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Bookbub.com

 

 I just discovered a great website a few weeks ago. It is called BookBub.com. If you have known it for quite some time, good for you! I wish I have known it earlier.

So what is so great about this website? This website is for a book lover, that too cheap to buy books. What BookBub does is they send daily email on ebooks that are free or on sale right now. During registration, you can choose what kind of genre do you prefer and even your favorite authors. They cover all types of book. Then you can choose what kind of ebook format you prefer such as Kindle, Nook, iBooks etc, and I chose Amazon Kindle.

Every day I received an email with few books that are on sale or free on Amazon. The best part is almost all books that I received (and that I checked) are high rated books. It is not some books that no one read. Nearly all the books have at least 4 stars rating.

However, there is one con about this. My rate of reading can't match the rate of books that I downloaded. I have few books already that I downloaded because of BookBub and now I have to increase my reading speed and spend more time to read all these books. Hehe.

Therefore if you love reading but paying a lot for books, BookBub is the answer! It's like Groupon for book :)

Ps: I was googling BookBub to check the correct URL, and I realized BookBub is a company based in Cambridge, MA. OMG, I didn't know about this when I was in Boston. I know I was a bit overexcited about this but ever since I moved to Phoenix, I became so attached to Boston for some reason. I guess I missed that place more than I ever know.

 

 

Boston Public Library

If you live in Boston or surrounding areas, and never got Boston Public Library (BPL) free membership, you better apply for one now. It's so easy to apply. All you need is proof that you are living in Massachusetts now by bringing an ID or a bill with your name and address. Within 5 minutes and you have one of the best library membership in the world (source: me).

Even if you don't like to read, you can borrow thousands of DVD from the library. The library also has a program where they give you free tickets to Boston attractions. All you need is to book which day you want to go and pick up a pass at a library near you. I have redeemed free tickets to New England Aquarium, USS Constitution Museum and Museum of Science. For each pass, you can redeem 4 tickets so that you and your friends can enjoy it together. Cool right.

But the best part of this library is the collection that they have. They have the second largest collection of books and records in the United States. Imagine how many books you can read. Whenever I saw a book someone suggest, I immediately search BPL and always find a few copies. Besides hard copy book, they also have the e-book and audio book. I love their e-book. I can just download it into my Kindle within few minutes I search for it (providing the book is available). Sometimes some books are not available in e-book format, or the e-book format is already borrowed by someone else. I can hold the hard copy book and ask them to send to the nearest library near me. At one time, I held up to 4 books and asked them to send to the Brighton library which is few minutes from my house. Within 2 days, they send an email informing that my books are available, and I can pick it up.

Talking about the nearest library, BPL has 24 branches in Boston besides the famous and beautiful central library at Copley Square. They want to make sure that everyone has access to the library at their neighborhood. By having these branches, you can return books at any branches and ask them to send the book to your neighborhood library. So there is no reason for you not to read!

Yup, I can study here all day. Boston Public Library is the second largest public library in US with 23 million materials 😮 #boston #publiclibrary #bpl

A photo posted by Mun M (@chokiinheaven) on Mar 14, 2015 at 8:30pm PDT

The famous study room in Boston Public Library in Copley Square

However, if you found out that the book you want in not at BPL, you can always suggest them to buy. Last winter, I went visiting Pixar exhibition at Museum of Science (the free tickets remember), and I saw this one book that I interested in reading which is about digital painting. When I went home, I searched the library online and found it wasn't in their collection. I looked up at Amazon, and the price of that book is high, even the used version. Remembered that BPL has this option to suggest any books, I submitted that book information on the BPL website. I imagined that they received thousands of requests, and I don't think I will hear from them. Surprise, surprise, few weeks after that, I received an email saying that the book that I submit for the suggestion is available, and I can come to pick it up. I was so impressed! Wow.. I can forget about buying any books right now.

I'm so happy with BPL, and I glad that I'm able to use their service. I think they do an excellent job ensuring that the Boston communities can continuously learn by providing free materials and spaces. They also have classes at their library. I never join one, but I might try one day.

So those who haven't applied for BPL membership, you should use this wonderful service.

Inspector Mislan in CSI:Kuala Lumpur

Few months ago while browsing the bookstore, one book caught my eyes. The cover had a huge neon pink wording titled 'Duke'. I took it and realized it's about Duke Expressway murder story and written by local author. Honestly i don't really read fiction books by local authors. I didn't find any author that I like yet but the book summary was interesting and I thought why not. It has been a while since I read a fiction. I paid, came back home and put the book under unread books shelf.

Fast forward to few months after that, as I was looking at my unread books shelf looking for a book to read, I saw this book and immediately started to read. As I read and read, I realized I made a mistake starting reading this book at night. You know why. I can't stop reading it as the story getting more interesting and twisted as the plot moved along. Within less than 24 hours, I finished reading it. The worst part is, I want to read more! I want to investigate with Inspector Mislan and his assistant. So I begged my husband to buy me the first book of this series, 21 Immortals. By 3rd week from the first day I read Inspector Mislan stories, I have finished all of his 3 books including the latest one Utube. 

