:( I wish I Could:

This post is not-so related to books but I've got to write it out anyway...Just to let out how I feel about my reading lately. I can't say it is non-existent as I read everyday. I read work-related stuff. New site. New role. New set of responsibilities and I was extremely clueless so that is when reading comes in.

Reading techy stuff can be quite confusing especially when your head is not with it eventhough your heart knows you have to read it in order to get things done. Gosh! Now I'm starting to sound like a student. LOL!

Anyway, what I'm pretty upset with is....I don't seem to have enough time to read what I'm currently reading. :( Why?

1. I reach home pretty late everyday and the only thing I could do before I sleep is eat my dinner, clean up myself and hit the sack. No time for a single paragraph in a book.

2. I have to get up early...no I do not sleep more than 5 hours per day. :/ If I do, I'd end up being late to work. Thanks to the jam.

3. I can't laze on my bed with a book. Why? No time.O.K. This line sounds like a working adult. *phew!*LOL.

4. Weekends? I foresee that I will work more over the weekends in the next future. Hihi. :) Happy coz I get to work Not too happy coz I might have some personal stuff I wanna get done...and IF I do have my weekends, there'll be lots going on.

What do I do now to satisfy my hunger for reading? Read a lil while having dinner! LOL Progress might be slow but I still get to read. The lust for books can always be satisfied anytime! Why? I can shop online IF I'm so desperate for a new one but as of now, I only see one book purchase this month. (Hint : Remember Daruma? ;) ) Plus, I still have lotsa books on my bookshelves piling up waiting for me to read them.

So...as you can see, there is only 1 or 2 updates on my blog lately. No worries. I will continue blogging and talking more and more about book-related stuff you might miss out. ;) Reviews? It will come in right after I'm done with the book I'm reading.

If you happen to have tips on how I could squeeze in reading in my daily routine, do inform. Do not suggest me to read on the road, I'll get headaches. :(

Note : I will continue reading no matter what! Nobody and nothing could ever stop my love for reading and lust for books! =p As for the techy stuff I'm supposed to read, I hope I can release some brain cells for it to reside in. Hahaha! Oh! I soooooo can't wait for the next Sophie Kinsella book!!!!! =)

Another eBook source ;)

Bumped into this one some time ago.

It is called Sribd. It is where users who are writers upload their papers, articles, books and etc. Everyone is allowed to download. You'll never what you can find here. This morning I made a search with the keyword : siebel server manager and found a site which redirected me to an article on Siebel Server Architecture.


Here's a sneak peak of what the screen looks like.



Above is a preview of an article shared by one of the users. It allows you to download the article as well and you are given options in which format you'd like your copy to be; .doc, .pdf or .txt.

Pretty kewl, eh? ;)

Registration is free too. :) I tried searching for Sophie Kinsella's book and return is positive! Someone shared her book; Remember Me. hihihi

Enjoy searching and reading!
And if you're a writer, do upload and share your writings. :)

Times and BookXcess SALES!!!

Here are some details about the SALES!

BOOKXCESS ( 18th ot 26th April 2009 )
Offer : Up to 20% discount, FREE 1 book for any purchase above RM20 and above and RM20 voucher fpr purchases above RM200
Venue : Amcorp Mall
URL : www.bookxcess.com
Note : For those who has never heard of this bookstore, click here to read more about it.

TIMES WAREHOUSE BOOK CLEARANCE ( 30th April to 10th May 2009 )
Offer : Discounts up tp 90%, RM3 for 10 and RM1 on daily specials
Venue : USJ19, Digital Mall. PJ.
URL : www.timesbookstore.com.my

Both sales can be found on ShoppingnSales blog;
BookXcess World Book Day Promo
Times Warehouse Book Clearance

Enjoy shopping!

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window by Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Title

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Author

Tetsuko Kuroyanagi

Translator

Dorothy Kuroyanagi

Publisher

Kinokjuniya

Price

RM32.72

Rating

5/5

The name Totto-chan sounds funny to you? It sounds cute to me. =)

What's the book about? The book is written by the writer based on her own childhood experience particularly during her time in her elementary school; Tomoe. The story start off when Totto-chan was expelled from her school at the age 7. Why? Well, her teachers found her very disturbing as she was very curious. Her curiosity distrcted others in the class from paying attention. You may ask how can a 7-year-old be expelled from school and how hard can it be to get her under control. Well, there are 2 things she did that I remember clearly from the page where it was described til I finished reading the book; She was very excited about her school desk as it has an opening on top and she can keep her things in the desk and the part where she stood by the window of her classroom and call up for the musicians to play some songs. Her actions distracted the classroom and teacher didn't know how to handle her that they all decided to expel her. That is where Tomoe comes in.

