You and I also began with the Big Bang, because all substance in the universe is an organic unity. Once in a primeval age all matter was gathered in a clump so enormously massive that a pinhead weighed many billions of tons. This “primeval atom” exploded because of the enormous gravitation. It was as if something disintegrated. When we look up at the sky, we are trying to find the way back to ourselves. [Sophie’s World. Jostein Gaarder. Page 425]
Next book!
‘Superstition.’ What a strange word. If you believed in Christianity or Islam, it was called ‘faith.’ But if you believed in astrology or Friday the thirteenth it was called superstition! Who had the right to call other people’s belief superstition? [Sophie’s World. Jostein Gaarder. Page 42]
Wow. Gaarder’s Sophie’s World and two previous books that I read, Beinhocker’s Origin of Wealth: Evolution, Complexity and the Radical Remaking of Economics and Dawkins’ The God Delusion, have common themes to relate to each other. Beinhocker’s and Dawkins’ share the idea of evolution while Dawkins’ and Gaarder’s touch on religion. Granted, the shared themes are not the main themes of each book but there are no doubt overlaps.
I tried to connect Beinhocker’s the previous book in my list, Rehman Rashid’s A Malaysian Journey but I would have to resort to a very broad topic to find a common theme — for instance, the language is English — which would not be too astounding to deserve a mention.
I wonder how I could relate Gaarder’s with the next book I plan to read. Maybe, I am getting ahead of myself. Still, though I have just started with Sophie’s World, I have a feeling that it will not take me long to reach the ending, especially when I have finally settled with favorite time of the day to read book while cutting down on the time I spend on the internet.
This is quite embarrassing but I think I am addicted to the internet again. It is not as severe as it once had been during the glorious day of Utopia and World of Warcraft but it is slowly getting there. To my defense however, I spend most of the time on Wikipedia reading up on history, philosophy and other curiosities that pop up out of nowhere. And of course, blogging.
This is unhealthy. Thank heavens for the Nature Society. Now, I can go do healthy stuff while surfing the internet on my Blackberry in the wild!
Err… right.
Argh. Blackberry is a bane.
It is Chinese New Year and I got myself more books. I did not mean to purchase anything in the first place. The act was impulsive especially when I have yet to finish up the previous books that I bought earlier. In fact, I am still reading The Origin of Wealth. Furthermore, I have not even started on Clinton’s My Life and Dawkins’ The God Delusion. Yet, here I am, supporting the economy by spending.
At first, since I was in the vicinity of Kinokuniya under the majestic Petronas Twin Towers, I thought I could do with a browse. Alas, temptation got the best of me.
I found myself in the history section. For some reason, I wanted to read more about Srivijaya. It was kind of hard to find a book on the ancient Malay kingdom which in my opinion is greater than the Malay Sultanate of Malacca. If the Malays wanted to look for something to build their pride on, they should look beyond Malacca and embrace the Srivijayan. At the very least, acknowledge Srivijaya as a kingdom as great as Malacca.
Despite the size of the store, its collection is limited. I could not find a specific book on Srivijaya.
Nevertheless, Hugh Clifford’s Farther India looked promising. For those that score F for history without fail, Clifford was one of the more important colonial administrators of British Malaya. He was also one of those foreign administrators that fell in love with the Malays and Malaya, just like Frank Swettenham. At Cambridge Journals, the phrase “doyen of the colonial service” is attributed to Clifford.
The synopsis describes Farther India as one of the most important publications on Southeast Asian history. Yet, it seems to me that the book is concentrating on mainland Southeast Asia and talks about European explorations and discoveries of old Southeast Asian civilizations. I suspect the book does not talk much about Srivijaya. So, when I saw Paul Michel Munoz’s Early Kingdoms of the Indonesian Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, it placed Clifford’s back on the shelf and grabbed Munoz’s instead.
While on my way out of the history section, I stumbled upon a book entitled British Malaya. That book directly reminded of an article at Wikipedia of the same name that I have been working on for more than a year. I thought this particular book might help me finish up what I started. So, book number two.
While on my way out of the store, somehow, Sophie’s World came across my mind; I made it as my third book.
