BiblioAsia

So like one of the things that I'm doing to distract my brain is reading. Unfortunately, Longform doesn't link to as many new articles as I like. Luckily for me, I found out about BiblioAsia!

BiblioAsia is a quarterly magazine by the NLB (National Library Board). Each issue has its own theme and there are tons of interesting articles inside.

There are basically four ways you could read the magazine. The first is by getting a paper copy although I have no idea where you'd get one, since the site just says that it's also distributed to "members of the public." The next way you could read it is via the NLB ereading program using Overdrive. This lets you read offline, but the formatting isn't very good and there's only one issue.

The remaining two ways are online.

If you want to read the latest issue, you can use this link. Only the latest articles can be accessed from this site but they are beautifully formatted with pictures and it's really a pleasure to read them. And while most of the articles are in English, there are also Malay, Tamil, and Chinese articles. So there's really something for everyone.

The last method, which has everything from the archives, can be found at this link.

This does require to download and read from a PDF, so it's not very suitable for a phone. Anyway, issues/articles I recommend are:

1. Volume 13 Issue 2:
- Murder Most Malevolent: an article about some of the most horrific murders that occurred in Singapore (horrifying and fascinating read)

- A History of Singapore Horror: a history/exploration of horror in Singapore folklore, books and films. True Singapore Ghost Stories, Incredible Tales and more are discussed.

- An Unusual Ambition: The Early Librarians - this is mainly cause I like books so reading about the people who work with books for a living was fun.

2. Volume 12 Issue 1:

- Old World Amusement Parks, exploring the history of New World, Great World, and Gay World

- In Remembrance of Reading, about reading and our memory about reading

- The Anatomy of a Book series (this appears in a few issues) and it's pretty interesting to learn about the parts of a book.

3. Volume 12 Issue 2: The entire issue because there are loads of articles about food! Really liked the one about brands that we used to have and how European families in Singapore made their food. And unrelated to food, but there's an article about a woman and her grandmother's experience in WWII that was surprisingly moving.

4. Volume 11 Issue 3: The entire issue of this too, which is about crime in the old days and has articles on Chinatown when the triads still ran it, Chap Ji Kee, Opium, the history of Bugis Street, etc.

5. Volume 10 Issue 1:

- My memories of Reading: the author's account of how books made her who she was (and I read so many of the books she did too - Chalet Girls, Secret Garden, Little Princess and much more!)

- Folk Tales from Asia: which highlights some of the books in the NLB's Asian Children's Literature Collection. Love the introduction and pictures of Indian handmade books, Japanese woodblock prints, and Chinese binding.

By the way, this article is also supposed to have a reprint of a Neil Gaiman speech but it's taken out of the PDF (guess they didn't get the rights). But you can find the speech on The Guardian.

6. Volume 9 Issue 3:

- Communal Feeding in Post-War Singapore: did you know that for about two years, there were "People's Restaurants" located all over Singapore that were supposed to provide healthy meals for cheap? I didn't and it was interesting to read about this short-lived program

- Mrs Beeton in Malaya: I've heard of Mrs. Newton and her cookbook, but I didn't know about her influence in this part of the world! So I found this really eye-opening.

7. Volume 7 Issue 1: The Growth of Imagination in Singapore - Children's Literature in English (1965 - 2005). This is a bit dated, given that it stops at 2005, but you should read it if you're interested in learning more about local children's literature and how it changed.

Anyway, I hope all these have showed you that there are tons of interesting articles on a variety of subjects in the archives. Plus they are all free to read, so if you're looking for reading material, this is a good option.

NaNoWriMo 2013 has started!

Hey all! Instead of your usual book review, I'd like to announce that today marks the start of NaNoWriMo! (National Novel Writing Month!). Like last year, I will be participating this year, and in honour of NaNoWriMo, my Google+ friends and I have come up with a free magazine (yes, FREE) for you!

It's all about plot bunnies and definitely worth your read.

You can get it for free here at Smashwords

And like last year, I'll be posting updates to NaNoWriMo at my personal blog, With Love from Japan, Eustacia. But no fear, I'll be linking these posts to this blog too, at the NaNoWriMo page!

Happy Mother's Day!

Today's Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day mommy! I miss you!

And if you're wondering what I gave her, well, there's a present, but since I was told not to mail stuff back anymore, I "gave" her an e-magazine too.

If you're looking for the link, here it is! Feel free to share this with your moms.

