The Reader

Quo Vadis Notebook

I am not asking where Notebook is going but the title is the brand name of notebook,similar to Moleskine but it looks more interesting-it is still hand-made in France!.By the way,I was  told that this product will be available in two weeks time at Cziplee Plus.QuoVadisblog.Please click here to see more  how they look like.One of the reason I am looking forward to this new brand(as far as Malaysia is concerned) is because I wanted to buy the a notebook for my passions[books,bikes,photography, etc].At the moment,I have my own DIY I made out of a blank moleskine notebook as shown below.

 

DIY Journal of Passion

Lately, moleskine has come out with a few hardcovers journals to write about one's passions.I have a few passions in my life but I can't afford to buy a separate notebook for each.So,I decided to use my old moleskine hardcover (5"X8.5") notebook to jot down my passionate encounters.Below are a few examples how I recorded what I enjoyed doing in my previous pocket notebook.The photos tell you about my passions.What are yours?

     

Pemimpin stabil dampingi ilmuan

Sumber Berita Harian:Untuk makluman dan renungan bersama.

'Pemimpin stabil dampingi ilmuwan'

RAJA Dr Nazrin Shah berkenan melihat buku ‘Knowledge, Language, Thought and The Civilization of Islam – Essays In Honor of Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas’ di Kuala Lumpur, semalam. Turut memerhati, Syed Muhammad Naquib (dua dari kanan), Prof Dr Wan Mohd Nor Wan Daud (kanan) dan Muhamad Ridzuan.

KUALA LUMPUR: Raja Muda Perak, Raja Dr Nazrin Shah, bertitah pimpinan negara yang stabil dan maju sentiasa mendampingi dan bekerjasama dengan ilmuwan serta menyediakan persekitaran politik yang tidak memusuhi kumpulan itu. 

Baginda bertitah, kejatuhan sesebuah negara bermula dengan kemunduran disebabkan budaya dan persekitaran politik yang membunuh perkembangan intelek kerana sifat takut serta gentar pimpinan yang sedang berkuasa yang berasa kedudukan mereka mungkin tercabar. 

"Pemikiran politik sedemikian amatlah destruktif. Pimpinan yang stabil dan negara maju sentiasa memilih pendirian untuk mendampingi dan bekerjasama dengan ilmuwan. Ini akan membantu membina kekayaan intelek dan khazanah negara," titah baginda

Baginda bertitah demikian selepas melancarkan buku Knowledge, Language, Thought and The Civilization of Islam – Essays In Honor of Syed Muhammad Naquib Al-Attas di Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), di sini, semalam. 

Buku setebal 566 halaman itu memuatkan 22 esei daripada 24 sarjana seluruh dunia bertujuan merakamkan pengiktirafan kepada Syed Muhammad Naquib, seorang ilmuwan Malaysia bertaraf dunia. Buku itu berharga RM108 bagi kulit tebal dan RM80 bagi kulit biasa. 

Hadir sama, Pro Canselor UTM, Tan Sri Dr Abdullah Ayub dan Datuk Dr Muhamad Ridzuan Muhamad Salleh, Naib Canselor UTM, Prof Datuk Ir Zaini Ujang dan Syed Muhammad Naquib.

Raja Nazrin bertitah, seseorang ilmuwan sebenarnya memiliki kehebatan yang lebih istimewa dan tulen berbanding penghormatan serta pengiktirafan yang diberikan kepada seorang Raja atau Ratu dan seorang Perdana Menteri. 

"Pengiktirafan yang diabadikan kepada ilmuwan lebih berkekalan, berpanjangan dan berterusan hingga jauh melangkau pasca hayatnya dan tidak sekadar semasa dia masih bernyawa atau sedang menyandang jawatan tertentu," titah baginda.

Reading cycle..

Today I found the book that made me start reading fiction while I was rearranging/dusting off the old novels that kept collecting dust on my bookshelf.It is entitled The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks.A note by the side showed that I bought the novel on 27th July,1998-the first day I visited the newly opened KLIA then.It was my habit that every where new I went I always buy a book to remind me of the place and the event.After that I kept on buying his books and later ventured to read the novels by John Grisham and Jeffrey Archer.A few years back,I started to read books by Dan Brown beginning with The Da Vinci Code.

I tried to read science fiction and fantasy novels but some how,I did not enjoy the books with one exception of Harry Potter's series.

Fast forward to the present,as i grow older,my interest went to books on philosophy and religion.Flash back to 80's when I was a corporate executive,I read only management books.According my older friends,my next phase will reading only Qu'ran and Tafseer,insyaAllah.

When I was a young man in 70's,I was not much of a reader.Like many others I only read what matters to my profession(engineering) and later(management) when I was climbing the corporate ladder.Only when I quit the corporate world and started my own business in 1989,then my reading extended to social science like biography,history,economy etc.

