The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us (2010)

My first book reading up on psychology. This book is written by psychologists Christopher Chabris and Dave Simons who gave us the famous Invisible Gorilla Experiment seen on youtube and other psychology sites.

I thought it was a really easy and interesting read and I came to know more about inattentional blindness and the limits of human visual perception, and how this affects even memory and a lot of what we know. (For example, what we THINK we know is usually grossly overestimated in cases, from what we actually know, and the higher level skills we possess relates to our ability to accurately judge our actual skill level)

 A great and entertaining read. It'a humbling to know more about the human psyche and how bias and perception effect our ability to learn and what we think we know. 

Ubik 1969

by Philip K. Dick

I started out being really confused midway through this novel, although the story ironed itself out towards the end. I wasn't completely satisfied though... perhaps this needs more than one sitting to actually sink in completely...

Philip K. Dick never fails to introduce an ultramodern theory into his work and Ubik is not an exception. Ubik introduces the theory of the half-life world, a kind of purgatory that still allows the deceased communication with the living for some time as long as the body is kept in a state of cryonic suspension. (This state isn't indefinite though.)

I like how Philip K. Dick tends to reuse elements from the future world he devised across his body of work, example the term artifogs (An artificial organ kept 'on line' in the body). It seems like a great method to introduce something "familiar" to a loyal reader, and makes the universe all the more believable.

Apparently there are plans for a movie directed by Michel Gondry. I think it would be truly amazing if they are able to bring Ubik to life. It's going to be a challenge to present the half-life concept, time reversal, and a spray can of Ubik (metaphor for God) AND get the audience to accept it in one sitting.

The Minority Report 1956

Philip K. Dick

I have to say this version I read had a really ugly cover, typography and layout.
It flips vertically open in a longish format to resemble a report. It resembles nothing like a report.

 Apparently Chipp Kidd, 

the designer also created the cover for Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park novel which
was carried on to the franchise. I loved that t-rex skeleton logo!
I can't fathom how this was created by
 the same person...


I loved the idea of precogs and precrime and the question of free will. The movie of the same name greatly expanded on this novela and I think this is one instance where the movie greatly complements and even improves on the original material.

The Penultimate Truth 1964

Philip K. Dick is truly ahead of his time.

Brilliant.

A Scanner Darkly 1977

by Philip K. Dick

I was surprised to find out (yes yes I have been living under a rock all this time) that some of my favourite movies were based off Phillip K. Dick novels.

He is a complete master storyteller, and had ideas beyond his time. I'm reading The Penultimate Truth now (the Denver Airport Conspiracy, anyone?) and it's just disturbing in an appealing way. (I have great love for novels abut dystopias.)

Everything Is Illuminated 2002

by Jonathan Safran Foer

Beyond funny and sad, at the same time.

Cat's Cradle 1963

by Kurt Vonnegut

The Farewell Waltz 1972

by Milan Kundera

Push (novel) 1996

by Sapphire

A tale as hard to read as it is intense and full of hope, I couldn't put down Push and finished it in one sitting, a feat, because I am a slow reader, even for thinner books. 

Push is written through the eyes of Claireece Precious Jones, who has been abused by her parents and forced to stop school because she is impregnated by her father. She is sent to an alternative school called Each One Teach One and starts off illiterate and learns how to read and write under the guidance of Blue Rain, the instructor. Through writing she shares her trials and slowly rebuilds her confidence and esteem, and her life as her literacy improves. 

Booklist 2010-2012

List of books read from late 2010 to the present, here in reverse chronology.


Divisadero - Michael Ondaatje
Lady Oracle - Magaret Atwood
The Music of Chance - Paul Auster
Mountains of Madness - H. P. Lovecraft
Luka and the Fire of Life - Salman Rushdie
Identity - Milan Kundera
Angela's Ashes - Frak McCourt
Neuromancer - William Gibson
A Man Without a Country - Kurt Vonnegut
Perfume - Patrick Süskind
Hell's Angels - Hunter S. Thompson
The Chyrsalids - John Wyndham
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
As I lay Dying - William Faulkner
Lucky- Alice Sebold
Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
With Hitler to the End - Heinz Linge
The Year of the Flood - Magaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake - Magaret Atwood
The Plague - Albert Camus
A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
The Forged Coupon- Leo Tolstoy
The Catcher in the Rye
The Midwick Cuckoos - John Wyndham
Chess - Stefan Zweig
Disgrace - J.M. Coetzee
Veronika Decides to Die - Paulo Coelho
The Death of ivan Ilyich - Leo Tolstoy
Metamorphosis/ Judgement - Franz Kafka
Choke - Chuck Palahnuik
The Alchemist -Paulo Coelho
The Edible Woman - Magaret Atwood
Trouble with Lichen - John Wyndham
The Kraken Wakes- John Wyndham
Man in the Dark- Paul Auster
Exile and the Kingdom - Albert Camus
Lady Chatterly's Lover - D. H. Lawrence

Lolita (1955)

by Vladimir Nabokov

Once a Jolly Hangman - Singapore Justice in the Dock (2010)

by Alan Shandrake 

 Though the writing was repetitive at times, he does bring up some disturbing points.

Everyone should read this.

The Penelopiad (2005)

 by Margaret Atwood.

The Blind Assassin (2000)

 by Margaret Atwood.

I managed to get through this blockbuster of a novel and I'm not disappointed at all.

Night (1960)

by Elie Wiesel(Nobel Prize laureate), 

recounting his experience as a Holocaust survivor

The Handmaid's Tale (1985)

 by Margaret Atwood.

Apparently, The 1990 film The Handmaid's Tale. Would like to watch it.

Bodily Harm (1981)

by Margaret Atwood

It wasn't as interesting as her other work, but I lapped it all up anyway.

A lifestyle reporter/breast cancer survivor ends up as a political prisoner...

Massive Swerve: Vol 1 (2008)

from the incredible mind of Robert Valley.

Bought it online :)

The Tent (2006)

by Margaret Atwood

A collection of mini stories and light poetry for easy digestion. I love the ideas of some of the stories, like the one where all the worms in the world went extinct.

Ox-Tales (anthology series)

Ox-Tales refers to four anthologies of short stories written by 38 of the UK's best known authors. All the authors donated their stories to Oxfam. The books and stories are loosely based around the four elements (Earth, Fire, Air and Water).

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