Oh. Where have I been. My blog entries are practically extinct for the past few months.
No doubt that I have been working, but more importantly, I have been reading. A lot more.
I was never a person who was able to finish English books after books. I read a lot as a kid, on Chinese literature, and reaped the benefits of thinking critically at a young age. However probably because English is not my mother tongue, I do read articles on magazine and blogs, but was never one who would be able to finish English books without putting in conscious efforts. I have To Kill a Mockingbird sitting on my shelf for years, Dan Brown sitting on my shelves for a decade, and yet I never managed to finish them. It has always been my wish that I could devour books like they are my meals effortlessly.
End of 2017, when I had a lupus flare-up and had to stay at home to rest and manage the flares, I started picking up all the books on my shelves and started reading them. Books were a real relief to me back then, when I was flushed with the frustrations ever since my lupus became active again. I kept it under control for almost two years! My nephrologist told me that after two years he can tapper the immunosuppressive medication down to none. I was only two months shy of that timeline. I was full of angst, blaming myself for causing the relapse, overanalysing the reasons why it just would not leave me alone for two years.
I read eight books in Dec 2017 alone, as a result. I was obsessed with books ever since then.
In some way, reading books made me feel that even if I while my time away, I was wasting it meaningfully. Haha. I know that is a stretch as it depends on the type of books I read. But I suppose reading does make you think, therefore it is a harder type of entertainment as compared to binge watching Mentalist, for example. (I am not dissing Mentalist, it’s my guilty pleasure replacement for CSI. Haha.)
I have been on a constant book buying spree since then. I think book buying bans do not work because there will always be a bargain around the corner. Luckily I have more discernible taste in books now instead of buying any RM5 books with Goodread rating of 4.0 and above. However I do acknowledge that I am running out of space, and the speed of buying books has outrun the speed of reading them. This is clearly a hoarder issue that needs to be addressed sooner or later.
The books read so far:
(except for The Intelligent Investor. Not sure how to remove it as I have not managed to read this legendary investor’s bible)
I have a fair number of books that I loved so far. But the one that made me decided to collect as many versions of the same book possible is the following:
I absolutely love this book. My thoughts of the book commands another blog post, and I need to be in the right mood for it. I did pen my thoughts down in a few pages though. The book gave me so much to think and reflect on. It is a book about life. It really makes you wonder to what end playing God brings you tranquility, and what would you do if you are Edmond Dantes. The best song to listen to when you read this book would be The GodFather’s theme song. Pirates of the Caribbean theme song during the duels.
For what it is worth, I will continue reading no matter if lupus continues to be kind to me after it taming down three months ago. I am due for my checkup again this coming month. I wish that it my readings will maintain. At the meantime, just read on!
LUPUS 500 DAYS 