Book Purchase #3 - August 2018

Just when I was feeling pleased with myself that I only bought 2 books since early this year, I ended up purchasing 5 books recently.

It was a Popular Sales held in Boulevard Mall during the school holidays recently and I was at the mall for an event.  A quick 10 mins visit ended up with the following purchases :

• Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger - because it's so cheap!

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - I have been watching the series entitled Sharp Objects which is by this author and I have not read her books so why not...and it's so cheap!

• Shiver Trilogy by Maggie Stiefvater - just because the price is unbelievable and if I don't purchase, I might regret it. 

So, in case you are wondering, my every other statement above ends with 'it's so cheap!' How cheap can it be!  Well, I only paid an amount that equals to USD3.00 for all five books! Yup! how not to buy.  Just for the fun of it, let's convert to other currency....£2.20 or 2.52 Euro for all 5 copies.

These are new books...not pre-loved copies.

Let me say it again....I paid about USD3.00 for all 5 books!

This is one of the best deal ever.

And this up my books purchases to 7 books this year.

Weekend Gateaway #3 2018

Clipart image taken from web. Credit to the creator (tap.sf)

Yup, I have a gateaway coming up this weekend.  Following  #1 which was to the beach and #2 which was to the capital city, #3 is slightly further away.

It's a trip to reward myself after rather hectic month(s) and a motivation for the forthcoming hectic month(s) ahead too.

There will be many firsts for this trip which I might share after the trip but then I might not as this isn't really the platform for that.

Anyway, you know me, the first thing I would do is to decide on which book or books to bring with me as I do have quite a fair bit of hours to kill in between flights.

So, for this trip, the selected title to accompany me is :

Beach Music by Pat Conroy.  Actually I have started on this book and I am enjoying it so I know it would be good.  The only set back is that the book is pretty bulky and heavy so that's giving me second thoughts.

Anyway, we will see what I decided at the last minute!

Land of bubble tea and street food, here I come!

Reposting from FB - Dr Maslee Malik's top 10 Favourite Books

6 August at 11:00

#MALAYSIAMEMBACA: APAKAH 10 BUKU KEGEMARAN ANDA?

Saya berhasrat untuk menjadikan Malaysia sebagai negara membaca tahun 2030. Bererti, rakyat Malaysia rakyat paling banyak membaca pada tahun 2030. Kayu ukur kepada pendidikan yang berjaya ialah budaya membaca yang tinggi. Membaca ialah seruan pertama dalam Islam (al-Alaq:1).

Saya mengalu-alukan sesiapa sahaja untuk berkongsi 10 buku kegemaran mereka daripada pelbagai genre dengan tagar (hashtag) #MalaysiaMembaca. Saya mulakan dahulu dengan diri saya.

1. "The Alchemist" karya Paulo Coelho.

Perjumpaan pertama saya dengan penyelia PhD saya di University of Durham, beliau minta saya pulang dan membaca buku ini. Saya tidak faham kaitan buku dengan tesis saya. Perjumpaan seterusnya beliau minta pandangan saya tentang buku ini. Benar, buku ini tak ada kaitan dengan tesis saya, tapi ia memberikan saya semangat yang kuat untuk terus belajar dan menyiapkan PhD saya. Antara kata-kata dari novel ini yang sangat bermakna bagi saya ialah "You will never be able to escape from your heart. So it’s better to listen to what it has to say."

2. "Trust: The Social Virtue and the Creation of Prosperity" karya Francis Fukuyama

Banyak yang dihuraikan oleh Fukuyama terutama sekali tentang kesalinghubungan antara sosial dan ekonomi. Kepentingan untuk tidak bersikap individualis yang bakal merosakkan keseimbangan ekonomi negara sangat cemerlang dihuraikan oleh Fukuyama. Kata Fukuyama, “To truly esteem oneself means that one must be capable of feeling shame or self-disgust when one does not live up to a certain standard.”

3. "Manuklon" karya Rahmat Haron

Sebuah novel futuristik yang penuh dengan peristiwa kembara, dijiwai oleh manusia biasa dan klon yang saling bertentangan demi untuk mendapatkan kuasa. Golongan manusia yang ditindas oleh bangsa manuklon berjuang bermati-matian untuk membebaskan tanahair mereka manakala pemerintah manuklon pula berusaha sedaya upaya mereka untuk mempertahankan kuasa mereka. Ya, sangat banyak yang boleh kita lihat hari ini begitu real seperti yang diimajinasikan Rahmat Haron.

4. "Intelektual Masyarakat Membangun" karya Syed Hussein Alattas.

Untuk seorang ahli akademik, Syed Hussein Alattas sangat menekankan keperluan untuk ahli akademik menjadi sarjana yang bukan hanya di dalam dewan kuliah, sebaliknya di jalanan dan di tempat-tempat awam demi membangunkan pemikiran masyarakat.

5. "Rasuah" karya Syed Hussein Alattas

Syed Hussein Alattas juga sudah lama mengkritik budaya rasuah yang begitu kronik dengan memberikan sebab musabbab yang jelas bahawa budaya ini benar-benar akan merosakkan negara.

