The Senses of Reading

There's always something mysterious about reading- a calming feeling which makes you feel the world widens and the time expands in the universe. I leave it to Stephen Hawking to relate it to 'space'. Or, you could just read The Grand Design written by robot-voiced him. No, I haven't read the book although I own a hardcover copy; instead I've unexpectedly finished reading The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes. In terms of time consumed the novel is a rival to Malcom Gladwell's Outliers. 

I did not like the plot or the themes of the novel. But hey, who are we the readers to not like the themes of a novel- as for the plot, yes we have the right to not like it. That's what I think. The themes of getting old, coming to terms of what has happened and reminiscing the past seem not able to attract my self claim thinking heart; but it's a different story for the elegant philosophical ideas embedded in the narrative. 

History is written by the victor but we must be aware of the delusion of the loser as well- that makes you 'ahak' for a moment and that's what I like the most in the novel. It's a simple novel and you will able to finish it in one seating.

It's holiday and the Sale (I don't want to promote it here- it has too many overrated claims) has able me to own almost half tonnes of books. Hey, when again can you buy a fully filled luggage of books with some in a plastic bag in your hands without paying more than RM300? But don't tell me about Malaysian readers habits at booksales or bookstores- they're just stupidly civilised and they call themselves 'avid reader'. I'm not doing a generalisation here but there's always a strata of society of 'certain' demographic which always do 'that'- cutting queues, asking questions when cashiers are with other customers, so cheap that they want every other customers have but hey- they're buying books worth thousand of ringgit and you're just having a comic book for your son. Get real!

Be nice, Faidhi.- The Chukai Insider