通灵少女2 The Teenage Psychic 2

It has been a long time since I finished a book. Since I was taking public transport for the pass week, I read a book that I bought long time ago. I have to finish reading a few books before I allow myself to buy more books. Hahaha.

通灵少女2

It's a Taiwanese TV drama novel. I knew that it was a HBO drama, and the main cast is YaoYao 瑤瑤 (郭書瑤), I knew her from a Taiwanese variety show years ago. She was known for her body then, so I was surprised when she starred in this drama, a teenage student in a unglamorous attire. Hahaha, she acted as a psychic in the drama. I never had the chance to watch the drama though. So when I saw this novel in a bookstore with 50% discount, I grabbed this, I think I got this in 2025, and now already August in 2026. 

Anyway, I read this when I was commuting, luckily I was not the one and only with book in the LRT. It's good to find another book lover in a train. I couldn't get a seat in LRT, so I read this standing while holding a pole. I got to finish this book from 3 rides. 

the back cover of the book

the book pages are from right to left

This book is actually not the first season, it's from the season 2. Where the main character, Xiao Zhen had been a psychic for a year in a temple. She lost her boyfriend in the first season, and she was starting second year in high school while navigating her role as president of drama club. Actually it's a fun read. The tone in the book followed the Taiwanese Hokkien tone. 

I feel that the story is enough for a movie, not a 8 episodes drama though. It has all the elements in this book, family, friends, enemies, lovers, forgiveness, sibling rivalries, return from death, etc. Apart from all the dramas, the part that got to my heart was the part where the main character death boyfriend forgave the driver who hit him. I am a very petty person, I don't think I can do it. 

Anyway, commuting using public transport is the best way to read. Go go go!

Reading as a hobby

I am a newspaper reader until now, although my family don't buy physical newspaper anymore, I still subscribed (paid) to a Malaysian newspaper online. However, I only read during weekend or holidays nowadays, age caught up with me already, in my 20s to 30s, I could still read before I sleep during workdays. Now, I could even fall asleep while watching youtube on workday night.

When I was small, I stayed in a small town and the local book stores only had school related books, revision books, dictionaries and somehow cookbooks. My primary to secondary school leisure books were mostly from the book rental stores, I read mainly Taiwanese / Hong Kong romance, wuxia (武侠) and science fiction. You have to become a member of the book rental store, then for every book you rent, you have to pay an amount from 50 cents to RM2. 

Of course, there's the school library, but we were only allowed to borrow one book per week, I was a librarian during primary school, so I could borrow three books per week. Most of the books were educational one, the more "interesting" one was not there in school. Anyway, I read a lot of books from the library too, in school, the teacher would dictate what books to read that particular week, normally it would be a rotation, one week Chinese book, the second week Malay book, third week English book and returned to Chinese book on fourth week. 

Normally, the book rental store had racks of books, mostly in Chinese for the novels, some even had manga in Malay. Those that charged 50 cents are mainly older titles and very tattered. I even bought some for less than RM1 when the book stores are clearing out some torn old books. 

I spent a major chunk of my pocket money on the books. I started to read romance when I was in standard five or six, starting with 瓊瑤, that time, TV station started to broadcast Taiwanese dramas from the novelist 瓊瑤. And me and my neighbour found out that the books were available in rental book store, we pooled money and get a membership in a rental book store. And started to read novels. It opened my eyes to not just romance, I was even exposed to wuxia and science fiction. I read a lot of novels from Taiwanese writers, I think I even finished reading all novels written by 瓊瑤. Others are 张小娴, 席绢, 于晴, 楼雨晴, 古灵, 典心, 寄秋, 凌淑芬 and etc. I particularly like 席绢, I think her novel is the first that talk about going back to the past, I really admired her imagination. 

Other romance novelists that I read were from Hong Kong, 亦舒, 梁凤仪 and 岑凯伦. 岑凯伦 is a really productive writer, his/her novels could fill a huge book rack. I read in a forum somewhere that mentioned 岑凯伦 is a collective of novelists because the style was a bit inconsistent. I am not really a fan of 亦舒, 梁凤仪 though.

