I finished one really inspiring book today called Piano Lessons: A Memoir. You see, my Grade 8 piano exam is coming up in 3 weeks and I'm really nervous, especially this is my second time taking the exam. So Aunty Florence lent me this book to "inspire" me to practice.
Well, it worked.
While I'm not the most musically inclined of people (I seriously cannot interpret the feeling in a piece), this book still inspires me to practice hard. Anna (the protagonist and authoress), seems to be like me, wanting to do things absolutely correct (although she can see the 'story' in the pieces). And I saw that in the end, she could only play well when she let go of her nervousness/controlling and let the emotions flow through her.
Now, I'm gonna try to emulate that.
I'm sorry, but I need to go now, I've got an awful migraine and so many things to do....
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Monday, February 7, 2011
Building a library
I just finished a book called "How to form a library, 2nd ed". It's a fairly interesting book, and raises some points that are worth consideration. Although, the irony is that this book is on ebook format. (:
One point that I agree on is that "special care must be taken in the choice of books, for upon that alone depends the value of the library". It makes sense to me, because while it is possible to have a library full of comics (not that I don't want that too), if it's only comics, than there's not much worth as say, a library with only novels (I mean Literature). But the best libraries (to me), have a good mix of everything, novels and non-fiction, comics and concordances.
Another illuminating point that was made was that "it is vain to go on the principle of collecting books that people ought to read, and afterwards trying to coax them to read them. The only practical method is to begin by supplying books that people already want to read, and afterwards to do whatever shall be found possible to elevate their reading tastes and habits". While I do try to get my sisters to read, it doesn't always work. But if I get them books that they like (like Sarah Dessen for Euphe), then they naturally read more. And to my surprise, Euge even finished the 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear.
The only thing I don't quite like about the book is that most of it are lists of books that should be in the library (although the author admits that it is not the be all end all list). But to me, it does take up space in the book, and I feel that in building up a personal library (although the book was addressing both public and private libraries), what matters most is that you buy books you like, or you will never read the books you have anyway.
One point that I agree on is that "special care must be taken in the choice of books, for upon that alone depends the value of the library". It makes sense to me, because while it is possible to have a library full of comics (not that I don't want that too), if it's only comics, than there's not much worth as say, a library with only novels (I mean Literature). But the best libraries (to me), have a good mix of everything, novels and non-fiction, comics and concordances.
Another illuminating point that was made was that "it is vain to go on the principle of collecting books that people ought to read, and afterwards trying to coax them to read them. The only practical method is to begin by supplying books that people already want to read, and afterwards to do whatever shall be found possible to elevate their reading tastes and habits". While I do try to get my sisters to read, it doesn't always work. But if I get them books that they like (like Sarah Dessen for Euphe), then they naturally read more. And to my surprise, Euge even finished the 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear.
The only thing I don't quite like about the book is that most of it are lists of books that should be in the library (although the author admits that it is not the be all end all list). But to me, it does take up space in the book, and I feel that in building up a personal library (although the book was addressing both public and private libraries), what matters most is that you buy books you like, or you will never read the books you have anyway.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Over the Chinese New Year 2011
It's officially the year of the rabbit!
But unfortunately, I haven't read any rabbit themed books. And although I went to the library recently, I really can't remember much of the books I read (which shows how interesting they were).
So let me see, over the past few days, I read a few ebooks. Including The Brothers Grimm, which made me realise that lots of fairy tales have skewed morals, like one that celebrates the "cleverness" of a maid that successfully gets away with drinking her master's beer and eating his 2 roasted chickens.
And there was a really interesting one called "Literary Taste: How to form it", what was interesting was how it advocated building a library. While I'm not going to take the list wholeheartedly and buy everything (I do have my own list of books to buy), it's interesting how he says that by putting away a small amount of money each week and buying inexpensive copies, it's easy to build up a good library in a short period of time.
As for one of the library books that I can actually remember, The Art of Discworld is the one. It's not strictly a book, but more like a whole collections of illustrations, but it's differentiated by the commentary. It's really entertaining, and like the book says, makes the "movie" of Discworld come alive. And the pictures were almost spot on as to how I imagined the characters to look like.
Alright, I'll talk more tomorrow (I hope)
But unfortunately, I haven't read any rabbit themed books. And although I went to the library recently, I really can't remember much of the books I read (which shows how interesting they were).
So let me see, over the past few days, I read a few ebooks. Including The Brothers Grimm, which made me realise that lots of fairy tales have skewed morals, like one that celebrates the "cleverness" of a maid that successfully gets away with drinking her master's beer and eating his 2 roasted chickens.
And there was a really interesting one called "Literary Taste: How to form it", what was interesting was how it advocated building a library. While I'm not going to take the list wholeheartedly and buy everything (I do have my own list of books to buy), it's interesting how he says that by putting away a small amount of money each week and buying inexpensive copies, it's easy to build up a good library in a short period of time.
As for one of the library books that I can actually remember, The Art of Discworld is the one. It's not strictly a book, but more like a whole collections of illustrations, but it's differentiated by the commentary. It's really entertaining, and like the book says, makes the "movie" of Discworld come alive. And the pictures were almost spot on as to how I imagined the characters to look like.
Alright, I'll talk more tomorrow (I hope)
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
The Killer's Art by Mari Jungstedt
I've finished one book today, apart from going to the library and even finished my BM IA analysis. All in all, a very productive day. This book, The Killer's Art is by a Scandinavia author, which is the first time (I can recall), that I read a book by a European author.
To digress a little, I'm really glad that I studied Siddhartha last year. This is actually a little relevant, because in Siddhartha, I studied about Freud and Jung, and learnt how to pronounce their names. Now, look at the author(ess) name again? Yup, it's Jungstedt, so I was pretty happy that I could pronounce most of her name(:
The book is, on the whole, well written, and by that, I mean that the mystery is well done, and kept me guessing til the end, yet, it made sense, with no unbelievable plot twists. It's apparently part of a series, since it says "an inspector Knutas series", and it's actually interesting enough that I want to go and look for the other books in the series.
The only thing I don't like about this book is the homosexuality. But unlike other books (like The Book of Lost Things), this is actually integral to its plot, and so, I suppose it could be somewhat excused. But I really really wished that it wasn't there, although right now, I can't think of any alternative plot.
To digress a little, I'm really glad that I studied Siddhartha last year. This is actually a little relevant, because in Siddhartha, I studied about Freud and Jung, and learnt how to pronounce their names. Now, look at the author(ess) name again? Yup, it's Jungstedt, so I was pretty happy that I could pronounce most of her name(:
The book is, on the whole, well written, and by that, I mean that the mystery is well done, and kept me guessing til the end, yet, it made sense, with no unbelievable plot twists. It's apparently part of a series, since it says "an inspector Knutas series", and it's actually interesting enough that I want to go and look for the other books in the series.
The only thing I don't like about this book is the homosexuality. But unlike other books (like The Book of Lost Things), this is actually integral to its plot, and so, I suppose it could be somewhat excused. But I really really wished that it wasn't there, although right now, I can't think of any alternative plot.
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