Category: books

I read a lot, yet I still buy books faster than I read them. There always have been and always will be books in my life.

Royal Magic by Ruth Chew

I like the plot of Royal Magic. Reminds me a bit of the Laotian movie The Rocket, in that there’s a society that thinks twins are bad luck.

Ruth Chew writes books that take kids on magic adventures. The only magic in Royal Magic is the fact that two kids are accidentally transported to someplace else when they go to the natural history museum in New York.

When and Why I Read Royal Magic

I was trying to figure out whether the plot involved time travel because a book blogger asked me about it.

Genre: children’s fiction (fantasy)
Date started / date finished:  22-Jan-17 to 22-Jan-17
Length: 127 pages
ISBN: 0590447424 (paperback)
Originally published in: 1991
Amazon link: Royal Magic

Wrong Way Around Magic by Ruth Chew

Ruth Chew writes books that take kids on magic adventures. In Wrong Way Around Magic, the only magic is a pair of field glasses (binoculars) that takes two kids to some place which is probably pre-modern China, though the text never really says.

When and Why I Read Wrong Way Around Magic

I was trying to figure out whether the plot involved time travel because a book blogger asked me about it.

Genre: children’s fiction (fantasy)
Date started / date finished:  22-Jan-17 to 22-Jan-17
Length: 128 pages
ISBN: 0590460234 (paperback)
Originally published in: 1993
Amazon link: Wrong Way Around Magic

 

Popular: Second-largest bookstore in Singapore?

The Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City is Singapore’s biggest bookstore, but I’d say this is the runner-up. (I hear there’s a huge Times outlet at Punggol that might be bigger… I should visit!) This is the Bras Basah branch of a Singapore retail chain which is called Popular, presumably due to the Chinese habit of naming businesses with aspirational happy adjectives for good luck.

The place wasn’t looking so popular on a Monday afternoon, though, and I only went there to look for a specific kind of 2017 calendar, which they didn’t have. (Apparently the second week of January is too late to buy a calendar/diary/planner thing if you want a good selection to pick from; luckily, I eventually found what I was looking for at NBC Stationery at Raffles City.)

Despite the square footage, this shop didn’t have what I would call an impressive selection. There’s a whole floor of “assessment books”, locally produced test preparation workbooks for preschool through university, and six walls of “favourite characters” products (movie and television tie-ins), but only one or two shelves of picture books…

Here’s a post about places to buy books in Singapore.

The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

It’s as if Kafka decided to write a book with Carl Sagan, M.C. Escher, and Edwin Abbott Abbott (author of Flatland), and set it in China: You’ve got alienation, disillusionment, despair; satellite dishes listening for alien messages and actually receiving them; complex or impossible geometry, organisms passing from life to death and back again, meditative reflections and echoes of the self; and extrapolation that gratuitously passes beyond three dimensions… all of which is set against the backdrop of the bloody Cultural Revolution and conveyed in English that sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard.

I found it hard to enjoy The Three-Body Problem because I found the book badly written on a macro level as well as a micro level and because I dislike some of the themes. It was only interesting to read because it was really weird. Specifics but no spoilers below.

Continue reading The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie

Yep, that’s the name of the famous book. It’s not actually called Peter Pan!

I saw the play at least once long ago, and the Disney movie at least once not so long ago. I was curious to read the book. When I did, several things surprised me.

  • Disney didn’t change the story much; in the book as well as the movie, Nana is a dog, for example, and many other character, setting and plot details line up surprisingly well.
  • The Lost Boys and Peter Pan actually kill pirates. Descriptions of the fights aren’t particularly graphic, but the idea of orphaned children using sharp, deadly weapons on adults—on anyone—is disturbing.
  • The narrator is rather intrusive. Sometimes the effect is humorous, but sometimes it’s just annoying. Children’s books aren’t often written this way anymore.

More on characterization of Peter, Tinker Bell, Mr. and Mrs. Darling, and Hook below.

Continue reading Peter and Wendy by J. M. Barrie

125 Ways to Make Money with Your Typewriter by David Seltz

The 126th way one can make money with one’s typewriter is, presumably: Write a book about ways one could make money with one’s typewriter.

I bought this book at a rummage sale in part because it was well made and thus physically pleasing: It’s a cloth-bound hardcover (those are rare these days); it’s in good shape for its age; the typography is charmingly old-fashioned. The book was produced in 1939.

I also bought it because I wondered whether the ideas were still relevant more than 70 years later, in an age when there are more personal computers than there ever were typewriters. What’s changed and what hasn’t? See below for examples, as well as when and why I read the book.