I feel that I am a very rational person from young. I know that I am not the heroine type in life, I am more like the sidekick. And I couldn't understand the way the second lead behaved in the novel. As I grew older, I found 瓊瑤 earlier novels to be very irrational and unethical too. Now many people quote from 瓊瑤's novel as a form of sarcasm. Like 'you only lost your legs, but she lost the love of her life!', people defended the third party, so horrible!

From the rental book store, I able to explore the wuxia genre too. 金庸, 古龙, 梁羽生 and 温瑞安 were the big four in wuxia genre. I read more on 金庸 and 古龙. For 金庸, I like "鹿鼎记" the most. Other than that, I also got hooked on science fiction series 卫斯理 from 倪匡. My imagination about aliens and galaxy came from 卫斯理. Most of the books from this series showed that it's well read (very tattered). One book around 50 cents to RM1 and I could finished in half day. I really spent a lot on rental books. For context, my monthly allowance during secondary school was RM50. I didn't go to canteen during recess. My school session was half day though. Just eating lunch at home. 

I don't really rent manga though. That's the job of my younger brother. He used his allowances to rent manga and I read the shonen manga that he rent. My favourite is "Hikaru no go ヒカルの碁". However, I also pooled money with my friends to rent shojo manga "Oke no Monsho 王家の紋章", I learnt a lot of Egypt history from this manga, LOL! This manga was very popular among us girls. I once came upon a whole series of "Hikaru no go" in a book store and it's around few hundred Ringgit. I was still studying that time and on a tight budget, so I didn't buy it, still sad thinking about it nowadays. 

I only started to seriously read English books around Form 3 in secondary school. I got the English books from the school or state library, but the books were mostly old titles, like Enid Blyton, considered quite tame compared to the Chinese books I read. I also read serious titles in Malay in secondary school, I read "tulang-tulang berserakan" by Usman Awang in Form 2 I think, it made me very upset. Maybe I was still too young then. 

I stopped going to Rental book store since university days. In university, there're so many libraries. I was in University of Malaysia. I normally frequented my own faculty's library only. However, only engineering related titles were available there, other genres not much. If I wanted to read novels, I would go to the main library. There're also Chinese novels in some other faculty's library, but I never ventured there. One of my university mates told me she found the libraries were the most important asset in the university, she was amazing! She studied economy and took ACCA part time, she got all the references and books for ACCA from the library and studied by her own. By the time she graduated in economy, she also got the certification for ACCA. I admired her so much for this, such determination. 

Back to the topic, nowadays for novels, mainly I read the China web novel series. There are so many genres there. I only read paper based books on non-fiction. I heard the book rental shop I frequented in my younger days was closed. It couldn't survive, one could find novels, manga online for "free" now. It's kind of sad. I once dreamed of opening of a cafe cum book rental shop after I retire. Well life goes on, happy reading everyone!

Horrible Histories: Vile Victorians by Terry Deary illustrated by Martin Brown

After spending so much money on books, I felt the need to read some of my books to justify the spending, although my hobby is book buying! To avoid loading myself with some serious topics that will take some time to read, I have chosen a very thin book about Victorians. It's history and so long ago. So it won't affect my minds too much. Nowadays, I bought less novels, more on other genres. 

Horrible Histories: Vile Victorians by Terry Deary illustrated by Martin Brown

I read this on one Saturday while waiting to see the doctor during my checkup. Well, I was the number 7 in line although I reached around 7am, people woke up so early! I only managed to see the doctor on around 11:30am. I got to read around 80% of the book while waiting and finished it after got home. 