So what so interesting about this book? The series are about Inspector Mislan, a police officer from Kuala Lumpur Police Special Unit. He is a maverick badass investigation officer who determine to solve all his cases even though he has to face pressure from his superior and politicians in order to close his case. The stories walk us through the procedures what happened when a crime is reported to the police, how CSI and police work together and what are the challenges they faced. What more interesting about this is the fact the stories took Kuala Lumpur and it's surrounding as it's location. The author has injected some local dialect, the reality of Malaysia which filled with bureaucracy and involvement of politicians, the Tan Sris, Datuks in order to close their case. The stories are so near at home, you realized how police is underappreciate and their image is tarnished just because of few bad apples.

Furthermore, the writer, Rozlan Mohd Noor was a police officer for 11 years before he left the forces. He knows all the procedures, the language used and the daily struggle face by the police officer. At the same, i learned a lot about the codes that police use, how they divide themselves into division and the reality of Malaysian police rather than just watching American TV series.

Honestly, these are really good books and I really proud of the author who break the market that full with sappy love stories and finally come put with a book that worth reading. I fully recommended these books to all readers who also like watching CSI TV series and also those who enjoy crime investigation books.

The Inspector Mislan Series by Rozlan Mohd. Noor are available in major bookstores and have 3 series for now: 

1. 21 Immortals

2. Duke

3. Utube

Go get a copy!

Catch up with reading when traveling

The good thing of traveling almost every weekend is that I'm able to catch up with my readings. The 1 hour wait before flight, 2.15 hours in the flight and not forgetting the delays - gave me ample time to read. Alhamdulillah, managed to finish 3 books and another 2 books in progress. It has been awhile since I did book review, so let's do it.

First book:

The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely

Honestly, after reading his first book, Predictably Irrational, I wanted to write like him. I like the way he proved the theory by simple experience on humans. For example (the one that I remember), he did experiments whether those who has experience painful pain before can stand pain longer than those who never had. He invited those who has survived war or painful experience such as burn to put their fingers (or hand?) into hot water and hold it as long as they can. True enough, those who had painful experience can hold longer than those who never had such experience. Throughout the book, there are many experiments that he shared to prove well known human reactions that previously we known but never scientifically proven. Love this book but I still prefer the first one over this.

Second book:

Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle by Dan Senor & Saul Singer

When I saw my husband reading this book, I was like why are you reading a book about Israel. He asked me to read the first chapter and I was hooked. Then I realized I didn't know much about Israel apart that what I read in Facebook. Yes, I admitted what Israel did to Palestine people was cruel and I hate them for that. However, this book tells a story of how Israel, started from Jewish immigrants around the world with no country, managed to build a "country" (I still think they stole that land from Palestine) with growing economies and so many innovations. Initially I thought the reason their economy is developing rapidy is because US and other developed countries gave them money and assistance. Then, when I finished ready that book, I realized that it wasn't the case at the beginning of Israel's existence. Also, there's a lot of positive things that we can learn from this book. Totally recommended this for everyone to read.

 Third book:

If I'd Know Then (What I Know Now) by Ellen Spragins

This book collects stories from famous ladies about their childhood challenges and asked them to write a letter to their younger self. Very inspiring and I realized that what I felt during my teenager years wasn't so different from anybody else. So glad to know that I'm normal. hehe. After finished reading it, I kept on thinking what would I write to my younger self. My younger self would be quite disappointed knowing that I'm not an architect. Sorry kid, world is more complicated than what you think. Anyway, this is good book for light reading and suitable for teenagers.

In progress 1:

Superfreakonomics by Steve Levitt, Stephen Dubner and Juan Ibeas

I bought the illustrated edition in Big Bad Wolf. Super cheap for hard cover and coloured edition but the downside is that it is heavy which is not suitable for traveling. I only get to read it when I'm home back in Subang. The first book, Freakonomics which I didn't finish reading (hehe) and now I'm reading the second one. I love the illustrated version as they put graphs, pictures and facts at the side of the page to make it more interesting and easy to understand. 

In progress 2:

Secret Letters from Monk who Sold his Ferrari by Robin Sharma

Just started last week and I can predict that this book will be done by next week. It is very addictive and the story that the author told really an eye-opener. It made me thinking about choices that I took in this life like for example coming to Miri. The more I read this book, the more I'm convince that this is a wrong decision. I keep on questioning myself what the hell am I doing here? Over and over again. Haih...

Prosecutor Princess

It was totally my fault. I admit.

I was bored at home last weekend and nothing interesting on the tv. I was in the mood for some mushy love story. Then I remembered My Soju. The heaven of Korean drama. So I thought why not. I made a little research and settled for 'Prosecutor Princess'. 

And I started to watch and watched until on Sunday night at 1am, I was at the 12th episode. Yeay! 4 more episodes and I'm done. So you can now guess how interesting and addictive that series is. Plus the yummy *ahem* actors, I just couldn't stop watching it. Thinking about work the next morning, I reluctantly stopped watching and went to sleep.

