Bahhh

I thought I would track my books through GoodReads, but low and behold, Amazon has taken over! No, I will not contribute.

I have deleted my account. I guess I will be doing this the old fashion way.

Amazon Buying Goodreads: Industry Reactions

New Year + 1month

I presume that no one visits this site

.. lucky you.

This site will no longer wholeheartedly contain my daily reads, cause now writing recommendations has become a part of my day job, which I came to expect and is fine by me. (I'll post these next time around, and that will be the last of it for now) - until I've read something that I have took so much pleasure in to write about it.

So ambitions - reading always, yes - and now with the underlining of being able to pass on a good story to another. (It will still and always be a selfish act in itself). But I decided to expand  Fakemeaty and have it store and show some of my paintings on a mildly serious and cynical note. The website is overdue and I am slowly working it out in my head and on paper - no, no coding yet. AND like most artist's sites - that I have seen, it will have a blog/ feed of sorts. So that's it. I am moving on-  a few more of these and splat.

Cause I'm somewhat obsessive - I do & plan on keeping track on my reads here: Goodreads.

So I technically cheated and skipped over her chapter about 30 rock, but everything else changed my life. No, but it helped me take life a little less seriously. Wondering how long will that last...

I am also in my faze of checking out books and abandoning them for whatever reason. Orwells Diaries  are fantastic, but it looks as if I will only get so far... tbc

Long ago...

I started this blog with the goal of keeping up with my reading - pondering it, for remembering cause it is not easy to, after the book is shelved away. No, I have not been blogging for you, my friends (the Internet sphere), or the one-two people that actually follow me.

I still leave the house with a book in my hand, and since I recently started working PT at the Mechanics' Institute, I've been tossed into another whirl of titles that I want to add to my to-be-read pile. ho-hum. If you have never heard of the Mechanics' Institute, to me, it is one of the greatest places on earth.


Since, I've been here last, I have read some great things - the more or less obvious.

 Save Twilight - J. Cortazar

 Essays in Love- Alain De Botton

 Train Dreams - Denis Johnson

Lolita - V. Nabokov

Blood, Bones & Butter - G. Hamilton

...and others.


I have also been dabbling in some paint. And these things are still up until mid October!

I think that's it, for now.

loves

It feels like a busy week. Nothing too pressing, but they are all minuscule things that need to be done and are adding up to take a sh*t load of time. I've been meaning to complete some side projects, (i.e. make changes to the bookstore website, create my own site for artwork, etc.), but f*ck. Coincidence that I am also reading an fantastic book right now. It is far from my usual fare, but its really really good.

 
*edit - I am usually not keen about reading an author back to back... maybe that is why I am so bad at keeping up with a series. The Kingkiller Chronicles is a huge exception. A part of it may be that its only a trilogy and that he came out with the second book, Day 2 last year (released in paperback last month or so). If it was the Song of Ice and Fire, yea I know what reading I have ahead of me. So I have found that I have had trouble explaining exactly what this book is about - and I can say what makes it so great is that is has a little bit of everything, as well as hero- or the anti-hero that all captivating stories involve.

 Kote is an innkeeper in a time and town where demons or Chandrians linger. They are known in old children's limericks and stories, but as far as the common folks know- they are just old tales. The same is for Kote or Kvothe, who is a legend with many aliases, but this innkeeper has kept his identity a secret, until a scribe, the Chronicler, recognizes him and Kote agrees to have the Chronicler transcribe his life story this one time, over a course of three days. Each book, is a day and a segment of Kvothe's autobiography. Throughout the book, we learn that Kvothe grew up as a traveling gypsy, lost his family to these Chandrians, and is on the quest to find what exactly these demons were after- as a poverty stricken kid without a family, he still has high ambitions as a musician and to learn the science/ magic of Sympathy in the University. Even though he doesn't have the means like others, he has the wit, intelligence, and charm to get accepted in the University and study with the masters. Add in a douse of sneaking into the archives, slaying dragons, fumbles with arch enemies, alchemy, intellectual debate, and keeping up with Denna (the love of his life and of apparently every other male in town).... and you have one of the best books - now underrated, but I bet will soon blow up like Miss Sellout Collins. Well only if you have the patience for 1600+ pages for the two, so far.

April 21 - August 24, 2012

Whoa, I made it!

