Confessions of a Book Fiend

"Confessions of a Book Fiend" was featured on the Incidental Comics blog. I believe many of us has this addiction ^_^

The Gift of Nothing

Today is my turn to do public speaking. It’s a ritual in Kinokuniya and every staff will get their chance, once in three month. It’s been so long I haven’t do story telling, so I decide to do it today. I choose Patrick McDonnell’s The Gift of Nothing, a heartwarming story about friendship. It’s a story about Mooch the cat, who wanted to give his best friend a gift. But the problem is his best friend Earl the Dog, has everything. What do you get someone who had everything? Nothing! So, he begins his quest to search for the gift of nothing. I enjoyed reading this book to my friends and I’m so happy because they like it too. ^_^

Books Bought October 2010

♥ Alice Adventure in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll (Barnes Noble)
♥ Disney Princess Little Golden Book Favorites Volume 1
♥ Disney Princess Little Golden Book Favorites Volume 2
♥ Disney Book & CD Slipcase: My Favorites Adventures
♥ 1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up by Julia Eccleshare
♥ Bambert's Book of Missing Stories by Reinhardt Jung
♥ Learning About Islam (For Kids) by Saniyasnain Khan & Maryam Kinte
♥ Alice Through the Looking-Glass (Usborne Reading Series)
♥ 21 Tip Bagi Yang Sukar Solat Subuh by Syaikh Muhammad Shalih Al-Munajjid
♥ "Chuggington" Mini Paperback: Hodge and the Magnet (Chuggington Mini Collection)
♥ Gyo Fujikawa’s A to Z by Gyo Fujikawa
♥ Are You a Snail? by Judy Allen
♥ Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wyane Jones
♥ Ruth Heller’s How to Hide Butterfly and Other Insects by Ruth Heller
♥ Are You an Ant? By Judy Allen
♥ How do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague
♥ Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
♥ The Bookseller of Kabul by Asne Seierstad
♥ Miracle-Gro Complete Guide to Houseplants by Miracle-Gro
♥ Cinderella's Fairy-Tale Wedding: A Royal Book and Dress-Up Kit
♥ The Bibliophile's Devotional: 365 Days of Literary Classics by Hallie Ephron

Sleepy Night

I’m very sleepy today. My daughter wakes me up at 1 am, just to ask me to read to her. I was angry at the beginning but then I know if I didn’t fulfill her request, she will not go to bed. She already chosen what book to read and before I start my son came and joins us for the bedtime stories. At first, I read to them Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The second story was Little Red Riding Hood. I thought, we going to end the session after the second story, but my son begged me to read Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Oh well, I cannot disappointed them. Besides, I loved to read to them. So, I read to them and end up we sleep at 2 am. What a night!

Pansing Partner's Day Books

Yesterday I received my books which I order from Pansing (one of our supplier). They have this event called Pansing Partner’s Day, where they give attractive discount to their business partner. Most of the books I ordered is nonfiction books. I did ordered picture books but they don't have stock. They only sent me one title which is Emily Gravett's The Odd Egg. My daughter very excited and can’t wait for me to read to them.

Princess VS Bugs

Last night I’ve read four books to my children, two for Sofea and two for Anwar. As usual, Sofea will choose her princess books and Anwar will choose his train and bugs books. I still haven’t figured out why Sofea so attached with all this princess-thingy especially Disney Princess and Barbie. She will fight with her brother if he claimed that all her book ‘mengarut’/nonsense. She will say all her brother’s books are ‘mengarut’ too. Even during our bedtime stories, they will quarrel and claim that their book is the best one. I have to explain to them why we need to read both fiction and non fiction. Even though Sofea is only 4 years old, but I have to control her obsession with all this princess-thingy before it’s become worst. Yes, I want her to be a reader but not a reader who only read all this princess-thingy books. So, one of my missions is to make sure she like to reads all kind of book include her brother bugs book. ^_^

