Les Miserables

Alhamdulillah, I had the opportunity to watch this musical film last week with a good friend (terima kasih M sudi temankan :) ). I have never read the book, watched the theatre, or even read the synopsis so I went with an open mind, devoid of preconceptions. And I was completely blown away!

Based on a classic novel by Victor Hugo, the story follows the lives and interactions of several characters in the era of French Revolution in the 19th century, focusing on the struggles of ex-convict Jean Valjean and his experience of redemption (from Wikipedia). It was sad and moving, and I was literally in tears almost from the start to the finish. What a poor condition the society was at that time.

The movie is well-filmed too. I love the close-up technique for the solo songs. You can really see the good acting, all the emotion, every line and crease of the face, every drop of tear and yes, even the saliva - I think it worked well. I was particularly impressed by Anne Hathaway's rendition of 'I Dreamed a Dream' - easily the best scene in the movie. It's no wonder she bagged the Best Supporting Actress Award in the recent Golden Globe for this role. Eddie Redmayne (playing Marius) was pretty good too when he was weeping over his fallen comrades. And so is Hugh Jackman, who's had quite a few solo songs, being the central character. Unfortunately, Russel Crowe was not very expressive, his solo acts didn't invoke much emotions. Samantha Barks's (playing Eponine) solo 'On My Own' sounds a bit pop-ish, if you know what I mean. I knew this movie is a musical so there will be lots of songs, but what I didn't expect was that it's almost 95% songs! Even when the characters speak, they speak in singsong intonations.

150 minutes well-spent.

Daddy Long Legs

"Bukanlah kesenangan besar-besar yang paling penting, tetapi menghargai perkara-perkara kecil. Saya telah menemui rahsia hidup bahagia, iaitu fokus pada masa sekarang. Usah mengenangkan atau menyesali yang telah berlalu, atau tertunggu-tunggu masa hadapan, tetapi manfaatkan waktu kini sepenuhnya. Saya akan nikmati setiap saat dalam hidup saya dan saya tahu saya sedang menikmatinya semenjak waktu saya sedang menikmatinya lagi (bukan hanya selepas). Kebanyakan orang seolah-olah berlari terlalu laju sehingga tidak sempat menghargai hidup mereka. Mereka mahu tiba ke satu destinasi yang jauh nun di sana. Mereka mengah dan tercungap-cungap sepanjang perjalanan sehingga mereka tidak dapat menghargai keindahan pemandangan yang terbentang. Sedar-sedar sahaja, mereka sudah tua dan keletihan, dan tiada beza pun sama ada mereka tiba ke destinasi yang dituju atau mencapai sasaran yang ditetapkan, atau pun tidak. Saya akan duduk di tepi jalan dan mengutip semua kegembiraan kecil atau besar, walaupun saya tidak dapat mencapai cita-cita menjadi seorang penulis agung. Saya semakin petah berfalsafah, bukan?"

Perenggan di atas dipetik daripada novel terjemahan saya yang pertama yang baru diterbitkan oleh PTS One. Alhamdulillah, saya bersyukur kepada Allah. Novel remaja klasik nukilan Jean Webster ini mengisahkan seorang anak yatim piatu, Jerusha Abbott yang berpeluang melanjutkan pelajarannya ke peringkat kolej apabila seorang dermawan misteri sudi membiayai kos pengajiannya. Identiti lelaki itu dirahsiakan daripada Jerusha, namun dia disyaratkan agar menulis surat setiap bulan kepadanya. Kisah hidup Jerusha yang menyesuaikan diri dengan kehidupan barunya dirakamkan melalui surat-surat ini.

Sesiapa yang berminat untuk membeli buku ini, jemputlah ke link Bookcafe (kedai online penerbit PTS) ini.

What Works by Hamish McRae

In this book, Hamish McRae wrote about lessons from 20 success stories around the globe, including the Edinburgh Arts Festival, Zurich drug rehabilitation, New York philanthrophism, Harvard – the world’s top university, property development in Dubai, the high-tech industries of Bangalore, public safety in Tokyo, Australia – the great sporting nation, the International Baccalaurate and others.