Some fabs

For a second I felt a slight panic. After my engrossment with Grapes and the Joad family - after feeling like I had to savor every morsel and pinch a penny for my grim, jobless future- Thank the skies I didn't have to live through the Great Depression - I felt like I didn't have any reading to turn to. What can possibly follow up such a wholesome, but despairing classic?

I flipped through my piles of books, just a handful of pages at a time and had to put them down. Bend Sinister, Empire of the Sun, Downstream, Blood, Bones & Butter... plus the patient sitting of M.R. James' Collected Ghost Stories, which was loaned to me a month ago and the awful book borrower I am, don't have the patience, nor motivation to read things that are purposely made to scare. (Oh the suspense!!!) I promise to read it eventually...oye

After a recommendation from my bookseller comrade, and the perusal of the fiction stacks (a job which I am happy occupy) plus a memory of online book spiels; I am satisfied and for the mean time fulfilled.

A Giacometti Portrait (sounds like Ja-ko-met-tee) is the record of an 18-day sitting of an old friend, James Lord who modeled for Alberto Giacometti. Readers gets to tap into Giacometti's creative process and painterly insight, which is foremost humble and fervent as the portrait constantly develops and regresses under his brush. What I like the most about this is that even as a successful artist, Giacometti approaches each piece as it is his first time seeing and creating - this also proves to be defeating, possessive, and adverse at times. With each day/ chapter, there is a photo of the portrait... my one peeve is that the resolution is horrific (its more like a bad b/w photo copy of the artwork).





Yea the next book is a head turner, but only cause its such a hippie-esque title. As a fan of novels about the quintessential American, this is a quiet classic about an English Professor that was born in the poor farm land of Missouri in the late nineteenth century. He leaves to college to study agriculture to prospectively return to the farm and help his parents, but later becomes interested in English, Philosophy, and the likes. As an appointed scholar, he embraces the University and is deemed a life that is resembles nothing of the one he left.

I'll admit that as I am writing this, I am only a third of the way through but I did gleefully get through 50 pages in a sitting. The words flow graciously, in a way that reminds me of Yates and Orwell - I know that its not a cheerful story (I realize that I despise things cheerful), but as a 7-year old customer said while purchasing Lemony Snicket's last books in the series, "Not all good books have to have happy endings."


Lastly, because of my minimally employed arse, I have been taking a figurative painting course every Friday and have been painting a bit more than usual-- but far from any state of satisfaction. It may be just me, but I am finding that the more I paint, the more I am discontent with myself. Jesus! like it gets worse by the day... whatever. I can't quit. I've recently came across a lovely artist Chelsea James, who I turned to in my hasty attempt to paint something new to submit for the student art show. We'll see if they will even like what they see, but a bookstore blues piece is what came of the idea to create something from the mundane.

I have been neglecting my updating of books and such. To be honest, I've been all over the place with my reading, where usually I would become a bit peeved with my inability to finish a book. I do not feel this way at all, although I can't say that I have been 'hooked' with any one book.

Others in the pile,

• Status Anxiety by Alan de Botton
• Social Animal by David Brooks
• various art reference...

I have been hooked on reading the classics//more so contemporary than old, but this one proved to be sarcastically humorous, yet wretched. The once aristocratic are sold as slaves, but through it all infatuation, love seems to be the only hope for Candide. Throughout he asks if the world is capable of producing good


After drooling over East of Eden, I finally had the guts to ride with the Joads to California. It's been a grim, but invigorating because Steinbeck is gold. At first I was a bit shy about reading this..like I should have had it under my belt in high school, but no its beautiful and I'm damn proud.

What a way to start the year.. especially with two distopian novels. But of course we all realized that vampires and such would taper off, and books like the Hunger Games with a message that ignites some perspective about the system would prevail, especially over stories that involve gushing about the trivial qualms concerning the teenage libido. I know Orwell's 1984 wasn't the first novel to question the ways of the government control, but it certainly put ideas of Big Brother and the Thought Police into the mainstream. Although written 60 years later, Patrick Ness pulls the same themes into his book and does it provokingly well. In the first book of the Chaos Walking trilogy, Todd is the last citizen to become a man in a town where everyone can hear each others' inner dialogue, including those of the animals. The Noise has somehow drove those in charge to enforce the notion that silence, as well as not having come of age into adulthood means that one is hiding their sins and needs some kind of convertion. This means the women have been obliterated and the men are left to the unspoken initiation of the army that will kill to conquer the rest of the new world. (yea, abruptly said). The premise seems to hint more towards the ugly side of American history... colonization and such in another time/universe, but it is all about those in control instilling fear and violence to gain power.

