Books Collection

Manhwa / Manga / Anime Collection

• Haikyuu
• Wotakoi: otaku ni koi wa muzukashi
• Given

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Milan Kundera

Notes

a woman’s life running from her femininity, accepting it and succumbing to the weight of her femininity
a man’s indecisive mind torturing him and finally becoming his self destruction
the countries at war with each other as well as people at war with their own beliefs and values

Quotes

• The brain appears to possess a special area which we might call poetic memory and which records everything that charms or touches us, that makes our lives beautiful.
• Love is the longing for the half of ourselves we have lost
• to imagine- to dream about things that have not happened — is among mankind' s deepest needs.
• in the mind of the woman for whom no place is home, the thought of an end to all flight is unbearable
• the man cannot resist the woman whose soul this responds to his voice
• she did not desire her lover’s body. she desired her own body, newly discovered, intimate and alien beyond others, incomparably exciting.
• once her love had been publicized it would gain weight, become a burden
• she had come to him to escape her mother’s world(a world where all bodies were equal). she had come to him to make her body unique, irreplaceable. but he too had drawn an equal sign—he had sent her back into the world she tried to escape, sent her to march naked with other naked women.

characters and summary

• Tomas: initial narrator of the story. story makes it seem like everyone’s story is revolving around his thoughts and decisions. whereas we learn soon that he has no device over his own life. he lets the women in his life make decisions for him
• Tereza: Tomas’s wife, a photographer. refuge in his country. is used to feeling like an outsider all her life. she is the reason for their move. lives a long life with Tomas unhappy and in-love. her femininity is running from the feminine-ness in it, the impurity that is imposed on her by her mother is visible throughout her life.
• Sabina: Tomas’s mistress. an artist. she experiences womanhood opposite to Tereza. her femininity is running away from the male-ness in it, the patriarchal purity that is imposed on her effects how she looks at herself. starts an affair with engineer after Tomas leaves the country with Tereza.
• Professor: Sabina’s mister. Franz is all academia and intellect. but when coming face to face with those ideals and nuances and debate, he succumbs to their pressure.
• Karenin: Tomas and Teresa’s dog. they raise it as their child. Karenin is the outsider perspective, uncaring what is happening in the owner’s life. all that matter to him is himself

I Went to see my Father

Kyung Sook-Shin

i am once again floored by the way kyung sook shin tackles familial relations and their complexities
we are once again introduced to the family with children that left the house and spread their wings high and far away from the humble home they build. and now the eldest daughter returns to take care of an ailing father and be his wall to lean on while she reminisces about the life she lived in this humble town.
we are transported to the budding 80's and 90's of developing korea and the people there with their prejudice against women with education.
need to reread it to dust off my memory.

memories fade and so does life

contrast to his title milan kundera dives deep into the life of remembrance and losing of one's self. the story carries the typical kundera style and jumps from one story to another. there are seven lives we live through this book each carrying their own memory and life.

it took me an embarrassingly long time to read. but there is no end when it comes to kundera's works. they live with us, through us and inside us.

quotes

• -*-he couldn’t stand the idea that a piece of his life had stayed behind in her hands
  -*-literature is a system of signs
  -*-she has no desire to turn the past into poetry she wants to give past back its lost body
  -*-novels are the fruit of human illusion that we understand our fellow man, but what do we know about each other? nothing true
  -*-people we memorize in school have something unreal, incorporeal about them. even while alive, they belong to the exalted gallery of the immortals.
  -*-the feeling that the world is rushing to ruin is an ancient one-
  -*-yes during their years together husband and wife had become twins. they had the same vocabulary, the same ideas, the same destiny.
  -*-

• the lost letters about leaving a physical piece of you behind, and grieving the lost self in those words.
• mother about how as they get older how much a man treats their own mother like a child, slipping a few pennies into her worn out hands.
• the angels about the humanity and their togetherness. but it is also about the cruelty that lies in childlike innocence.
• litost: a non translatable word that dives deeper into explaination
• milan kundera's interview at the end of the book that somehow plays with your heart.

the original book cover i read it on.

