Elizabeth Tai

Digital Content Specialist and freelance writer, editor and proofreader based in Adelaide

Oct
9

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Book addiction

Category: Life in Australia Tags: , , , 1 Comment

I always tell myself to borrow less books from the library. And I fail miserably each time.

If there’s one reason for me to migrate to Australia, it would be the lovely, lovely, love (x10) libraries. It is wonderland for book lovers. Crack for book addicts. Paradise for Movie lovers. Haven for magazine readers. I can go on.

When I was told by the librarian at Burnside library (which is really near my home, which is another reason why I heart my neighbourhood so much) that I could borrow 50 books or magazines and 10 DVDs at once, I laughed.

“Who the hell could read that much? Who in the world would borrow that much, anyway?”

Cough.

Apparently, me.

Last Saturday, a librarian at Burnside said to me that I should return some books because – read this – the computer couldn’t print a borrowing receipt (which tells you when to return a book) that long!

I was (cough) kinda embarrassed, especially when a friend said that by borrowing so many books I was depriving people from reading them. Yes, I feel like a chastened school child, so I dutifully did a marathon reading session on Saturday and returned nearly 15 books. (They were mostly manga! I’m no genius speed reader :P )

This time, I managed to curb my borrowing this time and borrowed only … 5 books. Hey, it’s a feat for me, okay?

Feb
21

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Review: We Know by Gregg Hurwitz

Category: Book Reviews Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

Years after a traumatic event uprooted Nick Horrigan from his comfortable life when he was 18, Nick thinks that he finally has a handle on his life. He has put his past behind him and now has a stable job in Los Angeles. As far as he knows, nothing extraordinary will ever happen to him again.

Then a SWAT team explodes into his apartment, whisks him away in a Black Hawk and tells him that a terrorist is demanding for his presence.

Thoughts: We Know‘s premise called me like a siren; I like stories about folks with a tragic/shady past, and I sure wanted to know what in the world happened to Nick when he was 18.

But a few chapters in and I began to have my doubts about the book.

My biggest stumbling block in liking this book? It’s illogical and the characters can be downright silly in their actions.

To echo Nick – why couldn’t the SWAT team have knocked on his door instead of barging into his apartment, all commando style, and dragging him into a Black Hawk like he was a covert agent for Al Qaeda? And seriously, a Black Hawk hovering above a Los Angeles suburb? Way to be discreet, dudes.

And then you these super agents worrying about this terrorist who’s threatening to blow up a nuclear plant. They explain to Nick why it’s important not to have a bomb blow up in the nuclear reactor’s spent-fuel pool where the terrorist is only to … (spoiler!) get rid of the terrorist with a bomb? Hello, what if the terrorist threw the cell phone into spent fuel pool, which – if it blew up, apparently – will render LA uninhabitable for 500,000 years? (Though, having written an article on nuclear energy once, I think some nuclear scientists would have some issues with this. For one, it is not that easy for one unarmed(!) terrorist to get into the spent fuel pool!)

It doesn’t bode well for a book when you start to doubt the realism of the story just two chapters in. And when I finally found out what happened to Nick 18 years ago, I could only shake my head in disbelief. Nick must’ve been seriously naive when he was 18 to do what he did.

I just couldn’t read on after that. Though for the sake of completion, I flipped to the end to see who did the nasty deed. I wasn’t surprised at the revelation at all.

So, should you read it? To give Hurwitz some credit, it is a page turner and he writes reasonably well. If you could overlook its logic flaws you could get some entertainment out of it.

I say just borrow it from a library or a friend.

Dec
29

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The inconvenience of books

Category: Personally... Tags: , , , Leave a Comment

That’s what I was thinking when I was reorganising my 600-book library yesterday, and this New York Times article seem to echo my thoughts: Books You Can Live Without. 

People — some authors, some not — were asked how they would go about spring cleaning their libraries. Some admit that a lot of the books they have could go, but they’re there because “I like the idea of it being on my shelf.” How true. I get a little thrill and my pride flares up when my guests freeze in my library and exhale in amazement: “Oh my God, that’s a lot of books.”