This book is actually kind of sad. It started with some facts about Queen Victoria and then some stories on Victorians lives. The child mortality rate was very high, living space was scarce. The book provides an example, "I have note of a locality where 48 men, 73 women and 59 children are living in 34 rooms.". Then there were some issues like insufficient food, child labour in coal mines, chimney sweeping, ribbon making that caused death or mutilations, etc.  

short sentences with illustrations

Next, about the schools. I couldn't imagine it. Although in 1870 the education bill was passed and every child between 5 and 12 years old had to go to school, Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens was based on an infamous teacher that caused two of his students lost their sight. There were inequality back then too, in 1870, women teachers were paid 58 pounds a year, men were paid 94 pounds. That's a big differences. There were big classes too, around 70 or 80 students per class, well, I think it's still ok. When I was in primary school, my classes were around 40 pupils and there were 8 classes on my year. Nowadays, in the same school, I heard from my friend, there was only about 4 to 5 classes per year, and 1 class around 20 to 30 students. The birth rate is lower from year to year.

Then there are information on Victorians' games, literature, plays, transportation, sewage system (mmmm.......). Also there was also the bad working environment in the factory. Lifespan was short and for poor persons, often they had to share graves with multiple bodies. Two recipes were provided too, "candied carrots" and "half day pudding". Well, not a fan of Victorian food.

I thought Jack the Ripper was a character from novel, it is not. It is a killer from Victorian era. Another famous criminal was Mary Ann Cotton. She killed around 15 to 20 people (husbands, lover, children) and not get caught due to she changed name everytime she remarried and death was very common in that era. Sweeney Todd was really a character from the penny dreadful novel though.  

The author closed with quote from Charles Dickens "A tale of two cities". By the time the Queen died, there were electric lights and electric chairs, motor cars and crashes, very very rich and the very very poor. It was such the contrast. Actually the rick poor gap now is also there, and it's becoming worst. Ah.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

2026 First Haul of Books from bookxcess

I once told a friend, my hobby is not reading, my hobby is buying books. I am so exited when I buy books. Actually nowadays, it is so difficult to finish a book. I read the most when I was in Japan where I commuted to work using train, I read a lot then. Now commuting to work by car took around 2 to 2.5 hours a day to and forth. It so demoralizing, so I had my retail therapy when I buy books. 

This is my biggest haul so far, not the most expensive, but definitely the most books from bookxcess. I bought 39 books in one order. When I received the order, it's so heavy that I have to open the box outside my house and carry some books inside first until I was able to lift it up. 

my book haul 2026

Below shows the books I bought on January 2026. Since I earned more now, I am more generous on this books buying "adventure". There are books that I wouldn't dare to buy 10 years ago, the coffee table books, anything above RM20, cookbooks, etc. Yeah, although I didn't cook, I bought cookbooks!  

all the books

Although I got the books fast, two books from the order didn't make it.

2 books were not sent

I bought biographies, Hans Christian Anderson (children's book author), Amy Tan (an American author, I knew her from The Joy Luck Club, read the book in my 20s in university) and Michael Faraday (have been tortured in the science lessons with Faraday's law). 

biographies

Next, expensive and not really useful for me, the cookbooks. There are other food related books. It's interesting to read about food items, I am just not interested to cook only.

cookbooks / food related

Then another batch of art related books. Initially I thought the magic of stainless steel is a material related books. It is not, it is a book about things built in stainless steel from one glance. Anyway, it doesn't talk about lattice structure for sure. I kind of like the steel related classes in Uni though. 

fun books

I bought also some science titles on biology, design and economy too.

various science subjects

I bought so many books on numbers. Total 7 from this order. LOL!!! I maybe not so good on numbers, I do like to read about them, although maybe I won't understand a word of it.

books about numbers

I also bought novels. Only 3 though. One which I thought is the classics, The Metamorphosis, it is not, it's a book from Raisa Gabrielli (reading her websites reveals she is a yoga instructor and a teacher in international school, and she also run a charity). Another is a Star Trek novel, I always prefer Star Trek to Star wars. And a novel named "The Honey Bus". I bought this book for the title, with honey!

novels

Lastly, I didn't know where to separate the genre in. A sticker book for nephew, a book on "What Women Want" and a history book on bronze age. 

sticker book for nephew, a history book and a economy book?