HAIKYUU

the sports manga that is known to change lives. an underdog's rise to heights that he doesnt even comprehend are possible. i watched this at my most vulnerable and downright depressing state of mind and as i watched each episode and read each chapter in the manga i am reformed as a human being. although this story came out a long time ago at this point the characters and their stories will always stay relevant

here are some of my fav characters and details:

Favourite characters

our beloved main character that is the underdog that raises to the top despite his shortcomings. we have so much to learn from him, mainly that you should never let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do. and you should do things that you love for your love of it, not to spite those who said you cannot.

social anxiety takes human form in yachi hitoka. i was at first drawn to her character because i found her overthinking extremely relatable. but then as they started exploring her character i found her way more close to home than expected
raised by a single mother, unable to express her opinions and the lesson we are taught through her that you can just start doing and liking things because they simply raise your curiosity. as simple as that; even though you are expected to be the best down the line, we all start at the first step and that is pure unadultered curiosity and interest in that thing. it is the same when it comes to coding for me, at first i was scared and didnt want to do it but as i started doing the thing and found joy in it, i may not be the best but it is "i" that found and learned it out of pure curiosity.

the senpai we all deserve, the chaotic yet very sweet and reliable idiotic dumbass (said lovingly). i fell in love with his character for his honesty.

to be very honest, mostly an unlovable character but as we get to know their motivations and their love for the game goes way beyong the motivations of highschool we grow to love him. you either love him or hate him, there is surely no in between.

Favourite ults

these are the characters that i like with no deeper meaning, they are hot and i like them.

Favourite Duos

the whole sports anime is obviously built on duos and their friendships. some are rival to friendships where some are just childhood neighbors. but each of the duo haas their own charm and adoration for one another.

Given(ギヴン)

a musical anime that pulls at your heartstrings about grief and growing up.

songs

• kizuato: the opening song that immediately pulls you in with guitar strings and lyrics that gives you the story about upcoming love and lost life.
• Fuyu No Hanashi: THEE song, it will make you cry and bawl like a fetal child. until then we dont actually listen to mafuyu even speak in full sentences, so as soon as he starts singing, you are hooked, sinked and lined up for this heartbreak.
• Marutsuke: the ending song for the anime. mafuyu is finally accepting of the grief and makes peace with it. although heartbreaking in its own way, it serves as a peaceful goodbye to his first love.
• Yoru Ga Akeru: the song that mafuyu has to write after dealing with his grief, at first in the movie one might think now that mafuyu has dealed with his grief there is nothing else he can write about, but sadness of losing a loved one is a button that stays in your pocket, but we have a new couple to worry about and this song is pretty much mafuyu telling the other couple main guy to think about yourself, no matter what the day break will come with or without your lover, so might as well make the best of it.
• Stagekara Kimi Ni Sasagu: mafuyu's final goodbye to yuki in the form of dedicating his final song and this final stage to him. here i am shining in the lights of this stage, and you will always shine in these lights with me, so i dedicate this stage to you.
• Bokura dake no Shudaika ugetsu is telling his final goodbye to akihiko. despite their differences and similarities they go on ahead thinking love is enough, but akihiko whithers like a flower under ugetsu's love, and ugetsu is incapable of letting him go. but after yoru ga akeru song, ugetsu is let go of akihiko. despite everything akihiko held on to his love for this long, but he finally lets go of the image of ugetsu he held on to so dearly and lets him grow in his own way
• Umi:E: the tune we listen to from start to finish of the anime, the tune, mafuyu listens to yuki hum, that yuki says mafuyu hummed it first and the song and story uenoyama completes in yuki's name and his love for mafuyu to finally give him salvation from his own guilt. a beautiful ending to a beautiful story. there is no other way to put it but listen and internalise every single tune of the song.