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List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?
Ok. I am going to keep this post relatively short, at least as short as possible. I feel like I babble on too much, & get totally off track from the main topic. So, I’m supposed to list three books that have had an impact on me. It’s hard to narrow down my (not-very-extensive) list down to just three books, but I will try. Um, do Japanese comic books count?
I read the book Harriet the Spy as a young pre-teen, generously gifted to me by my dad & his Book-of-the-Month club subscription. At first, I started reading the book because at the time my dad was nagging me to get into the habit of reading books like he did, & he wanted me to take more of an interest in reading instead of watching so much TV. I just wanted to get him off my back, plus I had nothing else to do in my room, since my parents would not let me have a TV or a stereo in my room like my siblings did. Little did I know, I would eventually fall in love with the character Harriet M. Welsch.
This book, at the time, really inspired me to start writing. I really wanted to emulate the book’s main character & write down absolutely everything happening around me & everything I saw. Of course, I was also going through some faux angsty phase, & I mostly wrote in my journal about how unfair my parents were being & how mad I was at them. Still, this book really shaped my life as an amateur writer. I don’t write down everything about other people. Instead, as evidenced by this blog site, I write down everything about myself. There is one other thing, however, that I’d like to mention. This book never got me to try tomatoes. I didn’t discover the deliciousness of tomatoes until well into my adulthood.
Hector and the Search for Happiness was a light & happy read. I really connected with the main character Hector & his quest to find the meaning of happiness. At first, after reading the book, I thought to myself that I might want to try my hand at studying to become a licensed psychiatrist, but I decided against that notion, because I realized that I had to root out all of my own personal issues before I could diagnose & sort out other people’s issues. I’m not a particularly complex or troubled person, but there are some things rooted in my life that deserve more than a few family counseling sessions.
Reading this book had me assessing all of the things in my own life that made me happy. I was surprisingly impressed that I matched up with most of the observations listed in this book. I genuinely felt, & still feel, happy in my life. I was emitting happiness & attracting happiness in many aspects of my life. This book helped me to realize that even those that appear to be happy on the surface could be struggling with finding their inner happiness as well. That thinking gave me much needed comfort. As I’ve gotten older, I have learned to not compare my happiness so much to others’ happiness.
I read Bringing Up Bébé while I was incubating my offspring. I have to confess something. I originally bought this book because I wanted to become a very informed woman before I ever got pregnant. Also, I was attracted to the colorful book cover. I was thinking it would be a long while before I ever got pregnant, so I bought this book for some future I never expected would happen so matter-of-factly.
This book helped me understand so much more about motherhood that I thought I had already figured out from my many previous years of experience in childcare. I had already thought that I was pretty well-equipped to become a new mother. I mean, taking care of other people’s children for so many years of my life really gave me a sense of experience; that is, until I read this book. This book really taught me a lot about having to be very flexible, not having to compare your child-rearing with other people’s experience, & not to worry about meeting age guidelines/expectations.
I highlighted so many passages from this book, it practically looks like a school textbook. I even tried to make the book’s gâteau au yaourt (yogurt cake) from its recipe. This book answered a lot of my lingering motherhood questions & somehow calmed my fears. I would definitely recommend this book to any lady who wants to get knocked-up & procure a tiny human beean into existence. This is a really good book written by an anxious mother to other anxious mothers, in the tone of an anxious mother, not the tone of a college professor, or stuffy parenting expert, or certified pediatric doctor.
I know I’m only supposed to pick three books in this post prompt, but I couldn’t leave out the book Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. I watched the cult classic movie adaptation of this book & its widely panned sequel Battle Royale II: Requiem before I ever read the book. So, I already knew what the story was about. I had seen the first movie at the request of a close friend of mine during our first attendance to an anime convention. We both fell in love with this movie, & subsequently returned to the convention the following year dressed in cosplay costumes of characters from the movie.
Reading the book gave me more insight into the storyline, rather than only watching the movie itself. Yes, I loved the movie & understood its meaning, despite the bloodiness & gore being the center of everyone’s attention. However, I felt more deeply for the characters while I was reading the book. I would read this book on the subway during my commute back home after work. I would get so engrossed in the book that I’d almost miss my transfer station.
This book, Battle Royale, taught me the meaning of friendship & how much would I sacrifice to protect a person I loved & cared so deeply about, also about trust & loyalty. This book also taught me that cunningness can be both an intelligent trait as well as an evil trait, & that you don’t have to “play the game” to win the game. Having a pure & honest heart can really guide you down the right path to freedom. Yes, sacrifice is difficult, but also necessary. To this day, I really, genuinely, wholeheartedly value & cherish my close friendships. I have a few different groups of friends that I am close with, & we all would throw down for each other if necessary. We are each other’s tribe.
