Ko Phi Phi Lee where they shot "The Beach" - Photo borrowed from Travel To Be

Have you ever seen the movie “The Beach”? directed by Danny Boyle, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and a very exotic Thailand? .. Well I have, and I’m guessing a lot of other people have too. They’ve showed it numerous of times on tv, and I remember having watched it two or three times several years back (Quite possibly more). I never got it, like I really didn’t understand what on earth it was about. I clearly remember thinking “How the h… did he get that Nintendo, and why is he running around in the jungle with it?”

Byron Bay

I guess I somehow had a great feeling about the movie, since I kept on watching it every time it was on tv. I really wanted to like it. So, around my 20th birthday in 2009, we’re arriving in Byron Bay, the beautiful laid-back surfer chilling town on Australias East Coast, and one of the very first things I notice in our room, is a copy of The Beach laying on a table. By then we’ve been travelling for a month or so, not really adjusted to being a backpacker yet, where you pretty much take what you see and what you like. Once you leave something, you practically donate it. So every night after reading a few chapters, I put the book back on the table, to pick it up again the next day.

Well, back in february 2009 it was POURING rain in Byron Bay for like 2 weeks straight. The pool took over the entire outdoor area, we were drinking like 10 cups of tea with 10 tablespoons of sugar on a daily basis and reading books. Until then I never really cared much for books, my teachers in school thought I was pretty much hopeless when it came to reading books – they never cared for my opinion since they knew I’d never like the books they gave to me. But I started reading right then and there, and I loved it. The Beach by Alex Garland is a fantastic book, and I was captured by his story.

The story really works

It might have been because I was a backpacker at the time, it might have been because it was pouring rain and we couldn’t do anything – or it might actually be because it’s a really good story. I’m sticking to the last one. And for once, the story made sense, and I had some sort of epiphany in regards to the movie .. “Ahhh, so THAT’S why he was running around in the jungle with the Nintendo”

Alex Garland is a magnificent writer, and he captured the essence of travelling as a backpacker very well, perhaps because he tried it himself. I remember feeling a bit sad about the fact that I couldn’t bring the book along with me, so I ended up cutting out one of my favorite quotes and putting it in my scrapbook. At that time it was so perfect, it completely matched my mental state ;

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One of my favorite movies is without a doubt Dances With Wolves. I’m not exactly sure when my love for Kevin Costner movies started, but I’m guessing it’s somehow attatched to my dad. Same way I came to love Steven Segal, Sylvester Sallone and Runrig. Around the same time as Dances With Wolves appeared, movies like The Postman, Waterworld and Robin Hood also premiered – and I love them all. It’s funny how the one thing all of these movies have in common (Without Kevin Costner) is nature. This might be the main reason why they all appeal to me.

But anyhow, I’ve seen Dances With Wolves so many times, loving it every single time. The entire indian culture is something I find extremely interesting, (among with loads of other cultural minorities), and this movie definitely gives a great insight in the indian culture.

A couple of months ago while looking for books in the local secondhand store I found this one, Dances With Wolves by Michael Blake. Of course I had to have it, and I’m currently reading it. As of right now I’m about half way through it, and until now I must say they’ve done quite a good job filming the movie. There’s not essential parts from the book that’s missing in the movie, which is of great value for me when watching the movie. You get so incredibly disapointed when it happens.

For now I’ll enjoy the rest of the book. And for those of you who are completely unfamiliar with the movie, you HAVE to see it.

A couple of weeks ago I watched “One Day” in the cinema – one of the perks of my job. I had really been looking forward to watching it. I had the feeling it would be one of these great lovestories. I’m a sucker for lovestories, I’ve probably watched Pearl Harbor around 30 times.

However, as the movie went on I just had the feeling that everything was going too fast .. I mean, the movie is cute, depressing, funny, tragic, romantic and so much more – but it all happened so damn fast. I knew right then and there, that I simply couldn’t give up on this story – the potential was too great. The best way for me to really experience the story was by reading the book, so I added it to my list of christmas wishes.

Faith obviously wanted for me to read it straight away, since it had landed on my desk when I arrived at the office this morning. And so it happened that I received a book that I’m really looking forward to reading. I have high expectations for it, I really do.

Have you read the book, or seen the movie?

I’ve added some new books to my collection. Thank you work.

One of the last days in Santorini, I finished reading Breaking Dawn (The last Twilight book) and I wasn’t really planning on reading anything else, buuut .. A visit to a bookstore later and I had a new book in my hand. The book I bought was “3096 Days” by Natascha Kampusch, the young woman who was held captured for 8 years in a basement in Austria.

In the book, Natascha tells her story starting before she got kidnapped, where she didn’t exactly live an easy life to say the least, and of course she tells her story of the 8 years of imprisonment in Wolfgang Priklopils basement.

Before starting on the book, I didn’t really know a whole lot about this case, besides the stories from the media where she was displayed as a the suffering victim, but also as the one with the so called Stockholm Syndrome – making her hard to relate to. Before reading this book, I would agree with anyone saying “How could she forgive him, how could she have friendly feelings towards him?”, after reading the book .. I can easily understand, how and why she could could make such a statement.

It’s nothing but amazing that Natascha survived 8 years of constant beating and starvation to name a few, and still kept her mind clear enough to escape in the end. This book really shows how much the human being is capable of surviving, and while reading – I found it almost unbelievable that she’s still here today.

It’s a story that touches you deep down, that terrorfies and shocks you. I get creeped out whenever reality face me with the fact that these kind of extreme people actually exist. Those who seek satisfaction in ruining others bit by bit. Unfortunately, these cases seem to get more and more ‘common’, and I’m glad that Natascha invited us in by telling her story. A story that we would never have imagined otherwise.

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