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.
When I read Airframe, what struck me most, apart from the author’s finely honed ability to build and sustain tension, was how outdated 90s communication technology seemed. Beepers, CD players, video recorders that use tape, faxes, landline telephones, television screens that aren’t flat… and what the heck is a telex, anyway?
More thoughts on this un-put-down-able techno-thriller below.
My husband Aquinas brought back this set of learning materials for me from Malta, where he went for a conference.
It’s not that I have any serious intention of studying the language, it’s that I collect language-learning materials. I suspect the fact that Maltese is written using the Latin script would make it easier than other Semitic languages for an English speaker to learn, though.
Semitic? As in, related to Hebrew? Yep! Maltese is not just a popular breed of dog or an infamous falcon statuette, it’s an amazing hybrid of Arabic and Italian, two languages which, frankly, I didn’t know had a non-empty intersection.
I have mixed feelings about Travels, Michael Crichton’s collection of autobiographical anecdotes.
On the one hand, Crichton is an intelligent, educated and interesting person with stories to tell that are exotic and absorbing, and he’s a good storyteller. On the other hand, a third of the material is about his rocky medical career, and another third of it relates to paranormal stuff, and in a couple of the non-medical, non-paranormal chapters, Crichton relates some nearly lethal experiences of the kind that involve water and thus cause me disproportionate anxiety.
In short, I like how he writes, but I didn’t like much of what he wrote about in this book.
For more on what stood out for me as well as more on Crichton’s oddly unscientific treatment of paranormal phenomena, see below.
Edward Tufte was a byword among the publishing professionals I worked with in 2004–2008. If you had anything whatsoever to do with the design or illustration of serious books, you had at least one of his four giant tomes on your shelf, if not all of them:
Visual Explanations is the only one that’s made it onto my shelves so far, but at least now I’ve read it. Now I know what all the fuss is about.
Tufte’s lovely, informative book shows readers how data has been displayed throughout history in a variety of fields and how it is clarified or obscured by the manner in which it is displayed. He shows you illustrations of magic tricks and data from the Challenger disaster as well as 17th century book frontispieces; snapshots from computer interfaces as well as images from works of art history and natural history.
On the to-read list since June 2012. Ties in with The Back of the Napkin because it’s about visual thinking.
Genre: non-fiction (information design)
Date started / date finished: 30-Mar-17 to 08-Apr-17
Length: 151 pages
ISBN: 0961392126 (hardcover)
Originally published in: 1997
Amazon link: Visual Explanations
I love books. I love languages. I built welovetranslations.com. You can read more about translations of The Story of the Stone aka The Dream of the Red Chamber on that site!
Rachel of the Hungry Hundred Book Club selected this mammoth Chinese classic for discussion at the end of January 2018. I bought the five-volume Penguin paperback edition and the 64-page illustrated version published by Real Reads. Below are the results of my research into the different available English translations.
See also: Buying books in Singapore
Continue reading The Story of the Stone aka The Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin and Gao E
THIS POST IS OUTDATED! VISIT THE NEWER POST ABOUT BUYING BOOKS IN SINGAPORE!
Brick-and-mortar bookshops in Singapore (as elsewhere) face high rent and stiff competition from online sellers, so they’ve been dropping like flies. The major chains and a handful independents are still scraping by.
See below for lists of:
Last updated 7 Feb 2021.
Urban Sketchers Singapore has produced books of sketches of:
Thus far, Urban Sketchers Singapore and Epigram Books have produced books of sketches of:
Toa Payoh, Tiong Bahru, and Katong are sold out at the publisher.
I should really get the Chinatown one of these. Used to live there.
This is an attractive locally-produced book (featuring a Singapore neighborhood I’m not personally familiar with).
Genre: non-fiction (art)
Date started / date finished: 25-Mar-17 to 25-Mar-17
Length: 96 pages
ISBN: 9789810736231 (paperback)
Originally published in: 2012
Kinokuniya link: We Love Toa Payoh
Since I’ve read other books about Chinese language and culture, since I’ve studied Mandarin Chinese, and since I live in a partly Chinese-speaking environment, many of the sparkling, shining, fascinating bits of trivia embedded in Dreaming In Chinese were no surprise to me. But even I learned a thing or two.
The author’s words paint a picture of a difficult but rewarding sojourn. The writing is clear and concise, warm and insightful. This is a short, entertaining, accessible book on an interesting topic.
This expat’s view of Chinese language and culture sounded like it would be interesting.
Genre: non-fiction (travel, language, China)
Date started / date finished: 20-Mar-17 to 25-Mar-17
Length: 212 pages
ISBN: 9780802779144 (paperback)
Originally published in: 2010
Amazon link: Dreaming In Chinese
The Catcher in the Rye was not a book I enjoyed. In general, I don’t like spineless characters, and I don’t like unreliable narrators, and Holden Caufield is both!
If your idea of great fiction is a story that successfully produces a powerful emotional reaction, then okay, I agree that Salinger’s book is great. It made me feel absolutely awful. After reading it, I felt I needed to go look at pictures of kittens or something to wash it out of my head. Blech.
More details about the book with SPOILERS below.
Writing the Breakout Novel is a book by an experienced agent about how to write fiction that is not just good but great.
Maass offers valuable advice on how a newbie can avoid amateur mistakes and how a published author stuck in a rut can get out of it.
Broad topics include: premise, stakes, setting, characters, plot, subplots, point of view, theme, and industry shop talk.
Do you want to be published? Drop what you’re doing and read this book. Do you want to start getting fat royalty checks again? Sit up and pay attention. Whatever situation you’re in, it’s time to seize the day. It’s time to break out.
If you’re interested in this book, I also highly recommend Save the Cat by Blake Snyder.
Go big or go home!
I also read this book 26-Mar-14 to 28 Mar-14. Worth reading twice, or as many times as necessary.
Genre: non-fiction (writing)
Date started / date finished: 13-Mar-17 to 19-Mar-17
Length: 260 pages
ISBN: 9781582971827 (paperback)
Originally published in: 2001
Amazon link: Writing the Breakout Novel
