when life gives you lemon... | WRITING TIPS, RANTS, JOURNAL BOOK

Book Recommendations

Good books are essential on your life.

If you're in Wattpad, chances are you love to read, and five out of ten, you love to write.

It's okay. Reading is one of the few hobbies that will make you feel accomplished after you've done it. Whoop, you just finished that monster of 70k words novel. Go you for having that much patience and emotional-stability to have another person's voice blabbering inside your head!

Anyway, I've always been a reader all my life. I have read thousands of books, both good and bad and in-between. I will share to you some of the best books I've read that have changed me for the better... and sometimes for the worse.

#1 Writing-style:

Fight Club

Survivor

Invisible monster

—— All by Chuck Palahniuk

Chuck influenced my writing style GREATLY. Ever see me writing things in repetition? Usually three times? With a lot of questions like these?

Chuck Palahniuk.

Or maybe when my writing style contain a lot of contradictory sentences. i.e: the truth is you don't want the truth. Beautiful people feel like they're the ugliest inside. You're lonely if you're surrounded by people and wished to be alone.

Chuck Palahniuk.

These short paragraphs also are influenced heavily by Chuck.

Anyway, aside from the AMAZING writing-style that Chuck has (that I hold no candles of compared to), Chuck has crazy plot-twists. His books always contain plot twists designed to wrinkle your brain. His books always have really crazy, really apathetic, really likeable-but-quite-hateable protagonists. Not to mention, since Chuck was a journalist before he was a novelist, his book will always fill your memories with sometimes-useless-but-entertaining-to-memorize trivia.

So give his books a try. Start from Invisible Monster, because it's the most straightforward, and everybody knows that the film version of Fight Club is better anyway

(sorry Chuck).

Tag: Themes. Plot-twist. Narration.

——

Reason and Romance by Jenn Young

This book is New Adult, which means that it's a little more mature than young adult, but not as heavy as straight-up romance. Jenn Young was the sole reason why I started writing at all. She went by the pen-name of Myrika when she started posting stories online on fiction press (before Wattpad was created), and she always wrote the best kind of online stories that I kept reading and reading and reading. Finally, she self-published 'Reason and Romance', which was basically a girl falling in love with her asshole-ish stepbrother. I love Myrika's young adult stories because they're cliche, but they're so fun to read. Plus, she's got killer instinct for witty banters, so expect a lot of witty banters.

Tag: Dialogue. Dysfunctional dynamics. Family values.

——

I know you see it coming, John Green's Books.

My favourite is Looking for Alaska, for the sole reason that John Green successfully deconstruct the 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl' trope there. Then he did it again with 'Manic Pixie Dream Boy' with August Waters in TFIOS, but he did the breakthrough in the previous book.

John Green has a knack of writing things that are so heart-wrenching to read but feel so true. He's really good at observation and I can tell that he's spent a lot of time reflecting a lot of things, because his stories are just so full of hearts. So, in case any of you haven't read his books, you should give it a try.

Tag: observational, themes, young-adult.

——

#2 Life:

The KingKiller Chronicles - by Patrick Rothfuss

This book is a gem. If you're having a hard time at school, please give this book a read. Kvothe, the protagonist of this book, is the most hardworking person that I know. He's a little playful, he's a little arrogant, and he's so human. He's the best definition of a talented prodigy that I ever come across in fiction. Plus. It's a story about a 'Legend' in a fantasy setting, which turns out is not quite a 'legend' after all. I hope it makes sense even a bit.

-

The Secret - by Rhonda Byrnes.

I loved it. It's basically like praying (I'm agnostic, but before I was catholic). But, instead to God, we pray to the universe. This book makes me brave enough to believe in something. I remembered, when I first started writing and publishing in wattpad, I wrote, just like The Secret advised, what I would like to achieve and truly believed it.

I wrote in my journal, that in 6 months, I wanted to get one million view, and I got exactly that. Not more, not less. Maid for Hire got 1 million view six months after I wrote that message and believed it.

It had happened twice, too. Before I knew anything about the Secret, I kept journaling about the things that I wanted to get and the things that I wanted to achieve. I was still a kid back there, and I had no idea about the whole 'law of attraction' mumbo jumbo. But when I looked back at my old journal and then seeing my kiddy cursive, I kept getting amazed at how many things that were happening exactly like I had written in my journal. It's scary.

I also wrote that I wanted to have 5 moleskines journals (because moleskines are crazy expensive here in my country) and I got exactly 5. Maybe I should update it to 50 because 5 moleskines are not enough.

—

Why Men Love Bitches - by Sherry Agrov

I loved this book. More than being a bitch, Sherry teaches you on how to not be a pushover. The term Bitch here is used very loosely. Bitch here means Babe In Total Control of Herself (so clever!), which is why every woman (or man) should read this book. Whenever you feel like you're being played by your significant other, or if you feel like you're never good enough for your boyfriend, have a sip of coffee with this book, and watch as your confidence seep back to you.

——

Special Mentions:

Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

I read everything by Haruki Murakami. His books are like 'life'. It's weird, it's sometimes surreal. It flows like water. But my favourite would by Norwegian Wood. It's a story about a boy who's torn between two very different girl. One is broken . Another one is bubbly. It's like choosing death or life. I fucking loved it and have re-read Norwegian Wood countless times.

—

BONUS BLUNDER:

When I was in grade 8-10, I was hella pretentious. I would only read classic books. Mind you, these books are painful and long-winded and just... really... boring. But I finished it because in my mind, classic meant the best. The absolute worst to finish would be Charles Dicken's 'Great Expectations'. Dude wrote a bunch of things, but he only really needed to have only 1/3 of the book to make the plot works.

——