I guess I will control myself before another book buying exercise. And predict that I will read the novel first. 

Happy buying!

Big Bad Wolf December 2019

Well, I didn't go to the Big Bad Wolf book sales for the pass one or two years because my book buddy and I were busy and we have tonnes of unread books. However, she resigned on the middle of this year and we felt that we could use this Big Bad Wolf as a chance to meet up. So, same like previous years, I took half day leave on the first day of the sales to go to this sales.

We parked at The Mines Shopping Mall and went to the MIECC after having lunch. Me and my buddy were very surprised that we couldn't see anyone at all lugging bags of books in The Mines Shopping Mall. I remembered previously when we ate lunch in The Mines, we could see a lot of people with the Big Bad Wolf plastic bags. I think everybody else already bought enough books to last a lifetime from previous sales. 

Me and my buddy separated after entering the sales and promised to meet again after one and a half hour. Initially, I took a basket, then I felt that it's not not convenient, so I returned the basket and took a trolley (like the one used in supermarket) instead. But after awhile, I felt that I won't be needing that, so I pushed the trolley back to the original place. 

At the local publisher corner, I saw a lot of academic books, no wonder no one was there when I was browsing at the area. It is not as interesting as novels. I think most were excesses from the university publisher, there were even books on how to write thesis. A very dull subject. But it will be useful for the final year university student.

There were many translated books also. I didn't see it on previous sales. Maybe I didn't pass by the area previously. This area was also quite deserted.

The most popular and happening area would the children's section. The parents (maybe some were businessmen) were so enthusiastic, buying loads of books. Most of the people in the area has a trolley full of books.

Looking at the books were quite fun too, I would buy if I have a child.

I didn't have access to this educational children's books when I was young. It was very expensive and my parents would not be able to afford that. I remembered that some of my friends, they had the ladybird series when they were young. I only started to learn ABC after I attended kindergarten, no preschool learning or anything else. My earliest memory on learning was right before I went to the kindergarten, my late grandfather thought me to write my own name in Chinese. I only went to the kindergarten for one year and then directly started primary school. Nowadays, parents send their children to kindergarten as early as 3 years old, so early. But some of my friends said that they were afraid that their children would be left behind if they started school too late. Well, this book sales helped parents to save a little with the affordable price.

There was a small corner of Chinese books too. Didn't find any interesting titles.

There were many other unusual titles too. Interested to look at, but no desire to buy and keep at home.

I found many classic titles too. Example below, Madame Bovary. I read this book when I was in secondary school, it was available in the school library and it is a Malay translated version. I couldn't understand why Madame Bovary wanted to have affairs and destroyed her own life. Too complicated for a form 2 student. I read a lot of books when I was in secondary school, no computer that time and free time was spent reading. I read "Tulang-tulang Berserakan" then, I couldn't believe that I actual finished reading that book, I couldn't even finish 5 pages of "1984" now. I still remember that "Bukit Kepong" was a struggle, it was a much more difficult read than "Tulang-tulang Berserakan", but since it was the exam requirement for Malay literature classes, I finally got an abridged version of it and only remembered the important points. But another novel for Malay literature was very easy to read, I forgot the name, but I still remember the story.

There were many box sets also, like "Harry Potter series", "Paulo Coelho", etc. I only wanted "The Alchemist", but I couldn't find the single book, only available in sets. I also couldn't find Terry Pratchett, I bought many Terry Pratchett's books from Big Bad Wolf previously. So finally I got myself three books only. The least books that I have bought from Big Bad Wolf sales.

I bought "Paper towns" from John Green, "ok" from Allan Metcalf and "The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks". Haven't started to read yet,  but I think I will enjoy all these books. Apart from the books, I also enjoyed meeting up with a good friend. 