Books Read: Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical Mysteries

My youngest son was diagnosed with VSD-in-failure last year, so we spent almost five month in hospital. Many new things I’ve learned there (good and bad) and I’ve meets all kind of people (doctors, nurses and patients). I really into this medical thingy and that one of the reason I bought this book. In this book, Dr Lisa Sanders exposed us the process of diagnosis, how the doctors and expertise tackle diagnostic dilemmas and dramatic stories of patients with mysterious symptoms. I enjoyed the chapter where doctors make wrong decision, leads to diagnostic errors and how they overcome it. I highly recommend this book to be read by doctors and future doctors so they can prepare themselves the real life at hospital. As for us, it’s a MUST read because we never know that some day we will be a patients and we have to tell a complete story to the doctor to avoid misdiagnosis. Here is some of my favorite quotes from this book.
Doctors are human beings and, thus are prone to biases, distortions of perspective and blind spots. But doctors have the capacity to learn from their mistakes, overcome built-in biases, and guard against the kinds of thinking errors that in other professions might be an annoyance. (Page 271)
“There’s no shame in intubating the esophagus”, he said. But there is shame in not checking or catching the error. Errors themselves are unavoidable. Mistakes will always happen – all types of mistakes, from the technical to the cognitive. But that doesn’t mean we throw up our hands in helplessness. The key is designing our systems, our procedures, our protocols and our own thinking process to minimize mistakes as much as possible and then to catch mistakes when they are made.(page 272)

Books Read to My Children: Eloise Wilkin's Poems To Read To the Very Young

I ordered this book few months ago after I bought Eloise Wilkin’s Stories. How I adore Eloise Wilkin’s illustration. Her illustration excited me to read the poems to my children. This book featured over 30 poems of childhood by famous poets such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Christina Rossetti, Kate Greenway, Langston Hughes and many more. My favorite poems are Time to Rise by Robert Louis Stevenson. A birdie with a yellow bill/ Hopped upon the window sill/ Cocked his shining eye and said: / “Aint’ you shamed, you sleepy-head! /

Calla Edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales

One of the advantage working in bookstore is we got a chance to browse the new book before we displays it on the bookshelf. Yesterday, we received Calla Edition of Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The book is gorgeous. Not only having the attractive cover, inside of the book is mesmerizing. There are 40 full-color plates and innumerable black-and-white spot elements which illustrated by Arthur Rackham. After browsing this book, I want to get one for myself. So, come over and take a look what this book has to offer. You will be surprise.

Scholastic Read Everyday Campaign

Interesting Reading Bill of Rights by Scholastic. I admired their effort on making reading as fundamental to our children. Let's support this campaign and start reading to our children, everyday!
http://www.scholastic.com/readeveryday

Hari Raya Treats

This year, I let my children to use their 'duit raya'. They can spend half of their 'duit raya' to buy toy and book they liked and half of it will be goes to their saving. For toys, Anwar bought one of his favorite Thomas train collection and Sofea bought Barbie sun-glasses and watch. And for books, Anwar want to add his Backyard Books collection. So I bought, Are You a Bee? for him. As for Sofea, I bought Tangled Disney new movie about Rapunzel and for Ashraf, I bought The Please and Thank You Book by Golden Books.

There’s nothing like a Little Golden Book!

I like their tag “there’s nothing like a Little Golden Book”, this is true. Golden Books, I heard about this publisher before but I don’t really keen to check what they have to offer. But when I purchased the Eloise Wilkin Stories published by them, I fall in love with this publisher and started to collect their books especially a Little Golden Book Collection. Golden Books has changed the publishing history when they launched Little Golden Books in 1942 at 25 cents each. For the first time, children books were high quality and low-priced. They were available to almost all children and affordable for most families, American families in particular. To date, over 2 billion Little Golden Books have been printed and sold all over the world. Last week I bought Friendly Tales by Margaret Wise Brown; there are twenty stories and poems in it. I enjoyed reading it to my children and they love them too. Some of our favorite stories are Pussy Willow, The Train to Timbuctoo, The Color Kittens, Home for Bunny and Mister Dog. I highly recommend this wonderful book!

