Sunday, May 30, 2004

by the way: blog descriptions

my latest posts are dated 17 may 2004 on thoughts and on coach potato's corner, if i'm not mistaken. read them!

and by the way, here are descriptions of the blogs, links to which you should see on the right, unless you are using a UNIX or DOS based browser...

ronjie.com - links to the original ronjie website; not updated since january 2000.
prustrations - purpose, prophecy, and philosophy
thoughts - "deep into the inner brain cells of the man called ronjie"
what is da matrix - a really long "reaction paper", published in chunks, on the matrix - the movie trilogy and other stuff...
coach potato's corner - ronjie's rave reviews (on books, movies, etc.)

coming soon:

verse - life, music, and lyrics of ronjie

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Paulo Coelho

I admire Paulo Coelho. He has done things that some of us can only dream of. Nonetheless, I still am dreaming about writing a novel or two. Or three.

Anyhow, if there is one thing common between Paulo Coelho and me is, if I'm not mistaken, that our parents wanted us to become engineers. I am now an engineer, and Paulo Coelho is now an international bestselling author. Ah, but I'm still in my mid-20s. ;-)

Mr. Coelho went through some really unimaginable times in his youth, became a rock superstar back in Brazil and... I have read four of his novels. I think I'll be reading all the rest.

[Book Review] Veronika Decides to Die [Paulo Coelho]

RATING: 5 out of 5

Can you imagine that? It has been just over a month since my last post, and I have already finished a book that I haven't even planned yet on reading a month ago. Well it took me a while to read this book. Usually, for Coelho novels, I can finish them in one afternoon.

Veronika Decides to Die.....

You know how some people intentionally put you to misery, leave you in agony, increase your anxiety, and all that... And then in the end, you find out, it was all a twist; a modus operandi, maybe a prank. You are actually richer than you are, and you have 15 billion pesos in the bank, left by your great grandmother who intentionally wrote in her will that her first great grandson (or granddaughter) shall inherit all her riches, no one else.

And so, can you imagine how you feel this very moment?

I loved Veronika Decides to Die because I met some people with very interesting character and very interesting lives, although I never had that interest because it is easy to judge a book by its cover... And secondly, because Paulo Coelho is just simply smart. He got me again in this novel.

Coelho is one author who writes novels which I want to finish. You cannot predict at all (or maybe you could but... you could get so much into the story!) the ending or what will happen next, you'll meet fascinating people... It helps that Coelho novels are short. Haha.

While By the River Piedra was a little more predictable... And The Five People You Meet In Heaven was very predictable (not even halfway through the book) except for a few details and well, yeah, it's got a message, but its characters were less interesting... Hey, it's hard to write a novel after all!

Veronika Decides to Die is a story you should read. It's one hell of a ride. It's a great story. Not your usual bacon & eggs, but it is cooked to perfection. The scenes and the characters are very vivid, as By the River Piedra and most other Coelho novels offer. Or, I might not have read that much yet. Did I tell you that I have something to say about Paulo Coelho in thoughts?

Next in Line (for reading): Eleven Minutes (latest novel by Paulo Coelho)

[sub-labels: CPC books]