April and May books

Just for my record,I bought two books in April,2006.

1.The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman

2.The Travellers by John Twelve Hawks

Comments: Initially, the books were interesting but they drag along...I am struggling to finish reading them.

So far,in May 2006 I bought two books:

1.Blink

2.Operation Red Jericho

No comments on the above yet.

Operation Red Jericho

Similarly bound by elastic band
Originally uploaded by Adibi.

The book is worth every ringgit.Please go and buy one copy.Only three copies left at The Borders.

At The Borders

At The Borders
Originally uploaded by Adibi.

Yesterday, my son Amir and me were at the Borders.I bought Operation Red Jericho and it is a really nice book to have.After browsing the bookshop,I spent some time with my son to discuss about his future and career over a cup of coffee at the Starbuck Café.

These are the moments that I enjoy when my kids are still with me....soon,he has to start working and having a family of his own.Just like I did almost 30 years ago.

That is life...I can't eat the cake and still have it.Both of us share a chees cake;-)

The Wedding-Continue from Notebook

This is a hardcover book I bought for my wife.She had read it but I have not.I think it is time I read the book.I bought it for RM74.00 at Times Bookshop.The first print was in September,2003.

Continue reading...

More than a year ago(in July 2004),I bought The Rule of Four. Some how I keep postphoning to get reading the book until today...

I hope to read it this month.

My Readings for March,2006

My Readings for March,2006
Originally uploaded by Mohd Adib Noh.

Bought these two books today for my reading this March,2006

Bookcrossers Meeting-Feb.,2006

Tonight I am listing all my books that I have not read in my moleskine notebook.If I were to read all these books,it will take at least another year. As any booklover must admit,he or she will buy at least another six books this year.

There are 10 more months to go, but during Ramadhan,I will be reading only Quran.That will leave me only 9 months. This year, I must restrain myself from impluse buying of books. I need a plan.

I hope to learn from fellow booklovers on what books to buy this year.

Words That Move The World

Reading backlog:-(

Oh my God! To my consternation,I have discovered that there are at least a dozen books I bought last year and probably also the year below that I have not read.It conclude one thing that My rate of buying far exceeded my rate of reading.

To set the momentum for the new year,I have finished reading False Impressions by Jeffrey Archer and now I am reading The Curious Incident of The Dog by Mark Haddon.

For the record,here is a list (not exhaustive) of the books bought but NOT read last year:-

1.Gentlemen and Players
2.Who Run This Place
3.The Rule of Four
4.Cairo Triology
5.Six Stories by Douglas Adam
6.Blind Assasin
7.MindGames
8.International Jew
9.Execution
10.Federal Express
11.leading Change
12.Mac OSX
13.Egypt-Myths and Legends
14.Atlas of the Quran
15.The messengers and The Messages
16.Explaination of Important Lessons
17The Quranic Way
18.Simplicity
19.Legends-Collection of short Novels by famous writers
20.becoming Effective Leader

With the above list,I don't need to buy any books for this year.As all book lovers will do, they will keep on buying new books when they see ones they like.

PM Books

I got interested to learn more about project management(PM) in 2000.From then on I started to buy books,meet more knowledgeable people and attend courses/seminars - local and abroad.

PM is a discipline where the real test of the pudding is in the eating.One has to get involved or engaged in order to get real understanding and subsequently the knowledge. According to my guru,I have only discovered the philosphy and the path to the world of knowledge in project management.

Recently,he recommended a book for me to read:
Title: Project Management-A systems approach to planning,Scheduling and Controlling.
Author: Dr Haorld Kerzner

Oct 2005 update

When one is busy with urgent work,reading is the first to be neglected.The last few months I was really up to my neck with urgent work.It is not an excuse but the fact remains that we must do first things first.

For the last six months,my reading is half my normal rate a book a month.However my rate of buying books remains active-about a book month. Now,I have at least six books I bought but I have not read.

By the way, the last book I bought is Gentlemen & Players and the lastest book I read is The Brokers by John Grisham.

FedEx Delivers

Just bought the above titled book at The Times.The author is Madan Birla.It is hardcover with a price tag of RM 77.80.As a member of Times,I got 25% discount.

HP and Half-Blood Prince

Bought the book today for my son.I hope he could finish fast so that I could read it as well;-)
Now, I am reading Execution and just started reading The Zahir by Paulo Caelho.

Paulo Coelho

Now, I am reading Eleven Minutes and a few days ago I bought The Zahir.

Red Herrings and White Elephants

First, let me thank Kura-Kura for his kindness in giving me the book entitled Red Herrings and White Elephants.You can read his posting here. This is not the first time.I look forward to a few more;-)

I cannot comment yet on the book because I have not finished reading it yet,but I want to say something about giving books to friends, relatives and business associates. Personally, I also do buy and give away books. And a few friends also give me books as present. Thank to you all.By the way, there is a group of Malaysian Bookcrossers who are active in giving away books.

The act of giving away something to someone is very satisfying.The feeling is yours and yours only.I honestly donot know how to put it in writing due to the limitation of my ability to properly describe the feelings.But it is a great feeling if you took the trouble to look for the book and bought it to give away.Some books can change people lives...

It was fascinating to read Kura-Kura's Freedom from Temptation.I was amused how he managed to control his temptation successfully.Congratulation!

All of us are created with built-in desires or nafs.As we pass though this life, so many things attract our attention and seduce our desires.Some are good and some are not good for us.We have to make that choice. I have read of one sufi guru who refused to visit shops in order to avoid the feeling to buy and have unnecessary things.His main concern is to protect his heart from worldly desires.

There is a BIG gap between what we desire and what we need.As Mahatma Ghandi said: "This is world is enough for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed."

To Kura-Kura,terima kasih.

PS: A few years back, I have set up a mailinglist for booklovers here.You are welcome to join the community about reading ,books and bookshops.
-from my blog The Reader

Borrowed 11 minutes from MHI.loan him The Pilgrimage & Don't Be Sad.

No novels in January,2005

This year did not begin well as far as reading is concerned for me.I was very busy with my work-an excuse that I hate to use.It is not that I don't read books, but I do read articles and small books but no novel.

As time is limited,I must priotise my reading in the following manner:

1.Religous books
2.Management books
3.Novels

Rani Manicka

To-day, I read in the newspapers about a Malaysian who went work in London and ends up becoming a novelist.Btw, she was raised in Terengganu,Malaysia. Impressed by the story, I went out to buy her first novel The Rice Mother.

While browsing the bookshelves at MPH, I also bought Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt and The Book That Changed My Life ,edited by Diane Osen.

During the month of Ramadhan, I did not read any books other than Quran.Now, it is time to diversify to books written by fellow human beings.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven

I bought the book today and hope to read it and finished by next week.

My rating for :Are you afraid of the Dark by Sheldon is 3/5. Dan Brown's thrillers are much better.

Sidney Sheldon

Now I am a member of Times Bookshop.It cost me RM 20 yesterday but I got it back by buying two books:

1.Are you afraidd of The Dark? by Sidney Sheldon

and

2.Speed reading secrets by Steven Franks.

Small is Beautiful

Thanks Peter for giving me the book as a present. At the same time,I bought a very thick OS Manual for my mac-Mac OS X,The Missing Manual that Apple forgot to give when I bought my iBook.

Below is a review on Small is beautiful taken from amazon.com:

Not Only Beautiful, But Also Practical, December 19, 2003

Reviewer: Tony Theil (Philadelphia, PA United States) - See all my reviews

In my college days I struggled with economics and barely passed. My economic professors and the course material were dull, ambiguous, and non-stimulating. None of these adjectives could be used to describe Schumacher's Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.