The Best Of Me by Nicholas Sparks

Last year, I read mainly on fantasy and  I got bored, so I read something more relaxing. A love story from Nicholas Sparks. It is a very light reading, the font is big and the story line is very easy to follow. I read this book for a few pages every night until I fall asleep. 

Well, for me, the story was not so entertaining or engaging enough, so I spent quite some time to finish this. Hahaha, this is a milder, more grown up version of Romeo and Juliet.

The story talks about Dawson and Amanda, the former came from a family of crimes, while the latter came from an established family. Both families were long time resident of the same area. When they met and fall in love, no one thought that their relationship will work. While Amanda defied her parents to meet with with Dawson. Dawson seek sanctuary with an old mechanic, Tuck. Dawson worked with Tuck and stayed with him. 

So basically Tuck was the one who witnessed their love story. Then, one day Dawson met with an accident and caused the death of a doctor. He went to prison for that and after out of the prison, worked in oil industry and sent money to the doctor's family as a way to say sorry. Then, Dawson had an accident in work place and he felt that "someone with black hair" saved him. But he couldn't find out what or who he was. 

While Amanda continued with the journey her parents planned for her, went to college, met a guy, married the guy and became a mother. Amanda occasionally visited Tuck to know where Dawson is. 

Then one day, Tuck died and his lawyer requested both Dawson and Amanda to come back to their hometown for Tuck. Tuck had requested both of them to scattered his ashes to be with his dead wife. One of the reasons was Tuck wanted both Dawson and Amanda to meet and maybe rekindled their loves? (* I don't understand this part)

So, Dawson flew back to his hometown and didn't plan to meet with his family, and his own family members still wanted to hurt him. Dawson met with Amanda and they were flirting. But, after finishing Tuck's wishes, they decided that family was more important, so Amanda returned to her family.

Back to Dawson's family, they wanted to kill him but somehow Dawson escaped. One of Dawson's cousins had a girlfriend who worked in a bar and one of her admirer was the son of the doctor whose death was caused by Dawson. After Amanda decided to go back to her family, Dawson was stopped by a black haired man (ghost of the doctor) and he went to the bar just in time to save the doctor's son from his own cousin. Dawson was killed.

The story didn't end there, somehow Amanda's son was involved in an accident at the same time and needed a heart transplant, guess who was the donor? It was Dawson's heart. Hahaha, hence the name "The best of me". 

Well, this is not a book that will become the next "1984", but it is an ok book to pass time. Happy reading!

The Best of Me by Nicholas Sparks

**I finished this book last year, and finally typed it out today on Chinese New Year Eve. Happy Chinese New Year too!

Luka and the Fire of Life by Salman Rushdie

A children's book by Salman Rushdie. At first, I thought it would be like the Arabian Nights, it's not and it's actually set in a modern world, surprise!

In the story, Luka was the young son of a story teller, Rashid, The Shah of Blah. Unlike the "Big Fish" where the son didn't believe the father's stories, Luka believed and embraced the stories his father told him. They had a very good father and son bond. As a teenager, Luka went to school, played games and upset with his left handed hand. The way the mother comforted Luka was a very good word play. She said "maybe you are correct to believe that the left way around is the right way, and the rest of us are not right, but wrong. Let your hands take you where they will. Just keep them busy, that's all. Go left by all means, but don't dawdle; do not be left behind." Hahaha, left and right, wrong and right used beautifully. Initially, I thought the author wanted to highlight Luka was different from other kids from the left handed point of view. Then, at the final part of the story, I realized that it's a foreshadowed plot. 

Luka and the Fire of Life

In the story, Luka cursed the not ethical circus owner who abused animals and somehow the curse worked. The circus animals stopped obeying the owner and a fire destroyed the tent. The owner of the circus, Aag fled. Then, two animals from the circus showed up at Luka's house. They're a dog named "bear" and a bear named "dog". So, the dog and bear stayed with the family after Luka's father agreed to it.

Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

Another book from Terry Pratchett. 