But I’ve come to the cold, practical conclusion that “less is indeed more”:

1. My library is my favourite part of my home, but making it look presentable is a bitch. For months now, books lived on the floor in half-torn paper bags — my futile attempt to organise my books into “to donate” and “to sell” stacks. With my sister coming back from the States soon, I thought I’d better do something before she comes home and thinks I’ve been living in a pig sty. My best friend told me once that looking at my library is like looking into the eye of chaos. I agree — with books spilling out and shelved without much of a system, I have a migraine just looking at it.

To start my arduous task, I had to draw a chart to segregate my books into “have not read” and “have read but will read again” and “will never read again”.

Shifting around a few hundred books is a good workout though, but it’s been two days, and I’m still not even half way done! I think I need a month to do this right.

2. What do you do with  books you no longer want to read again? Speaking of books I will never read again — why did I buy them in the first place?

If I asked myself some really tough questions, like “Would I read this book again?”, 3/4 of my collection would’ve either been donated or sold. But the problem with being in Malaysia is that it’s extremely difficult to sell your books. Most Malaysians are just blardy stingy.

I once nearly choked when someone demanded that I sell her my brand-new, donkey-ear-less Jodi Picoult novel for Rm5. And I already priced the book at a steal: RM10.

But if you want to sell your novels briskly in the Malaysian 2nd hand market, be prepared to sell your books for a song. Some 2nd hand bookstores even buy your books by weight! I once sold about 5kg of books for … RM10! Heartache!

3. Oy, the dust. When books get old, they get moldy, dusty and smell funny. I’m allergic to dust, so I’d be sneezing my head off when I read my old books. As a result, I have to sell many of my too-old books because I literally can’t stand them anymore. And I’ve not even mentioned the creepy bugs in them.

I may soon take the cruel step of selling or donating off 3/4 of my library and turn to the sterile but dust-free world of eBooks.

I forsee a future where my library would just be two simple shelves containing well-preserved hardcover books I worship (James Herriott’s books, World War Z!) and read again and again, while an ever-shifting presence of rented or borrowed books will occupy some of my shelves.

And I’d be reading most of my difficult-to-obtain books from my Sony eBook reader. More on that later. :)

Nov
26

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Big Bad Wolf sale: A joy and an utter nightmare

Category: Personally... Tags: , , , , 6 Comments

I get it. If you want cheap books, you have to sacrifice some creature comforts.

Being a veteran of book warehouse sales, I have browsed happily in some stiflingly-hot warehouses and put up with itchy sinuses as the dust that coated the books float around the premises. But the Big Bad Wolf has not just tested my patience but have totally obliterated it.

I can tell you that the Big Bad Wolf sale is, hands down, the absolute worst book warehouse sale I’ve ever had to experience in my 33 years on planet Earth.

The products on offer are not the problem. In fact, they are 110% awesome in selection and price. Lots of variety, great fantasy and sci-fi collection.

I bought John Katz’s Dog Days – hard cover – for a lovely RM8. Found a Jared Diamond non-fiction book for the same price.

The problem is that the organisation of the entire event is utterly fucked up, pardon my French.

For reasons I do not understand, someone thought it prudent to sell 200,000 books in a tiny space – equievelant to two shop lots. A security guard had to be posted at the entrance to prevent people from getting in.

Seriously, if a sale had to prevent customers from coming in, something is seriously wrong.

It took me half an hour to get in, and about a bloody hour to pay for my 15 books. The payment counter lines were so haphazard; it snaked around the venue, preventing people from browsing properly and confusing the frak out of people. (“What is this line for?”; “Is this the payment queueu?”) I once had to requeue because the line disappeared suddenly and I went to the wrong line – it was a line of people exiting from the venue. I was so furious that I had a mini meltdown there and then, tossing my box of books to the floor in utter fury because I had to re-line up after doing so for 20 minutes. I’ve never been so mad in my life during a sale!

I quake for those who will be attending the sale tomorrow and during the weekend. If it’s insane on a working day, it’ll be cataclysmic then.

