Cod(d)ed

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

                I accidentally learned of a novel named "C" reading some newspaper. The brief description intrigued me so I decided to read it. It was only later that I found out who is Tom McCarthy and that the particular novel was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2010. I'm no expert on modern literature, and never even heard of the other contestants but must say I'm puzzled as to why "C" has such high acclaim.

A multitude of drops

★★★★★★★★★☆

                Every once in a while there comes a movie which strives to break the boundaries of cinema and storytelling and go beyond the limits of our imagination. Those movies provide unique viewing experience and leave marks on your heart as well as your mind. Just from watching the extended trailer (probably the best I've ever seen) it was apparent that the latest work from directors Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer falls into that category. It is a movie called "Cloud Atlas", just like the book written by David Mitchell which it's based upon.

Love and devotion

★★★★★★☆☆☆☆

                Reading "Marina" I finally managed to find a downside to Carlos Ruiz Zafón's work. He's building all of his novels on same foundations of mystery and horror, and they evolve in a same way discovering grand and tragic destinies of figures from the recent past which reflect in main characters' stories. To be clear, Zafón is doing it all with great skill, making it impossible to put the book down. It's just that it becomes repetitive reading the (almost) same story over and over again.

The movie is fake. The mission is real.

★★★★★★★★☆☆

                The line between fiction and reality is nowadays often blurred, with television and newspapers assaulting people with all kind of half-checked information, so it's refreshing to see a piece of work that makes clear distinction between the two. And it's even better that it does so by mixing them together.