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!

Economy Rice vs Zhi Char

I like my food hot. And due to my work pattern, normally on week days, I would only reach home after 8pm and have my dinner at kopitiam. I will choose rice or bihun (include other noodles) dishes. All freshly cooked. Almost never eat economy rice for dinner. Then, one time, a colleague that stayed in the same taman as me told me that there's a new economy rice shop in our taman, which offered 50% off after 8.30pm. 

So on one of the nights, I went to this economy rice shop. Well, from googling about the shop, apparently it's not a mom and pop shop, there are multiple shops around Klang Valley. Although it's almost 9pm, there were still plenty of dishes. I think it's good to offer discount to clear the food. At least the fried fish wouldn't become ikan tiga rasa and the fried chicken wouldn't become ayam masak merah the next day. A colleague of mine said he would never order friend chicken in Mamak restaurant. He said he once worked in a Mamak restaurant, since the business was ok, normally huge amount of fried chickens were prepared. So the odd of eating leftovers in Mamak is higher than eating in a smaller restaurant. Well, I don't think so, I think the more popular a restaurant is, the fresher the food will be. So, I would go to a restaurant or kopitiam that looks more lively. 

Anyway, I had this 50% discount economy rice on one night. I got stewed chicken/pork (I forget) with pickled vegetable, omelette style egg and stir fried pumpkin, it's only around RM4.80 total. Considered quite cheap in today standard. In this kind of shop, drinks such as plain water or chinese tea is free, even soup is provided free. However, when I went, the soup already finished, so I only had plain water. 

50% discount economy rice

In contrast, to enjoy freshly cooked hot food, one have to pay more. Nowadays, friend rice or noodles cost around RM9 to RM11 depending on the stall. Items like fried bihun is around RM9, plus an egg, it will become RM10.50 total. And there's unspoken rule, you have to order a drink. There's quite a number of diabetics in my family, so I only order plain warm water, it's RM0.60. One interesting fact, when I worked in Seremban, I came to know stewed bihun (焖米粉) and I like bihun, so it's my repeating order. 

After that, I changed job and I stayed in Klang. When I said I wanted stewed bihun (焖米粉) in a Kopitiam, the stall owner looked at me strangely and asked me what was that! Then I described to her, bihun soaked in black sauces. The stall owner clapped her thigh and said, "Oh, that's Hokkien style bihun".  Well, that's another prawn noodle story again. 

hokkien style bihun

Another good thing for this Zhi Char style stall is it's highly customizable. One can order anything not on the menu as long as they have the ingredients. However, normally I will just have the normal. Sometimes, while I was still standing there thinking what to order, the stall owner would just blurted out my usual orders, and I would choose one from there. For economy rice, the variety is there, but sometimes one just didn't know what to choose.

I was taken by surprise when I saw the line outside the economy rice shop right before 8.30pm, it was a long queue, they were waiting to take the plate on 8.30pm so that the price would be 50%. I understood that, for me, one single person, the money saved wouldn't be not much, but for families with multiple persons, the savings would be huge. I think it's a sort of CSR, avoid food wastage and help people save money. 

Conclusion, no matter economy rice or zhi char, it's just a way to fill our stomachs, hope there's no people gone to bed hungry.