Page 206: That people's memories are maybe the fuel they burn to stay alive. Whether those memories have any actual importance or not, it doesn't matter as far as the maintenance of life is concerned. They're all just fuel.

After Dark by Haruki Murakami tells the story of what happens to a few particular persons between 11.56 P.M. and 6.52 A.M. in Tokyo on a particular night.

I revisited this book again in August this year for a book discussion with my colleague, Eugene Foong. He was preparing a presentation for his Masters degree based on the same book. One day during lunch, he asked if I’ve read Nassim Taleb’s FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS and I answered yes. That’s how the book discussion came to be.

It is interesting to note Taleb’s observations on how chance plays a part in success. Luck is democratic and hits everyone regardless of original skills, he says. Take the example of millionaires: […]

GOSSAMER is my first Lois Lowry book and definitely not the last. It’s an interesting and delightful read. I’m intrigued by the dream-givers, especially Littlest One. I could almost hear her tiny soft voice whenever she speaks, or asks this and that while she follows her teacher on duty to bestow dreams.

Littlest One is a tiny creature slowly learning her job of giving dreams to humans. Where do dreams come from? What makes the stuff of nightmares? In this story, two people—a lonely, sensitive woman (we do not know her name) and a damaged, angry boy named John—face their own histories. […]

CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY by Roald Dahl is my first Roald Dahl book and I must say I love it! This highly imaginative book is a gem and one that’s full of lessons. I like the little boy Charlie very much and like most children, he is full of curiosity. He is also obedient for he listens to his parents, Mr and Mrs Bucket, and his very old grandparents. His family is poor and the seven of them live in a tiny, worn-down house. It is heartbreaking to read his family situation.

One day, Mr Willy Wonka, a well-known chocolate maker who has been missing in action for a long, long time comes back into business. […]

WARNING: Do not read this in public. Please also be ready with a box of tissues because NIGHTS IN RODANTHE is a tear-jerker. Nicholas Sparks always makes me cry.

Adrienne Willis is a 60-year-old divorced woman and a mother of three grown children. She retells her story—a flashback of love and redemption, loss and grief—out of concern for her widowed daughter who is going through depression after the death of her husband. This is a story that has resided in the deepest corner of her heart for 15 years: Two middle-aged people met by chance in the small North Carolina coastal town of Rodanthe.

Michael Dirda, a Pulitzer-winning critic and longtime columnist for Washington Post Book World shares his love of literature and books in BOOK BY BOOK. This book ignites the passion for classics in me and in my opinion, is an effortless read. In BOOK BY BOOK, Dirda speaks not only of classics but he also covers contemporary works ranging from Cicero to Dr. Seuss.

I had a wonderful time pondering Dirda’s observations and the quotations he lavishes on his readers. Needless to say, my copy of the book is filled with markings and scribblings. He did encourage readers to do the same and perhaps from our own reflections, we create our own reader’s guide as well.

Reading third chapter into THE HAUNTED BOOKSHOP (my post here), I came across a text that I liked very much, and which Roger Mifflin the proprietor of The Haunted Bookshop is also very much fond of. He had it hung over his own desk while I’ve reproduced it below:

ON THE RETURN OF A BOOK LENT TO A FRIEND

I GIVE humble and hearty thanks for the safe return of this book which having endured the perils of my friend's bookcase, and the bookcases of my friend's friends, now returns to me in reasonably good condition. […]