Hello all, nothing much happened today. Just wanted to share wif u a book that I had read.

Oh yeah n I received a sms from Amanda this morning. She's on her way to Budapest n the TJ cjoir r currently in Vienna, en route. Lucky gal. She said gd night to me this morning! Talk abt time-zone differences. I think it's night now in Vienna. Late at night.

I've been to Vienna once, though I was only a child then. I hardly remember anything abt the trip at all, except tt the areoplane journey was long and boring. I also vaguely remember running past glass-fronted shops on a cobblestone road. Tts all I recall. Haha. :)

So anyway, back to the book. It called "The City of Beasts" by Isabel Allende. If only I had borrowed it early, it would have made a fantastic book report. Haiz.

Well the story goes something like this. Alexander Cold is a 15 year-old boy form a sleepy town along the Californian Coast. His life is pretty normal until the day his mother falls ill with cancer. Slowly, his once content life turns into one of misery, as the family strain to cope. One day, his father decides to leave wif Alex's mum to go for treatment in New York. His sisters r left wif his maternal grandmother while Alex is left wif Kate, his paternal grandmother.

Now Kate isn't the normal granny tt sits by the fire-side n knits. She's a reporter, a tough lady tts been all over the world. She teaches Alex to be tough through neglect, though she secretly looks out for him.

Together, Kate n Alex travel to the Amazon to work on Kate's article for a magazine. I wont reveal what it's for but along the way, Alex learns how to be a man n stand on his own to feet. He also meets a host of colourful characters, including the beautiful and wild daughter of their guide, a 13 yr old called Nadia Santos. Together they conquer the Amazon jungle, and meet the focus of this book, the mysterious Amazonian tribe called "The People of the Mist".

What follows it a rip-roaring tale abt the beauty of the Amazon as well as its elusive tribespeople, tt have been living wif nature for centuries. Though it may seem like a factual book set in the real world, there is also a strong element of fantasy as Alex is forced to enter a world of ancient gods, totemic animals, spirits n the lives of the "People of the Mist".

The writer creates a world where the the fine line between fantasy n reality r blurred n ancient rituals take on new meaning. In fact, I had some trouble deciding when the fanstasy element began when the real world ends. They r one n the same in this book. The writer also doesnt have the nasty habit of too much detail tt would bore the reader. She uses concise sentences, n focuses on the human elements rather than just describing the scenery. As a result, the story races along, n doesnt lag.

The message is also rather clear. The tribespeople of the Amazon r best protected if they r left alone in their undisturbed surroundings. One shld not attempt to change them or their environment.

Well, tts all. I'll end wif this, a theme from the book:

One must see not with ur eyes, but wif ur heart.