Books! Books! Lovely Lovely Books!

This post may have arrived way late beyond its ETA.

But yeah, since I am practically on holidays now so WTV la.

WTV = whatever

Note: EXTREMELY AFFECTED BY THE FESTIVE MOOD.

But truthfully, this is my study break and whatever short time I have left to buck up in view of my MEGA-SCARY-HUMONGOUS-EXAMS -OF-UNIVERSAL-IMPORTANCE!!!

Which is arriving on the 5^th day of the Chinese New Year. Talk about getting a big angpow!!!

As a matter of fact, I don’t want to get a grade deserving of a red ink by any means.

And ahem, to think that I have had it bad enough. There’s more.

The following dictates my duties on the public holidays:

Christmas Eve and The Day itself: Internal Medicine attachment in Penang
(and the whole week thru, mind you!)

New Year’s Day: General and Family Medicine posting at a government hospital in a district, which does NOT HAVE BROADBAND COVERAGE!
(well, at least they have 80 sen per scoop ice-cream)

I digress, again.

Well, as you may have read on Ah Bong’s blog (too lazy to link html-ly), there was this Penguin Book Fair last month, which apparently only happens once every 5 years or so. It was at some factory zone/lot/place near Menara Axis. Hence, being the book-whore that I am, I paid the fair a lil visit of course.

(Yes, my landmarks are mostly gym buildings or malls. I am only able to recognise of such nature. I am a fag. Sue me!)

44 books!

Anyways, wanna make a shoutout to the friend who told me about it and brought me there. I don’t get the surprise element you wanted to pull off that day though. People, this guy is the official Google Earth – Klang Valley on legs.

O.M.F.G. *signature jawdrop* Yup, it happened to me, like I was on tetany when I grabbed a book and saw the price tag saying ‘RM10’

Dirt cheap, yes! Fabulously.

But the very first book I encountered was The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai, Booker Prize winner 2006. Which I paid RM49.90 for, at Borders, 3 months prior.

WTF. (Acronym for what the f**k!)

My personal version has a little small dot on top of the 'F'. Recall your maths. You will get what I mean.

In short, I went book-crazy and grabbed like a dozen books and it was a rush, alright. We got there at 5.00 p.m. and it was bound to close an hour later. I definitely got some new reprints of some classics, leaped at the chance, literally.

There was no way I could finish getting new stuffs for my ever-expanding classy *cough cough* literary collection in time.

So I went back the next day. And the day after.

Total number of books acquired = 44

Total DAMAGE to bank account = RM 569

An average price of RM12.9318 for each book. Good buy no?

Anyways, to summarise things. Here is the purchased list.

RM22 for a hardcover novel!!!

1. Anansi Boys – Neil Gaiman

2. Neverwhere – Neil Gaiman

3. Fragile Things – Neil Gaiman [Bought this as the first copy I had, had book-pneumonia on a sampan ride in Redang]

4. Panic (signed copy) – Jeff Abbott

5. Saving Fish from Drowning – Amy Tan

6. The Jane Austen Book Club – Karen Joy Fowler

7. Lion Boy – Zizou Corder

8. Trouble - Jesse Kellerman

9. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

10. A Walk to Remember - Nicholas Sparks

11. The Sonnets and A Lover’s Complaint – William Shakespeare

12. Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte

13. Everything is Illuminated – Jonathan Safran Foer [Elijah Wood on the cover!!!]

14. Single Professional Man – John Womersley

15. Odd One Out – Lissa Evans

16. The Undercover Economist – Tim Harford

17. Wicked – Gregory Maguire [Gay! Gay! Gay! married author]

18. Never the Bride – Paul Magrs [Younger Gay! Gay! Gay! author]

19. Hospital – Toby Litt

On the backcover:-
LOSING WEIGHT: "Keep on bearing children as long and as often as possible."
DRINKING WHISKEY: "Whiskey cures a great many ailments, infallibly by killing the patient."

20. A Book of Curious Advice: Most Unusual Manners, Morals, Medicine from Days of Yore – Ruth Pepper Summers

21. The Man who Ate Everything – Jeffrey Steingarten

22. The Diary of Adrian Mole aged 13 ¾ - Sue Townsend [LOVE THIS BOOK LONG TIME!]

23. Number Ten – Sue Townsend

24. Animal Farm - George Orwell [The BF's purchase]

25. Cold Comfort Farm – Stella Gibson [The BF's purchase]

26. Will the Boat Sink the Water?: The Life of China’s Peasants – Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao [BANNED IN CHINA!]

27. The New Life – Orhan Pamuk

28. The Art of War – Sun Tzu [Who knows? Maybe someday we will go to war?]

29. Don’t Eat This Book – Morgan Spurlock [Another book to spur me to lose me flabs!]

30. Desperate Housewives: Behind Closed Doors – Marc Cherry?

[OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG! I have always always always wanted to buy this super cool coffee table book! A memorabilia from Season 1. Always too broke for the ₤12.99 price tag! BUT NOW I HAVE IT!!! Wheee! *gleeful sinister laughter*]

31. The Complete Polysyllabic Spree - Nick Hornby

32. The Anatomy of Hope – Dr Jerome Groopman [Medicine-related book, ‘nuff said!]

33. The Merlion and The Hibiscus: Contemporary Short Stories from Singapore and Malaysia

34. Best Man – Matt Dunn [Err what's the male versh of chick lit? Dick lit? Someone enlighten me please!]

35. The Ex-Boyfriend’s Handbook – Matt Dunn

36. 4 Blondes – Candace Bushnell

37. Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse – Philip O’Ceallaigh [Fancy cover plus some donno-what book prize winner la!]

38. The Magpie Bridge – Liu Hong

39. Jennifer Government – Max Barry [The BF MADE me buy it!!!]

40. A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian – Marina Lewycka [THIS LADY IS SOOOO FUNNY!]

41. Curse of the Mega-boobed Bimbos – Grace Dent [Haha... I wanna write the Mega-endowed Himbo version!]

42. Traditional Chinese Medicine for Women – Xiaolan Zhao [For Mummy Dearest, I Swear!]

Note the size difference, but only RM3 difference in price?

43. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro (Large Print)

44. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro (Budget Print) - For the Ex Down South punya birthday!

This adds up the number of books I have bought but YET to read to a grand sum of 61!!!

*gasp!*