A bit about me

Hi, I’m Phuong and I can’t thank you enough for spending some time reading this post. It’s so kind of you. I feel that it is, therefore, my responsibility to warn you beforehand that the girl you’re about to get to know in the next few paragraphs is very weird. So, remember: you’ve been warned.

I was born and raised in the city of the Hanoi for 16 years now (2019) and so, like many others here, I love this city ardently with all its polluted rivers and smoked-filled air. Hanoians are like New Yorkers this way. No we don’t have the best weather. No we don’t have the cleanest air. It doesn’t matter – it’s the best city. Hanoi made me what I am today, the me that I’m proud of, a total nerd with an almost unacceptably uncool, old-person taste for everything.

Musically speaking, I don’t fit in with my age group. I’m a huge rock fan whose favorite singer is Freddie Mercury and favorite song-writer is Bob Dylan. I know the lyrics to almost every single song by Cream and the Beatles, although I must confess that in many cases, it’s really hard to understand what they mean. When it comes to movies, I’m into the old-fashioned screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby, or crime films like Taxi Driver. I love the arts of the twentieth century to a somewhat ridiculous point.

But what is really odd about me is my devotion to novels. I love a good satire, so witty and sarcastic writers like Jane Austen, Mark Twain and Voltaire have a special place in my heart. To be honest, I’m obsessed with Jane Austen, whose works managed to teach me great lesson about social life and satisfy my teenage girl fantasies at the same time. I don’t really have a favorite genre as I want to open myself up to as many sources of influence as possible. I try to experience a little bit of everything, from Cervantes’s Don Quixote to Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore. Every novel has something different, something special about it that hides behind the lines, waiting for readers to find it out. I read books to experience the fictional worlds that the authors created, pick up that special thing in each of them, learn from it, and now hopefully share with as many people as possible.

For a few years now, my family has had to put up with my ramblings about the books I am reading. My father, my most frequent and probably most patient victim, proposed a solution: starting a book blog to express all my bookish thoughts. It was the perfect idea. I can practice writing, something I have always hesitant to do, and express my thoughts about the books I love at the same time. My urge to communicate these ideas to others wasn’t just because I was vying for attention from my constantly busy family members. It’s because I fell in love with the world of fiction and I want to show off this love and to look for others who were also bewitched by it like me. I couldn’t start immediately and it was a few weeks before I could muster the courage to actually write something. As Mr. Knightley in Emma had put it, “If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more”. I am a perfectionist and I know that there is a 99.9% chance that I will almost never find the exact right way to put down my thoughts on any of the books I’m crazy about. However, after rereading Persuasion (another Jane Austen’s masterpiece) last week and follow the lessons of Anne, our protagonist, I can finally said: I’m determined and there’s nothing that can stop me now.

My blog, as you might expect, is mostly about book related things. I’m also going to share with you other little things about me, like my music taste and love for manga/anime, but I’m going to be extra careful about my book reviews. I really hope you enjoy your time with me.