Ok, this is the last one. I promise. I know this isn’t technically a book, but I still read it, & it still impacted me. I have never been a fan of the fantasy or sci-fi genre ever in my life, until I read this 漫画 (manga/graphic novel) series called xxxHolic. I stumbled upon this graphic novel series, not knowing it was a parallel storyline & companion series to another graphic novel I fell in love with called Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, which was a spin-off series to my favorite 漫画/アニメ (anime/manga) series Card Captor Sakura…& all of these different series were created by the famous artist group called CLAMP. I swear things get less complicated from here.
I fell in love with this graphic novel series from the moment I read the first page. This book taught me so much about Japanese culture, tradition, & folklore…better than any textbook or historical novel could. From the moment I started this series, I couldn’t put the books down. Some of the volumes I have read more than once. This book, just like Battle Royale, taught me about trust, loyalty, & friendship. On the flip side, it also taught me to respect the afterlife. I am re-reading this series again, just to refresh my memories of this storyline & to re-ignite my passion for reading graphic novels again. I hope I can glean some new insights after reading this series again & be able to apply it to my life.
Until the next one…I am now currently packing to head back to Los Angeles for the weekend. One of my cousins is throwing a 100 Days Celebration party for her newborn son. My little family unit will only be down south for a quick weekend getaway. I am trying to get Jian to save up all of his precious few vacation days for our ginormous end-of-the-year family trip overseas to Japan. Jian & I haven’t been back to Japan as a duo since 2013, & I, personally, haven’t been back since 2016. We haven’t seen my relatives in years, & we would really like our little bean to meet the other half of her extended family.
I have not been this excited to go on a trip or vacation in a looooong time, & I am super pumped. However, in the back of my mind, I honestly wish we were vacationing somewhere in Europe, somewhere we’ve never been to before, instead of always defaulting to Japan or China. Yeah, I know we have a lot of obligations to pay a visit to our extended families in Asia, but I wish we could sometimes take these precious overseas trips to visit somewhere new rather than go back to the same places.
No matter what though, I am extremely grateful that we can even afford (in various ways) to travel at all. I will never take any trip/vacation, no matter how small, for granted. So, I’m going to enjoy this little weekend jaunt to Los Angeles with my little bean, & that’s all I’m going to say about that. Until the next one, cheers…
Today’s song of the day:
Hello. I was sitting at my local big box coffee shop again when I had the idea to write this post. These are more random thoughts & various things that I wanted to write about.
- I was casually & very conspicuously staring at the FedEx deliveryman who was wearing a pair of unflattering FedEx uniform shorts. I was thinking to myself, as I was so obviously gawking at this harmless gentleman, that thank goodness it’s sunny outside because this guy needs to get some color on his pale legs. I also fleetingly thought he had a generic pair of typical men’s legs, very average. Please don’t ask me why I was staring at this guy specifically. I was sitting at the counter right next to the drinks drop-off area & was just casually observing all the people passing through the coffee shop.
- An older adult gentleman sat down in the seat next to me after picking up his mail from the post office next door. You can probably guess what happened next. Yes, I had to stick my nose in this guy’s private business & snoop at what he got in the post. I know it’s controversial (in some societal, moral, mannerly way) to be so blatantly staring at other people & their private business, but I am an observer. I like to observe the things & people around me. Some people call it “openly staring in a creepy way”. Other people call it “an invasion of privacy”. I call it “being aware of my surroundings”. I wasn’t purposely trying to look at this man’s mail, but he was practically flaunting it by putting it right inbetween us on the counter in plain view of us both. The packages & post were just begging to be ogled at by all eyes.
Illustration Credit: Rebecca Mock; Photo Credit: Pinterest & rebeccamock.blogspot.com
Illustration Credit: Scott Campbell; Photo Credit: Google Images & designtaxi.com
- As I’m typing this blog post, I’m listening to both the Midnight in Paris movie soundtrack & the Funny Face movie soundtrack (a.k.a. original motion picture soundtrack), both on Spotify. I’ve been listening to both soundtracks on repeat for the past couple of weeks. You should know me by now. Once I find something I like, I will stick to it until the very end of my days. So far I have two standout favorite songs, one from each soundtrack. On the Funny Face movie soundtrack, I love all of the songs, & can sing almost all of the songs by now, but my standalone favorite is “On How To Be Lovely”. On the Midnight in Paris movie soundtrack my favorite is “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)” the cover of the famous Cole Porter song.