The beauty of it is the development of all this, as the reader experiences with the young protagonist the confusion, self-doubt, desperation, and yes, chaos of having to leave one's home and family without definite reason. Plus the emotion of not knowing where to go and encountering groups of people who will act on their misgivings just because of the town one has came from. I realize that 1984 carries its own set of meanings, but like Catcher in the Rye I am sure I was the last few people who read this book and who was not assigned it in high school English. So it does seem to be understood and redundant to mention...


Let me add that, as my personal preference, it was not my favorite of Orwell even though it stands to still be enjoyable and nonetheless a classic. Clergyman's Daughter and even Keep the Aspidistra Flying I still found to be not as cold as this, but he is still deserves every bit of reputation he has. (Still TBR is The Road to Wigan Pier). Zamyatin's WE is also worth picking up as it was said to be the main influence for it.

200th.

As a later work of Nabokov, this 100 or so pager felt more like a test of comprehension...oh how awful. The story itself is actually pretty good, but Nabokov was obviously flexing his dexterity as an established writer at that... I guess the awful part about it is the after effect of how I will honestly admit that the I didn't understand the damn meaning of it all. It starts off somewhat comic, Hugh Person (pronounced Parson) is checking into a hotel in Switzerland where he is to meet with the author R. and go about editing his new novel. Hugh is sort of a clumsy character with a livelihood that is far from exceptional, but he goes through the typical motions of self-consciousness from his father's tendencies and falling in love with Armande, a woman who all of a sudden gives him her hand in marriage, which seems to originate from nothing more than pittance or a sudden knock in the head. In an abrupt and somewhat non-sequential line of events, his life gradually turns mad as he murders his wife, retraces his past, and becomes insane. It's hard to imagine how two decades and four different trips are supposed to fit in this slim thing, but Nabokov does do it seamlessly... chapter by chapter it flies, but at the same time it takes awhile to realize what hit. I still don't know what it all means...I also don't think it really matters.

So despite some hardships- life altering moments - character enhancers in 2011, looking back I did have a pretty decent love affair with some stories and managed to gain a ton of favorites. As of the moment, I'm still dedicating my next few reads to the classics... way overdue. My acclaimed list of favorite books read in 2011:

Collected Stories of Richard Yates
Laughter in the Dark - V. Nabokov
On a Winter's Night a Traveler - I. Calvino
The Post-Man Always Rings Twice - J. Cain
Into the Looking Glass Wood - A. Manguel
Invention of Morel - Bioy Casares
The Invention of Hugo Cabret - B. Selznick

Runner-ups:
Austerlitz - W. B. Sebald
Catch-22 - Heller
Just Kids - P. Smith
Story of the Eye - G. Bataille
Revolutionary Road - Yates
Clergyman's Daughter - G. Orwell
Full Tilt - D. Murphy
America is in the Heart - C. Bulosan

Cheers.

199th...

[Mini shadow box. xmas art show 12.16.2011]


I know there's a movie out, and yes for many, including myself, it drives a motivation to read things. What a gorgeous book.. I know I've said that about a lot of books, but I'm saying... yea read this tome in a janky e-reader and it will not be the same. Well an iPad would be alright. The merging of drawings and text to tell Hugo's story is utterly magical, and for a juvenile book its intelligent,visually well executed, and its incorporation of film history is enough for parties (young and old) to enjoy. Tre beau.

Etc., Go Russian

Perfect for my Disneyland trip via occupy landscape...

Edit: Actually I don't know how perfect it was... this book took me almost a month too read. With all the concentration I needed.. bringing this on my Disneyland trip was more distracting than anything. I won't go into the Disneyland trip cause there was nothing close to a vacation that became of it.

Despite the month - or what I feel is the longest time I've spent on a book, I'm pretty damn happy I read this. When I finally got over the fact that it is not exactly chronological, it was pretty damn funny, ridiculous, cynical... and yes, it did feel like Heller was yelling words from the pages. I have to admit that this is the first war book that I can genuinely admit that I enjoyed. Heller seriously packed each sentence with quick wit, sometime too quick that to catch the novelty of each sentence, one might have to do a re-read. Each character is also animated in his own right and one gets to know Yossarian, Hungry Joe, Nately, Milo, Cathcart, chaplain, and the rest all too well. Definitely a play on how absurd war can be and its more relevent than ever.
Reminded me a bit of Abby's Monkey Wrench Gang with its black humor and the rebellious energy it exudes.