April Issue of An Excuse For Company (+ Sneak Peak)

Hey all! My computer time today was spent fixing up the next issue of An Excuse For Company for everyone to read! You can get it here.

As always, it's completely free! In fact, here's a sneak peak of what's inside:

When it rains, the sakura fall

The shorter the bloom, the more beautiful the memory.

雨のため

桜が散った

美しい

The new issue of An Excuse For Company is up!

Hey everyone!

Just a quick note to say that the March Issue of An Excuse For Company is published on smashwords! You can download it for free here.

This month's issue is Shakespeare, on account of the phrase "The Ides of March." At first, I wanted to do Ancient Rome, but sadly, there weren't enough feature articles.

Anyway, if you like the magazine and want to participate by submitting a blog post, review, story (it can already be published somewhere else on the web), contact me, I'm always looking for contributors!

February Issue of An Excuse For Company

Hey everyone! The February issue of An Excuse For Company is out and yours for free at this link!

This month's issue is about The Other Three Loves because, well, Valentines day is overhyped. Do you know in Japan, girls have to give things like giri-choco (obligation chocolate) to guys? And yes, only girls give chocolates on Valentines day here. I think I'll skip this year.

There are a lot more original materials in this issue (like poems~), and we have two authors speaking up - one about smashwords and the other showcasing her latest work.

If you want to participate (through a review, providing a cover image, through an original poem/story, etc), let me know and we'll work something out!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

Today turned out to be a good day. I managed to drag myself out of my room around noon and make it to Church, which meant I wasn't alone.

Also, I have a Christmas present for you guys - The January issue of An Excuse for Company!

You can download the free magazine here. This is the largest issue yet, and I hope it'll keep growing in 2013! The next few days will be used for reading challenges and such, so reviews will be (regretfully) scant.

An Excuse For Company Volume 2

Last month, I debuted the An Excuse For Company magazine. Earlier this month, I asked for submissions. And now, I'm very proud to say that I haven't given up and in fact, have published the second volume!

It's a Christmas Volume (since it's for December after all) and I'm so happy that there's actually a present! It's not a free book, but it's a discount on a really interesting book. Plus, you can sleep happy knowing that your profits don't go to the author, they go to a really worthwhile charity.

Of course, there are plenty of book reviews inside, and even two author posts! I hope you guys enjoy them!

You can download your free copy at Smashwords

Looking for Contributors to the December issue of An Excuse For Company!

Hey friends,

If you remember, last month, I debuted the book-ish e-magazine An Excuse For Company! I hope you downloaded it and enjoyed reading it!

Now, I'm looking for contributors for the December issue. It's Christmas-themed, but you don't have to submit only Christmas related posts. You can submit any of your blog posts/book reviews/book news that you want to share with everyone. Even photos are welcome (as a cover photo)!

Submitting is really easy. Just leave me the link to your blog post and an bio in the comments by the end of this week (16/11/2012) and I'll include your post in the next issue. Please note that I won't accept LGBT or erotica book reviews/news.

^_^

An Excuse For Company - Volume 1

HEY FRIENDS(: I have something I want to share with you! It's the first issue of what I hope will be a monthly magazine - An Excuse For Company (Link to smashwords page). And by the way, it's free~

I'm starting to think that my motivation for doing most things come from when I'm bored. Before I had the rush of exams/sick, I was being bored and suddenly felt like making a magazine! But I didn't want to do it alone, I wanted to have lots of people doing this, because it would be more fun, and you guys would get to see news and reviews that I don't know about.

So I posted on Goodreads where I got.... one response (thanks Jesse!). And then, I remembered Google+, and voila, the rest of the contributors appeared. I'm really so glad to have worked with them, and I hope that they become regular contributors!

But really, the hardest part of the magazine was the formatting and cover. The theme was easy, I already decided to do NaNoWriMo (ok, maybe I could have worked on the novel preparations instead of the magazine), so making that a feature was natural. Finding an appropriate photo (that I took, since I really don't want copyright issues) and doing the whole word document thing, was much more tedious.

I'm really not a tech person.

Still, I hope you guys download and read the issue (the formatting is the best on pdf, but ePub works too). And tell me if you have any comments or (better yet), if you want to be a part of the next issue. Heads up: The next issue will be Christmas themed, so I'll gladly welcome posts on Christmas and Christmas-y books, although any sort of book news/reviews are also welcome(: