Little Stories 287 : I Don't Have Anything Else Other Than Books

I was again, at the library.

Last weekend, I went there with Ms Chin, thinking that I finally show her the library where I borrowed books - but it was closed (the first Saturday of the month, a rookie mistake). So, we had brunch, spent some time at the CM, got my bracelets fixed and we just walked around window shopping. Then we went to Kino, I bought some books because I wanted something tangible and she bought books because well, she could.

4 days later, I took another ride to KL to return the books that I borrowed weeks ago and made another small promise of not borrowing anything before Raya. But, apparently, I don't follow my own rules and brought back another 3 books after the library visit :F

Books that I bought :

• Novelist As Vocation by Haruki Murakami (paperback version, I need to have a copy even though I listened to the audiobook already)
• Must I Go by Yiyun Li (beautiful cover, beautiful writing) 

Books that I borrowed:

• Gratitude by Oliver Sacks (finished reading in one sitting at a cafe after the library trip) - 4 essays from a dying man
• Please Look After Mom by Kyong Sook-Shin 
• The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

Gratitude:

I've never read any of his other books, borrowed this one because I love reading writer's essays compilations (or journals) - something true to themselves, instead of fiction. In Gratitude, he wrote 4 essays before his final day, and there is something beautiful about saying goodbye to the world:

“There will be no one like us when we are gone, but then there is no one like anyone else, ever. When people die, they cannot be replaced. They leave holes that cannot be filled, for it is the fate—the genetic and neural fate—of every human being to be a unique individual, to find his own path, to live his own life, to die his own death. I cannot pretend I am without fear. But my predominant feeling is one of gratitude. I have loved and been loved; I have been given much and I have given something in return; I have read and traveled and thought and written. I have had intercourse with the world, the special intercourse of writers and readers. Above all, I have been a sentient being, a thinking animal, on this beautiful planet, and that in itself has been an enormous privilege and adventure.” - Oliver Sacks

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Funny Not Funny Thing:

I've been fooled twice by this "company" that wanted to hire me full-time. I almost worked with them for a full year now, thinking every month that I would finally get a proper contract from them. But I didn't receive any, my salary (or "freelancer's payment) was really hard to get, and nothing was protecting me from anything because I didn't sign anything. 

I was left hoping and waiting every month, and I had to beg to get my payment. So this week, after 3 whole weeks of begging him to pay for my 2 months' salary, I decided to just be honest to my "boss" and say the real truth as I would if he were not my boss. 

The thing is, fooled once is a mistake, but if fooled twice, it is totally on me.

If misery can be visibly stacked, the tower would probably reach the Merdeka 118.

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Song of the week: