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Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I think I have read this classic when I was young but I couldn’t quite understand what it was talking about. The fact that Old English tend to go in circles talking about one thing doesn’t help either. 

Men and women during those times are so boring. The only thing on their mind seems to find a good husband/wife to increase their fortunes. That seems to be their only source of entertainment. 

But the theme of the book is still relevant in today’s society. We often perceive others based on our own prejudice and pride. 

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Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I first read this book when it was published in 2006. I lent the book to my colleague and she never returned it (but she insisted that she has returned it to me). I wanted to reread this book so I got the Kindle version. 

Since then, “Eat, Love, Pray” created a worldwide phenomenon and it has apparently helped millions of women all over the world. Many women have since embarked on their own ELP trip.

I totally get why this book is so successful. Many of the things that the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, experiences resonates with readers all over the world. Every year, thousands if not millions of couple divorce, and many of those women have probably experienced some of that hopelessness that Elizabeth Gilbert experienced. 

For me, the part that resonates with me the most is the part where we (Elizabeth Gilbert and me) realization about mortality. She realized it when she was 9 years old turning 10, I realized it much later at 29 years old turning 30. I think it has something to do with the transition from the 20s to the 30s that shocked me how fast time passes. Wait, maybe I had it much younger. Since young, my life motto has always been “experience as much of life as possible” or something to that effect, I must have had this mortality realization for me to have this life motto? Anyway, from then on, I kept thinking of how fast each day, each week, each month, each year passes and how I have wasted each day. I can’t do much about weekdays when I have to spend the majority of my time working, but I have major issues with weekends where I can distribute time as I like. I end almost every Sunday with the regret and feeling that I wasted yet another Sunday, no matter how much I have done that day. 

According to this book “according to the mystics, this search for divine bliss is the entire purpose of the a human life”. In that case, should I also go to India for a retreat? I would definitely like to do that some day, but right now I think what I need to do the most is to swim/cycle as the doctor advises and get my back pain and knee pain sorted out. I also need to restart praying to God and ask God what I should be working as because I am not happy at my current workplace. According to this book (and I believe this wholeheartedly), I don’t have to be a Christian to pray, you can pick your religion (for those of us who are previleged not to be born into a family with strict religious ties).  

Most of all, I think the message that “Eat, Love, Pray” is trying to tell me (and anyone who read this book) is: no matter what you have been try, you can always rebuild your life back. What a comforting thing to know. 

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Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling

It has been many years since the last Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows film adaptation has been aired, which marks the end of the Harry Potter and I am still having “Harry Potter Withdrawal Symptoms”. 

I was really happy to see “Harry Potter and The Cursed Child” but I wasn’t too sure about it being in manuscript form. I took a chance and bought the Kindle ebook. 

To tell you the truth, it is quite a letdown. It’s almost like an anti-climax to the whole Harry Potter trilogy. Harry Potter’s son Albus Severus wants to prove himself so he bring his new-found friend, Draco Malfoy’s son Scorpious Malfoy, on a journey through time. In the end, they did thaw Delphi’s plan and stopped her, but it still feels unnecessary. 

If the original Harry Potter cast really performs the play according to the manuscript, I probably will buy a ticket to watch it, but I am going to put it aside and re-read the Harry Potter books to console myself. 
Get Harry Potter and The Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling.

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Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain

Anthony Bourdain’s death from suicide on 8th June caused quite a stir and many people are talking about it on Facebook.

I have seen Anthony Bourdain on television a few times but I am not really interested in celebrities. 

Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential caught my attention when it first came out in 2000 and I was very interested in reading it but I never quite got around to that. Someone on Facebook wrote something about this book and I remembered that it is actually written by Anthony Bourdain. I promptly bought the ebook on Amazon and I finished it in less than a week. 

Besides television shows like Hell’s Kitchen and Masterchef and romanticised versions shown in Korean dramas, I have never stepped into a kitchen and seen what really happen behind those doors. Kitchen Confidential gives me a look into the real kitchen, where foul language, sex and drugs are a large part of it. It is a crazy world in there where they have their own lingo, where blistered hands filled with hideous constellations and angry red welts are a sign of pride. 

This book is part autobiography and part non-fiction, starting off with Anthony Bourdain describing how and why he got into the restaurant business and became a chef to showing how the restaurant business is really run and why many of them fail.

It is a hugely entertaining read. Anythony Bourdain is hugely entertaining with a wicked sense of humour. Just when you think you know it, he proves you wrong all over again.

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Complete Notes from Singapore The Omnibus Edition by Neil Humphreys

After reading all three books, I have declared myself a Neil Humphreys fan. He talks about topics which I have always thought to myself but never had the guts to say out. I am humbled that an ang moh who stays 10 years in Singapore knows more about Singapore than me who have stayed in Singapore for more than 20 years. I applaud Neil Humphreys for his keen sense of observation and humor, turning peculiar residents of Toa Payoh into endearing characters. 