And so, right now, five books await the completion of The Origin of Wealth. The pressure is now on me.
Ah… the curse of purchasing books liberally.
I suffered temporary madness just a few hours ago. Or maybe, I was just a little drunk.
It was Friday and merely a few days before Christmas. With having nothing to do, I decided to give Kinokuniya a visit. With me running out of books to read, I felt it was the perfect time for me to go on book shopping.
Initially, I had a specific title in mind and probably one or two other titles I would decide once I actually saw them. For that one specific book, I was looking for Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last of Man. I thought, I have never read Fukuyama despite being familiar with his ideas. At the book store, I went straight to the counter, asked for Fukuyama’s and got it. One thing though, Kinokuniya placed The End of History at the history section…
The girl at the counter was cute though.
Then, the random walk amid the racks began.
First was The Undercover Economist. It was right beside Freakonomics. And yes, I admit, I haven’t read Freakonomics. I know it’s pop-econ but I feel I know enough economics that I wouldn’t feel too astounded to the facts in the wildly popular book. What’s more, I actually had read some of its content and while entertaining, I could say I’m familiar with it. Besides, I prefer not to read what most others read. As with The Da Vinci’s Code, I only read it after a friend incessantly told me I should read it day in day out. I read Da Vinci’s just to shut her up. Digression aside, I picked that book.
The third book was Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian. I don’t know why I picked it up but I suspect it was because Nik Nazmi mentioned it earlier in his blog. For all I know, Nik Nazmi probably run a subliminal message that would sound like “read Sen. read Sen.” And The Argumentative Indian became the third book I picked up.
I thought I would stop at three books but soon, I spotted Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. I remember Dawkins from an article on New York Times. Furthermore, the title was on Kunikoniya’s top ten non-fiction list. I picked that one up too. So much for “don’t really like reading what most people like to read“, eh?
The fifth book was The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith, one of the more prominent economists in our times. I have great respect for him, despite the fact that some of his ideas aren’t too friendly to libertarianism.
The sixth was The Origin of Wealth by Eric D. Beinhocker. The reason I picked up this book is pure curiousity. At the back of its jacket, it writes “There is a revolution underway in economics and you need to know about it.” Call me a sucker but I really wanted to know about the revolution. And judging from the selection of the books, you could probably guess which section I was lingering at.
Bill Clinton’s My Life was next. People — well, my democrats-friendly friends actually — told me how great the book is. They might be biased but I do think Bill Clinton is a great President. So, one more.
The last one was History the Malay Kingdom of Patani by Ibrahim Syukri. Why I picked this one up? I thought, hey, maybe I could read this and then contribute to Wikipedia!
After all the madness, I started to sober up. The cause of the awakening was the increasingly heavy burden I was carrying. Yes, the burden was the books. And all those books probably would have burned a hole through my wallet if I hadn’t sober up.
I inspected price tags and I said to myself, “whoa!”. The whole thing cost more than RM 500. In fact, it was more like RM 800!
I didn’t plan to spend RM 800 as recklessly as I had picked up the book and so, with heavy hearts, I had to filter them out.
The first victim was The Undercover Economist. Second was The Argumentative Indian.
Then, it was History of Patani. This book in particular is priced in the most irrational way. It’s a relatively thin book but priced nearly RM 50. Clinton’s My Life is about five times as thick and cost just RM 65. Maybe, I could blame it on economies of scale!
The fourth unfortunate victim of the unwanted culling was The Affluent Society.
Ironically, the scourge cost the book that I came in the first place. Yes, I threw away The End of History.
So, in the end, I was left with My Life, The Origin of Wealth and The God Delusion.
While I’m currently happy with two titles, I’m not so sure with The Origin of Wealth though. When I got home, I immediately opened by New Years’ present and took a sneak peak of what to come. Naughty me.
The Origin of Wealth unfortunately looks like an economics thesis instead of something one could read for leisure. The appendices itself could be made into a book by itself. That’s how thick it is. Maybe I should just return and trade it for Fukuyama’s instead.
And great. I forgot that I wanted to get Sophie’s World.
Regardless, these three titles ought to keep my busy for weeks.