The Usborne Reading Programme

Next year Anwar, my eldest son will be in standard one. I’m a bit worried because he cannot read yet. He can spell the words but don’t know how to pronounce them. I tried the Ladybird Keyword series but don’t help much. My children don’t really like the classic-look of the book (remember Peter and Jane). So, I try out the Usborne Reading Programme series. It’s divided into four levels according to the words per book; Level One – up to 150 words per book, Level Two – up to 250 words per book, Level Three – up to 450 words per book and Level Four – up to 750 words per book. So, I bought two titles from the First Level, The Three Wishes and The Ant and the Grasshopper. My children seem to enjoy the books especially Anwar and he even try to read it by himself.With delightful illustrations and easy-to-read text, these series is very good for beginner reader like my children. For further information find out at www.usborne.com

Reprint Edition of Gyo Fujikawa's A to Z Picture Book

I'm in love with Gyo Fujikawa's illustrations. Thanks to Iza who introduced her books to me. Now I'm starting to collect all her books and what thrills me more is that there's going to be a reprint edition of Gyo Fujukawa's A to Z in September (ISBN:9781402768187). Gyo Fujikawa was an American illustrator and children's book author. She wrote more than 50 books and her books are regularly in reprint. Her paintings of children are recognizable for their happy faces, rosy cheeks and simple dots for eyes. Her most popular book is Babies and Baby Animals. I bought a copy of Baby Animals recently and started reading it to my children. They really loved it. Every time I read to them, they will giggle and ask me to re-read again.

A Mother Reading To Her Child

This painting called Alice In Wonderland, by George Dunlop Leslie. It's a very lovely picture and every time I see it , it's really soothing my eyes.

Good book to read aloud

I bought this book a few month ago.I fall in loved with the adorable illustrations by Eloise Wilkin. This book are one of my children favorite book. They will asked me to read to them during bedtime story. and I never get bored to read aloud to them over and over again.

The Lost Symbol paperback on sale today!

Finally, the paperback version of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol is here. Normally, the paperback versions are only available a year after the hardcover release, but this time it was released earlier. I think it's a wise decision from the publishers, to remind us to get back to our books after a quiet month due to the football hype. This book will be available in all bookstores and in Kinokuniya customers can enjoy 20% off with purchase of other items. Happy selling and happy reading!

Books Addict

This month I supposed to cut down my spending on books. that the advice I received from my colleague who work in bank. The problem is I cannot stop myself. For instance today, I went to MPH to bought The Malay Dilemma but end up buying another three children books with me. any idea to get rid of this bad habit?

oh...oh..ohh..balik kampung!!!

School holiday, so we going back to kota Bahru for five days. My children really enjoyed kampung life especially Anwar. he has a chance to play with roosters, cats and insects. he also bring along his animal encyclopedia so he can compare it with the real one.

Flash card

I'm a bit frustrated because my eldest son still dun know how to read. My husband already make noise. The ladybird keyword and phonics that I bought few years back doesn't really help a lot. so now I try to teach him to read by using flash card. Let see if it's work.

Cat stories....meow....

Let's read cat stories, I told my kids. So, they start to look for cat stories book. These are the titles they found in our bookshelves. My kids really enjoyed it...

Bedtime Stories

Last night I managed to reads two books for them. We really enjoyed it especially Little Hoot by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. I still can hear their laughter, when I read to them the part where mother owl remind Little Hoot 10 more minutes before he can go to bed. One minute, two minutes, three minutes .....

Anwar's Sport Day

Yesterday, we attended Sukaneka Mawip Zon Setapak at Titiwangsa Stadium.It's was fun, exciting and exhausting day!

The Renaissance Man in person

I'm so excited today, Kino hosting a signing session for Pak Ungku's new book 'The Renaissance Man'. I admired him and appreciated his contributions to this country. Meeting him in person it's like a dream comes true.

my childrens bookshelf

One of my favorite things to do is buying books for my childrens. Books, books, books.... how I loved books

A is for Allah

Welcome to my blog, blogger!

Thanks to Marisa, I finally have my own blog. It's been so long I want to create one but i dun have a chance to do it. I'll try my best to maintain it. Welcome!!!