I was sad that he was leaving Singapore but I know that he returned in 2012 and have since produced two more books, Return to a Sexy Island: Notes from New Singapore and Saving a Sexier Island: Notes from Old Singapore. Till then, I am going to look for that Sembawang Hot Spring. 

Get Complete Notes from Singapore The Omnibus Edition by Neil Humphreys.

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网络小说《如果蜗牛有爱情》也很好看哦!

如果蜗牛有爱情

我很喜欢《如果蜗牛有爱情》这部大陆电视剧,得知这个电视剧是由一本网络小说改编而成的,决定拜读丁墨的《如果蜗牛有爱情》。

王子文饰演的许诩非常到位,白白净净的。电视剧里的许诩会画漫画但书里的许诩是不会画画的。电视剧里许诩把同事画成动物,给整部戏加了一些很温馨的成分。

书里和电视剧里的季白不太一样,虽然在工作时都是很拼命的,但书里的季白有比较痞的一面,但王凯饰演的季白是很正直的。王凯好帅啊!

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Books

What She Really Wants by Barbara Delinsky – A Sweet Short Story

What She Really Wants was the first ebook I bought on Amazon after my father got me my Kindle Paperwhite reader. It was free on Amazon and I was looking for a book to test out my Kindle Paperwhite so I got this book. 

It is a short story about a husband getting his wife a present for her birthday. It is only 270-pages long, but I can really feel the love this husband has for his wife through Barbara Delinsky’s words. It is a fun and easy read that you can probably finish in 1-2 hours. 

Get What She Really Wants by Barbara Delinsky.

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1984 by George Orwell – A Fictional Dystopian Novel

I have seen 1984 by George Orwell be described as an example of English literature and classic many times but the title does not sound interesting at all, so I kept putting it off. One fine day, I told myself “you bought the book, you might as well read it”. I started reading it and I couldn’t put it down until I have finished the book.

1984 is a dystopia (a community or society that is frightening or undesirable, an antonym to utopia) novel set in 1984 when most of the world population falls into one of the three superstates – Eurasia, Oceania and Eastasia – totalitarian states with the mottos: 

War is Peace

Freedom is Slavery

Ignorance is Strength 

The ideology of the totalitarian states as described by the book “The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism by Emmanuel Goldstein” is every bit the opposite of what I have been taught at school and in society, but many of the traits described reminds me of what I have read about communist countries, especially in Russia (which was known as Soviet Union back then), but this book takes it many steps further. Perhaps this was what communism was really about, except that no country has yet been able to manifest it fully before it was defeated, or perhaps George Orwell wrote this novel on the basis of communism. 

If you are looking for a novel that contradicts every belief you have ever believed in and make you grateful for the freedom to think, to speak, to act according to your own wishes, this is the book for you.

Get 1984 by George Orwell.

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The Four – The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google by Scott Galloway

I have always wondered why the most successful four companies of the twenty-first century – Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google – have that the other billions or millions of start-ups don’t. What gives them the competitive edge over other businesses? 

The Four by Scott Galloway has taught me that the reason these (he calls them) The Four Horsemen are able to penetrate and dominate the retail, smartphone, social and search sectors respectively, is because these four companies acts on our human instincts to acquire more stuff, acquire knowledge, be more god-like and have higher sex appeal and to connect with others. 

The Four has these common traits, which distinguishes them from the rest of the other companies: 

  1. Product differentiation 
  2. Visionary capital 
  3. Global reach
  4. Likability 
  5. Vertical integration
  6. Artificial intelligence 
  7. Accelerant 
  8. Geography 

Scott Galloway goes through The Four one by one, dissecting each company so that businesses from around the world can perhaps learn a thing or two and better their businesses.

Get The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google by Scott Galloway.  

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Rhett Butler’s People by Donald McCaig – Sequel to Gone with the Wind


I don’t like sad endings and after reading Gone with The Wind where the story ended with Rhett Butler leaving Scarlett, it left an unsatisfactory feeling in me. I decided to see if there is a sequel to Gone with The Wind and I found Rhett Butler’s People. This is the authorised sequel to Gone with The Wind. 

As the name implies, Rhett Butlet’s people tells the story from Rhett Butler’s perspective. I have always been rather curious about how Rhett Butler thinks so this book is perfect for me.

After reading the book, I adore Rhett Butler even more. He is a shrewd businessman who sees opportunity that others can’t, he can charm the pants off anyone he sets his mind to. Yet he is such a tender-hearted man who disguises his pain with cold harsh words. 

Rhett Butler’s People has given me the happy ending that I want where Scarlett finally realises that she loved Rhett and they finally start loving one another. 

Rhett Butler will, and always be, my prince charming. 

Get Rhett Butler’s People by Donald McCaig