It isn't an ordinary school. Mr. Kobayashi the headmaster of the school sees early childhood education differently and his has a deep passion for children. How is his school different? Classrooms were not in buildinds but in abandoned trains he brought into the school compound. Children were allowed to sit where they like in the class. Moreover, the children were given freedom when they'd like to finish doing which tasks of the day. They were taught to adapt to the world indirectly through their own kiddy-ways.

My favourite chapter of the book has got to be The Library Car where the headmaster brought in another train into the school compound to be used as the school library. :) Must be a lovely sight. *Awwwww* The chapter A Trip to a Hot Spring made me feel like joining her and her friends. Hihi In this chapter, Toi Spa was mentioned; hot spring in the sea. Here are some lines from the book which described the hot spring.

"The hot spring in the sea was unusual. It was not enclosed so there was no line to set off the hot spring from the rest of the sea. If you crouched down where you were told was the hot spring, the hot water came up to your neck and it felt lovely, just like being in a hot bath, If you wanted to go into the sea from the hot spring, all you had to do was move about fifteen feet sideways and the water gradually gets cooler. The further you went, the colder it got and you knew you were in the sea. so, after you had been swimming about in the sea and began to feel cold, all you had to do was hurry back to the hot spring..."

This book is suitable for all. Main focus on the book is Totto-chan's innocence and her curiosity. She is very lucky to have had an extraordinary childhood memories. Well, we were all kids some time ago and I believe we've got our own stories too. The underlying message in this story is how children's education should be as in how children should be nurtured in their own ways. Well, hard to achieve that these days. =/

I could go on and on about this book. The sentence construction and choice of words can be a bit off but the little girl in the book is cute! And it is not her fault the book turned out that way. It was translated from Japanese to English.

p/s: Could have finished reading this book many weeks ago if it wasn't because of too many distractions. :( It's been awhile since I last got to write a review but here it is!

He's Just NOT That Into You

I've not read the book and I know I won't. Thanks to the movie.

I don't know how many percent of the book is adapted into the movie but I assume the main idea is the same(like any other movies based on novels and books). The characters? I don't even want to go there.

Anyway, before you continue reading...This post will be mainly about the movie and I just have to put it here; in my book blog because it is based on a self-improvement book titled; He's Just Not That Into You. This book was published in 2004 written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo.

A few friends on mine watched this movie already and they said it is nice and told me I should watch it too so I went. Watched it last weekend with my boyfriend and the movie sort of made us feel uneasy.

Here's what we saw in the movie.

It is full of psychos. SERIOUSLY.

a. Gigi is sooo desperate to hook up with somebody. She is always thinking if a guy would call her back or if she should call him back. She couldn't stop checking her voice mail and everytime her mother calls her, she would tell that she would call her mother back and of coz she didn't because she was soooo afraid she's gonna miss the guy's call (whoever the guy she went out with). All she talks about with her colleagues are her theories on why a guy doesn't call her back and etc. There is also one part where she misread mixed signals sent by a guy and threw herself on him. *siiggghh*

b. Beth loves her boyfriend sooo much and has been with him for a very long time but doesn't see herself getting married. Why? Well, she'd love to get married but her boyfriend doesn't believe in marriage. He kept stressing that they can be happy even without getting married and that they do not have anything to prove to everyone else to tell they are happy. She has been in the relationship for years and swallowed the fact that she may not be married at all. Her friends has quite a hard time talking about marriage in front of her. Her bf's role in the movie is very disturbing to me. Don't believe in marriage....so where does the relationship go to?*haihhh* Beth eventually broke up with her boyfriend as she could not take it anymore. They ended up being together again in the end and guess what? This is one of the 2 happy endings in this movie; her boyfriend who does not believe in marriage finally proposed and I like the way he proposed. Hahaha Think I'd shed happy tears if it happened to me. Hahaha