In the final chapter, he concluded by listing down 10 main lessons. And I quote “Here are powerful ideas that can be applied to many situations. If they are applied sensitively and thoughtfully, there will be better outcomes. We can all learn from things that work.”

1. Optimism – balanced by realism
- Pessimism paralyses
- Progress never follows a straight line

2. Excellence – tempered by decency
- If in the drive to be the best you neglect your wider responsibilities, you are liable to end up in greater trouble when you meet headwinds
- Pursue excellence but be aware of the needs and aspirations of those below the elite level

3. Community works – if it is allowed to
- Mobilize locally, but go outside for help when needed
– Look at things from ground up
– Celebrate community

4. Government works too
- Compare like with like

5. Become a true magnet for talent
- Create an environment that gets talent to attract talent
– Put out the welcome mat

6. Be honest about failure
- Face failure, and turn it to your advantage
– Keep learning, keep making mistakes

7. The need for humility
- Be as sensitive to success as you are to failure
– Acknowledge good fortune

8. Be nimble
- Be quick to adapt

9. Listen to the market
- Work with the market to effect change
– Remember, it is about more than money
– Manage your resources carefully

10. Have a sense of mission
- Keep it real
– Do right by those who share your objectives
– Keep the long game in view

In the example of New York philantrophism, the author pictured that Americans feel that they want to see something happen, they take actions, rather than just wait for the authority to act on it. In a way, it’s related to the ‘American Dream’ – anyone can get what they want or be who they want to be if they work hard enough for it.

Coincidentally, a few days after I finished this book, a friend shared this link about a philantrophist who built a special theme park for disabled children and named it Morgan’s Wonderland after Morgan, his 17-year-old daughter, who can't perform simple maths and struggles to form sentences because of cognitive disabilities.

Petikan daripada buku

Tiga petikan pilihan daripada dua buku yang baru saya selesai uliti baru-baru ini:

Dua daripada buku 'Moga Bonda Disayang Allah' tulisan Tere-Liye (versi terjemahan terbitan PTS Litera):

Mukasurat 191:

Benarlah. Jika kalian sedang bersedih, jika kalian sedang terpagut pada masa lalu yang menyakitkan, penuh penyesalan seumur hidup, salah satu ubatnya ialah dengan menyedari masih banyak orang lain yang lebih sedih dan mengalami kejadian yang lebih menyakitkan dibandingkan kalian. Masih banyak orang lain yang tidak lebih beruntung dibanding kita. Itu akan memberikan pengertian yang hidup ini belum berakhir. Itu akan membuat kita selalu meyakini, setiap makhluk berhak atas suatu harapan.

Mukasurat 220:

Dalam proses kepergian, lazimnya yang pergi selalu lebih ringan dibandingkan yang ditinggalkan. Lebih ringan untuk melupakan ... Yang pergi akan menemui tempat-tempat baru, kenalan-kenalan baru, kehidupan-kehidupan baru, yang perlahan tapi pasti semua itu akan mengisi dan menggantikan kenangan lama. Sementara yang ditinggalkan lazimnya tetap dengan segala kenangan itu ...

Yang ini daripada buku 'Life of Pi' tulisan Yann Martel, Bab 25:

There are always those who take it upon themselves to defend God, as if Ultimate Reality, as if the sustaining frame of existence, were something weak and helpless. These people walk by a widow deformed by leprosy begging for a few paise, walk by children dressed in rags living in the street, and they think, "Business is as usual." But if they perceive a slight against God, it is a different story. Their faces go red, their chests heave mightily, they sputter angry words. The degree of their indignation is astonishing. Their resolve is frightening.

These people fail to realize that it is on the inside that God must be defended, not on the outside. They should direct their anger at themselves. For evil in the open is but evil from within that has been let out. The main battlefield for good is not the open ground of the publis arena but the small clearing of each heart. Meanwhile, the lot of widows and homeless children is very hard, and it is to their defence, not God's, that the self-righteous should rush.

