Judging books by their covers

I know that you are not supposed to but I find I do judge books based on their covers fairly regularly. Just recently I bought this book Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami, an author I had never heard of before, just because I liked the cover design. Its got a black cat with green eyes on the cover looking at you, as cats usually do, with mild condescension. Also I liked the fact that it had 'Kafka' in the title and that it was by a Japanese author. I don't know why but ever since watching the movies Lost in Translation and Kill Bill (vol1 not 2), I have been fascinated with Japan - the samurais, hello kitty, tea ceremony, technology, karaoke, crazy anime cartoons...

Coming back to the topic, my friend told me an extreme case of how covers of books affected him. He said that until second standard he never used to do well in class, he even got 0/20 in math. Then in his second standard the cover of his science textbook had the pictures of space ships, galaxies and microscopes and he got really interested in the book and did well ever since. He also says things like part of the reason he did badly in school till second standard was that his father insisted on teaching him (I imagine something like the cartoon where Dad explaining the workings of a carburetor in Calvin and Hobbes); and that he means to learn swimming, violin, karate and get a dog as a pet all in the next few months, so I don't know how much credence I should place in his statements.

The GREATEST movie EVER!!!

O boy! I just finished watching one of the craziest and weirdest movies ever - Tenacious D: The Pick of Destiny starring none other than the GREATEST band EVER (according to their website). It is a musical comedy, but unlike the genre, the music is rock and the comedy is very very weird. Also its got great music, especially the song Classico which is a blend of Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and rock.

I know that many people will find the movie stupid or even disgusting and I definitely don't expect it to be a big box office hit, but I love it and urge you to go buy a DVD first thing tomorrow, at the crack of noon.

Books, movies and the weather

I have finally completed A Clash of Kings, book 2 of the A Song of Ice and Fire series and can now hopefully move on in life (it was very hard to put down such an un-put-down-able book and do other things). A very strange thing about the book is that the author doesn't seem to show any qualms in killing off well developed characters. While I was reading the book, I began noticing some changes. I never used to notice such things as hot food or warm clothes, but as I read more about sleeping in the open and eating dried meat, I began appreciating things more. Maybe I should stop reading fiction and spend more time on news and things that are actually happening!

I also watched a very interesting movie called Brick recently. It is a teen-druggie-school-mob-detective story, but what was interesting about it was the don't care attitude of the main character, even when he is beaten near death, he just seems to get up and says the first thing that comes to his mind. That and the strange camera work and the overcast-about-to-rain sky when it can get really windy and interesting. That is the weather I like the best, just before the rain when the sky is overcast and it gets very windy. I remember imagining as if we were on a ship caught in a storm and running around on the terrace of the house when it gets like that. Maybe that's the real reason I liked the movie.