Friday, July 13, 2007
Today I finished reading this very thick book which I found in Mum's bathroom.
(Yeah, of all places!!)
It had a discount price tag on it, apparently Mum had bought it for $5 only!
But I didn't ask her that..
Anyway, the book was called The Secrets of the Jin-Shei.
By an Alma someone-or-other.
I was like, hey, no idea who this Alma chick is, but the book cover looked strange and interesting. So I picked it up and started to read.
I was enchanted by the strange world I had immersed myself in, with unknown terms which seemed like hanyu pinyin but yet so very different.
The jin-shei was a sisterhood, and had their own script and writing, loosely based on the secretive women's language called nushu, and only the women knew how to read and write this language.
The names of the characters confused me as I could not find proper pronounciations for them, but I grew to recognise the characters.
The book was supposedly set in medieval China, but the back notes told me that the author had created her own version, a modified version of China which she named SYAI.
The book was well-crafted, enchanting and most of all mystical.
It bore a strong message of the love created from the bonds of sisterhood of the Jin-Shei.
Within it I read of pain, joy, love, death and suffering, and found myself falling in love with the book with each page I turned.
Lost in it's imaginary world, I continued to read on, and finished it just awhile ago.
And now, without a doubt, I can say that it is one of my most favourite books of all time.
There are only a few certain fictional books that I think are absolutely beautifully written, with a sort of elegance and total intrigue that just reels you in so deep that you feel that it's pretend world is real, or could have existed.
Obviously, I have not made so much as a dent in the great selection of books in this world,
I would never be able to accomplish this effect in anything fictional I have written or will write.
And that, is the only thing I can hope for.
And now, I have an urge to start my own jin-shei. :)
Labels: Book Reviews, HopesandDreams, Ramblings
1:22 am ♥