Mesra Buku book swap

I've listed some of my books available for swap/loan at my book blog here. Feel free to browse and email me if you're interested to read any of the books listed there.

Happy reading!

'Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.'

These 7 words encapsulates Michael Pollan’s book ‘In Defence of Food’ that I’ve read recently. He didn’t start elaborating on what he meant by that immediately. The first part of the book is titled The Age of Nutritionism. I’m glad to learn that eating healthy does not mean that I have to master the science of nutrition. In fact, he went as far as suggesting that nutritionism could just be ‘bad science’. In the second part, The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization, the author elaborates on the changes that has happened to food and eating (specifically in the Western world).

The list of subtopics in the last chapter of this part may give some idea of what these changes are:
-From whole foods to refined
-From complexity to simplicity
-From quality to quantity
-From leaves to seed
-From food culture to food science

Although reading the first two parts had been interesting and enlightening, it is the third and last part of the book which I had appreciated the most, because this is where he had shared tangible advices and rules when it comes healthy eating. I’ll capture the points here so that I can refer to them in the future.

Eat Food: Food Defined (food, as opposed to foodlike or food products)

Don’t eat anything your great-grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food
Don’t eat anything incapable of rotting
Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number and that include d) high-fructose corn syrup
Avoid food products that make health claims
Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle (fresh food is usually placed at the peripheries and processed food in the middle)
Get out of the supermarket whenever possible (eg shop at farmers’ market, or in Malaysian context, pasar tani I guess)

Mostly Plants: What to Eat

Eat mostly plants especially leaves
You are what what you eat eats too
If you have the space buy a freezer (freezing unlike canning does not significantly diminish the nutritional value of produce)
Eat like an omnivore (diversify your food)
Eat well-grown food from healthy soils
Eat wild foods when you can
Be the kind of person who takes supplement (without actually taking any, unless you’re over 50) ie typically more health conscious, better educated, and more affluent
Eat more like the French or the Italians or the Japanese or the Indians or the Greeks (eat traditional food)
Regard non-traditional foods with skepticism
Don’t look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet (it’s a ‘package’)

Not Too Much: How to Eat

Pay more eat less (costs, both in terms of price and time/convenience to prepare) Eat meals (and avoid snacking in between)
Do all your eating at a table (and a desk is not a table)
Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does (ie petrol station shops)
Try not to eat alone
Consult your gut (train our internal system to tell us when we are full)
Eat slowly
Cook, and if you can, plant a garden

One of my favourite paragraph: “If a food is more than the sum of its nutrients and a diet is more than the sum of its food, it follows that a food culture is more than the sum of its menus – it embraces as well the set of manners, eating habits, and unspoken rules that together governs a people’s relationship to food and eating. How a culture eats may have just as much bearing on health as what a culture eats.”

This is Michael Pollan’s website where he shares his archives or articles (I’ve just read 3 interesting ones and will probably go back for more). The article ‘Unhappy Meals’ which he wrote in January 2007 is the trigger which led him (encouraged by his editors) to write this whole book, so it actually contains a significant amount of the points he touched in this book, so head over there for a preview of this book.

Overall, a very satisfying read – interesting and informative. I feel so motivated now to improve my eating and cooking habits towards achieving a healthier life, I hope I’ll remain to be so consistently!

Note: This post is also published in my book blog.

3 Idiots is a must-watch movie!

Image source: Wikipedia
I watched 3 Idiots last night together with my family, and I absolutely love it! The movie is about a smart guy who denounces the traditional educational system which puts too much emphasis on good grades and instead preaches to his friends to follow their passions. For more details, click here. Be careful not to read the plot section as it contains spoilers. I think the movie has a great message, good story and plot, funny, inspirational. Even the songs are quite good. There are some parts which I feel is illogical or that I disagree with - it’s not a perfect movie, but overall, I found it to be one of the best movies I’ve watched this year. To me, this is a good example of how a movie can be an effective medium to illustrate an opinion, and to begin a social transform. If you haven’t watched this movie, go and find it now. Really.

Temubual pertama blog Mesra Buku

Saya teruja minggu lepas apabila menerbitkan temubual pendek bersama novelis muda Siti Munirah Abdul Rashid, yang telah menulis Perindu Pelangi. Klik sini untuk baca temubual tersebut.

Berbetulan, En Zakaria Sungib (editor kanan Jabatan Buku di Galeri Ilmu) ada memetik komentar saya dalam emel kepada beliau dalam artikel bertajuk 'Elemen Triler Dalam Perindu Pelangi' yang telah diterbitkan di laman web Galeri Ilmu, blog Jabatan Buku, dan dalam majalah Anis keluaran Jun 2010. Rasa teruja (thrilled) macam budak sekolah pula :)

I've started a book blog

Introducing:

Mesra Buku! :)

I've started this blog during the recent KL book fair, and so far has about 8 posts only. I'm aiming for one to two posts per week, but it seems like 'one' prevails more often ;) I'm blogging as Siti, which you would probably notice, is my chosen name for my 'extra-curricular' activities.

I hope to be able to do not just reviews or share info on book deals or sales, but also interviews with local authors (hopefully!) and contests. I hope this blog will also be a platform for readers to swap books or find new home for their books.

Do share the url http://mesra-buku.blogspot.com with your friends who shares this hobby of mine, and wish me luck :)

Ulasan filem The Blind Side oleh Faisal Tehrani

Baca sepenuhnya di sini.

But in a nutshell, it’s a story of an illiterate teenager from a broken family who managed to turn his life around (for the better) and to become a successful football player after he got adopted by a kind family. Just reading FT’s review is enough to move me. What an important thing ‘love’ is. It’s not a luxury, it’s a basic human need! It makes me think of the stories on problematic teens (or adults), sometimes all they need is attention and love.

It's a simple story, but it's beautiful and inspiring! Bilalah pembikin filem di negara kita nak terbitkan cerita-cerita penuh motivasi dan inspirasi, dan membangun jiwa seperti ini? (Dan setiap kali saya bertanya soalan berbentuk menghala ke arah orang lain seperti ini, lekas saja ia terpantul balik pada saya - and what can I do about it?)

Kenangan manis di PBAKL 2010

Wah, tajuk memang skema, harap maaf lah ye :)

Jika tahun 2008, saya pergi berempat dan tahun 2009 pula berdua, Khamis lepas saya pergi ke PBAKL 2010 berseorangan sahaja. Asalnya nak pergi dengan adik saya dan isterinya tapi tak jadi pula. Sebenarnya seronok juga pergi sendiri, sebab bebas nak pergi gerai mana dan berapa lama. Saya cuma berada di sana selama satu jam setengah sahaja, sebab bajet dah habis. Kalau ronda-ronda lagi pun, tak dapat beli juga. There’s nothing like sticking to a budget like bringing just enough cash and leaving the ATM and credit card behind (well, I didn’t actually leave my cards because I know not to use them).

Jadi, apa kenangan yang manis tu agaknya? Yang pertama, bila saya singgah di gerai Galeri Ilmu, saya terpandang sebuah buku dengan cover gambar seorang gadis tomboy berambut pendek dengan motosikalnya. Mungkinkah… Saya lihat nama penulisnya, ya memang betul! Mereka tidak pilih tajuk yang saya cadangkan (memang tajuk cadangan saya kurang menarik pun, tiada idea). Bukan, saya tak tulis buku tu, saya cuma sunting sahaja. Gembiranya melihat buku suntingan saya yang pertama, sudah berada di pasaran! Encik Sakaria Sungib menghadiahi saya senaskhah buku tersebut (terima kasih!).

Bilalah agaknya nama nak ‘melompat’ ke depan pula ye? Hehe…

Kenangan manis kedua pula, bila berkunjung ke gerai PTS. Lebih kurang 2 minggu lepas, saya mendapat satu panggilan telefon dari seseorang yang ingin mencetak t-shirt muslimah sebagai barang merchandising untuk Pesta Buku. Terkejut saya bila disebutkan emelnya, sehingga saya bertanya “PTS? As in the publisher?” Tempoh menyiapkan tempahan kurang daripada seminggu ketika itu, saya risau juga takut tak sempat, tapi Alhamdulillah sempat (separuh dihantar hari pertama, separuh lagi hari kedua). Walaupun margin keuntungan tidaklah sebesar mana, tapi saya gembira dan teruja dapat berurusan dengan PTS (menerusi stafnya) sebab saya seorang pembaca dan peminat setia PTS.

PBAKL 2010

Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur 2010 begins today!

I want to go but I haven’t made any plan yet. In 2008, I went with MHH and the kids on a weekend. It was fun and good exposure for the kids, but it was also hectic, crowded, and exhausting. In 2009, I went with MHH (sans the kids) on a working day, it was more relaxed. This year? Note sure yet. But I probably won’t be buying too many books. I’ve made a resolution to control my book-buying because 1) I buy more than I have time to read 2) I’ve run out bookshelves or storage space!

By the way, if you plan to buy any PTS book, drop by their link here to print their 25% discount coupons first. (My guess is they’d prepare some at their booth, but just in case.)

Buy Telaga Biru books online

Telaga Biru has recently launched its marketing arm Stormreaders using the multi-level marketing system. I usually shy away from MLMs. But this one got me thinking twice (only) before joining, because the products involved are books! Something that gets me excited :)

So, if you plan to buy any Telaga Biru books, do use my link below:

Why buy online?
- You can get access to all the books published by Telaga Biru. If you go to shops, there might be titles that is out of stock or that the shop chose not to carry.
- Save time and less hassle (as with most online shopping)

Their shipping cost is very reasonable. Two weeks ago, I bought 7 books and got charged only RM12 for postal (they used Pos Malaysia’s Parcel service). I purchased on Monday and the books arrived on Thursday!

Why Telaga Biru?
- They have a wide array of books covering many topics including Islam, self-help/motivational, parenting, and even fiction.
- The books are very well-presented, most with full colour and useful illustrations. For example, the book Formula Solat Sempurna by Ustaz Zaharuddin Abd Rahman have photos of people illustrating the steps of the rukun solat etc

These are some of Telaga Biru books that I have bought.






Happy reading!

P/S: If you are interested to be a distributor, do email me at emel.siti@ gmail.com for details :)

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Stephen King’s Dark Tower series

I haven't always read Stephen King. I used to think that he writes mostly horror stories and I don't particularly like horror stories (or movies, for that matter. Takut!). But I'm quite easily influenced, and since MHH reads Stephen King, I found myself giving him a chance. After a few books, I found that Stephen King is indeed a very talented creative and imaginative storyteller, especially after reading one of his recent works, Duma Key. Do you know that the movie Shawshank Redemption is written based on a story by him?

Stephen King admires Tolkien's Lord of The Rings and (as with other authors in the genre) wanted to write a quest-based long story, and Dark Tower is his answer. There are 7 books in the series written in the span of 34 years. One day, during a Times booksale, MHH came across the third book. He wasn't sure whether to buy it or not because he hasn't read the first two yet. I encouraged to just buy it. In the following birthday and anniversary I surprised him with the remaining 6 books (how convenient it was not to have to think so hard on what to buy :) )


MHH finished the 7 books within a couple of months. It must have been wonderful not to have to wait for the next book to be published as it would have been with an ongoing series (think Harry Potter some five six years ago). I've only finished the first one, and to be frank I struggled to finish it. I couldn't follow some parts of the story. I sometimes found myself asking myself "What just happened?" I think my imagination is just not up to the fantasy fiction standard :) (I gave up reading Tolkien's Lord of The Rings after about 100 pages.) MHH said the first book is quite slow because it's the introduction. And he wrote this when he was 19! (wow)

Quite a long period lapsed before I finally picked up Book Two. And as I had feared, I didn't enjoy it as much as I would have liked to. At first. In fact, I was seriously considering giving up on the series altogether (oh, but the RM200+ already spent!), when the plot picks up at about page 50ish. The gunslinger found a door which is like a portal into someone else's mind/eye. Someone from our world. This person is to be part of his 'team' for the quest for the Dark Tower. I got engaged and hooked to the story. If reading a book is like sleeping, I’ve finally reached the REM stage. Now that I've started to enjoy the book, I can't wait to continue reading!

