FLH Annual Booksale

The spring semester is almost over, and I can’t wait the summer vacation.  I am going to Japan to see my family and very excited about it.  Although I am in the middle of study for my final exams and paper, I can’t resist checking what’s going on in Japan, planing where to go and what to do, sending emails to my friends I haven’t seen long time, and of course thinking about what books to buy.  I am planning to go to some big bookstores, like a whole building with many stories is a bookstore.  I can spend a whole day in this kind of bookstore.  I will spend many days in bookstores.  Oh, I am daydreaming.

On the other hand, I am kind of sad that I will miss out the FLH Annual Booksale at Mckinley high school this year, which takes place from June 21 to 29, because I will be still in Japan.   I love this book sale and go every year.  There will be lots of books from many kinds of genres in a high school cafeteria.  The first 2 days are weekend, so there will be lots of people, but also lots of good books, which mean popular books, books lately published, rare books, etc.  The last 2 days are also weekend, and they will give you a big discount, but there will not be much good selection anymore.  I usually go on Monday morning because there are still many books left but not many people.  I can look around, pick up some, and read a couple of pages.  It is hard to do in a crowded space. 

This year, I am going to ask my husband to look for some books for me, so I was making a list today.  I checked my bookshelf to see what I already have so that I can avoid any duplication.  I also checked literature-map to try some authors who I might like but have never tried.  I spent the whole day checking books today and was happy.  Now, I got to go back to the reality and study for the tomorrow’s exam…

Quiet

A package of books has just arrived yesterday.  I ordered books from Amazon.com because I have wanted them but not been able to find them at Goodwill or Book Off.  Books are cheaper when buying on line than buying at a books store.  I just wish I had upgraded my MacBook and got iBooks app. before I ordered these books so that I could have bought eBooks version of them instead, which are much cheaper.  For example, one of the books I bought this time is Quiet by Susan Cain.  Its regular price is $16.00, Amazon price is $9.07, and Kindle price is $2.99.  It sounds ridiculous to buy a brand new boos at a bookstore anymore.  No wonder bookstores have been closing one after another lately.

Anyway, I decided that I don't care how I got the book or how much it was because I have it now with me and am excited.  I have wanted to read Quiet for a long time since I watched Susan Cain’s TED Talks.  I am a typical introvert like she is, and I always thought being introvert is such a disadvantage in the society.  At school and work, extraverts always speak up instantly without hesitation and let everybody know what their opinions are.  On the other hand, I as an introvert usually have to think about the subject before speaking up, and once extraverts around me start speaking up, I want to listen to them and think about their opinions.  Eventually, I kind of tend to lose a chance to speak up.  Susan Cain’s speech cheers up introverts like me.

Here is the video of her TED Talks.  This book will be my first book to read during this summer vacation.  I can’t wait!!

iBooks

Many people nowadays use a kindle or iPad to read a book, but I have always preferred paper books.  I know eBooks are cheaper than brand new paper books, but I usually use a library or buy books at Goodwill.  Plus I've preferred flipping pages rather than scrolling the screen... well, until today.

Today, I needed to upgrade my MacBook to install IBM SPSS software for my statistics class.  My MacBook was OS 10.6 but it needed to be at least 10.7 to install the software.  Luckily, I could upgrade my MacBook to 10.9, Mac OS Marvericks, for free, which I was glad about because I did not want to spend any more money after spending almost $100 for the software.  Additionally, I got several new cool features that made me happier, and the upgrade also gave me a new application, iBooks that made me a little puzzled, but did not make me unhappy. 

Surprisingly, it rather made me curious, and once I opened it, I became into it.  I have no idea why I disliked eBooks without knowing what it is like very well.  I surfed the apple store because I really wanted to buy a book to try.  There are so many books I want to buy, but my budget is so tight this month.  I finally chose one of my favorite classic novels, The Old Man and the Sea for $0.99.  I love it because it is like a long poem.  The story is very simple, but the expression is so beautiful and eloquent.  When I read The Old Man and the Sea in Japanese long time ago, it sounded really boring because of, I guess, the poor translation.  I was so glad when I tried the same story in original language, English, because I found it is wonderful.

After I downloaded this wonderful book as my first book on my iBooks, I opened the book.  I can highlight sentences I like, bookmark pages I like, and change the font and background color.  I of course can carry it in my iPod touch.  It is so dangerous considering about my tight budget but I am already looking for my second one.  I am so dangerously excited.

Ashtanga Yoga for Women

People used to buy books when they want to know how to do things, such as cooking, sports, craft arts, and any kind of hobbies.  Nowadays, they use Internet.  I admit that Internet is more convenient, and I am a frequent user of it too.  My laptop doesn’t occupy a lot of space in my room like my books do, and videos such as Youtube teach me things so well for free. 

On the other hand, I still want to buy books because I like books.  I just feel happy seeing books of my interests in my bookshelf.  Honestly, there are many cooking books and yoga books I have never opened yet since I bought them.  This sounds really ridiculous, but I just believe that I maybe use them someday.

