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.