Reading Room

Life: Selected Quotations

2012-10-18T21:04:00.005+09:00

Title: Life (Selected Quotations)

Author: Paulo Coelho

Publisher: Harper Collins

Language: English

If you enjoy Paulo Coelho's work, then this book is perfect for your collections. "Life: Selected Quotations" contains best quotes from Coelho's books such as The Alchemist, Brida, The Fifth Mountain, etc. This hard-cover book has eight chapters, namely: The Dream, The Path, Love, Chance, The Journey, Destiny, The Good Fight and The Mystery.

These are some of my favorite quotes:

"When you want something, the whole Universe conspires to help you realize your desire." -The Alchemist-

"Only one thing makes a dream impossible: the fear of a failure." -The Alchemist-

"When there is no turning back, then we should concern ourselves only with the best way of going forward." -The Alchemist-

"The boat is safest when it is in port, but that is not what boats were built for." -The Pilgrimage-

"By changing the way you do routine things you allow a new man to grow inside you." -The Pilgrimage-

"Absolute freedom does not exist; what does exist is the freedom to choose anything you like and then commit yourself to that decision" -The Zahir-

It's such as bliss to read this book in a lazy afternoon with a cup of tea.
Take a peek of this book here.

Like the Flowing River

2012-10-11T11:02:00.006+09:00

Author: Paulo Coelho

Genre: Short stories, articles

Publisher: Harper Collins, 2007

Language: English

Once again, Paulo Coelho brought you an enchanting books about his thoughts and reflections on life. The book is a collection of short stories inspired by his daily life, other poets, newspaper article and unexpected experience.

In The Story of Pencil, Coelho invites the readers to understand life with analogy of a pencil. It has five qualities. First, it is capable of great things, but there is a hand guiding its steps. Just like humans, we are capable of great things with God guiding our steps according to His will. Second, we need a sharpener to make it sharp again, just like human who needs to endure pain and sorrow to be a better person. Third, you can use an eraser to rub out any mistakes. Fourth, what really matter is the inside of you, just like the graphite in a pencil. And finally, you need to remember that although you erase your writing, it will always leave marks. That applies to your life too. Everything we do will leave a mark, so we need to be conscious in every action.

On Rhythm and the Road reminds us to respect our own rhythm in the journey of life. Our path may be different from others. Our pace may be slower than others. But, by following our own rhythm, we will manage to complete the journey.

This book is light weight, sweet, humble and perfect to accompany you on your contemplation.

Never Let Me Go

2012-10-09T15:44:00.001+09:00

Title: Never Let Me Go

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Language: English

Publisher: Vintage Books, 2006

Genre: Fiction

The story is narrated by Kathy H., a 31-year-old woman who has been a carer for over eleven years. The story is told as if we are having a direct conversation with her. Having her telling the story of her childhood in a mysterious boarding school, Hailsham, in a quite area of England. In the first part of the book, readers are made curious by several unfamiliar terms mentioned by Kathy, such as carer, donors, donation and guardian. Slowly, Kathy H. tells the story since age 5 until she grew up. The story seems humble and nostalgic. In some parts, Kathy needs to go back and forth in the timeline, as if she doesn't want us to miss the details.

In her childhood, Kathy, Ruth, and Tomy grew up together in Hailsham, having normal life as kids, with the art project, classes, etc. At some point, readers might feel something is not normal in Hailsham. Some mysteries and rumors are within the students mind, but they decided to keep it to themselves and not to bring the topic. As the story goes, readers will become more curious about the nature of Hailsham. And finally, the writer gave a specific clue about what the students really are and what Hailsham really is.

Kathy's love to Tommy which is disguised as friendship is not realized, as Tommy and Ruth are a couple. But, the sense of love is evident when Kathy and Tommy are searching for the long lost tape in Norfolk, a place where they believe keep every missing objects in their lives.

In the end, every mystery is revealed to reader explicitly without leaving a space for readers' interpretation. As the truth is revealed, readers can't help feeling the bitterness and sorrow. This story is dark, devastating, yet beautiful. A typical work by Kazuo Ishiguro, always prevent you from putting it down.

What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20

2012-08-11T14:00:00.002+09:00

Title:What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20 (A Crash Course on Making Your Place in the World)

Author: Tina Seelig
Language: English

Genre: Non Fiction/Self-Help

This book is light-weight yet loaded with simple useful tips in life, as the tagline said 'Skip the Mistakes Everyone Else Makes'. I'll sum up some key points from the book.

