Again!

Well...really tiring day. Legs aching badly as I type this, and all due to window-shopping. =)

Went over to Megamall today - had to meet some relatives - and naturally, I took the opportunity to spend just a little time in MPH. (Not as good as Borders, but what can I do?) All right then - so Megamall's MPH bookstore is supposedly the biggest in Malaysia before that blessing of a Borders arrived and saved us from manic commercialism and overhyped books.

So I enquired at the Customer Service counter (which wasn't strategically placed) for that long sought-for book, The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. And the answer I got...out of stock.

The irony is - this is the THIRD MPH outlet that I've asked for this book! Subang Parade didn't have it; 1 Utama didn't have it...and maybe if I did end up in their warehouses they'll tell me they don't have it. (Wait, they're out of stock...oh, their warehouses don't have it.)

Frustration sets in.

And then I bought Ali Smith's The Accidental. Ah.

The odd thing is, every time I ask for that ONE particular book - and some people tell me they're out of stock - I'll end up buying another book. Not good, definitely not good, because my pocket's shrinking faster than my brain while reading Sejarah.

Lots of books piling up on my table...can't even see the clock...and trials are coming up...

I haven't completed The Life of Pi. Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian is another lost case. Not to mention Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman, Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman...

Thank goodness there are three months after SPM for me to read these!

And before I forget - thank you Grace and Kenneth! I will read that book, don't ya worry...

Here's something interesting...

SURF...
http://www.geographia.com/Malaysia/
A brilliantly detailed and presented site: plenty of the usual tourist stuff but a lot more interesting information about history, people, and places to visit. This is actually the Official Homepage of the Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board, New York, but it is better than www.tourism.gov.my, another official MTPB site.

Found it on the last page of the extras section in The Harmony Silk Factory. I found it hilarious...weird-ly. Can it be true? *grins hugely*

Anyway, back to The Accidental. The first line caught my attention and made me buy it on impulse...

My mother began me one evening in 1968 on a table in the cafe of the town's only cinema.

Funny little unconventional line.

Hmm...have you noticed that those two books I got today have something in common?

They both won a Whitbread Prize in 2005! Smith won the Novel Award, while Tash Aw won the First Novel Award. (And that was a lovely cake, by the way.)

Am I studying during the holidays?

I hope so.