This book covers the origin of Carrot joining the night watch and how Captain Vimes met his future wife, Lady Sybil, so interesting! In this book, Lupine Wonse (the secretary of the Patrician) summoned out a noble dragon using a book stolen from the Unseen University. Since it's a noble dragon, the people of Ankh-Morpork would have to make it into a king. In his plan, a man (arranged by Lupine Wonse himself) would kill the dragon and claim the throne, and Lupine Wonse would become the advisor to the new king and controlled everything from the back. 

Guards! Guards! By Terry Pratchett

The First Phone Call from Heaven by Mitch Albom

Hehehe, another book from Mitch Albom. Surprisingly, this book was the second book I finished this month. Must be due to the guilt of buying too many books. Normally, I would read more after I spent a lot on books, then the feeling subsided, and the books would be left in somewhere until the next book sales. I tried to read lying on bed, it's really not ergonomic. So, I tried to read face down, it made me feel more tired with sore muscles if I read more than ten minutes. I wondered how other people read on the bed, it's just not for me. If I have my own place, I think I will buy a really comfy reading chair for myself. Hahaha!

The First Phone Call From Heaven (Mitch Albom)

Anyway, back to this book. This one came with deckle edge. I have no preferences over deckle or smooth edge. But I tend to get cut by paper. So, sometimes deckle edge is good, no paper cut. In this book, the story alternates between the creation of telephone by Alexander Graham Bell and how the people in the small town got calls from their dead loved one. I was surprised to learn that Alexander Graham Bell's wife was a deaf and it's partly due to her that he invented the telephone. It's quite romantic. I even read up on Alexander Graham Bell on the Wikipedia. I remembered the story of the first phone call in the world, but I never knew the background story to it, it's quite interesting.

Bound Feet & Western Dress (A Memoir) 幼儀與志摩

I got to admit I bought this book due to the TV drama "人間四月天", I watched it when I was still in secondary school. The drama was about the story of Hsu Chih-Mo and his love life. The first wife of Hsu Chih-Mo was the main character in this book. Hsu Chih-Mo was a poet, his poem was featured in the test book too. So, I was quite curios with the storyline in the drama, was it all based on the facts or just fiction all along. 

Bound Feet & Western Dresses

From this memoir, most were consistent with the drama. I think maybe the screen writers plucked some storyline from this memoir. Compared to the drama, this memoir focused more on the Chang Yu-I, the first wife of Hsu Chih-Mo and the mother of his child. This was Chang Yu-I memoir after all.

Well, Chang Yu-I was born into a rich family and her mother bore twelve children, eight boys and four girls. Yu-I was the second girl in the family. In the old times, or even now I think, culturally Chinese prefer boys over girls. So, her grandmother considered her mother the most capable daughter in law among all her aunties. That is a bit funny and a bit sad. A woman's worth is measured by how many sons she is able to give birth too, not her talent or her intelligence.

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2015

4th December 2015

Time for Big Bad Wolf Book Sales again. Me and my friend, Dila have been going to this book sales for a few years now. It's like an annual activity already. From the first time in Amcorp Mall to the MIECC now. This year, we went to this book sales again on the first day of sales. We took half day leave and reached MIECC on around 2pm. First, we went to The Mines Shopping Mall to have lunch. We went to a restaurant called Little Wok and I was disappointed with the pan mee, in the photo on the menu, there were many fried anchovies, but the actual pan mee didn't even have one anchovy. Mmmm, the taste was ok though. 

After filling up our stomachs, we went to the MIECC. Surprisingly, I felt that the crowd was around the same or less than the 2014 preview sales. Well, maybe it was due to the economic situation or people are waiting for the fire sales afterwards. Anyway, the books arrangement was still pretty good when we were there. That was new! For the previous sales, I remembered even though I went on first day, the books arrangement was quite messy already. 