c. Janine is paranoid about smokers; her father died of cancer. Her husband admitted that he slept with another girl. She wasn't so pleased but she kept him until she found out that her husband smokes. She got furious when she found a box of cigarettes in her bedroom in between the folds of her husband's clothes one day. Well, the idea was that she wasn't so mad about her husband sleeping with another woman because he admitted but she was super mad because her husband lied to her about the smoking part. Hmmmppphhh If you ask me, I'd say...Yes.I'll be mad if I found out he smokes. I'd die if i found out he slept with another woman. He smokes; he dies. He sleeps with someone else; I die. Either way, both is not good. :/ Anyway, Janine and her husband doesn't have sex life. Don't know what is up with her husband. This couple also reveals how guys can lie. Very disturbing too. :(

d. Another girl, Anna. Singer in-the-making. Well, she is the woman Janine's husband slept with. She knows the guy she is sleeping with is married and I guess she loves knowing she is wanted and that guy is willing to give his marriage up until one day the guy got busted. Too bad for the guy. Both women doens't want him. HAHA. So guys, you might end up having the same fate if you cheat! Anyway, back to Anna. When she ditched the unfaithful husband she slept with, she went back to her so-called comfort friend named Ben if I'm not mistaken. She doesn't want anything to do with Ben but she would always lean on him when she needs comfort. Don't know what's her problem. Ben read it wrongly and asked her if she'd like to move in with him in the near future because if she would, he would like to buy a house he is about to sell; Ben is in the real-estate thingy.

e. Mary is almost like Gigi just that she doesn't really throw herself at guys she met. She wouldn't stop wondering if a guy would call her when he says he would.

f. Alex....he seems to be falling for Gigi but he doesnt' realize it. He keeps giving advices about guys to Gigi but he himself doesn't realize he is moving into "that" direction with her. Pretty blind to me. See girls, guys can be nice but that doesn't mean he's into you. =p Anyway, this is the other happy ending. Alex and Gigi hooked up.

There u have it!

After what I've seen, I'm not interested to read the book. =p Sowie.
The movie is pretty disturbing.

You may wonder why I'm talking about a movie in my book blog. This movie is based on a book. Usually, the book is better than the movie (minus Benjamin Button). Some stories are meant to be watched, some others meant to be read but this one...it doesn't appeal to me at all.

p/s: I started this post many many days ago when the movie was still fresh and the disturbing feeling was pretty strong but I didn't manage to complete it til tonite.

BooksterHub

Remember BooksterHub on Facebook?

If you don't feel free to navigate to my previous post HERE.

Here's a lil update.

BooksterHub has officially lauch their website.

You can register yourself at http://www.booksterhub.com/

New members will get a free ebook titled "Change Your Mind Change Your Life".

Latest news?

The founder Vincent Cheng managed to get a deal with MPH and now MPH chief Operating Officer will be meeting him to discuss a collaoration which goes beyond RM200 vouchers monthly sponsorship. Juicy eh?

What BooksterHub needs?

Well, its main intention is gather readers and discuss about books and of coz moooorreee books.

So it needs more readers into the hub. Ez-pz. Currently, the founder is offering RM10 book voucher for every 30th person who registers. Contest is on until end of this month. Winners will be accounced on the 1st of May 2009.

If you have any other suggestions or ideas what BooksterHub should have, feel free to share. The group will truly appreciate it!

Times Bookstore and income tax

Sure we all know we can get RM1000 tax excemption on book purchases.
We know we've spent certain amount of money on books but where are the receipts???
RM1000 is quite a big amount of money...RM1000 tax relief will do great difference to alot of people...as long as they know where the receipts are. =p


Times Bookstore has gone to great extent to help their customers particularly its members with the income tax; they sent a receipt which contains the purchases made throughout the year..and with dates and titles too!


Check the pic below!




AWESOME!


Another reason to be a member.

Not a member yet? What are you waiting for? =p

p/s: If only this is also applicable for clothes and shoes purchases...oh..and perfumes and accessories and jewelleries and ...... *sighhh* Yeah...I'm talking 'bout the tax relief thingy. Btw, could they increase it to RM2000 for books?hihihi