Doodle : Bookaholic 2

This is the continuation from this illustration on a girl reading a book, not quite sure how to avoid auto-compression on the downloaded image but these are what I manage to upload here :

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I just finished reading Steppenwolf the day before yesterday while waiting for AF to get his passport ready. It wasn't as great as Siddartha, a bit confusing at times due to the classic writings. 

This is another one excerpt I found that I personally like :

“Every age, every culture, every custom and tradition has its own character, its own weakness and its own strength, it beauties and ugliness; accepts certain sufferings as matters of course, puts up patiently with certain evils. Human life is reduced to real suffering, to hell, only when two ages, two cultures and religions overlap... Now there are times when a whole generation is caught in this way between two ages, two modes of life, with the consequence that it loses all power to understand itself and has no standard, no security, no simple acquiescence. Naturally, every one does not feel this equally strongly.”

This was written in 1927, you can't help to agree to this excerpt, right?

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Another great inspiration I got while watching one of a TedTalk last week :

Reading and writing are the 2 sides of a coin.
If you don't read, you can't really write.
- David Ray

Most of the great writers I adore and look up to read voraciously. 

So if you love the art of writing and want to improve your skill, please try to read books as much as you can. 

It is the best advice anyone can give other than "you need to start writing". 

Little Things 122 : Books & Reading

I am currently reading Steve Jobs's biography, the one my colleague brought for the promised book exchange. I took two weeks to start reading it because of the size and thickness *imagine I have to bring it to and fro everyday. This would be my third biography. 

As I get older I realized that I'm getting fussier in choosing books. It might be because of the time limitation and I avoid reading something time-consuming and bad. Or it might be because of the amount of books I've read sums up the experience so I don't want to read the same thing/story - I want a new feeling each time. It's getting challenging to keep feeling refreshed and interested in finishing one book nowadays.

So this year I've tried poems, classics and biographies. I also bought several magazines and promised myself that I'll read word-by-word in the articles instead of looking at all those distracting images. I'll also probably read award-winning books and some motivational/spiritual books - if I could find good ones. 

I secretly bought graphic novels online and keep saying I'm not buying any new books. Ha. 

2nd realization : I don't buy anything else for myself other than books. No new clothes or shoes or bags or anything - at all. This is even after almost 4 months working with TRP and I'm way ahead passing the era of cheese biscuits + twiggies for lunch. 

Even with enough money, I'm spending it with buying more books. When I was 15 I once asked myself that with the amount of books I was reading *at that time* will I ever be bored with reading? And 12 years later, I'm asking myself almost the same thing again, with the amount of books I can buy and read, will I ever be bored with reading ?

How to Set Up Reading Challenge ?

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Hello !

I've been using Goodreads for a couple of years. By far, it is the largest social media related with reading tracking website I know. It is widely known, linked to facebook and twitter, has easy-to-use mobile application on iPhone and Android. 

Features that I like :

You can find a wide ranges of book database. I even found Fadhli's Conteng-conteng book listed in there. 

You can view huge list of quotations and can share it with your friends.

Some authors even have their own fan page, and I followed some like Paulo Coelho.

You can keep track of all your books.

You can read book reviews, or forums.

You can set up a reading challenge.

This is the easiest way to set up a reading challenge :

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Being a fulltime worker, I found myself struggling to find extra time to read. So I choose specific time to do my reading : on my way to work. Usually I will take around 1 and a 1/2 hour to arrive to work. That is by far around 100 pages on average. 

For readers out there :

• Set up an accout on goodreads.
• Make your achievable reading goal.
• Find specific time to read daily.
• Read.
• Keep track !

Good luck! :D

Little Things 31 : Reading Riders

I commute to work by walking, riding bus, trains and taxi everyday. I watch faces half asleep, faces boringly playing their phones, faces wondering idly while listening to music through their earphone, sometimes quite rare, I see people reading actual physical book. My eyes will automatically linger to the book cover just to know what they are reading. 

By far, I've managed to finish off reading 3 books while on my way to work and home. Sometimes I got so immersed in a book I didn't feel the time passes in the 1 hour journey. 

So, I am so excited to see this ! A photography project by Ourit on reading riders in New York subways. To see so many people, from wide range of ages, colours and ethnics reading various books instead of doing nothing.

Do you want to be a reading-riders? Let's read to work, while waiting for the trains and buses, while queuing up, while eating lunches alone or while having a 15-minutes break. Make use of the time. Stop playing with your smartphones that aren't making you any smarter * HUGE self-note. 

I have quite a lot of good books, so if you want to borrow any books, just send me an email requesting a book, if I happen to have the book or own similar genres, maybe we can sayhellogoodbyes at the train stations, exchanging books! 

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Read, let your soul read.

Reading Session.

This weekend will be my reading weekend! I'll finish off the current book I'm reading and I'll start a new one. Since I've been occupied with events preparation, I have no extra time to do anything else. And I miss my reading session. 

❤