Menikam kalbu

Bertuah saya dapat adik yang punya koleksi buku, dapat saya pinjam dan baca. I'm taking my own sweet time though, hope you don't mind :)

Membaca berita mengenai karya Faisal Tehrani bertajuk Manikam Kalbu menang Hadiah Sastera baru-baru ini, saya pun pilih untuk baca buku itu dahulu, berbanding Advencer Si Peniup Ney dan Nama Beta Sultan Alauddin. Kebanyakan novel-novel Faisal Tehrani mengangkat satu tema sebagai latar, dan pembaca disajikan dengan pelbagai pengetahuan menarik mengenai tema itu, hasil kajian penulis. Saya suka. Dalam buku Tunggu Teduh Dulu, FT mengambil latar perladangan buah betik. Dalam Bedar Sukma Bisu, latarnya industri maritim dan perkapalan Melayu. Yang terbaru, Ketupat Cinta (saya belum baca) beliau mengambil latar ilmu gastronomi Melayu. Manikam Kalbu pula, berlatarkan sejarah dan pengetahuan busana Melayu.

Dulu, apabila saya menikmati sesebuah tulisan, saya katakan ia 'sedap dibaca' atau pun 'indah'. Tapi kini, (terima kasih buat Pn Ainon Mohd) baru saya tahu istilah yang lebih tepat, iaitu 'good linguistic experience'.

Dan ini, saya petik satu gubahan indah dalam Manikam Kalbu.

Syarat pertama busana Melayu itu hendaklah pantang membuka aurat.
Sesiapa memakai tetapi terbuka aurat, tanda imannya sudah berkarat.
Tanda orang yang tidak semenggah, berkain baju berdedah-dedah.
Barang siapa memakai singkap-menyingkap, tanda dirinya tiada beradab.
Adat orang Melayu jati, berkain baju berhati-hati.

Syarat kedua busana Melayu itu pantang kainnya nipis.
Apabila berkain baju yang tipis, di situlah tempat setan dan iblis.
Apabila memakai baju terlalu jarang, malu tak ada aib pun hilang.
Sesiapa memakai pakaian yang tembus mata, tanda dirinya di dalam nista.

Syarat ketiga busana Melayu itu mestilah pantang ia berpotongan yang ketat.
Tiada boleh sama sekali menampak lekuk atau liku di tubuh.
Ingatlah apabila memakai yang ketat-ketat, agama hilang binasa adat.
Barang siapa berbaju sempit, imannya malap jiwanya sakit.
Ingatlah anakanda Muhammad, tanda Melayu memegang adat pantang dia berbaju ketat.
Tanda orang beriman teguh, pakaian sempit memang dijauh.

Syarat keempat busana Melayu, pantang ia mengada-ada.
Membuat baju harus sejudu, jangan suka tiru-meniru, supaya tak hilang maruah Melayu.
Apabila memakai tahukan diri, supaya tak lupa diri sendiri.
Kala memakai elok menurut adat, kelak tidak membawa mudarat.
Ingatlah, jika memakai elok menutupi badan, supaya tidak disusupi setan.

Syarat yang kelima busana Melayu itu dilarang sekali memandai-mandai.
Kerana apabila berpakaian memandai-mandai, aib tersingkap malu terburai.

Free ebook - What Matters Now

Seth Godin coordinated an awesome project - compiling one-page thoughts/messages of 70 top authors, bloggers and thinkers etc (see below), into a pdf ebook titled ‘What Matters Now’ with the theme ‘Big Thoughts, Small Actions’. Thanks AidaNasreen for the heads up.

Download the ebook here!

Below are two samples of the content, to give you a flavour.