Looking back,I could have benefited more from reading if there was someone to guide me on what to read and how to benefit most from reading.Of course,sometimes we do read for the sheer joys of it.

As parent,I would consider a great gift to our children if we could inculcate the culture of reading in them.To promote reading and share my experience,I called this blog The Reader.

Book:Coffee Break Tales-The Sequel

I bought this book at MPH for RM25.It contains 28 short stories and was written by Ms Yeoh Gim Suan.Now, I am half way through the book and would like to recommend this book as light reading.However, we can learn a lot from the stories narrated by the author...

Below is the photo Awang Goneng and his wife and me having coffee at KLCC.

 

A chat with my 12 years old niece..

Today,I went to KLIA to send off my mother and her grand daughter.She is about 12 years old and an avid reader.While we were having our breakfast,she kept reading an English novel.When I asked her whether she understands all the words she was reading,she smiled at me.Like a father talking to his own child,I gave her some tips to benefit more from her reading.First thing,I told her to take note of any words that she may not know the meaning and check them back later using a dictionary.Thence,one can improve faster one's vocabulary.I also told her to write down nice phrases where she could refer later when she is writing her school essays.I took out a 3X5 card from my notebook and asked her to write.She replied she did not have a pen.At the same time,I told her to write what she has learnt from the story she was reading and write down what she is going to do  about it.

She looked up to me and asked me to take her to a bookshop.She wanted to buy a notebook and a ballpen.After she had chosen her little notebook and a ballpen,she went up to the cashier to pay for it.Immediately,I took my wallet and paid for it.I was so proud and happy about her immediate action to do what is good for her reading.Now, she has a notebook and a ballpen whenever she is reading-just like her uncle.

As we went out of the bookshop at KLIA,she told me that one fine day, she will be writing a best selling novel!I look forward to it,my dear niece!

Graphic novels

I am not a reader of graphic novels(some may want to say just story books), but I was an avid reader of weekly cartoon like Beano and Dandy when I was a teenager in the 60's.Lately I noticed my youngest son was reading some Japanese graphic novel on his pc.May be I should go and find out to see how these novels attracted the young people.To me,I still prefer the old text based novels,for now.Old habits die hard..

During our recent meeting among our Palmx community,one of us has started a digital graphic novel.It looks interesting and this could be a few million dollars business if properly planned and executed and market globally.My best wishes to Jo.

Reading is cool..

she reads..
Originally uploaded by Adibi

While I was waiting to see my client at the office lounge,I saw this beautiful painting of a girl reading the book.I got closer to see the name of the painter but saw none.Since I did not have my compact camera with me,so I just snapped it with my mobile Nokia E71.

One of my interests is to take candid shots of people reading.You can peek at some of them here where I created a group in Flickr.If you have taken photos of people reading,kindly link them to this group.

Books about books,bookshops and booksellers..

If I see one,I have to buy one.And the latest in my collection is a book entitled The Yellow -Lighted Bookshop.My love affairs with bookshops began way back in the mid 80's when I went to Oxford and got myself drowned in a Blackwell Bookshop(luckily it was not a black hole,otherwise I won't be blogging right now) and roamed and got lost along 3 miles of bookshelves!

The other books that I have bought and read are as follows:

1.The Bookstore by Lynne Tillman

2.A Passion for Books by Rabinowitz & Kaplan

3.You've Got To Read This Book by Jack Canfield and Gay Hendricks

4.Used and Rare by Goldstones

...and two more but I can't remember.

May I invite you to share your 'love affairs' with books and bookshops but not booksellers.

PS:

Just remember the two books I read..

The Bookseller of Kabul

by Asne Seierstad (Author) 

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman

Oh fiction..

I think the Law of Diminishing Return has caught up with me.I can't take up any more management books and heavy intellectual/spiritual material for my comsumption.It is time for me to explore the dark alleys of fiction to let my mind wander from Amazon forest full of anacondas to the emptiness of deserts in Zululand...

After having dinner with my wife at our favourite  restaurant at GE Mall,Ampang,I dropped by at MPH Bookshop.New novels are still expensive.Now is not the time to spend RM35 for a novel,so I ofted for Reader's Digest Select Edition.The brand new hardcover book cost me Rm21.90 but it contains four novels:-

1. Company Man by Joseph Finder

2. Outside Chance by Lyndon Stacey

3. Days from A different World by John Simpson

4.Contact Zero by David Wolsetencroft

All the above authors are foreign to me.I don't know what to expect,and I donot wish to read any reviews of the books or comments about the authors.I shall start from the bottom because it is about M16-something that I can relate to London and James Bond.