A Game of Thrones

A Game of Thrones pocket book

I knew Game of Thrones through the show… I think it is like almost 100% of the people who knows GOT, but ok. I was watching the show, so I stop in the middle of third season, only to read the books first.

I like the way we know the things through books, rather than through TV. I don’t know why, when I realized something new the feeling of realizing that, is better when I am reading. To tell this to my girlfriend that is waiting for me to finish all the books wasn’t so easy, but it is ok now.

Game of Thrones is considered the new Lord of The Rings, due to big and fantastic world created only to the novel, the linguistic cares and the almost no-end history. But, what I like more than anything is another interesting and well-know characteristic: the death of some important characters. Yes, I like this. I like because the history become less predictable, so, anything can happen.

My favorite character until now is Jon Snow (ohhhh so creative!), due this mystery that involves him. Who is Jon Snow actually? Could be even a Targaryen, why not? All we know he is Eddard Stark’s bastard son. For me it isn’t enough, it so bad explained and sooner or later we will know who he is (maybe there is already an answer and I don’t know because I’m late, but whatever…).

My other favorite and not so predictable character is Bran. At this stage everybody knows how much I like the Stark family, oh yeah! (so predictable!). Bran is different, as everybody knows, but I like mainly “his world”, where everything could happen and nothing is impossible or so strange as for adults. Maybe what enchants me is the fact he is a child and children has dreams, different of adults who think everything is difficult or impossible to do. Ah, when I was a kid, in my 9 or 10, I used to climb everything: trees, walls, trees mainly… hehe. How coincidence!

My disgusting character is Catelyn. I have, I swear, laziness when I am going to start her chapters. I’d like to kill her, personally. I’m kidding, ok? I’m not Joffrey.

Eddard Chapter – A Game of Thrones

Just a thing I’d like to share: Eddard Stark remind me Superman, maybe due his great honor, humility, greatness and justice sense. I like Superman a lot and Eddard was my favorite character in the beginning…

And, to finalize, the part of history that I like a lot is everything about the white walkers. I think they will do the difference when the war really begin!

The School for Robinsons

The School for Robinsons
Jules Verne

In Portuguese, the strange title “A Ilha Desconhecida” (The Unknown Island)

This was the first Jules Verne’s book I didn’t like. The story is weak and there is no surprise, everything is foreseeable. The characters are too simple, with no great deals and flat.

I read this book in Portuguese and the translated title is something like “The Unknown Island”. Due this, I was confused and I thought that this book and “The Mysterous Island” were the same. I was wrong, but I realized after, and maybe because this I was too disappointed. I’ve just bought this book thinking on that and was excited to read because I wanted to watch the movie, based on this book. Well, I will wait a little bit more to watch the movie.

Although everything, I think it is a good book to children and teenagers. The history is easy and someway engaging. If you are 20 or older, I don’t suggest.

My favorite phrase is in 118th page: “The teacher showed immense pleasure. Almost danced…”.
Tartelett was a character in the story, a supporting character. He was a dance teacher and since he was lost in the strange island, he lost his will to dance. Something good happened and he almost dance… It was funny to me!

p.s.: something that I’d like to share was the fact that I get sick when I started reading this book. Yes, I started to sneeze. The book was so old, acctualy published in 1972, and as I am alergic, I got the flu for 4 days, in other words, all the time I spent reading. Weird. 😉

Take a look at the situation of this book: yellow pages! I love it!

Don’t Make Me Think

Don’t Make Me Think – A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Steve Krug

As a computer scientist and having a business in web development, I need to know more about usability, mainly in websites context. I have to confess, usability is really cool and I have liked a lot. I have just started a MBA in Digital Marketing at FGV – Fundação Getúlio Vargas, one of the most reputable learning institutions here in Brazil, just because usability and social media. I couldn’t find out a graduation in this specific areas. So, talking about this, one of the first names you will learn about is Steve Krug.

Steve is a usability consultant that become known after his book, Don’t Make Me Think, released in the year 2000. After the success of his first book, he decided update the book and released the second edition, in 2005, that was the book I read.

Steve wrote in a way that I was fascinated. It seems like he didn’t worry so much about formatting, or to be the best writer, he only worried about to pass the information, what is what really matter. His book is completely different than all the others that I read before, about everything, because it seems he don’t follow rules to write, or, at least, it seems he didn’t worried about rules.

It is a light book you can read in a plane trip, during 1 or 2 hours, what was his intention. He said in the book that he wanted a good book, possible to read fast, that was possible to pass the information with no big explanations and examples. All in this book is light, short and objective. He could do it!

Although it had been my first book about usability, I feel less anxious and more secure about web development. Steve could explain in a so objective way that everybody could understand, since my mother to the programmer in my business, beyond yet I was really enjoying reading the book. A lot of funny examples, funny sayings and mainly funny solutions. I couldn’t imagine so simple solutions!

