lazy by nature

of all the books that was displayed in borders, only one book caught my eye: -

“the 4 hour work week” timothy ferriss

when it comes to work, less is more.

i just hope i don’t need to live in the States to live a life lke Timothy.

can’t believe i am done with…

wuthering heights!!

although i must confessed i glanced through the last few chapters because it was just too dreary.

getting started on kevin roose’s “the unlikely disciple :  a sinner’s semester @ america’s holiest university”.

the first page already got me laughing.

i feel like reading 2 books concurrently – “reinvention : how to make the rest of your life the best of your life” by brian tracy since i’m so lost right now career and life wise.

these words jumped right out at me

“remember, you don’t forget the resolutions you make in the hour of fear” emily bronte, wuthering heights.

wuthering heights

wuthering heights by emily bronte is a frustrating read.

i’m only at chapter 18 and there is still 16 more chapters to go!

although it is frustrating, i am impressed that this story was written by a young girl because it is hard to imagine something this intense came from a girl who died at age 30, a year after the book was published.

after reading sparknotes, i am even more impressed after understanding the book better.

an evening enjoyed

what a good evening!

it has been a while since i managed to stay awake beyond 10 on a weekday evening when i’m at home. thesedays, i just fall asleep anytime, anywhere so it feels really good to spend this evening so  productively.

my evening started with a good conversation with the big bad wolf and i headed home for a simple dinner. haagen daz ice cream was my dessert for the day. between waiting for the dinner to be digested and my evening run, i called the banks to enquire and to request. i surfed and checked the net. i read a book. i changed into my running attire and stretched my muscles. i ran for 20 minutes and strolled for another 15 – all the while listening to “breathe again” by toni braxton.

i got home, stretched again and continued with my book. i showered, soaped, scrubbed, shampooed and conditioned. i drank lots of water, eye masked and face masked myself while finishing the book “disgrace” by j.m. coetzee. it’s a really good book, a compulsive read. i do not know how to articulate the reasons why it’s good so click here to learn more about the book. david lurie reminds me of james because he is so cold and brutally honest.

now i’m wondering should i read “wuthering heights” by emily bronte or “the unlikely disciple” by kevin roose.

the freedom of the graveyard

i just finished “the graveyard book” by neil gaiman. it’s a children’s book but the very interesting story line (think harry porter) made me bring this book home from borders.

a baby grew up in the graveyard because someone out there wanted to kill him. in other words, he was raised up by ghosts, the inhabitants of the graveyard.

how cool is that?

we always thought graveyards were creepy, a place where dangers lurk. yet, it was this boy’s home until he was 15. brought up by a ghostly couple, protected by a ghostly guardian, received lessons from dead people from across many generations, ran from ghouls and took revenge on the man who killed his family by exploiting the wonders and spells of the graveyard. it’s a truly fascinating world.

a relatively simple read although i found the beginning of the booka little draggy. i like the comparison between the living and dead – especially when the boy’s guardian explained to him how he can’t just settle and spend all his life at the graveyard because the inhabitants has already lived their lives and dreamt their dreams unlike him who has infinite potential ahead of him, a life waiting for him to live.

lessons told from the eyes of the dead can be quite revelational.

especially love the ending when his ghostly mother sang to him when he was leaving the graveyard to experience life: -

“sleep my little babby-oh
sleep until you waken
when you wake you’ll see the world
if i’m not mistaken….

you’re not (mistaken) and i shall

kiss a lover
dance a measure
find your name
and buried treasure

face your life
its pain, it’s pleasure
leave no path untaken.”

utterly inspiring.

the perks of being a wallflower

i just finished reading “the perks of being a wallflower” by stephen chbosky.

i absolutely loved it.

the deadpan tone of the book made me laugh out loud. the book was funny, poignant, sad, touching and surprising at the same time. i love the insights charlie provided on life, love and friendship in the book because it is very honest and not offensive. it was just really endearing.

i love how stepehn chbosky tells you something without actually telling it. subtlety is always nice.

i love bill, charlie’s english teacher, who always gave him books to read. in page 26, bill said to charlie: -

“do you always think this much, charlie?”

“is that bad?” charlie responded.