I'm ready to pick this up again. It's dark and cold outside, as opposed to the beach weather we had when I first tried to pick it up, to literally read on the beach. Right.

It's over or just beginning.

Yes, there are books out there that need time and patience, and this one definitely tested mine. First, it's a f'ing gorgeous book. Sebald is unique in the way he writes because he tends to incorporate beautiful pictures. Sort of like the surrealist story Nadja, and Sebald even did the same when he wrote the introduction to The Tanners, which is how I decided to read Sebald. That in itself is its own novella. With this book in particular, he writes without chapters or paragraphs or quotations, although the entire story consists of an on going conversation with traveler and a fellow he meets on the way named Austerlitz. So one can easily imagine how this story can drag and test one's patience because unlike other books, the climax is hard to detect and honestly, if Sebald did format this with quotes and paragraphs, it would look the Austerlitz here is a mere rambler.

Through the perspective of the traveler, we learn that Austerlitz is on a journey to discover his whereabouts. As a child he was adopted by a couple who practically lived in the church, however through the steps he traces his original name, then his parents, then finds the person who can tell him about his mother, while he yet still has to learn what happened to his father. As he digs deeper, he finds that as Hitler and the Germans imposed their power in Prague, Austerlitz was sent away, while his mother, once a famous opera singer, was trying to find a way out of the city, except to be sent out with thousands of others to internment. The charm of this book is in its composed, meditative temper; the curiosity of Austerlitz and his interest in architecture and purposes of structures, like a fort; the genial relationship that the traveler and Austerlitz share as they cross paths time after time, and in each instance we learn more about Austerlitz's personal journey; and lastly the keen insights that are interwoven throughout, for instance:

"The only animal which has remained lingering in my memory is the raccoon. I watched it for a long time as it sat beside a little stream with a serious expression on its face, washing the same piece of apple over and over again, as if it hoped that all this washing, which went far beyond any reasonable thoroughness, would help it to escape the unreal world in which it had arrived, so to speak, though no fault of its own. Otherwise, all I remember of the denizens of the Nocturama is that several of them had strikingly large eyes, and the fixed inquiring gaze found in certain painters and philosophers who seek to penetrate the darkness which surrounds us purely by means of looking and thinking."

"...there is really no reason to suppose that lesser beings are devoid of sentient life. We are not alone in dreaming at night for, quite apart from dogs and other domestic creatures whose emotions have been bound up with ours for many thousands of years, the smaller mammals, such as mice and moles also live in a world that exists only in their minds whilst they are asleep, as we can detect from their eye movements, and who knows, said Austerlitz, perhaps moths dream as well..."

The best thing of all is that its all autobiographical... a beauty.


So if you can't tell I passed my e-port!!! Yes, that means I am graduating, and even though it is in a job market that stinks... I can honestly and genuinely say that I at least enjoyed every bit of what I studied and I think its one of the best choices I could have made. Yes I will sleep well at night. So I guess here I will share a part of it, especially once I look back in a year and wonder what it all means.

Professional Philosophy

My professional philosophy is rudimentary to my interests in libraries and to the access of information, and it reflects my beliefs, values, and attitudes regarding the profession of librarianship. The basis of my professional philosophy stems from my studies as an undergraduate, as well as my job and volunteer experiences within and outside the information field. As some are quickly able to discern the occupation that they wish to dedicate their lives to, it took me awhile to come to terms with a profession that could incorporate my wide range of interests from visual design to methods of classification to social behavior. As my educational background are in the schools of Mass Communication and Journalism, as well as in Sociology, this has stirred my passion for studying the behavior of people in a media laden environment. I realized that I had the natural creativity, knack for catching onto trends, and reveled in conducting social research. I have seen that these have become assets while in the program and they have incited my interests even in traditional librarianship.

Prior to enrolling in a graduate program, I learned that using my time and energy to fuel profit driven business left me unfulfilled, however it was in working for a digital assets company that a coworker of mine suggested that I should consider working in a library. Since then, I have found that librarianship allows me to stick to my ideals, thrive intellectually, as well as serve my community. As libraries adhere to all classes of knowledge and librarians must often take on a variety of roles, in the Spring of 2009, I finally was able to recognize that my professional fulfillment lay in the constant stimulation and altruistic nature of public librarianship. My professional goal and focus in the program has been to work as a reference librarian for a public library, which is constantly affirmed through my occupations as a bookseller, library aide, tech helper, and student assistant for a special library.