Still about the book, what is more curious is about time. You could be thinking, what a book released in 2005 can contribute in usability now a days? That’s the thing! All the examples and suggestions can be applied even today, even in totally different websites, even with all the new tools involving web development.

I am really excited to read more about usability after Steve Krug.

The Host

The Host
Stephanie Meyer

Once I read the Twilight book, by Stephanie Meyer, and I had not liked it. Too teen. My brother read also, but he loved it. It was close to his birthday, so I just bought all the Twilight collection books. He read all of them, watched the movies and yet in love with the history. I couldn’t.

I don’t know how much time after, his girlfriend gave him another Stephanie Meyer book, called The Host. We (me and my brother), were living together in that time, with our parents, so, eventually, I had seen the book sometimes. Since the first time I saw I had liked the cover and mainly the idea. I really love science fiction, but I was resistant about teen love histories, and mainly Stephanie Meyer. I think everybody when doesn’t like a book from some author, it is difficult to read another. But everyday I was seeing the book, on the table, on the bed, on the couch… suddenly I got myself reading. Ok, I just wanted to know how it was. Suddenly I was involved and I finished the book about three or four days after (I don’t have so much time to read as I’d like).

In summary, I loved it. It is completely different from Twilight saga, but with teen love, of course. The idea it is not so new, as Twilight was. ETs taking our bodies and living our lives it is not a completely new thing, but I really like the way Meyer thought about it. When you start reading it is confuse, because there is two different persons, characters, in the same body. In other words, a dialogue between one only person. It is strange, but after you get used to. As we can see reading the book, this kind of situation it wasn’t supposed to happen. When the attacker invades a human body, the human consciousness it was supposed to disappear. But It doesn’t happen with Melanie (Mel). According with the book she was so strong and loved so much her family, that she could stand alive inside her own body (that strange!), but only with thoughts, the controller of the body was of the invader. At least most part of the time…

The history had no really great actions scenes, but you feel tense all the time, at least I feel, due a certain kind of pity of the invader. Actually, the Mel’s invader. These invaders are different than these others that we get used to already. They are kind, polite, and come to our planet to live our lives in the right way (so lovely!). They continue living our lives but in a so good way that sounds utopia, and really is. And Mel invader, called Wanda (Wanderer), it is that lovely!

As we could imagine, Meyer’s most famous characteristic, she just thought a way to create a relationship between humans and ETs. Of course she could! Yeah! Can you imagine loving two different people? (Ok, some people here, in the earth, can do this, but we should think about the really love, the feeling, you know?). Mel and Wanda were the same person, actually they were two different people in the same body. Can you imagine the confusion now? And, of course, they loved two different men.

Due Mel memories, Wanda could reach the human resistance where they were hidden. Mel’s boyfriend and little brother, beyond her uncle Jeb and another relatives were living there, together. But they treated her with mistreatment as we could imagine.

Wanda’s history is one of the most interesting things in the book. As they can catch our bodies, they can catch bodies of anything alive as plants, spiders, dolphins. It is really curious how she describe her previous lives. It made me think about the Spiritism doctrine, codified by Allan Kardec. Would it have something to do with that? Our conscience and soul living many times in different bodies and ages? It is different, of course, but there is some similarities.

It was through her life’s history the humans started to like her. In the beginning, just after she reach the humans, they don’t like her, as I said. They thought Mel was dead and Wanda was pretending to be her (Mel) to attract them to her (Wanda) specie. Only Jeb and Mel’s little brother, Jamie, could see that Mel was inside Wanda. Here we realize something that I liked a lot: Jeb is one of the most old men in the human resistance, he is the boss, the main person there. He build everything (the hideout is really impressive). Jamie is a 14 years old, in other words, a naive child. Oldness and childhood have the same sensitive way. Experience and purity. I like to think about this. We are too hard when we are adults, too full of responsibilities that we lose our most deep feelings that we had when we were children, and, thanks God, it seems we get again in the third age.

Mel was in love for Jared, who was her boyfriend when she was captured. She never forgot him. But Wanda was inside Mel, with her own desires and feelings, and she fall in love with Ian. A love square?! That surprise! I never had heard about that before. That was not my preferred part, but it is really interesting how they solve the problem, despite to be foreseeable. It is funny too, when she start to kiss both all the time, and they know that… funny funny!

Now I miss Mel, Wanda, Ian and Jared, and somehow I finished the book liking more of Wanda them the humans, due her way to think and everything but badness. Maybe we should be like them…

p.s. I love you: The movie The Host by Andrew Niccol (2013) is not so good… Actually, it is not good at all. They focused a lot at the romance of Mel, Wanda, Ian and Jared. I think they wanted to make another Twilight movie, you know… but, they could not.

Hello world!