Continue reading 125 Ways to Make Money with Your Typewriter by David Seltz

Things that Suck by Jason Kaplan

Things that Suck is utterly charming, from the visual pun on the front cover to the sarcastic marketing text on the back cover. (A starburst on this Andrews McMeel edition, comparing itself to its self-published predecessor, claims: “We guarantee it sucks 20% more than ever!”)

The list of things that suck and the flip-book illustrations (of a mosquito that ultimately gets squashed by a tomato) are printed only the odd-numbered pages, leaving the pages on the left-hand side blank. If the list were alphabetical, it would be boring, but surprising juxtapositions give the content an entertaining ebb and flow. Some of the items are arranged in little groups; some are given in pairs of opposites; some tell a story that goes from bad to worse to terrible; some are meta (self-referential).

Whether you’re a victim of injustice or dandruff, there’s something here you can identify with, and something even worse. Far from being depressing, this book will cheer you up.

When and Why I Read Things that Suck

This is a short book that consists entirely of a mosquito-themed flipbook illustration and a list of life’s large and small annoyances. I saw it cheap at an atrium remainder sale and snapped it up.

Genre: non-fiction (humor)
Date started / date finished:  30-Dec-16 to 30-Dec-16
Length: 160 pages
ISBN: 9780740797606 (paperback)
Originally published in: 2008
Amazon link: Things that Suck

Popular atrium sale at United Square

I bought the 20 books shown above and listed below for S$2 each at a sale hosted by the United Square branch of the Singapore bookstore chain Popular. Two Singapore dollars is a tough price to beat, even for used books in the US! These books were new but remaindered or noticeably shopworn in some cases.

I think the one I was most excited about finding was China in Ten Words, which was on my Amazon wishlist. If I’d bought it new on Amazon, it would have cost what ten of these books cost me.

Windhaven by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle
I already have an old mass-market paperback but I wanted a trade paperback version.

Find Your Strongest Life by Marcus Buckingham
I wanted a trade paperback version to replace the bulky hardcover I already have.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle
I wanted this 50th anniversary edition for the cover. I have lots of different editions with different covers.

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
I have already read it, but I didn’t own a copy.

Literary Singapore by The Literary Arts Team of the National Arts Council
As a member of the Singapore Writers’ Group, I wanted to learn more about other Singapore Writers.

Things That Suck by Jason Kaplan
So funny!

10,000 Extraordinary and Puzzling Words by Robert H. Hill
When I saw the word ‘coelacanth’ on the back cover, I had to have it.

We Love Toa Payoh by Urban Sketchers Singapore
I’ve admired these sketchbooks for a while but been unwilling to fork over the full price.

H Plus by Edward de Bono
As stated previously, this guy is a master of the short-but-expensive book, so I grab cheap copies when I can.

China in Ten Words by Yu Hua
I have wanted to read this for a while!

Stylized by Mark Garvey
This is a book about that much praised and maligned touchstone of writing manuals, Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

Tiger Babies Strike Back by Kim Wong Keltner
This book is an answer to Tiger Mother Amy Chua.

A Good Talk by Daniel Menaker
This is a book on an intriguing pop-psychology self-improvement topic.

How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish
I have one of their other books.

The One Thing You Need to Know by Marcus Buckingham
This is another strengths-based management book.

The Truth about You by Marcus Buckingham
This is another strengths-based management book.

Sometimes You Win Sometimes You Learn by John C. Maxwell
Learning from mistakes is perhaps not just the best way to learn; maybe it’s really the only way to learn.

Bright Side Up by Amy Spencer
Positive psychology strikes again.

Antifragile by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
I have his other books.

Bounce by Matthew Syed
This is an attractive green hardcover about competition, success, the importance of practice, or the myth of talent. Or something. Could be a rehash of Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers but with even less science.

Six Frames by Edward de Bono

Reading Six Frames feels like reading a set of notecards. There’s a bit of text on each page, and the bits of text are arranged into chapters of related observations, but overall the content is choppy and sparse (see photos below). Since there are few pages and not much text per page, the book feels more like an essay than a book.

More below on what it’s about and photos of how sparse the text is, as well as when and why I read it.

Continue reading Six Frames by Edward de Bono

Born Liars by Ian Leslie

Some books about lying and deception say “lying is generally bad and sometimes very bad, so lie as little as possible,” and I find myself agreeing. Others, like Born Liars, say “lying is ubiquitous, natural, and inevitable, so there’s no need to feel either guilty about your lies or surprised when others lie,” and once again I find myself agreeing.

Surely I’m not just a fickle pushover? Let’s just say I’m approaching the topic of lying via the Hegelian dialectical method: thesis, antithesis, synthesis. Some lies are harmful and should be avoided, while other lies should be considered normal or even healthy, and it’s important to know what strategy to use in various contexts. Ta-da!

For many facts and ideas that stood out as well as information on when and why I read the book, see below.

Continue reading Born Liars by Ian Leslie