrupt ending left me wanting more. If, one day, I am able to read Persian/Farsi, I will read the original text (insha'Allah).
Ideas
Ideologically, I very much enjoyed this book. Ghazali focuses first on each action's merit (using the Qur'an and hadith as evidence) then goes into what/how our inner selves should think/feel/gain from each actions. In most instances, however, he does not say how to achieve these inner states; the how is left to the reader. Still, just being conscious of the purpose of prayer (and other acts of worship) has improved the quality of my prayers tremendously.
Translation
The reason I gave this book four stars instead of 5 is the clunkiness of the translation. At times it felt like modern speech and at times the phrasing felt a little bit awkward or outdated. I'm not sure how much of that is the translation and how much of it is the author, but I would have liked a bit more consistency. I also felt jipped, for lack of a better word, in the end. The last two chapters were exceedingly short, and the comparison is even paler when I consider how long and thorough the preceding chapter (the one regarding Hajj) is. The book feels like it just ends. I'm aware that this book is the extremely abridged version of Ghazali's several-volume work, and I believe the brevity of the last two chapters is a result of the truncation of the larger work because the chapters don't follow the same thought process as the chapters before it. I see no reason why the rest of these chapters would have been left out, but the abrupt ending left me wanting more. If, one day, I am able to read Persian/Farsi, I will read the original text (insha'Allah).
The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski
3.0
This book was hard to read, not because of the difficult subject matter, but because the book was boring. There's no real plot to speak of. The boy's life just goes from bad to worse as the chapters rolled by. If I hadn't promised myself I would finish the book no matter what, I would have put it down after about 4 chapters. Fortunately, by chapter 15, the beatings intensified in brutality (perhaps "fortunately" was a poor choice of words) which refreshed my view of the books, but ultimately, the story was not enjoyable.
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
3.0
This book should never have been printed. I can forgive the re-printing of passages from TKAM; the novel is set in the future, why not insert flashbacks? It would have been nice if the flashbacks were altered to reflect Jean Louise's (Scout's) adult point of view, but seeing as this novel was penned before TKAM, the redundancy if forgivable. That said, the copy is littered with blatant printing errors. Whole sentences are repeated right next to each other; it's as if the book hadn't been copy edited.
What exists of the plot is extremely predictable, but most of the novel was a series of character sketches. Watchman is also unnecessarily broken up into parts. As for the racism- I forgive it because the characters are speaking like people of their time (remember, this novel is set in--was written in-- the past). Critics are decrying Atticus's racism, but they seem to ignore the fact that Jean Louise isn't so innocent herself. While she feels blacks and African-Americans deserve human rights, she does not refrain from referring to them as simple-minded and immature. She even goes so far as to call them "adult children." This could have been an excellent coming-of-age novel had it been executed more carefully, but as it is, the novel is disappointing.
What exists of the plot is extremely predictable, but most of the novel was a series of character sketches. Watchman is also unnecessarily broken up into parts. As for the racism- I forgive it because the characters are speaking like people of their time (remember, this novel is set in--was written in-- the past). Critics are decrying Atticus's racism, but they seem to ignore the fact that Jean Louise isn't so innocent herself. While she feels blacks and African-Americans deserve human rights, she does not refrain from referring to them as simple-minded and immature. She even goes so far as to call them "adult children." This could have been an excellent coming-of-age novel had it been executed more carefully, but as it is, the novel is disappointing.