My favorite children’s book is Anne of Green Gables, hand’s down. I can’t remember when I first read it or how I came to possess the book. Presumably my mother bought it for me — I don’t think my pocket money stretched to books when I was under ten. Perhaps she bought it for me […]
As I write this, I am wandering around my tiny apartment in my nightgown, wrapped inside a huge grey shawl, bedraggled hair tumbling down my back like some fallen lady in a Victorian storybook. It has been a morning of trying unsuccessfully to write my personal statement for MFA applications. I am feeling small and […]
Well, friends (for so I choose to call you, despite a. not knowing if anyone reads my blog and b. not knowing who it is that reads my blog) I’m back from vacation and deep in the throes of post-travel blues. I think I managed to do quite decently by my reading list, finishing two […]
One of my favorite parts of traveling is and has always been what I call the administrative bits. Making packing lists, packing, preparing the contents of my purse, last minute buying of toiletries and essentials and best of all, the compiling of Books To Read In The Airplane And On Vacation. If all the capitalization […]
New paper books! I’m trying to read more poetry. Okay, I lie, I never read any poetry so it would be impossible to read more. So correction: I’m trying to get into reading poetry. I’ve read a few so far from the book of love poetry (I hate that pink cutesy cover) and am […]
This is more of a note-to-self kind of post than anything else. A list of Terry Pratchett books I’ve read, a list of ones I haven’t and overall excitement about the one I’m going to read next after stumbling upon this amazingly well-written review. Read: The Colour of Magic Equal Rites Wyrd Sisters Guards! Guards! […]
I’m not sure how it is for other readers when they read books written by their fellow countrymen, but as a Malaysian Chinese, reading a book written by another Malaysian evokes a variety of complex feelings. As a writer, there is a certain amount of envy (goddammit I want to write The Great Malaysian Novel!), […]
This is the base of a building that they are constructing on a plot of land behind my office. When I first moved into this office, there was nothing on this plot of land. If you look closely at the construction site, you will see a heap of garbage at the bottom left hand corner. […]
I think we all know how I feel about Neil Gaiman here. I’ve made my feelings quite clear. He writes his books longhand, responds to his Twitter and Tumblr fans (and in a real way, not some half-assed ‘my PR person made me write this’ way), has wildly curly hair and loves his dog (and […]
Good night, you Princes of Maine, you Kings of New England. I’ve been reading The Cider House Rules. Or rather, re-reading it. Has this ever happened to you? You can’t remember actually reading a book, but as you read it becomes more and more familiar, as if this is a terrain you have crossed […]
Buried Beneath All The Lies 