When we are facing challenges, it requires different point of view to turn it to opportunities. Many times we look at a problem only based on one perspective, framed by rules or conventional wisdom. As a matter of fact, we can question this conventional wisdom, and revisit the rules. We'll be amazed how there are so many unseen opportunities.

Opportunities are abundant. At any place and time you can look around and identify problems that need solving.

The bigger the problem, the bigger the opportunity. Nobody will pay you to solve a non-problem.

This ability to view the unseen opportunities is the key point in becoming an entrepreneur. The first step to create opportunities, is to identify the problems, or we may call it 'need finding'. After identyifying the problem, we need to find creative ways to leverage limited resources to reach the goals. In this book, Tina gave some example about how famous people from big companies, such as Apple, Cirque du Soleil, Kimberly-Clark, identify the problem and make the best of it.

The author, Tina Seelig, is a PhD in neuroscience from Stanford, and the executive director of the entrepreneurship center at Stanford Univ. As a matter of fact, entrepreneurship is a skill needed by everyone even in different field. If you are and engineer or a scientist, it doesn't mean that you don't need entrepreneurial skill. It is preferable to be 'T-shaped people', with a depth of knowledge in at least one discipline and a breadth of knowledge about innovation and entrepreneurship. This will lead to work effectively with professionals in other disciplines.

In the process of working towards your goal, failure is inevitably peeking on the corner. Failing is not fun, there's no doubt about that. But, it can be an incredible opportunity in disguise. Failure may give us a break, and force us to reevaluate our goals and priorities. Often, it even propels forward much faster than continued success.

You may be familiar with Steve Job's story. When Steve Jobs was fired by Apple, the company which he founded, he had nothing left. But, he made his way. He founded other companies NeXT and Pixar. Also, he found the woman who would become his wife. Then Apple bought NeXT, he returned to Apple, and he had an amazing wife. He was pretty sure none of this would have happened if he hadn’t been fired from Apple.

It was an awful tasting medicine,but the patient needed it.

You may think that successful people are lucky. In fact, there’s no such thing as luck. It’s all hard work. But, “lucky people” have something in common, that make them luckier than others. Lucky people are observant, open-minded, friendly, and optimistic. They can take advantages from the occurrences, and invite luck their way.

One of the most common question from the students is "Will this be on the exam?". Students learned that all they need to do is meet the minimum requirement to get the grade they want. As they grow up, in the society, they may do the same way. At work, they only put some efforts to meet the boss' requirement. They are not motivated to reach further and beyond. In fact, you need to deliver more than 100 percent in every task you perform. Life isn’t a dress rehearsal and you only get one chance to do the best job.

Never miss an opportunity to be fabulous.

You can watch her video in TEDxStanford.

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2012-08-10T14:36:00.001+09:00

Author: Khaled Hosseini

Genre: Fiction/Drama
Language: English

Published: 2007, Penguin

*SPOILER ALERT*

I read this book recently although I knew it was published when I was in high school. At first, I was too scared to read it because my friend told me that it was heart breaking. I'm not really fond of heart-breaking sad stories. I like books which can make me feel cheerful, peaceful, and vivid. But, I was curious, so I grabbed this from my campus library.

This book consists of four parts. The early parts told about two women separately and the last parts told when finally they interact and live together. They are Mariam and Laila.

Mariam was a little girl who lived with his mother on the outskirt of Herat in Afghanistan. When her mother was angry, she would call her harami, a cruel way to call a premarital child. Mariam loved his father. He occasionally visits Mariam and they would spend time fishing, telling stories, and coloring. Mariam loved how he treated her. But, her mother was worried that Mariam would abandon her and choose her father. A tragedy happened. Long story short, Mariam's mother committed suicide. Fifteen-year-old Mariam was forced to get married with Rasheed, a shoemaker in his forties.

Laila was 19 years younger than Mariam. They lived in the same neighborhood. Laila was a beautiful girl, born in educated family. She had a childhood friend, Tariq, who always protected her. During the war in 1990s, the situation was dangerous. Bombs, gunshots, were everywhere. Laila's brothers were killed in the war. Tariq and his family were planning to go to refugee camp in Pakistan. When he was saying goodbye to Mariam, they became so emotional and couldn't control their desire. Later, Laila's family were killed when they are preparing to leave Afghanistan. Laila was alone. Later, she found out that she was pregnant. She had nowhere to go. That was why she accepted to become Rasheed's second wife.