But if you want to brave it anyway, here are some tips:

  1. It’s going to be near impossible to find parking as Amcorp mall doesn’t have much parking spaces available. If possible, park your car an LRT station away and take the LRT to Amcorp mall.
  2. Bring a basket with wheels trolley, because you’re gonna need it – your shoulders and arms will thank you.
  3. Get ready to queue for a long time. You can work as a team – someone to line up, and someone to choose the books. You can save time that way. Yes, it is that insane.

Someone at the sale said that I shouldn’t complain because the books are so cheap. I totally didn’t complain about the Penguin warehouse sale’s stuffy heat, because I know for bargain books, you shouldn’t expect a foot massage.

But you have customers leaving without getting books because they were so frustrated with the long lines and the difficulty in browsing for books. Isn’t this counterproductive for the booksellers? Shouldn’t they have an environment which encourages people to buy more books instead of the other way round? A bookshop owner told me that many frustrated BBW customers came to her store saying that they’d rather get books from her than go through the crazy queueus at the sale. I suppose, ironically, the BBW sale is increasing sales for the other bookstores in the building!

The Big Bad Wolf sale is being held at Amcorp Mall, Petaling Jaya, 10am to 9pm, until Dec 2.

Good luck, my friends. You’re brave for going.

Other reviews at The Ranting Cynic and Shopping and Sales Queen.

Oct
1

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Pearson & Penguin Warehouse Sale 2009

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penguin warehouse sale

Ah. Nothing like a book warehouse sale to make you feel happy and sad at the same time. Happy that you have new, cheap books in your hands and sad (rather, devastated) that your bank balance has been severely dented as a result. Details:

Preview sales: 1st October 2009
Date: 2nd – 11th October 2009
Time: 10am – 7pm
Venue: Pearson Malaysia Sdn Bhd, Lot 2 Jalan 215, Off Jalan Templer 46050 Petaling Jaya.

This time the warehouse sale has lots and lots of paperbacks! If you’re a lover of mystery books and popular titles such as The Kite Runner, The Wolf Totem, Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks, and other best sellers you’ll be in for a good time. Especially since most of the books are priced between RM10 and RM15.

Lots of Clive Cussler books for some reason. And being a Jeff Abbott fan I was glad to find a number of his bestselling thriller mysteries for RM10 each. The fantasy books are scattered everywhere, but was glad to complete some of my fantasy collections that were left hanging without the final volume. (Don’t you hate that most fantasy books come in Vol.1,2,3s?) Saw mostly Terry Brooks, Tad Williams stuff. Saw a Dragonlance Omnibus and a smattering of Neil Gaimans.

The non-fiction selection isn’t as extensive as before, which was fortunate for my wallet.

All in all a super, super warehouse sale. Though, probably, not as awe-tastic as the Big Bad Wolf  sale, which I woefully did not get to attend as I was in the United States.

Jul
22

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Book loot from Amcorp Mall

Category: Personally... Tags: 2 Comments

booksAmcorp Mall is starting to become really dangerous for poor little me.

It’s filled with stores that book lovers like me would find hard to resist … like those stores which sell imported magazines at around RM9 each, rent-a-book nook My Book Place and BookXcess.

Was happy as a bee in a bonnet for obtaining Whitley Strieber’s 2012 (for research purposes – I worry about its UFO premise though), Into the Darkness (about 7/7 tube bombings in London), Jon Katz’s A Dog Year and Steven Erikson’s hard-to-find-but-I’m-not-sure-whether-I’ll-like-it Gardens of the Moon – all for RM17.90 each.

My Book Place has a decent collection of books from many genres, and I was happy to find some books of the “literary” persuasion – because a lot of times I’m extremely reluctant to spend RM50 on books that I may end up hating (I more often than not find them tedious). There are quite a number of unique books there that you can’t find in the stores.

I borrowed The Book Thief (because Death was the narrator) and The Scandal of the Season because it reminded me of the Scarlet Pimpernel!

I do share the owner of My Book Place’s sentiments that “foreign” literary fiction seem to have more spark, and I realised that I find literary novels from other countries besides Western ones more fascinating because you discover so much more about another country, its peoples and culture in the process.

My only problem after this sojourn to Amcorp is where I’m going to find the time to read all these books!