In the meantime, Selamat Menyambut Awal Muharram 1431, and while I’m at it, Happy New Year 2010 too! :)

Strengths by Marti Barletta

Forget about working on your weaknesses —> Focus on supporting your strengths. I worked on my weaknesses for 40 years to little avail. Still “needs improvement,” as they say. Why? Easy. We hate doing things we’re not good at, so we avoid them. No practice makes perfect hard to attain.

But my strengths – ah, I love my strengths. I’ll work on them till the purple cows come home. When we love what we do, we do more and more, and pretty soon we’re pretty good at it.
The beautiful thing about being on a team is that, believe it or not, lots of people love doing the things you hate. And hate doing the things you love. So quit diligently developing your weaknesses. Instead, partner with someone very UNlike you, share the work and share the wealth and everyone’s happy.

Relatedly, women are rather UNlike men and often approach problems and opportunities with a different outlook. Yet books and coaches often encourage us to adopt male strengths and, lacking understanding, to relinquish our own. The irony is, studies show that more women in leadership translates unequivocally into better business results.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for both men and women to appreciate each other’s strengths so we all work on what comes naturally?


Gumption by J.C. Hutchins

Most of us settle in, and settle for what we have. Rather than pursue, we accept. Our lives become unwitting celebrations of passivity: we undervalue our work and perceive ourselves as wage slaves (and so we phone it in at the day gig), we consume compulsively (but not create), we pine for better lives (but live vicariously through our televisions).

These corners we paint ourselves into, it’s no way to live.
There’s no adventure here, no passion, no hunger for change. Remember that relentless optimism you once had? The goals you wished to achieve, before settling in?
They’re still there. You need a nudge to find them; a little gumption.

You can start that business. You can lose that weight.
You can quit smoking, and learn to garden, and write that book, and be a better parent, and be all the things you want to be ... the thing this world needs you to be. It requires courage and faith, both of which you can muster. It requires effort — but this effortless life isn’t as satisfying as it seems, is it?

Declare war on passivity. Hush the inner voice that insists you’re over the hill, past your prime, unworthy of attaining those dreams. Disbelief is now the enemy, as is the notion of settling. Get hungry — hyena hungry. Get fired up. Find your backbone, and your wings.

Flap ‘em. It’s the only way you’ll be able to fly.

Buku buku buku!

Book Xcess in Amcorp Mall is going to have their book sale from 26 Nov to 2 Dec (thanks DrWati for the heads up). Novels usually selling at over RM30 will be sold from as a low as RM8! Hmm… I wonder how much I should spend for this sale. Details below:

The Big Bad Book Sale
Dae: 26 November – 2 December 2009
Venue: Level 3, Amcorp Mall (former cinema lot, opposite McDonald’s)
Time: 10am to 9pm
Checkout their website.

Next is about MPH Online. They were down for a few weeks (months?) recently for an upgrade and is now back for business! I noted that they have included several links, including their own blogs and a community forum. MPH Click give out information such as sessions with authors, best-selling novel/non-fiction for the week, as well as discount coupons for certain books. Book Galaxo run contests. I don’t really understand why they have two separate blogs though, it would be simpler for readers to follow a single blog. As for the shopping part itself, I notice they give a bit more information on each books, with tabs for editor review, customer review etc, though most of those stays blank. Otherwise, it’s about the same. Browse and browse and browse, I found several books that I’m interested in selling at a discount. And as icing to the cake, they are offering free delivery to Peninsular Malaysia locations from 23 to 30 November. Yay!

Not to forget, PTS is having a big end-of-year contest “Saya Mahu Hadiah PTS!” from 21 November 2009 to 3 January 2010. I shall not attempt to list down the prizes here, but it’s enough to mention that the grand prize is RM10,000 worth of their books (plus a plasma TV)! Check out their contest site here.

And lastly, I’d like to sell off (‘recycle’?) some of my books so that I can fund my next book splurges! Please see photo below. All books are in good condition (pages of The Rule of Four is yellowish though), going at RM15 each inclusive of postage, or RM60 for all. Anyone interested? I’m also open for book-for-book swap.