- Last week I watched a highly anticipated movie. Based on my above mentioned icon, you can obviously guess which movie I’m talking about. Since I’ve been a long-time devoted fan of the original source material for this movie, I went into the theater with a lot of unrealistic expectations…meaning, I went to watch the movie with the mindset of comparing the movie adaptation of the original source material. That was a stupid thing for me to do. I should’ve just checked my over-zealous fangirl mentality at the door & enjoyed the movie for what it was, pure entertainment through & through. After watching said movie, I went through the initial period of picking apart the movie & comparing it nearly word-for-word to the source material. Once I got over all of those trival quips & squabbles, I was able to appreciate the movie for its own qualities. I enjoyed the movie so much so that I already pre-ordered the digital download on iTunes. Yeah, I enjoyed the movie that much. Also, I highly admire the creativity & talent of the source material’s creator & actors. I wanted those people to make money off of me & help their success grow, plain & simple.
- Adding on from the last bullet point, because I was so enamored with the movie I watched last week, I went back to re-examine the original source material the movie was based on. I’ve gained a new perspective from re-examining the source material, & it has made me fall in love even more than I already am. Re-reading the source material again (for the **th time) has had me re-thinking about various scenes & pick up small details that were previously misinterpreted &/or overlooked. I am now appreciating the source material in a whole new way.
- For the past few weeks I have been on a tortilla eating binge. We’ve been stocking our kitchen pantry with loads of soft, medium-sized tortillas & eating them like crazy, especially for lunch. I enjoy making sandwich wraps & mini lunch burritos with the tortillas, & on ocassion (like on the weekends) I like to make quesadillas. Lately, my favorite lunchtime meal has been making veggie wraps/burritos using either pre-packaged mixed salad greens or baby arugula, sliced white onions, & thinly sliced tomatoes. Sometime’s I’ll add some sort of salad dressing, but I mostly eat it plain (a.k.a. sans dressing/sauce). It’s like I’m making a mozzarella-less caprese salad wrap/burrito. This wrap is so extremely quick & easy to make (as well as eat), & I LOVE no-fuss recipes/meals. Any recipe that takes less than 10 minutes to prep & eat is a winner in my book, & this wrap is the best. I’ve been eating this salad-y wrap for lunch for the past two weeks & I’m still not tired of it. Sometimes I’ll add a slice or two of deli sandwich meat, but I mostly eat it plain, just veggies. I am by NO MEANS
a vegitarian. God knows I love a good slab of medium-rare steak (& other delicious meats), but this no-meat wrap is sooo tasty too.
Well, this concludes my random blog ramblings. Until next time, cheers!
Today’s song of the day:
Hector is a young psychiatrist in Paris who does not understand why his patients in this most beautiful of cities are unhappy. So he decides to take a trip around the world–from Paris to China to Africa to the United States–and to keep a list of observations about the people he meets, hoping to find the secret to happiness.
I love the book Hector and the Search For Happiness by François Lelord. I think this is probably my favorite book of all time. I couldn’t put it down when I first read it. Well, it’s not a terribly long book, so it wasn’t hard to tear through the pages in a few short days (if you broke up the reading sessions into small chunks of time.)
I have certainly recommended this book to a few people since I’ve read it. I really like the story line of this book, about a well-liked, yet seemingly unhappy psychiatrist who goes on a personal journey to discover the meaning of happiness (What is it, & how do you achieve/obtain it?). Throughout the story, The main character Hector meets many interesting people, goes on a few adventures, & keeps a notebook with a list of points he writes down of what makes up the meaning of happiness.
After reading this book, I re-read the points of what makes up the meaning of happiness to see if I could draw any similarities to my own meaning of happiness. Little did I realize that I already followed this list of points. That made me happy.
Recently, I found out that this favorite book of mine had been turned into a movie starring actors Simon Pegg as the title character Hector & Rosamund Pike as Clara (Hector’s great love/girlfriend). I was completely over the moon to find these two actors starring in this movie. I’ve loved them in all the other movies they’ve acted in together (eg. Shaun of the Dead, The World’s End).
I really think this movie was nicely cast…however, I just can’t get over seeing Simon Pegg with so much hair. It’s really making me do a double take every time I watch the trailer or see photos from the movie. Ok, hairstyle aside, I can’t wait to finally watch the movie adaptation of my favorite book. From the reviews I’ve been reading on the Internet, I am going to be happy once more. Cheers!
All movie photo credits go to Relativity Media.
Today’s song of the day:
Rabbits & Foxes 
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