However, among my many brand new looking books, I have one yoga book, which looks really old because I used many times.  Although I usually check new postures on Youtube, I always go back to this book, Ashtanga Yoga for Women.  This book is the only yoga book I have known, which is written based on women’s mental and physical concerns.  You can find many useful directions about practice during pregnancy and period.  There are many postures that are physically difficult for women, and this book teaches some modified postures.  It of course teaches basic knowledge of Yoga in a simply way so that even beginners can easily understand. 

I found this book about 10 years ago, when I started yoga practice.  This is like the bible of my practice, and I read every single word in this book repeatedly.  I bought many other yoga books, and only Ashtanga Yoga for Women looks old.  I am sure I will keep this book forever and use it more, then it will eventually fall apart.  Now I am thinking that I should buy the same book brand new again for a spare….

She's Come Undone

She’s Come Undone is the book that I bought a couple of years ago, read only a couple pages, and quit.  The first a couple of pages are very important for me to guess if it would be interesting to read.  I usually do this process at a bookstore.  However, when I bought this book at the annual book sale at Mckinley High School, I didn’t try.  I had already several books in my both hands surrounded by many people there, and kind of pushed aside by those people.  I just picked the book because the author, Wally Lamb, somehow sounded familiar to me.  I had never read her book before though, I thought I had heard a good review about her before.

Unfortunately, the first a couple of pages of this book did not give me any good impression at first, and it was pushed aside and left in a pile of books for a while until I tried Literature map.  The Literature map showed I would like Wally Lamb because I like Amy Tan.  I was a little suspicious about the result of this website, but I picked up the book again and started reading it.

Fortunately, She’s Come Undone of my second try turned out pretty good.  It has lots of psychic crazy events and reminds me of the movie, Girls, Interrupted, which I like.  I am not fund of a story with psychiatric situations like this book, but the story is not really depressing or heavy.  After reading the first a couple of chapters, this book caught my interest.  I don’t think that Amy Tan and Wally Lamb have similar writhing style, but I think that they both write a quite crazy and depressing situation in an amusing way.

I sometimes think that judging a book from just reading a couple of pages is not right, but that is what I usually do.  But this time, I really thought I should at least try a couple of chapters.  

Literature-map

I wonder how people look for a book they would like.  Some people might have friends who also like reading.  Some people might find information on the Internet.  I am lucky to have family members, especially my husband side, who love reading, and they are the main source of my information.  What I noticed recently was that they sometimes talk about a specific book that they really got into, but usually they talk about authors they like.  They say, “I could read what ever he or she writes” or “ I read all books he or she wrote”.  Then, I thought about if I have an author who I love that much.  Yes, I do.  It is Amy Tan, but only Amy Tan.  I thought I want more authors that I would like.

When I was thinking about it and surfing the Internet, I happened to find Literature-map, http://www.literature-map.com.  I went to this site, put Amy Tan in a box and hit “continue”, then it showed bunch of authors’ names I could like.  The center of the circle is Amy Tan, and I assume the author that is closest to Amy Tan is the one I would like the best.  However, it is Wally Lamb!  I bought Wally Lamb’s book a couple of years ago but only read several pages and quit.  The book has been somewhere in a very bottom of a pile.  I checked other authors and found Pearl S. Buck.  Her “The Good Earth” is amazing.  But her name is far from the center.  I also found Dr. Seuss, also far from the center, but I thought it’s interesting his name was there.

Has anyone tried Literature-map before?  If not, try it!  I am curious if you find out this site is useful or not.  I’d appreciate if you’d leave a comment about your result.

Amy Tan

Amy Tan is a Chinese-American and my favorite author.  Whenever I find her work, I want to read.  Her books were usually about China, such as Chinese in China, Chinese immigrants in America, or Chinese-American in America.  The reason I like Amy Tan is not only I like Chinese history, but also her writing style and the way of her expression.  I have never met Amy Tan herself, but I kind of can imagine her uniqueness and sense of humor from her works.  For me, her works are not a type of story I want to read nonstop in a day.  I’d rather enjoy each page and each sentence at a time reading slowly.

My very first Amy Tan’s book is Joy Luck Club.  I still regret I failed to get a chance to see the musical of Joy Luck Club at Diamondhead Theater several years ago.  I was really curious how they would show this story in a musical.  I love this heartwarming story with humor and oddness.  Joy Luck Club had been my favorite of her works until I read The Kitchen God’s Wife, which is incredible, and I love it. The scenes in her books sometimes sound very strange or unfamiliar to me, but somehow her writing skill enables me to imagine each scene vividly.  Although the story is incredible, it also describes normal family relationship that sounds familiar to me.  The balance between familiar and unfamiliar aspects, I think, attracts many readers including me. 

Last year, her new book, The Valley of Amazement, was published.  I’ve heard lots of good reviews and been very interested in it.  It is one of books in my to-read list.