6. "Sejarah Umat Islam" karya HAMKA.

Saya sentiasa sarankan buku ini kepada pelajar saya apabila mereka mahu bermula membaca sejarah khususnya sejarah Islam. HAMKA berjaya melukiskan dengan sangat jelas tentang garis masa dan peristiwa-peristiwa penting termasuklah sedikit analisa yang menarik di dalam sepanjang sejarah Islam. Di akhirnya, HAMKA juga menceritakan bagaimana Islam sampai ke Kepulauan Melayu.

7. "Al Tawhid: Its Implications for Thought and Life" karya Ismail Raji al-Faruqi.

Di dalam buku saya Risalah Buat Pemuda Muslim terbitan Telaga Biru, saya menghuraikan kepentingan tauhid dalam kehidupan seorang 'homo-Islamicus'. Tauhid syarahan Ismail Raji al-Faruqi begitu real, praktikal dan sangat besar peranannya dalam kehidupan harian kita.

8. "Al-Munqidh min al-dalal" atau diterjemahkan sebagai "Guide for The Perplexed" karya Al-Ghazali.

Ini antara buku autobiografi yang saya suka. Penuh dengan ilmu dan hikmah. Siapa yang tidak kenal Al-Ghazali? Dan siapa yang jatuh cinta terhadap buah fikirannya tetapi tidak membaca buku ini?

9. "Al-Kimiyya al-Sa'adah" karya Al-Ghazali.

Salah satu daripada elemen pendidikan yang akan diterapkan ialah kebahagiaan. Pendidikan yang menjadikan semua manusia bahagia. Konsep kebahagiaan yang begitu mendalam dihuraikan oleh al-Ghazali dalam buku ini. Hakikatnya, kata al-Ghazali, kita semua manusia yang inginkan kebahagiaan. Kebahagiaan yang paling tertinggi ialah kebahagiaan bertemu denganNya.

10. "Hikmah Hati" karya Maszlee Malik

Bukan kegemaran pada membacanya, tetapi pada menulisnya. Saya sangat terpengaruh dengan banyak karya arwah Azizi Hj. Abdullah sehingga di situlah minat saya terhadap sastera muncul dan cubaan untuk menulis karya kreatif telah saya mulakan. Buku ini masih ada di pasaran.

Dr Maszlee Malik
Menteri Pendidikan Malaysia

What's New, Pussycat? by Alexandra Potter

Synopsis :

What would you do if your boyfriend proposed?

Say yes, text everyone with the good news or take out a subscription to Brides magazine.

Delilah does none of the above

Instead she packs up her beloved Tom Jones record collection and heads to London in search of a new life and a new man.  Only she meets two..Charlie, the sexy media mogul and Sam, best friend and confidante.

Everything seems perfect. Thrown into a whirlwind of glamorous parties, five-star restaurants and designer penthouses, Delilah couldn't be happier. After all it's a million miles away from her old life. And her old self.

Which is exactly what she wanted.  Isn't it?


This is what I say :

What's New, Pussycat? is quite predictable.  No prizes as to whom she ended up with. It's pretty much the standard recipe for such chic lite.

Even then, it was an enjoyable read which kept me company while I waited for the light to turn green. Yes, this is one of my 'traffic light' read.

While it is predictable and quite cliche in many ways, it was funny (especially best friend Vivienne) and if you do have time to spare and want's some laugh and cheering up, you can give this title a try.

In case you, like me, is a noob on Tom Jones and wondering about the book title, well, the title of the book is the title of a song by this singer, so there you have it...although how appropriate is it, I can't really tell.

Under The Dome by Stephen King

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Synopsis :

On an entirely normal, beautiful fall day in Chester's Mill, Maine, the town is inexplicably and suddenly sealed off from the rest of the world by an invisible force field. Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener's hand is severed as "the dome" comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when -- or if -- it will go away.

Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens -- town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician's assistant at the hospital, a select-woman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing -- even murder -- to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn't just short. It's running out.

This is what I say :

I must admit that I have seen the TV Series based on this title a few years ago.  It spanned over three seasons and in my opinion, it went downhill as the season went.  The series started off strong and was super exciting and I was engrossed in following it. However, towards the mid of season two, the story-line gets too chaotic and and the show lost it mojo.

As such, when I got myself a copy of the book not too long ago, I was actually quite apprehensive as I wasn't sure how close the story-line runs parallel to the book and how much deviation there will be.

However, since I am committed to the book, I better just give it a try and right from the start, the difference is very obvious and I realised that there's a great and huge difference between the book and the series.

While the series was rather good, the book is good too.  It's actually more intense and I would think if this book is made into a movie, and the movie stays truth to the book, it would be a rather great movie as visually, I think it would be rather awesome.

Anyway, while this is not the 'true horror' style that the King of Horror are known for, it was still terrifying intense and intensely terrifying.

Being a fan of Stephen King, I am rather glad I read Under The Dome.