Before I enrolled in SLIS, I left my office job to work at a used bookstore, which I currently am employed by today. As Recycle Bookstore serves as a bibliographic institution for the city of San Jose, here I have been able to thrive in providing reference, connecting books to their readers, and sustaining an ongoing relationship with those in our community. It is in this position that I was first able to apply one of the fundamentals of what I believe the profession stands for, which is to facilitate the ease of access to information and satisfy the information needs of users. The concept of facilitating access and satisfying information needs relies on the service aspect of reference, which is defined in Competency I. I firmly stand by the importance in not only conducting an adequate reference interview, but in the approachability of any professional or staff who represents the library. It is in this concept that I believe requires empathy, friendliness, and acknowledgment of the user's needs. As a bookseller, I have had the opportunity to apply these concepts that I have learned in my courses by being proactive in helping patrons, as well as utilizing our materials and other bibliographic resources for their needs. The ability to conduct a proper reference interview is crucial, as it aims to pinpoint the objective of one's information search, and ensures relevance and efficiency with one's efforts. The respect that we must have for users, I feel is ingrained in how we treat them and the extent they feel they can rely on the library to serve as a functional and humanistic resource in their lives.

In addition to working at Recycle Bookstore, I have also spent my time working as an aide for Alameda Free Library, and have volunteered at the Berkeley Public Library as a tech helper. In these positions are where I emphasize my second fundamental value to unbiasedly serve library users, and strive to provide free and equal access. This belief is expressed in my values and professional ethics that are emphasized in Competency A. In order to unbiasedly serve patrons and provide equal access, I feel that this must surpass ideas in terms of race, age, and class, but also consider the unique abilities and perspectives of how information can adequately reach all library users. This value also aims to promote intellectual freedom, as well as resist censorship by dismissing judgment, respecting privacy, and adhering to the confidence of others.

Finally my experience as a student assistant for the Information Technology (IT) department at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) has provided me with experience working in archives and records, and currently in a special library. It is in these experiences where I have been able to apply my professional attitude to guarantee efficient and relevant information for the entertainment, education, and enlightenment of all people in the community. This idea is further emphasized in Competency F where developing collections includes aspects of determining the needs of users, acquiring relevant materials, remaining up to date with interests, and various preservation practices so materials are suitable for use. Although my long-term objective is to work in a public library, my experience ay LBNL has given me insight concerning the preservation of information, as well as how to find information for the specific research needs of our clients through our electronic journal databases and acquiring resources through interlibrary loan.

As my MLIS is close at hand, I feel that attaining this degree is only the starting point of my profession in libraries and the information field. As many may perceive that the ambition to become a librarian stems from a natural love of reading and books, this is only partial to what I have come to understand as pertinent.

Contribution to My Community

As a reference librarian, I plan to contribute to the cultural, economic, educational and social well-being of our communities in a number of ways. My experiences working and volunteering in a public library has reaffirmed my beliefs that the library is a principle institution that disinherits notions of class, gender, status, and background, as well as exists to provide programs and services that subscribe to information literacy, self-education, and quality resources for those who may not have other institutional means of access to them.

My responsibility as information professional, and in my future prospects as a reference librarian for a public library are in line with my intrigue to the theories of sociology. As we live in a diverse society, I feel it is important to recognize the needs of others and adhere to the perspectives of each individual in the community. In order to contribute to the cultural well-being of my community, as a reference librarian I will consider the diverse perspectives of the role of information in each individual’s value system, as well as promote and facilitate access to the materials and services that reflect all cultural and ethnic perspectives that are represented. This includes maintaining an incessant knowledge and collection of resources that are native to the countries represented, as well as those that adequately support the various viewpoints of groups in the population. Adhering to the public library’s mission of equal access, I will strive to ensure that programs and resources are visible and obtainable, as well as foster the diversity that persists.