The story continued as Mariam and Laila lived under the same roof. At first, Mariam couldn't accept Mariam, but gradually she liked her companion. Mariam was constantly abused by Rasheed. Laila gave birth to her baby girl. Rasheed was suspicious that he wasn't the father. Then, Laila got abused too. Wars still continued. At first the enemy was from outside, but then the Afghans were fighting among themselves. When the Taliban ruled, women were banned from schools. They had to be accompanied by male relatives when they were going outside. Mariam and Laila planned to escaped, but they failed and sent back to their home. Rashed was angry. After some arguments, fights, Mariam had to kill Rasheed to save their lives. It was not the end.

This book really broke my heart. The setting of this book is around 1970s to 2000s. It was painful to think that in other part of the world, women didn't have access to education, women were enslaved, the war roared, families were torn apart. But, remember, this book is a novel. We have to keep in my mind that although some historical background may be true, we should not generalize the condition of Afghanistan based on this book. Khaled Hosseini has moved to US before any of the incidents in the story background happened. He has lived in US for 30 years, so I doubt that all of his portraying of Afghanistan was accurate.

Also, I'm afraid that this book may bring misinterpretation about Islam. I am a Muslim, and I feel uncomfortable reading this book as it gives bad image on Islam, especially about Muslims lives, jihad, hijab, polygamy. He portrayed them very far from the truth. Therefore, please be wise and don't stereotype the Afghanistan and Islam based on this fiction novel. As a novel, "A Thousand Splendid Suns" is a beautifully written piece. I couldn't put down this book although the story was very depressing. But, it will be better if the author put some effort to portray a balance, so this novel wouldn't give false message to the readers.

Life of Pi

2012-08-08T02:27:00.002+09:00

Author: Yann Martel

Genre: Fiction/Fantasy/Adventure
Language: English
Published: 2001, Harcourt Books

*Spoiler Alert*

I chose this book for my first review because actually it was the reason I made this blog in the first place. I read this book two years after it was published in 2001. I remember I loved this book, but I hardly remember the story. Well, it was nice to re-read "Life of Pi". I think I should start re-reading all my collections :)

The story was divided into 3 parts and exactly 100 chapters. The first part told the early life of Piscine Molitor Patel or Pi Patel, the main character of this story. He was an Indian boy who was the son of a zoo owner. I enjoyed how Pi as the narrator in this book described his life in the zood, the animals behavior, and his point of view of the whole concept of a zoo. His stories were funny. In some parts I laughed out loud. In some chapters, the author described his 'interview' with grown up Pi in Toronto.

Pi Patel had a big curiosity in religions, as he practiced Hindu, Christian, and Islam. His multi religion made people around him raised their eye brows. They were questioning how could he pray in the temple, in the church, also in the mosque?

I like Chapter 28.

"I loved my prayer rug. Ordinary in quality though it was, it glowed with beauty in my eyes. I'm sorry I lost it. Wherever I laid it I felt special affection for the patch of ground beneath it and the immediate surroundings, which to me is a clear indication that it was a good prayer rug because it made me remember that the earth is the creation of God and sacred the same all over."

This simple passage reminded me of my own prayer rug. I use it minimum 5 times a day, but very few times I remember how thankful I am for having a prayer rug. I would like to thank you, my prayer rug.. for always accompanying me in my prayers.

The second part told the adventure of Pi as a castaway in the Pacific Ocean with a 450-pound Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. His surviving efforts made me think what if I were in his position? What would I do?

I was thrilled when Pi found a carnivorous island. That was beyond my imagination. His whole story was told in a funny way. Pi could distract himself from his grief of losing of his family by keeping his mind occupied. Well, how wouldn't he be occupied when he has to sail with a tiger, worrying about fresh water, food, and his life. And the most important thing in survival is adaptation. Pi Patel was a vegetarian. After he ran out of the emergency cookies, he could manage to survive by fishing, and if he's lucky, he could have delicious sea turtle. He mentioned how scary that human could get used to everything, even killing.

The last part of this book has the most interesting twisted ending. Pi finally landed in Mexico. His adventure was anti climax when Richard Parker left the boat, went straight to the jungle, without looking back, without meaningful eye sight to conclude their adventure together in Pacific Ocean. When the local people found Pi, they took care of him. Pi told his story to the Japanese men who investigated the why the Tsimtsum ship sank. I was surprised by the second version of his story. The story that didn't have animals in it. Until the end, I couldn't decide which version was true. With or without animals in it. Well, I chose the story with animals in it.

Reading 100 chapters of "Life of Pi" has been a great adventure to me. It is simply enjoyable.

The modern classics.