“not necessarily. t’s just that sometimes people use thoughts to not participate in life.

that struck a chord with me because i used to live life thinking about living life.

and when charlie shared with bill about the bizarre relationship situation his sister has gotten herself into, bill said: -

“charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve.”

and i couldn’t help but wonder just what kind of love i thought i deserve since i’m always attracted to the wrong things. perhaps, all the wrong kind of things?

charlie also spoke about a novel which bill asked him to read “the fountainhead” by ayn rand. he quoted one of the lines in the book which wowed me.

“i would die for you. but i would not live for you.”

lots of great books and music were mentioned in the book and i feel like taking time out to read all of them, especially “catcher in the rye” because i have heard a lot about the book.

reading the book got me trying to remember the highlights of my schooling days. there was no drugs, no cigarettes, no alcohol, no sex, no stories of boys masturbating in toilets, no stories of losing a close friend to suicide, or stories of parents divorces, or slashing tyres, or gays, or weekly school plays…etc.

what were the highlights of my secondary school days?

i heard of a classmate attempting to jump off the school building, i heard of the same classmate locking herself in the toilet because she wanted to slash her wrist all in the name of love, or a school mate who jumped off one of the hdb flats near school because of love, i personally had to protect my friend from her boyfriend stalker-ish ex-girlfriend, me helping a group of friends to cheat in a geography test, me being asked to stand in front of the whole school because of my fringe, me being the english/history teacher’s favourite, me being the math’s teacher least favourite, me being slapped by gangsters, me telling lies to escape dance classes, me being chauffeured home by my discipline master, me losing my wallet, me quitting as school prefect because every wanted to boycott the discipline mistress by quitting, watching other kids smoke and drink and listening to their stories on taking drugs, meeting one strange lecturer, having fall outs with friends that got me crying and hiding in the toilet…

i guess my days at school wasn’t that dull afterall. i just wished i had more school related events to remember – there was no graduation nor prom nor memorable speeches – my most vivid memories were the dance performances for speech day but i don’t remember what speech day is all about.

can’t believe it has been 13 years since i was 13.

booksactually

i would have loved to visit these 2 places with you but time is not on our side.

haha.

books actually @ 5 ann siang road (have to visit before 12 october because they will be shifting in to 86 club street)

polymath & crust (sister of books actually) @ 86 club street

a nice write up of books actually & polymath

i am going to visit them next week after my pilates class….

can’t wait, can’t wait.

i read in a mag yesterday that it’s open by a couple – they personally handpick (i.e. reading and reviewing) the books that will be displayed in the store…

isn’t it nice to be in love with somebody who loves book as much as you?

pure bliss.

prologue

popular bookstore is getting really hip.

first, they created “urban write” @ tampines one and orchard central, which according to this website is a trendy paper and craft lifestyle concept store that offers products such as art paper, scrapbook accessories, fancy stationery, greeting cards, gift sets and more from around the world.

now, there is “prologue” @ ion which promises to “innovatively take book retailing to a whole new level with a lifestyle ambience and complete sensory approach”.

can’t hardly wait for prologue to open it’s door!

the bell jar

it has been a while since i read a novel (i keep getting stuck at self help or management books). just when i thought i have lost all interest in reading novels (because sophie’s world frustrated me), i got started on sylvia plath’s semi-autobiographical novel “the bell jar”.

the only thing i know about sylvia plath before reading this book was that she was a gifted writer who killed herself by putting her head in the oven and her son nicholas hughes hanged himself earlier this year. stories like these saddens and intrigues me.

i was walking around kinokuniya last month when a copy of “the bell jar” greeted me from the bookshelf. i read the content on the back of the book: -

“working in new york one hot summer, esther greenwood is on the brink of her future. yet she is also on the edge of a darkness that makes her world increasingly unreal. in this vivid and unforgettable novel about the struggles of growing up, esther’s world shines through; the wide-eyed country girls, her crazed men-friends, hot dinner dances and nights in new york, and a slow slide into breakdown.”

i was so drawn to it i bought it immediately.

i enjoyed the book thoroughly. i see glimpses of my neurotic self in some of the pages. i didn’t know it was a semi-autobiography novel but i couldn’t help but read it like it was sylvia plath’s life story. imagine my surprise when i realised it was her sort of life story.

i feel a lot for people who feel a lot about life. the intensity, the sensitiveness and the cynicism that is in their every breath enthralls me.

i just wished they didn’t have to choose suicide.

last week, when i was moody and down, i visited borders to bask among the books. there on a bookshelf was a collection of 200 poems by american poets. i took a copy and flip through the pages before stopping at a poem titled “you’re”.