The value of public libraries to society are immeasurable, however it is in this economic climate that those in the profession must constantly work to keep library doors open through the marketing and advocacy of the public libraries' free resources and services. As a public library strives to ensure free and equal access, I feel that I am responsible for the methods and principles in which libraries can provide services and resources to better the lives of all individuals in the community. I strongly believe that power of information lies on those who can uninhibitedly use it to express themselves, communicate with others, and attain knowledge to grow within them. As my work and volunteer experiences have provided me with the opportunity to incorporate these fundamentals, I feel that my professional objective of public librarianship will directly contribute to the creation of opportunities for others and the welfare of society.

Cheers!

You know I can't really explain why I picked up this book. Well I thought I heard or read something about a H.G. Wells' story about a character traveling through time and something about the thought that if he can bring any two books to the future, what would it be?
I wish I can make this post more interesting and tell you what my two picks are... but the only thing I can tell you that it wouldn't be the Bible or the Tao Te Ching or whatever. I also actually never found that part of the story, so there goes that. Anyway, this book is pretty simple and I'm sure everyone knows the who (the time traveller), the where, and what. So like all classics there is some great insight involved. Definitely another story that supports how there are plenty of underlying truths in fiction. (I say this cause I never thought prior... "I only like to read non-fiction" type). A couple quotes that reign:

`It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers. '

`I grieved to think how brief the dream of the human intellect had been. It had committed suicide. It had set itself steadfastly towards comfort and ease, a balanced society with security and permanency as its watchword, it had attained its hopes--to come to this at last. Once, life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. The rich had been assured of his wealth and comfort, the toiler assured of his life and work. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem, no social question left unsolved. And a great quiet had followed. '

"Entertaining but not sufficiently original or witty to be the kind of noncomformist manifesto to which it aspires." - A fellow on GoodReads. His one liner describes this book best, and possibly that's all I feel it deserves. Well I'll go on anyway. I think Mohr is a good writer, and he did describe the Mission pretty accurately. My qualm is that he tried to convey the typical cliche that good hearted souls exist even in the dingiest dives.... yea typical bad kid with a good heart. We get it. Definitely would recommend it to a suburban kid just out of high school or someone who may have just got into reading. 'Alternative' Live 105 here. Well..I can actually think of 10 other books I would rather recommend. Don't believe it when folks refer him to a Bukowski of some sorts. Yea they have the drinking part right... but that's as far as the comparison goes. A closer comparison is a Chuck Palahniuk for those who need a tame script due to their weak stomach. Or how about a liberal Nicholas Sparks with tattoos and a drinking problem... I guess that's going to far. Definitely a jock with a conscience. I'm done.

Sometimes certain books are attractive enough to pick up. There are times when I've been disappointed because I bought a book cause of its cover/title/synopsis/ etc etc...and it was just inaccessible when I came down to reading it. I still wonder how can one increase their chances of reading the right book at the right moment, and avoid misreading a book just because you weren't in the right mood.

This was one of those books was just sooo attractive, but then I struggled with not knowing a damn thing about the author... so it was one that I would pick up and put back on the shelf. Borges did write the introduction for this book and compared him to Kafka and James' The Turn of the Screw. I honestly didn't feel like meshing my tired brain with someone I would perceive would be a favorite of Borges. Yes, Borges is genius but he's a tough cookie. Well down the reading line, I found out that Bioy Casares is one of the most talented and under the radar Argentine writers out there, and for once I believe the hype! Bioy Casares was his buddy, but he never had the acclaim he deserved cause Borges was in the spotlight at the time. Nonetheless, this story is eerie in a seemingly distopian time/ space (Philip K. Dick-ish), and is full of this sinister romance that you can never tell if it truly exists only in the protagonist's mind, or if it is a part of the conspiracy that surrounds him.

The story is a diary of a fugitive who retreats to this deserted resort island. He believes he's the only one there, since the resort is known to have some vaporous disease that gradually eats away at the hair, nails, skin, and flesh of humans. Until one day a gang of tourists arrive and he can't decide whether they consist of the authorities that are after him, but he ends up falling for a gypsy-type woman that he sees by the shore staring at the sunset every day. Despite his fears, he tries to grab her attention and profess his love for her.... without doing so he feels he doesn't have a point in living... but he soon finds that all she has to offer is a blank stare, and the other visitors won't even acknowledge his presence. Even the buildings and its objects wouldn't budge - the holes he tore into the museum basement are sealed, the curtains won't move aside, the doors are automatically locked during certain times, etc. As the title bears, its a pretty twisted scenario.

Yea it was a surprisingly good read... to the point that I picked up all his other books (my weakness). Cheers.