Saturday, November 28, 2009

Reading List

Heh, its the holidays. Though, holidays filled to the brim with homework. Still, I've come up with a list of books I'd want to/ have to finish before I get back to school and resume reading nothing but notes, notes and literary devices.

  1. American Gods - Neil Gaiman
  2. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
  3. Dexter in the Dark - Jeff Lindsay
  4. Dexter by Design - Jeff Lindsay
  5. The Assassini - Thomas Gifford
  6. The Dangerous Days of Daniel X - James Patterson
  7. 1st to Die - James Patterson
  8. A Flash of Hex - Jes Battis
  9. Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox - Eoin Colfer
And of course, our literature texts. Sigh.
  1. Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit - Jeanette Winterson
  2. Housekeeping - Marilynne Robinson
  3. Proof - David Auburn

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Post-trauma

Finally, the stress of the promotional exams are over, albeit the one for oral presentation still lingers. The promotional exams was one heck of a traumatizing experience. Stress of the actual examinations aside, I've never actually studied so freaking hard in my entire life. Not even for the O levels, which was like a series of national exams. The major shock was when I found out that I actually had classmates who were at risk or retaining or expulsion. This was a new thing for me, actually having to say premature farewells to classmates who I grew to like so much. I truly feel that expulsion should be reserved for serious offences, and not just another excuse to kick students that may not have been doing so well out of the school.

Though feeling guilty to say this, I did pretty well for the exams, way better than I had expected, really. Not only did I pass all my subjects, I managed to garner a B and two Cs while I was at it. This puts me rather at ease to fully enjoy my trip to Australia at the end of the year, though having felt the effects that the lack of consistent studying can result in, I am determined to not let this repeat. Hopefully, I'll have enough self-discipline to finish going through the pile of notes and readings I'll be lugging to Australia with me.

Also,after a 4-year hiatus, I've finally had the time to resume leisure reading. Though I'm still kept rather busy, and the speed at which i chew through the books is reduced significantly, I'm finally about to revisit the joy of reading, not for literary terms, not for economic concepts, not for historical content, but just for the sake of reading. I've started on the Artemis Fowl series after Timothy's recommendation, and I intend to finish reading the book, American Gods soon after that. Hopefully I'll be able to find a good book to accompany me on my trip as well.