Schumacher makes economics come alive with wit, humor, and practicality. His approach is qualitative, not quantitative. A recurring statement throughout the book epitomizes his philosophy, "Why use the computer if you can make the calculation on the back of an envelope"? He gives the science a personality when identifying the disparities between the rich and poor, the educated and uneducated, and the gap between city people and country-folk.

Small is Beautiful created a humanistic economics movement. It's a wholistic approach containing ethical, ecological, and metaphysical components that are missing from the statistical models that solely measure GNP. Schumacher sounded the alarm regarding globalization when asking "how much further 'growth' will be possible, since infinate growth in a finite environment is an obvious impossibility". He was critical of a society that generates unbounded materialism, and motivated by greed and envy.

Some of the more interesting of the 20 essays are: "Peace and Permanence", "The Role of Economics", "Buddhist Economics", "The Greatest Resource - Education", "Technology with a Human Face", "Development of Intermediate Technology", and "Two Million Villages".

Although the book was written in 1973, it is as timely now as it was then. The 25th anniversary edition contains provocative updates provided as sidebars by contributors such as Hazel Henderson, Peter Warshall, Amory Lovins, Godric Bader, et al. --This text refers to the Paperback edition

Firewall

It has been years since I last read Andy McNab Bravo Zero Two. I bought it for RM 22.90 and the original price was US24.95! Good bargain for a hardcover novel.

1511 H[KOMBAT]

After my morning walk with Ibnu Ariff at KLCC, I went to Kinokuniya bookshop looking for a Malay novel to read. Honestly, it has been years since I read a good one.It has got nothing to do with the quality per se, but I am more inclined to read English novels.

I asked Ibnu Ariff to recommmed a good novel and he brought me one corner near the cashier dedicated to Sastera. He recommend two books by Faisal Tehrani( whom I know personally),and I decided to buy 1511H.

Btw,last night I got a call from the editor of a newspapers offering me to be a weekly columnist for book reviews. I replied to him that I agree in principle subjected to my time and capability.

Kitchen-by Yoshimoto

This book is witten by a Japanese author. This is my first time reading a Japanese novel translated to English. This book is on loan from a fellow bookcafe member.

EXECUTION

This book is about THE DISCIPLINE OF GETTING THINGS DONE.Some months ago I bought a copy as a gift for a friend. He told me is a very good book to understand about EXECUTION. In fact, he gave a talk about it.

To-day, I bought a copy for myself.

The book was written by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan with Charles Burck.

Al-Ubudiyyah by Ibn Taymiyah

Now, I am reading this book in order to know more about Uluhiyyah and to get closer to Allah swt. I bought this book at Specialist Bookshop at KLCC.

HOW TO ACHIEVE HAPPINESS

Yesterday, I bought two copies of the books and gave away to my friends.I hope they will know what is happiness and insyaAllah will achieve it . The book is written by Sheikh Abdur Rahman As-Sa'di.

The Rule of Four

Bought this book at Kinokuniya for RM74.90 (hardcovers). I hope it is better than Da Vinci Code because I have not yet any books written by the authors. Btw ,it is their first book.

Who runs this place?

My special thanks to Penawan-the Trengganu born Beta-Blogger who lives in London for giving me the book entitled as above.The sub-title of the book is "The Anatomy of Britain in the 21st Century".The author is Mr Anthony Sampson.

To-day, I just read the Preface so I could not give any comments,but it provokes my mind Who Runs Malaysia?

Hadith 40 etc

This book by Imam nawawi is staring at me everyday!

I t promised to finish reading it last year but keep on delaying....

In fact, it is not the only one; the Tafsir by Ibn Kathir and other 10 ten books are sitting on my coffee table. They are all ever ready to be read by me...

But one thing I wish not to neglect is reading at least one 'ain of Qur'an everyday.

The Gods of Management

To-day, I bought another book as above by Charles Handy.So far, I have read a few of his writings and they never failed to educate me in one way or the other.

Watchman

A friend recommended me to read this spy novel by Ian Rankin. I hope to get some fun reading it.It has been a while I have not reading a thriller...

Queen Noor

My wife is now reading memoirs of an unexpected life.

Almost French

Yesterday, I bought as above wriiten by Sarah Turnbull.Hopefully, I could learn something from her experience being in France and being married to a French man. Personally,I love to be a cafe in Paris,especially at Le Deux Maggot in Latin Quarters:-)

21 Laws of Leadership

Management is a big subject.My special interest is project leadership but I am now on the journey to discover more about the leaders and leadership in general. My youngest brother has set up a Yayasan( foundation) called Yayasan Kepimpinan dan Keilmuan Kelantan. I hope to use this vehicle to propagate the science and the art of leadership.

To increase my knowledge, to-day I bought another book called 21 Irrefutable Laws of leadership by James L Garlow.

Prisoner of Azkaban

The movie is coming to KL on 3rd June,2004.Now,I am starting toi read the book.

Can elephants dance?

Yes!If you can get the right people to handle the giants.Now I am reading Who says elephants CaN'T Dance by Louis V. Gerstner,Jr-the former IBM chief.One of my special interest is EXECUTION STRATEGY.Many projects fail not because of planning but they fail during execution phase.

I have not been reading any books for the last two weeks.Every time I pick a book, I just want to go to sleep..

My body and mind must tired due to some work stress.I need a rest..

Books On Business

during the last six months, I have been buying a few management books in order to learn new scope of business as well as to update my knowledge on the subjects that I already know. Below is the list books:

1.Management Consultancy ISBN 0-7494-3653-0
2.Who Says Elephants Can't Dance? ISBN 0-00-717087-4
3.Trout On Strategy ISBN 0-07-143794-0
4.Leading Change ISBN 0-87584-747-1
5.The Little Book of Business Wisdom ISBN 0-471-36979-9
6.The Portable MBA in Project Management-0-47-26899-2
7.Giving Presentation ISBN 0--19-860681-8

I began readin book no 5 and to finish all the above by end of 2004.

It is more than eight months since this blog was updated.I must add something soon:-0

Bought a book entitled Kaum-Kaum Yang Putus by Harun Yahya and Noghts in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks.

Both my wife and me love reading love stories by Nicholas Sparks....

It appears that this year alone I have bought about five books on project management.The latest acquisition is The Portable MBA in Project Management by Eric Verzuh. Thee books,I hope, will enhance my knowledge in PM.

Bought another book on PM as a collection. It is entitled PM by Phil Baguley.

I just completed reading The Age of Unreason. It is fore meaningful foe people aroung my age i.e The Third Age for we can reflect better than the younger ones who have less life experience.

I agree with Charles Handy the author that to change we have to be unreasonable.

From: Mohd Adib Noh Date: Fri May 23, 2003 6:24:28 PM Asia/Singapore
To: Subject: [bookcafe] Getting someone to read..
Reply-To: bookcafe@yahoogroups.com