BigBadWolf 2015 - trolleys are available

This year, the organiser prepared the trolley for the shoppers. Well, it was way more convenient than to lug the corrugated box around like in the previous sales. People thronging to the book sales were calmer too, no more pushing around, and people were willing to give way to others. Well, it's a good experience, except the salesmen and saleswomen who were promoting the credit cards, There're so many promoters inside and outside the hall, walk few steps, some promoters would ask whether one wanted to apply for credit card or not. I met a very persistent saleswoman, it dented my mood a little bit. I think the promoters inside the hall were a nuisance. 

BigBadWolf 2015

I think that the overall price for the books in the Big Bad Wolf Book Sales had increased compared to last year. Not so expensive, but many books were priced from RM10 onwards. The RM8 selections were not that much. I bought a few hard cover books this time around.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

So far, I think "Feet of Clay" is the funniest and most meaningful book that I have read from the Discworld series. Apparently, there were guilds for all the professions in the City of Ankh-Morpork, including the guilds for assassins, thieves, etc. Anyone operated outside the guild would be taken care of by the guild member. So, for example, a thief that steal without being a member of the Thieves Guild would be "punished" by the member of the Thieves' Guild and that kind of situation actually make the city more manageable. Mmmmm.

Feet of Clay by Terry Pratchett

Anyway, the story started with a Golem (a man made creature) sold another Golem to a merchant. It's actually started the other event after that in this story. By the way, Golem is made of clay. This story focused on the murder of few elderly people and how the Watch (police in Discworld) solved it. 

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

When the news broke out that Terry Pratchett dies on March 2015, I felt sad. I just gotten to know his works recently, and I just started to follow the Discworld series. Anyway, thanks to him, we have many good stories to read.

Maskerade is like the Discworld version of "The phantom of opera". Like "The phantom of opera", there's a masked man who lurked around the opera house and opera singers, in Maskerade, add two witches and it made the story much more interesting.

The protagonist in Maskarade was Agnes (who goes by Perdita X), a girl with a very good voice who was not so thin, who was also courted by two witches to join them. However, she didn't want to become a witch. So, she went for interview at a opera house and got accepted. The story started from here. 

Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman

Well, this book was a gift from my brother. After bigbadwolf, I couldn't bring myself to buy books in retail price anymore. This book was sold at RM57.90 at Popular book store. For that kind of money, I could buy around 6 books in the bigbadwolf. But, the perk of buying books in normal book store is I can get the latest book that I want. Still, thanks bro! 

The Ocean At The End Of The Lane

This novel gives me the feeling of American Gods. The story started with a man (the narrator, it's told in first person narrative) driving around his childhood home after going to a funeral, I think. Then, he started to remember about his childhood, his first kiss and a farm house he visited when he was a child and the girl on the farm house. 

He remembered when his parents faced financial trouble, they rented out a room to lodger, The lodger then committed suicide after losing all his money to gambling, and the lodger chose to die near the farm house because it's at the end of lane with few people. Then, the man (was a child then) met the farm house inhabitants, the old Mrs Hemstock, Mrs Hemstock and Lettie Hemstock. To comfort him, the Hemstock offered him fresh cow milk. The one plot I remembered was it was the first time the narrator drank cow milk directly out of a cow, fresh cow milk, not from a bottle. Hahaha!

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive by Alexander McCall Smith

Happy Chinese New Year!

I finished the lunar year with a book by Alexander McCall Smith, "The Good Husband of Zebra Drive". Well, the reason I could finish the book was due to the demise of my desktop computer's CPU yesterday. I tried to restore it and re-format it, both fail, finally the error that came out on the monitor was "BOOTMGR is missing". I gave up and read. Now I am typing on a "hybrid" computer, I used my old laptop (the monitor was damaged long time ago) as CPU, and I considered my problem solved. Hahaha! Actually I thought of buying a new computer, but I just changed all four tyres of my car, a big expenditure. So, I will live with my current computer until I really need to buy a new one. 

Anyway, back to the book. This time around, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency had some interesting cases. Mma Ramotswe was asked by her cousin to investigate three cases of death that happened in his hospital on the same time each week. While, Mma Ramotswe husband, Mr Matekoni took up a affair outside marriage case himself. Then, Mma Makutsi investigated a theft.

Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

We can always see "Peanuts" in newspaper comic strip, on T-shirts, merchandises, etc. it's very likable. Well, I myself owned a couple of snoopy merchandises too. Initially, I didn't even know that the name of the comic is "Peanuts". To me, it was always "Snoopy". I only found out the name of the comic when I joined a treasure hunt two or three years ago. One of the tasks was to buy something, the clue contained snoopy and a brand of food item. Although my team got the brand right, we bought the wrong nuts. Hahaha, that's when I finally learnt the actual name of the comic, "Peanuts"!

I bought two comic books lately, both peanuts. While I like "The master chef", I can't relate to "The music lover" and I didn't find it funny. Maybe I am not gifted at all at the music department, lol!

comics of Peanuts

The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom

I still remember my first book from Mitch Albom, Tuesdays With Morrie. It was so captivating that I finished reading that book at one sitting. After that, I look forward to his books.

I didn't read "The Time Keeper" in one seating though, I read a few pages before I slept every night. Well, the story was simple, but it did make me think. In this story, it talks about the person who first measured time (Father Time) was being kept/held in a cave for thousands of year and forced to listen to all the pleas about time from earthlings all the time, he didn't age or grow weaker. He missed his family so much but he was stuck there until an old man (god?) appeared and requested him to find two person, one who wants too much time and one who wants too little and teach them what he has learned.

So, Father Time was released to the world and he learned everything from scratch, the alphabets, languages, knowledge, and he just stopped the time when he needed it, when he stopped the time, everything else froze and he took his time reading, gaining knowledge, etc, and he moved from one place to another until he reached the city where he sensed the two person, one who wants too little (a girl) and one who wants too much time (a dying cancer patient).

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2014

4th December 2014

I won a preview pass for The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale this year. Well, I think the organizer gave a lot of preview passes, so I had the chance to win that. Hahaha! Like previous years, I took half day leave to go to this book sale with my friend, Dila. Since this was a preview sale (one day before the actual sales begin), the crowd was less, and I could browse more leisurely. 

The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale is held at MIECC, beside The Mines. Last year, we parked the car on the road side outside the MIECC, so this year, we already make up our mind to park inside MIECC, however, somehow we took a wrong turn and went into The Mines car park instead. Well, since we were hungry, we went to The Mines to have our lunches before proceeded to MIECC. (have to build up energy for the books lifting!)

Book Fairs on November 2014 & December 2014

Lately, there are many book fairs and from the information released to media, the prices are quite cheap. Read an article on The Star today promoting a book fair by Popular, from the article, it mentions that the books were priced at RM5, well, the price is cheaper than the normal Big Bad Wolf novels. I am quite tempted to go, but after coming back from a 11 days trip, I don't have the time, plus I got a preview pass for the Big Bad Wolf, so I think I will only go to the Big Bad Wolf. Ahhh, difficult choices. 

RM5 Fiesta by POPULAR

Venue:  Viva Expo Hall 1 & 2

Date:    21st November ~ 30th November 2014

Time:   10am – 10pm

an article promoting the RM5 Feast

The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale

Venue:  MIECC

Date:    5th December ~ 16th December 2014

Time:   7am from 5th December to 9pm 16th December (non stop)

Books that I hope to find:
Mitch Albom - The Time Keeper
books from Neil Gaiman
books from Terry Pratchett
& some non-fiction

preview pass of The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale

Against the Odds: An Autobiography of James Dyson

For someone who have never use a vacuum cleaner before and never feel the need to get one, I read this autobiography from James Dyson, who is the famous inventor of dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner. 

I grew up without carpet in my house, so the cleaning method was always sweep and mop. When I got an apartment in Japan with carpet flooring, I just got myself a sticky roll to roll away all the dust, luckily I was in that apartment for only one year, I couldn't stand carpet flooring, I felt that it was too dusty and in my mind, anything that is not cleaned using water is not clean!