2016 Reading Challenge

I set myself a challenge last year – to read 2 books a month.  I may not have strictly follow that rule but I’m happy I exceeded my own expectations.  I ended up reading 28 books in 2016.  I’ve decided to continue this challenge in 2017.  🙂

Discovering our local public library

Dav and I are quite an avid reader.  We always have some form of reader with us when we’re commuting to work or going on holiday.  We have collected quite a lot of physical books over the years and that slowly transform into digital books when Kindle was introduced.  I’m even on my second Kindle (due to an accident – screen cracked).

So needless to say we spent quite a lot of money on this hobby.  When a friend told us about her frequent visits to the local library I thought it was quite an interesting thing to do especially if it helps reduced our monthly expenses.  But at that time, our local library was quite a distance away so we never did make it.

Now after moving to the current place we discovered the local library is only 5 mins walk away.  So last weekend we decided to check it out and we were quite surprised by the services available.

So besides the usual borrowing of books, they also provide the following:

• audio books
• e-books
• music CDs
• DVDs
• children’s library
• computers for public use with internet access
• free WiFi
• newspapers and magazines
• IT tuition
• adult reading group
• children’s reading group
• faxing and photocopying
• printing and scanning
• reference room

I was so excited, we ended up borrowing 2 DVDs (minimal cost and fairly new titles too!) and a few books.  I definitely want to try to borrow books rather than buying ebooks.

Fifty Shades of Grey

I’ve heard and read a lot of review about this trilogy of erotic fiction. I even saw a spoof reading of the novel by Ellen DeGeneres. It was quite funny. There were mix reviews about the books, so I was hesitant to buy it. In the end, I succumbed and bought the first volume of the trilogy.

I ended up reading all 3 books within 6 days! It was quite engaging and surprised in the turn of the stories. It is not lame like a typical erotic fictions.

Will I recommend it? Possibly if there’s nothing else to read. 🙂

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography

I was surprised when I saw there was a biography for Steve Jobs after he passed away, put together by interviewing him, his family, his friends and even his competitors over a period of 3 years. So I downloaded a sample copy on my iPad, wanted to see if it’s a good read. Reviews for the book was not really that good. Most critic said all his famous quotes and speeches are available online (websites, youtube, etc) so why need to pay more to read it again. I disagree.

Without giving away too much, I would like to share my views about the book.

FIrst thing that caught my attention is the fact that Steve wanted the author to write a biography about him when he first got cancer. Everyone knows that Steve is quite a private person. Therefore to ask someone to write about him means he knew that life will end for him, this may be the only way to preserve his life story.

Secondly, the author was not bias by only complimenting Steve in the book. I would say he describe his best and worse behaviours whether being a boyfriend, a boss, a friend or a father.

I would definitely say this book brings a lot of insight into his great life. One to read if you’re a gadget freak like me.

Loving my Amazon Kindle

The title says it all. I have not been able to put it down since I received it in Dec.

So far I’ve read the following 3 books:

1. Conspiracy in Kiev – Not a very good crime/ thriller book. It’s a trilogy. Do not intend to read the second book.
2. Hush, Hush – Trying to cash in on the current vampire stories (whether its movie or books), it’s a nice read overall.
3. Postmortem – An old classic by Patricia Cronwell. Definitely a good read!

I am currently reading, Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup. The same author that wrote Slumdog Millionaire.

Book review: Millenium Trilogy

I have finally finished reading the Millenium Trilogy !!

The books were written by a Swedish author Stieg Larsson, who died after submitting the novels to his publisher.

I first heard about this author from my French colleague. She keeps telling me that the book is really good. At that time she was reading the French version. Then when we shopped for books to bring with us on our Trans-Siberian trip, I decided to read the first book. Since then I havent been able to put down the book until this morning at 0330 I finished the third book. It got too exciting until I cant resists to put it down and go to sleep.

All 3 books have now been made into 3 movies but in Swedish. My next task will be to look for the movie with English subtitle so I can watch and understand the movie.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone! Read it and let me know what you think…

p/s: I regret buying Dan Brown’s Lost Symbol. His book is no where as exciting as the Millenium Trilogy.

Secret London – An Unusual Guide

We saw this book in the bookstore last Sunday.. immediately we were smitten by it. It has over 400 obscure, overlooked or plain odd sights or experiences we can visit in London. It is even listed by areas for easy planning.

It will be fun exploring London and also we can bring visitors to unusual places. I’m sure it is quite boring to bring ur friends to the standard tourist attractions like Tower of London (although I’ve never been to this one), London Eye, St Pauls, etc etc etc. I know these are the icon of London but there’s always more to London than these sights.

Also I dont really wanna leave London one day and not having to explore the city to its fullest!

Who wanna join us in our next London discover?

Recommended Book

This book was recommended to me by Amir. It is a very good read. Far more interesting than Thomas Friedman’s ‘The World is Flat’ (Friedman’s book was so boring I didnt even finish it!)

Outliers means “an extreme deviation from the mean”. The author examines the factors that contribute to high levels of success. It talks a lot about how even though success are achieved through hard work (lots of hard work), a big part is also gained through luck and opportunity. He argues that genius is not the only or even the most important thing when determining a person’s success.

If you’re looking for the next book to read, I would highly recommend this book.

Magazine, magazine and more magazine

Every month we get a lot of magazines….

• Time Magazine – New issue arrives every fortnight. Sometimes there’s 2 mags in one issue!!
• Glamour – This mag provides me with the monthly latest gossips and fashion style. Not that I get anything from this mag. Just nice to read them and not have to think sometimes… hahahaha
• CPA Australia – This one is quite boring. The subscription came together with the professional fees which I have to pay yearly to maintain my CPA status.
• COBIT Journal – This one is also boring but it is more relevant for my work. It is all about IT Audit and Controls. Help to keep me updated on the latest industry news.

So at the moment we have 6 brand new magazines on the table patiently waiting for one of us to pick them up for a read…..

Besides the magazine, there’s also the free newspaper. It’s quite odd. In London they like to give away free newspaper, like The Sun back home. And they always stand outside the tube station to hand them out. So on the way to work you can read ‘The Metro’ and on the way home, you can choose between ‘London Lite’, ‘The Metro’ or ‘The London Paper’. There’s also the ‘City A.M’ which is a business newspaper while the rest is tabloid paper.

No need to buy any goss magazine as you can get them for free most of the time!

More books please….!

We bought a few more books to add to our collection. A few more is an understatement I think… hehehehe. We got 3 lonely planets and 1 cookbook and 1 restaurant and drinking guide.

This one is to prepare us for the many many European holidays we’re gonna take while we’re living in London. If you don’t already know, Dav is a fan of staying in hostel and walking… thus the ‘shoestring’ guide… 🙂

It has always been our dream to visit Greece. So we got this book to plan for it. But it hasnt arrived yet. We’re waiting for the new edition.

This came free with the purchase of the above 2 lonely planets. This one has the best places to visit in 2008. Surprisingly it has quite a few Malaysian locations.

This book is called ‘Delia’s How To Cheat at Cooking’. The author apparently is quite a famous tv chefs and her book was highly anticipated in UK. Since it was half price, I thought why not get it. From browsing through the pages, it seems like it’s quite easy to follow and to get the ingredients. One of the issues I have with Jamie Oliver’s cookbook was on getting the ingredients. This one will be quite easy cos she actually put down the brand and from where to get it!

This is quite self explanatory. Hopefully we can check out these restaurants with a few friends.