Hi, Most of us are reading a few books in a year but there are quite a number of our friends or relatives or classmates or office mates who never read a book in a year-some even 20 years! What do you think if we make it a personal project for everyone of us to get someone close to us who never read a book a year to start reading at least a book a year to start with? I think it would be a small contribution we all can do for someone who miss all the fun and the benefits of reading.It is good for the country as well... For your info, I have tried this idea and it worked. Below is the reply from a friend that I managed to convert from a non-reader( never read a book for the last 20 years after school) to start reading.I asked him how I did it to him and below is his reply:(After you do it,please report back to the bookcafe mailinglist).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dear Adib, Thank you for remembering me as the 'awakened' personality or shall I say I was your 'eureka' ! To be frank I never miss out any dailies but to read a book somebody have to literally put a gun at my temple.!! My wife is just the extreme. She will stay right up to midnight to finish the novel. much to my chagrin. I only can say that this is real mad to read until tears begin to drop (I literally saw her sobbing while holding a book) And no sooner than she bought a book she has to return to the same bookshop to buy another one because she finished reading the very book she bought a couple of days back. You know what make me read the book you loaned to me ? I think it is more of the aproach and the assurances that I will definitely find the book interesting not to mention that you keep my ego intact.. I remember your encouraging remarks like 'you will be talking to the author' The fact that you gave me your precious belonging make me feel that I must not waste the opportunity to explore the reason why there is such thing called 'book worm' AND the choice of book is very important to start an interest in reading. The book you lent me Jeffrey Archer - short stories suited me well as a beginner which made me bought another book of similar pattern by the same author.It made me realised that not only it will enrich one's thought but will also expand one's vission. AND later when my wife caught me reading at the hall alone till wee hours of the morning made me 'blushed' If you want to start similar project IMHO you just follow similar path that you have done to me i.e. 1. identify the person - one at a time (some one close to you) 2. give him a good start by giving him the right book - not necessarily you choice 3 monitor him (not to pressure but to hook him on) - the deadline you gave me to complete the book was cleverly executed (remember you extend the deadline once you realised that I was ON with my reading) 4. Be sincere with the person. Share his reservation his excitement and be encouraging. I gauged your sincerity when you gave me you own precious book to kickstart my habit and I was DAMN bloody scared if the book got lost or even mutilated 5. Remember, you are merely trying to share your interest with a person and the person is not obliged to follow you. 6. If you feel justify reward him (remeber you gave me a book as a present during my birthday kenduri ?) Lead by example A leader has a lot to show If it is your project, gentle and persuasive monitoring is required (cann't really remember your reference to a project except if you turn your eye away from it , it will turn naughty. Hey ! apart from that I have the ability to read :)- grin -----

Thanks Asmadi for the book present all the way from Lancaster,England. The book is entitled The Lake District- a place that I visited once during my student days in early 70's. I love to go hiking there again.

To-day is a special day for my son and me. It is a first for both of us
in queing up for a book. We never had this experience before.But this
is a special book-Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix. We arrived
at KLCC at 6.06am .I know the exact time because I was watching the
clock. After dropping my son at Isetan, he rushed to the Kinokuniya
Bookshop and I went to park my car. By the time I arrived at the
bookshop, my son was 300m away from the entrance. I approached the
girls who were the lucky few to get the books for free and asked them
what time did they come.They told me that it was about 5:30am! May be
these girls did not sleep at all last night. At about 8am, I took
myself to Asian Flavours for teh tarik and roti canai for a breakfast.
There were not many people round at this hour. So I took a book
entitled The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy to keep me company.While
savouring the crispy roti canai, I smiled to myself-happy that my son
is NOW A READER( albeit a JUNIOR READER,Peter.) .I am happy to note
that he was willing to stand for 2 hrs 40 minutes waiting to buy a
book! IMHO, reading is the gateway to knowledge and knowledge is
power.To-day is one of the milestones in my odyssey to inculcate the
culture of reading to my son. Thanks to Allah swt for opening my son's
mind and heart to reading. Btw, it also saved me about RM 30 from the
book list price.

--Adib,only read the first book.

And to-day, my guru in PM told me to buy another book by Charles Handy. It is entitled The Age of Unreason. I read the other two-The Empty Raid Coat and The Elephant and The Flea.

Thanks Michael for the present of a book on information. I love to receive books as presents .
Similarly, I also love to give books to others.

Believe me, what comes around ,goes around!

A few days ago ,I bought a book entitled The NEW Project Management by Prof Frame. The price is RM 127!

Below is my email to my bookcafe on getting a friend to read:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/berisman

On 18/5/03, I placed an order for Harry Potter and The order of the Phoenix.
This is the 5th book by JK Rowling.

I am now half way into a small book of 82 pages. The title is called Time in The Life of the Muslim by Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi and published by Islamic Inc,Cairo.

I strongly recommend to all my fellow muslims to read this book. It is about time ;hence it is about life that many of us wasted away every second and yet we ask Allah to give us a longer life.

