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!

Deadly Decisions by Kathy Reichs

Bought this book from The Big Bad Wolf sales. I am a fan of the TV series "Bones", so I read many novels from Kathy Reichs too. The main differences of the Dr. Brennan in the novels and the dramas were the novel Brennan was older, based in Canada, has a adult daughter, and an alcoholic.

Although I feel that the title of this book didn't match the story, the story is quite engaging. The main theme of this novel is about biker gangs fight and murder. Initially, the protagonist Dr. Brennan was investigating a case of a twins bikers. Both of them were killed in a explosion and since both were identical twins, the identification became difficult. Well, after some investigations by Dr. Brennan. She managed to identify the twins.

The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith

My first book on "THE NO.1 LADIES' DETECTIVE AGENCY". Well, this book was not Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle. But it gave me warmth and I felt happy reading it.

I had a three days training course in Cyberjaya from Tuesday. I hate traffic jams, so I left the house early and reached the training centre early in the morning. In fact, my car was the first car on the parking area. So, I sat in the car and read.

In this detective story, there were no speedy car chase, violence, high tech spying technology, science of deduction. In this series, the lady detective, Mma Ramotswe and her assistant Mma Makutsi didn't handle huge big cases, but they did help their customers. I like the way the office habit was portrayed in the story, a hot cup of tea every morning, every occasions, sad or happy. Well, coffee or tea are playing a big part in office politics anywhere, I think.

Eric by Terry Pratchett

Today is a public holiday and my wish to sleep late was squashed by a phone call from the company at 6.30 a.m. After I woke up, I had trouble to go back to sleep and it was too early to do anything. So, I read. I chose a book by Terry Pratchett that I bought from The Big Bad Wolf sales last year. 

Well, this's my first Terry Pratchett and I love this book! It's very funny, plus the font is big and not long winded, I finished this up in 3 hours, had breakfast in the middle ♥.

The story is about a boy, Eric (a demonologist) who wanted to summon a demon to fulfil his three wishes, to rule the world, to meet the most beautiful woman ever lived and to live forever. Instead of a demon, he summoned a wizard instead and not just any wizard, but the most incompetent wizard in the universe (the words used in the back cover of the book)! Well, this is my first discworld novel, so I am not so familiar with the settings and characters in the book, I enjoyed it and I am thinking to find other discworld novels.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

Happy New Year, today is the first day of 2014, initially I planned to binge watch Korean dramas, but I changed my mind, instead of watching TV, I would read a book. I chose fairy tales! The book was "The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories". I bought this book because Neil Gaiman was one of the persons in the acknowledgements and partly due to the illustrations. 

It's a collections of short stories about fairies. In this book, the fairies were huge, most of the times taller than normal human beings, very different from my imagination of fairy, in my imagination, fairy is around the size of Thumbelina. The tones of the stories are quite dark and touches a bit on ladies power!