In my good books

Tagging an editor to blog about books is like asking a bartender at the end of a long hard day to go home and make a drink for himself/herself. However, Wendelin has 'booked' me so here I go!


The book that changed my life

Microelectronic Circuits
Authors - Sedra and Smith

Considered the bible of engineering students, this is one book that changed my life. When I was a student of engineering, the drawings of the various circuits, diodes vividly described in agonising detail in this book made me resolve that I shall not let my life be governed by the things shown in the book. And that is the story of how I left the world of engineering where everything makes annoyingly logical and mathematical sense, to the world of the arts where erm, nothing makes sense. But it is beautiful and I love it. And I have Sedra and Smith to thank for it.

Once I finished my degree, my first thought was - how do I get rid of this damning evidence of my utterly boring past? I put an ad on the university public folders to try and sell it to an unsuspecting junior. I got no responses. I lowered my asking price. No responses still. I buried it deep in the storeroom and forgot about it. Sometime last year, while packing to move into a new place, I discovered the book lying in a carton. Not wanting to lug the heavy book along, I advertised again, and this time I actually said I'll give it away free. I got one response. But the person never picked the book up. :

The books I've read more than once

The lost girl and the scallywags
Author - Demykina Galina

Jolly Family
Author - Nikolai Nosov

Ah. Two of my favourite childhood books. My sister and I read a lot of children's books by Russian authors and these were two of the best. Then we grew up and Dad locked all of the books up in what he calls "the bachpan box" for safekeeping for his grandchildren. Sheesh. I recently found the downloadable version of the second one here.

Book I would take to a deserted island

My sketchbook, of course!

Book that made me laugh

Dave Barry is not taking this sitting down
Author - Dave Barry

This is seriously the funniest book I've ever read. I remember chuckling out loud each time I read it. Barry is one serious funnyman.

Book that made me cry

Walk through cold fire
Author - Cin-Forshay Lunsford

I had just entered my teens and my friend lent me this 'trashy novel' - it was my first and only trashy novel - except that I did not find it so trashy. Ah the appeal of teenage rebellion to a teenager like me who was always "the good girl" both at school and at home. I loved the book to bits, but unfortunately for me, the friend had a good memory. Last year, I had a sudden craving to read it again, but the libraries and bookstores here did not have it. Amazon and E-bay were selling old copies but I wasn't sure I wanted it for a frickin' 69-bucks-plus-shipping.

Books I wish I had written

The Harry Potter series
Author - J.K. Rowling

No contest here. Not that I'm a fan of the HP books, or could have ever matched her writing in my dreams, but if I had written them I'd be rolling in the millions that Rowling is rolling in right now. Muahahaha! I may not possess the talent to write those books, but I certainly possess the talent of spending all that money! (any killjoy who attempts to point out that if I'd written the books, there wouldn't be the millions will really get it from my hypothetical rolled-up newspaper!) And with those millions and millions of dollars and pounds and other currencies, I'd have a bought a big house with a swimming pool and a big garden and a swing and... oh wait, that is a different tag!

Book I wish had never been written

Science PSLE Revision Guide
Authors - Three foolish editors who had great foresight for children but none for themselves

At my last company, where I was working as a children's book editor, a few years ago three of us editors conceptualised this amazing book for the PSLE (the PSLE is a scary examination that 12-year-olds in Singapore take that causes more anxiety attacks in Singaporean parents than any other cause.) The problem was that all the authors we approached freaked out at the deadlines and turned down the project. It was imperative that the book be out before the exam, so the three of us took a bold decision - to write it ourselves! Since the book was written by 'employees', we neither got royalties (only a small bonus), nor were we featured on the book cover (only on the title page). Since it was a new idea, we played safe and printed only 5000 copies in the first run. They were snapped up in no time, and reprints orders poured in two weeks after the book had released. The book sold 45000 copies in half a year and was declared the best-selling SM (Supplementary Material, a term used in the Singapore school books market) in Singapore of all time.

Damn I wish that book had never been written. :/

So that I could have written it now and pocketed the royalties. :D

Book I am currently reading

Second form at Malory Towers
Author - Enid Blyton

Even though she was born in 1897, Enid Blyton was like my Dad's third daughter. He had stocked up all her books when I was a kid, and my sister had I just couldn't seem to get enough of her books. Last year, I found the Malory Towers and St. Clares series going for a dollar each at Queensway. Needless to say, I snapped them up. I have been reading them again and again, and this morning, I was so engrossed in one that I almost forgot to bathe before going to work!

Book I've been meaning to read

SATC
Author - Candace Bushnell
I'm a big fan of the television series, and one of my bestest friends Starbreez even gifted me the book based on the series. But I am yet to read the book the series was based on! I've been scouring the libraries here and apparently all copies are lent out. People, will you return your books on time! :/

Book I have been meaning to finish

Atlas Shrugged
Author - Ayn Rand

My friend who's a big fan of Ayn Rand recommended the book to me, but when I took a look at his copy I refused to borrow it. I have a minimum font size requirement, you see. I refuse to read books that are set in a font size so tiny you wonder if the inside front cover had a magnifying glass stuck to it. So he gifted me the big font version of the book, which turned out to be so thick that I could not get past the first chapter. Someday when I have nothing to do, perhaps I will read it.

That's it, folks. And oh, I tag all my book editor friends. I shall not be the only bartender to go home and make her drink herself! :D