Clownlike, happiest on your hands,
Feet to the stars, and moon-skulled,
Gilled like a fish. A common-sense
Thumbs-down on the dodo’s mode.
Wrapped up in yourself like a spool,
Trawling your dark as owls do.
Mute as a turnip from the Fourth
Of July to All Fools’ Day,
O high-riser, my little loaf.

Vague as fog and looked for like mail.
Farther off than Australia.
Bent-backed Atlas, our traveled prawn.
Snug as a bud and at home
Like a sprat in a pickle jug.
A creel of eels, all ripples.
Jumpy as a Mexican bean.
Right, like a well-done sum.
A clean slate, with your own face on.

the bottom of the page cited sylvia plath as the poet.
i gasped.

i’ve decided to leave your world

i’ve decided to give up on sophie’s world. life is too short to waste time on a book that increasingly frustrates me. the book was really interesting in the beginning but i started to lose my interest at chapter hume. philosophy is thinking in circles, sometimes.

i made the decision to give up at chapter bjerkely.

i would love this book if i was studying for philosophy. i realised i couldn’t remember anything i read unless i was seriously jotting down notes. since i wasn’t studying for anything remotely close to philosophy, i no longer want to finish reading it.

but i wanted to know how the story developed after bjerkely, of just how sophie and hilde world intertwined and i took the easy way out – google it.

so yeah!  i sorta finished another book.

the time traveler’s wife

“The hardest lesson is Clare’s solitude. Sometimes I come home and Clare seems kind of irritated; I’ve interrupted some train of thought, broken into the dreary silence of her day. Sometimes I see an expression on Clare’s face that is like a closed door. She has gone inside the room of her mind and is sitting there knitting or something. I’ve discovered that Clare likes to be alone. But when I return from time traveling she is always relieved to see me.”
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife)

the movie was nice but not as beautiful as the book. i think it failed to capture many of the intense emotions the book managed to describe – especially the moments at the meadow as it was too brief. i would watch it again though just because it was a nice adaptation of my favourite book. i do wish the ending was like the book – that would be truly heartaching.

rachel mcadams is a delight – she has come a long way since “mean girls”.

a friend went to watch the movie and told me clare’s character reminded him of me – the way we love so unconditionally and the way the character pronounced certain phrases. i found that kind of amusing especially when i have always felt like i am clare since i read the book.

“I’m afraid of losing you.”
Clare smiles. “How could you lose me? I’m not going anywhere.”
“I worry that you will get tired of putting up with my undependableness and you will leave me.”
“But I never want to leave you.”
Clare puts her sketchbook aside. I sit up. “I won’t ever leave you,” she says. “Even though you’re always leaving me.”
“But I never want to leave you.”
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler’s Wife)

i’ve always thought being left behind was worse then leaving. someone made me realised that leaving can be just as painful, especially when there is no other way but leaving itself.

perhaps.

ps: it was great catching up with you, nurul. you’re still the little girl i dote on…haha.

the goal

i finally finished “the goal : the theory of constraints, a process of ongoing improvement”.

i don’t think i got what the book was trying to say. i don’t even remember the male protagonist name. i do remember he’s a workaholic and julie the wife left him for the most part in the book. when she finally returned, they talked about management style and Socrates. i also remember stacey fell onto of the male protagonist and julie stormed out of the house.

but that’s not important at all.

i remembered high inventory level, late deliveries, herbies, the flagging priority system, the “playing around with measurements”, bottlenecks, non bottlenecks, throughput, and the utimate goal of an organisation is to make money.

i remembered idle time was ok, solving AR issues won’t save the company and that people sitting on top will never understand the constraints of the ground because they are too thick headed but will give in eventually if you can prove them wrong.

i was telling my (ex) boss all that i remember and his reply surprised me – “you remembered all the problems, what are the solutions?”

i couldn’t remember any of it.

why?

because my mind shuts down when the book tries to explain the solution.

i had half a mind to re-read the book but i believe somewhere out there in the world wide web, some kind soul must have made a summary of the book so that poor, illogical and management unsavvy souls like me do not have to re-read again and again.

here’s the concise version of the goal – every chapter in less than 15 lines!