Isn't it a mockery to ask for more and yet we are throwing it away all the time?
Would you give money to someone whom you have given but keep it spending it wastefully?
You know the answer before you finish reading the question.

To-day I 'discovered' BIG Bookshop at Ampang Park,KL and found a few good hard covers books sold at deep discounted prices. These books are marked down because they are "oldies" as compared to new arrivals but they are still good. If my wife were to buy a book,then I know it is good value for money.

Last week I bought a magazine called Writers Digest. What motivated me to spend RM 30 for the magazine is about its special articles on writing. It tells about the lives of writers, and HOW TO GET INSPIRED, HOW TO GET INVOLVED AND HOW TO GET STARTED writing!
I love writing but I am not there yet.

Now, I am trying to get into the flow of writing...
My favourite author Nicholas Sparks advised: Read, Research and wRite!
-another 3R I have to abide by if I want to be writer. It is a long way to go for me ; but I know how to get there.

When I left my bookcafe meeting this afternoon,there were three persons including yours truly.I hoe to see more more attending the gahtering next time. Anyway, we discussed a few things and Tim will report later.

One project I suggest is to get another friend/office-mate/relative who never read a book a year to read a book this year.This is an interesting challenge.

My bookcafe egroup will be having our second gathering next Wednesday14/5/03. It is a public holiday due to Maulid Rasul( Prophet Muhamad's birthday). InsyaAllah, I will be there even though there are only two of us.

I look forward to see as many people as possible.

I am happy to note that my youngest son is reading novels. Thanks to the government efforts introducing English literature in schools and to his peers for telling my son that they read this and that book.

I am still struggling to inculcate the culture of reading to my other sons:-(

At night, I read management books, and in the morning I read religous books.

Now, I have problem when to read novels and the like?
May be after zuhur prayer just to make me easier to have after siesta;-)

I never buy any book that costs more than RM 200, but to-day I just did. It is actually for my new business as the " new flea" on the block. It contains the success stories of project leaders and managers. I hope to use some of the stories in my lectures or discourse.

I like it because I believe story telling is a powerful medium to deliver a message- be it moral or management ideas or lessons.

My thanks to TimKwan for moderating my bookcafe egroup.

Yesterday, I took my son to British Council Library. I like the setting,especially with the cafe' bar inside the library but I observe not many books to borrow:-(

Borrowed a colletion of short stories-Elementals by A.S Byatt.

Kunikoniya bookshop is promoting Literature this month. I have got three vouchers worth RM 30!
Now, what books I must buy?
Btw, I have at least ten more books that I bought but have yet to read!

Yesterday, I bought a book that I was looking for months. It will cost me around USD80 if I were to buy and fedex to KL from USA. But I was lucky to have to pay only RM 127 for the book at Kunikoniya. Lesson learnt: Just wait for a few months, then you can save a few hundreds bucks.if you can't wait, just buy-which I do many times!

It is entitled : Building Project Management Competency

Now, I have two PM books to read this month(April ,2003). Another one is Radical Project Management!

Yesterday,just finish browsing surah al-Rahman.
Now, I continue reading The Elephant and the Flea, but I broke my own rule never to read the last chapter before I even finish the book.
My friend who recommended the book told that the last chapter was very sad.I agree with him that it is very sad for mankind.

If you are reading this and wish to know,please do not ask me. Just go and read the book.

Just finish writing a speech for a senior government officer to deliver during the opening of a seminar conducted by my company.Wheww! I prefer to go jogging than writing speeches....

Now, let me do some reading on Tafsir Fizillil Quran.

Too busy with my xproject course that I have neglected my reading.

On the way to buy bread for my son to-day, I dropped by at Kunikoniya Bookshop and bought The Elephant and the Flea.

At KB airport last night, I bought a booklet on Tarikat and Tasauf. It is a short note on the meaning of tarikat. Many talk about it, but as always only a few really understand it. I am still reading to understand it...