The next day at work, I just couldn't concentrate. My mind was at home thinking the next episodes of this series. The clock seemed to tick so slow that I was tempting to go back home early. I just couldn't concentrate anymore!

I arrived home, eating dinner quickly and parked myself in front of the laptop. Connect the HDMI cable from the tv to laptop, I reached my wireless mouse. Clicked on the 13th episode and pressed play. And I waited and waited and waited...........

What happened? The file loading become super slow unlike yesterday where it was so fast and it was as if I'm using dial-up. I tried finding in various website but all videos were very slow. I was so frustrated. Really really am. Maybe the site has some problem. Ok, be patient Mun.

So today I tried again and it still the same. Super slow and I can't even finished 1 episode! My frustration has turned to anger. I only left 4 episode!!!! The most important episodes where the plot has thicken and the conclusion is to be told!!!!

WHY????????

In case you interested to watch this, watch it online for free here: Prosecutor Princess

If you ask me how many star I would give to this drama, I'll give 4.5/5 stars. Seriously, it has very good storyline and acting. Love it.

Harry Potter & his magic

Are you are one of the millions Harry Potter books reader? Do you have this thinking-of-reading-the-book-again-after-you-watched-the-latest-Harry-Potter syndrome? If you are like me who has not so good memory, you will find that there’s so many interesting plot in the book that screenwriter didn’t include in the movie but you can’t pointed out what plot was that. Then again, every plot in the Harry Potter book series is interesting. So there uneasy feeling in heart that you want to know what is that and you started to think maybe you should read the book again.

I just watched Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince last night. All I can remember was that in this book, Dumbledore died. I know somebody killed him but I forgot who and there’s a memorial service (the most memorable part in the book) where all magical creatures who loved him came to give him last respect. I remembered this clearly as I was reading it 4 years ago, I cried foolishly in my college room. Lucky for me my roommate was sleeping and when she woke up she was confused why my eyes were puffed out.

Sadly, the movie didn’t include that part and I really wanted to see all the various creatures in one scene. Well, it’s not important to the storyline actually but I couldn’t remember any other part that should be in it. Hehe. What I vaguely remember is that Harry used a lot of Dumbledore’s Pensieve to see the memories collected by Dumbledore. However, in this movie only few were shown.

I don’t want to give review and rate this movie. Overall it’s enjoyable and I can’t wait for another last two movies. Apparently they made 2 movies out of the last book. Wise idea especially when the book itself is thick (though not the thickest) and it’s the finale of the Harry Potter where many important events happened that need to be captured on screen. However, they have to make sure that they capture the battle scene in the Hogwarts beautifully and the revelation of Snape’s secret imaginatively. Sorry if I spoiled the storyline but who ask you not to read the books? Haha.

To tell the truth, if I don’t read the books and I just watched the movies, maybe after first or second movie, I won’t be interested of watching the next sequel. There are so many stories in the book that made the books really interesting. Unlike Lord of the Ring where you can become a fan by just watching the movies without reading the books (it takes me ages to finish those 3 books. Ok, I didn’t finish reading the last book. It consumed a lot of time when you spend most of time looking for meaning of words in dictionary. Hehe.)

Oh, maybe after the last movie, I’ll read all the 7 books back to back. That would be a total of 4224 pages. Wahhh..

Summer Reading

My mission is to read books as many as I can during this summer holiday. This is the list of books I set to be read during this summer.

Starting with light reading which is of course my favourite genre, chick lit and a book that I've finished reading.

Done

1. Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella
Started reading while waiting for my flight in Charlotte Airport and I'm half way through by the time I realized I might missed my flight to KL. It used the usual Kinsella theme where the heroine would be happy at first then issues arise and finally issues resolved. Witty and funny as usual but I think I prefer 'Can You Keep a Secret' beside her Shopaholic series.






2. Austenland by Shannon Hale
Started reading in the flight from Newark to KL. The story is too predictable. The writer seems to copy the storyline of Elizabeth Bennet's love interest from Pride and Prejudice and applied it in modern world. A so-so storyline.









3. Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely
This book is a graduation gift from my department to all graduates. Since I volunteered, I received one too (find out it cost RM89.90 at Borders! Thank God I got it free). Wrote by ex-PhD Duke student who is a professor at MIT now and also a visiting professor at Duke. Even though some of the human behaviour that influence decision we made mentioned are already known, he made experiments to prove it which is very interesting. He even made an experiment that involved Duke basketball obsession. Hehe. This is highly recommended book to read. I like it.

Oh, and 2 PADI open water diver manuals. Hehe


In Progress

4. Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner










Coming soon

5. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
Just bought it last weekend. Might read it after Zainal finish it first.








6. The Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne










If I managed to finish all of these, might read Emotional Intelligence since Mak has it but we'll see how fast I can finish all these (if I cut down my time Facebooking and playing Bejeweled at FB).

I thought I want to read the book that I got in the workshops but I felt that since I already went to the workshop, the content might be the same right. Hehe.