The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason
Intimacy & Midnight All Day by Hanif Kureishi
Playing for Pizza by John Grisham (hardcover)
A Place Called Here by Cecilia Ahern (large size)
Things I Want My Daughters To Know by Elizabeth Noble (large size)

P/S: Selamat Hari Raya AidilAdha!

Updated on 1 Dec 2009:
This is not adding value, but I *have* to show this, don't I? Heheh.. My catch at the Book Xcess sales - 8 books at RM71 total. All the books cost RM8 (including hardcovers) except the bottom-most one, which is RM15. I hope I'll like the books I picked. One skill one need at this kind of sales is to 'judge a book by its cover', so to speak.

I won a book!

Yay – I won a Book Xcess blog weekly contest! It’s my first win after three or four tries, starting with this attempt. I recognise that this contest is a marketing activity aimed to achieve these two objectives: firstly, to increase traffic (and retain) to the blog site and secondly, to get people (winners) to visit the bookstore (winners have to pick up the prize there). Once there, it’s unlikely that the people (winners) will stop at picking their prize (book/s), they’ll surely end up with more books! In fact, if I were the person responsible to select winners (some contest are like lucky draws because the answers to the quizzes were easy to find on the internet), I would select those that haven’t won before. Anyway, the prize (‘Tis by Frank McCourt) is good enough to warrant me a trip there, probably on one fine Friday lunch. In the meantime, I’ll keep on trying out for their weekly contests because, to be honest, they could be quite fun! =)

Book sale

Last Friday, I made use of the long lunch hour to go to a warehouse book sale. The first time I did that was last year to an MPH Distributors warehouse sale. I first read about this Pearson/Penguin Publishing in Sharon Bakar's Bibliobibuli blog, but thought that the books would only be limited to those published by Pearson/Pigeon. It's only when I read the comment left by UmmuAhmads here that I thought that - ok, maybe there would be other books. And there are. And they were cheap, too!

These are what I bought. 11 adult books and 6 children books set me back by RM190. It's very tempting to grab more books because the prices are roughly a third of what they would cost at retail price. But I had to stick to my budget.

Munief volunteered to pose with the books
This time, I invited a friend from office, A to join me. She helped with the navigation. She said the sale had exceeded her expectation. On our way back, she was positively glee as she contemplated her haul, which was significantly more than mine. (I already told her I wanted to borrow some of the books she chose hehe..) "With these, I don't need friends anymore," she joked.

Book Xcess

Ummu Auni was the one who told me about the Book Xcess shop at Amcorp Mall. I’ve never been there though. I reside in Klang Valley, but I just haven’t been to Amcorp Mall – it’s a considerable distance away. I’m still looking for more reasons to go there other than to visit this bookstore. Visiting the store’s website, I have a better idea of the store’s concept. Their books are significantly lower than Malaysia retail prices, for example books usually being sold for RM34.90 only costs RM19.90. And these books are new, not secondhand. The reason they can sell the books at these prices is because they get the supply from discounted excess copies that publishers had overprinted and cannot sell to standard bookstores. This also means that they can only offer you what they have. You can’t expect to find just any book, but the good news is you can download their list of books available from their website, so you can check first.

Recently, they launched the Book Xcess blog. What I like most about the blog is they post book reviews regularly. Since some of the books they have on offer are not very well-known, a review would help to give readers an idea of whether they would enjoy the books or not. For example, one the books featured, which is a graphic novel titled A Professor’s Daughter by Joann Sfar & Emmanuel Guibert sounds really interesting and I would just love to buy it!

But I wonder why they are not doing online sales services. In fact, I half-expected this question to be answered in their FAQ section of the store website, but it’s not. I would rather pay a RM6 delivery cost rather than to have to drive all the way to Amcorp Mall just to buy a book, which will probably cost more, but more importantly would be a lot more time spent. I hope they can consider selling their books online. I’m sure there’s lots of other readers especially those outside Klang Valley would appreciate this service. If the cost to maintain a stock position in order to automate checkout is too high, they can consider hiring one staff to manage online sales. They already have list of books available in their website. Customers email to inquire, then this staff confirms availability, receives payment and arrange for delivery of the books.