Book-ish Rants

Skipping lectures and tutorials during the summer classes isn’t a good idea. Its like, wow, I’ve actually missed quite a bit already. Although honestly, my class is boring me outta my mind! All the lecturer ever does is talk about his various “friends” (who, quite curiously, happen to consist only of Canadian or Australian girls), buying bras and cheating "Matthew Sallehs" over eBay.

Uggg… Monash Malaysia has the nasty tendency to hire the most Ah Beng lecturers they can get their paws on. Seriously, I mean if Monash is like the all that university as advertised, the least they can do is to hire somebody who can bloody well annunciate English words properly without going “ass- pert, ass-pert!” all the time like a retard.

Anyways, I’ve been catching up with some reading. I’ve used to gobble up books like everyday when I was in high school. I had a slightly geek-sigh start with several Star Wars novels, more notably the Rogue Squadron and Wraith Squadron series, although there were others like The Truce at Bakura and Thrawn series. The themes in many of these books were quite mature, from galactic politics to the darker intrigues of sentient beings, so I can’t truthfully say I enjoyed the books, more like reading it cause… well, it was Star Wars!

Then my sister introduced me to the world of fantasy novels. Started out with David Eddings’ The Elenium and The Tamuli series. It basically had knights, magic, fair maidens and quests, just the perfect recipe for a fantasy series. I then moved on to other works done by Eddings and his was fast becoming my favorite. Later on, I had a one-track-mind tendency to only stick to one genre so I only allowed to myself to try out other fantasy writers.

Then, there was a significant gap. I've stopped reading. Oh, yeah of course I’ve read books and other stuff. But gone was the tenacity of gobbling up a 3-book omnibus edition the size of 5 bibles laced together in 2 weeks straight.

The latest fantasy I’ve read was David Gemmell’s Troy series. The first book, The Lord of the Silver Bow was like… whoa! All man, all honor. Even the bad guys were so freaking cool. It even had tons of uber awesome one liners. Now that is a really good book. I can’t wait to read the next one.

However, I’ve recently became a slightly military nut. Especially fictional military books or sci-fi military. The Halo official novels were rock sold. It was everything I’ve imagined for the back-story of the l33t3st video game of all time. No one messes with the Master Chief!

Then, Woony loaned me his Warhammer 40k: Space Wolves series about a week ago. Needless to say, I am now a loyal servant of the Imperium of Man! Just pages and pages of good old gory ass kicking with a chain sword and a bolter! Boo yah!

I’ve always been a fan of the 40k universe. Heck, I even nearly persuaded my dad to get me the miniature starter kit that cost about RM 600 back then for my 12th birthday. I even managed to drag him inside DJ’s Games Castle (as it was known back then, I think it is called Games Circle now).

He thought it was some sort of RM 35.00 G.I Joe action figure that was all the rage back then and when he saw me pick up a box about ½ my size with a price tag of nearly ½ a thousand, needless to say his brains started working really really fast. Because he promised me he will get it, he took a good hard look at it and the solution came to him. Being a chemist, he noticed that the miniatures were made out of lead. My little sister was born only a few months back so he told me for the future well being of my new sibling, I should pick up a hobby with less health hazards. I think that’s was when I picked up the Magic cards as a hobby. Heh heh… wasn’t going to leave there empty handed.

Anyway, I was glad I didn’t start it. I would’ve probably given it up and it would have sure as hell cost more than giving up Magic cards. I guess what interest me more was the 40k universe itself rather than the tabletop game. Dark and gothic, the settings were really intriguing and the only way I could read up more about it at that time was through my friends’ Codexs (a fancy way of saying 'rulebook') which contains the story and history of the featured Space Marine Chapter.


Anyway, guess my current reading interest is into military stuff especially sci-fi settings. Just put in the words marines, dropships or space and I’ll get hooked on to it.

Praise Russ and the All Father! *Woooof!*
- Space Wolves -