Bought another book-The Mindgame by Yong May. She also wrote The Flame Tree. The book cost me RM 9.90!

To-date , I lent three books to my friends:
Al-Khushok(TSO)
Realities of Faith(DWO)
Speeches(MHH)

I hope they will read the books and reap benefits as much or better than I did.

Another interesting book that I forget is Speeches for An Inquiring Mind by Imtiaz Ahmad. InsyaAllah, I will reprint this book and distribute them for free.

When I was in Makkah and Madinah, I bought the following books:
1. The Right Way-by Ibn Taimiyah
2. Madinah -Kelebihan dan Sejarah by Abdul basit Ab Rahman
3. Shahih Qudsi Hadiths by Magdy Fathi El-Sayed
4. The Kaabah is the Centre of the World
5. Time in the Life of The Muslim-by Dr Yusuf al- Qaradawi
6. Al-Quran-The Miracle of the Miracles- by Ahmed Deedat
7. The Seekers of Truth
8 The Ideal Muslim-by Dr Muhamad ali al-Hashimi
9.Selected Quranic Verses
10.Don't be Sad-by al-Qarnee

Now, I am reading two books at the same time viz: The mind of CEO and Unleasing Ideavirus.

A few days ago, I bought four "old" management books:
1. The Mind of CEO
2.Plain Talk by a maverick CEO
3. Bill Gates speaks..
4. Unleashing ideavirus

Now, I am half way through Jack Welch Leadership book. Hope to finish it by end of this year.
By the way, I will be away for about 44 days, from 11.1.2003 till end of Feb.,2003.

Happy reading to all.

Just completed reading The Summons. Nice drama but the ending is not interesting at all.Just my personal view.

Every time I am overseas, I will buy some books as souvenirs. And this time around, I did it again even though I have more books than I can read in the next six months. Bangkok is not my favourite city, but I have to be there to attend a regional dialogue organised by Global Water Partnership, UNDP,MRB. The trip is all paid for by the organisers.

I love free trip....anyway, we went there not for our personal gains.

Books bought:
1-Summons- John Grisham( my favourite author)
2-Teams and Teams Building-Phil Baguley
And was given a book for free entitled Solstice by David Hewson.

No more buying books this year for me.
I hope not to buy any more books this year.

I took more than a month to finish reading The Hungry Spirit. It is good for the mind as well as the spirit. The book expounds on the meaning of capitalism and beyond!

To-day, I have gone 'hungry' on books. Bought four books at Kinokuniya:
1.The Balanced Scorecard
2.Six Sigma
3.Life of Pi
4.Everything's Eventual.

That should enough for the rest of the year 2002.

Reading this book called The Naked Truth will accelerate me into buying my dream iBook;-)

Mus has loaned me a book called The Naked Truth. It is about mac users!It looks interesting.I hope to read it over the weekend.

MPH bookshops is my one of my favourites other than Kunikoniya. I am glad to hear that a Malaysian owned company has gained control of the bookshops retail business. Now, it is up to Malaysians to take it higher.My only request is that the new owner include more Malay books...

One of my favourite books is Five Equations that Changed the World. I lent it to a friend a year ago. Now ,it is back on my bookshelf.

After lunch with Dr Y, we went to Specilaist Bookshop.The book on Islam and Secularism is stiill out of stock.Posted remotely from avantblog.

These few days I am reading PMNetwork magazine.

Just bought a book by Syed Naguib al-Attas-Islam and Secularism.

To-day I am going to buy a few books to give to my friends when we have dinner at Shah Alam.

During a lunch to-day, I gave Dr Y a book entitled The Natural Way .After that Peter took me to Kinokuniya to look at some British books on British humour at its best.I was informed by him that Americans love to laugh at others but Brits prefer to laugh at themselves. How about Malaysias? Semua boleh;-)

For the record, I just completed reading The Pilgrimage.It is a spiritual journey by the author.IMHO, I like Alchemist better but I also learnt a few thing here about the processes one had to undergo in learning about oneself.

Next two months, I will be reading Project Management books and notes in preparation for my prgofessional exam PMP.

Last Saturday, I released three books to my friends. Please visit my bookshelf:
http://berisman.bookcrossing.com

Yesterday, I visited Mischief Bookshop at Ampang Plaza and bought a book A Malaysian Journey written by Rehman Rashid. After that I visited Julia at IWK and loaned her a book on Project Management.

To-day I bought two books on Gibran Khalil Gibran.(Times Bookshop) Also bought a book for a friend entitled Islam The Natural Way by Abdul Wahid Hamid.(The Specialist Bookshop).

Just finished reading Inside Organisation by Charles Handy. It is an eye opener for me to see many organisation as small as family to MNCs in a new light.

Now, I am reading Pilgrimage by paulo Coelho.It is about life ....
At the same time, I am reading Inside Organisation.

Yesterday I registered five books at bookcrossing.com

To-day I borrowed a book entitled Inside Organisation by Charles Handy from Dr Yeoh. At the same time I also loan my book entitled Empty Raincoat to LKE.

Two new books are being added to-day to my book collection:-
1. Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho
2.Hungry Spirit( given by Peter Wood as a present.

Note: Yahya donated a book entitled On Writing for my book project. TQ

8/6/2002 8:13:08 PM
Dear friends/sdara,

I am planning to launch a book project. The risk of failure is quite high but I am willing to take the risk. This idea comes from a similar project launched by the people at : http://www.bookcrossing.org It is about promoting the culture of reading. Considering our Malaysian habit, the chance of its success is low. The original idea was to get a few books and leave them at public places for people to take and read and 
THEN they pass on to their friends and so on. My modified model of the project is to get a few books and give out to a few friends to read. After the readers read the books, they will check into my website: 
http://www.communityzero.com/bookcafe  ( an online forum and bulletin board) and post their comments there. After that the readers will identify the next potential readers to read the book and repeat the same 
process again. The project can fail in many ways: the potential readers don't read the books or they don't pass the books after reading them. My only monitoring system is through their feedback at the mentioned 
website.If they don't give feedback,then I am lost...

For the moment, I am going solo on this project. If it works, then I will extend invitationS to all of you to donate books for the project. In the event anyone of you dare to take the risk to join me in this project,you are 
most welcome !
 
I  intend to launch this project at my Palmx Annual Dinner  ON 24TH aUGUST,2002 with at least five books.The next five will be at SDARA Egroup Annual Dinner - making it ten books for this year as a trial. 
May I have your suggestions on the books that I should buy and distribute for free.Please give as many suggestionS as possible.

Just finished reading a book entitled The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
Below are some lessons/notes that I derived from reading this interesting book:
1.Travelling is a journey of self discovery.
2,Treasure is where your heart is.
3.We do not live in the past nor in the future, but we live in the present.
4.The tradition is sacred- break at your risks!
5.The desert never change - only the sand dunes changes with the prevailing winds.
6.Some do not wish or dare to pursue their dreams because of their fear of losing what they already have and if they were to achieve their dreams, there is nothing more to dream. So they keep dreaming and do sit on their dreams.
7.To achieve your dreams, you need to stay focus and be willing to sacrifice even your life and losing loved ones.
8.Listen to your heart...
9.You will be tested along the joourney to your dreams.Each test will make you stronger for the next hurdle to achieve your dream.
10The omens are there to guide you provided your eyes and your ears are open.
11. In in a grain of sand,one can learn and discover many things if we dare to explore.
Points that I do not understand:
1. The meaning of the Soul of the World
2. Everthing is one.

On 14/6/2002 I bought A book entitled Empty Raincoat written by Charles Handy. He talked about a few paradox in our life ...

Last weekend, I met my friend and asked him to recommend me a few books on Islam. He suggested that I look for books related to Syaik Abdul Qadir Jailani.And I bought a copy of Secret of the Secrets.