Friday, December 31, 2010

2010 in Review

So it’s New Year’s Eve! Another year has gone by, another new year is almost here, and it’s time to look back on this year and everything this year has brought. =)

Literary-speaking, 2010 was one of the worst years for me, unfortunately. I hardly read, and I had sooooooo many periods of downtime where I didn’t even have the mood to pick up a book! This is honestly the first year in my life that I’ve ever felt like this about books, and it’s a really weird feeling.

However, I’ve got really great reasons, because I got married in January this year, and all that nervousness and excitement for planning the wedding and everything was what got me too hyped to read.

I recovered after a few weeks(!) but then in August, we moved to Canada from Malaysia, and there was all that excitement and business with planning and preparing and moving and settling into a new place and etc… So I again got too hyped up to read.

And to be honest, I’m not quite settled yet, and there’d been so many adjustments in our lives that we’re still working out a lot of the kinks in our daily routines. Things are getting better, and I do still read, but it’s been hard to get into the “zone” that I used to go into when reading a *really* good book.

Probably because I have a lot more work and chores and responsibilities now than I used to have. I know that’s something that I’ll have to get used to though, so maybe I’ll get a new “normal” soon.

So yeah, 2010 wasn’t a great year for books, but it was an *amazing* year for life! I had a great time, I had so many great new experiences, and I am so looking forward to a more exciting 2011!

Have a great new year, everyone!! =)

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron

Predictably, I cried buckets when I read this. I’ve heard about this book a long time ago, but never got around to reading it until now.

When reading other people’s posts about it though, more often than not, they’ll mention how much they cried at the end, so being a sentimental sap myself, I knew I would cry too.

Dewey is an amazing story, and Dewey is an amazing cat. I’ve never had cats growing up so there’s a lot I don’t know about their behavior and characteristics, but it seemed to me that Dewey is really almost human.

Of course, he is one of a kind, and as Myron says in the book, not every cat can be a library cat, a library cat has to have the right personality. And Dewey did.

What I love most about the book is the stories about every person that Dewey touched, each life he changed, how much better and brighter a person’s day became just because they crossed paths with Dewey.

We all need a Dewey in our lives.

This is a wonderful, wonderful book. It touched me and warmed my heart and brought me to tears and made me realized just how big a difference even a small person or animal can make in the world. It is a must-read for any cat lovers, but really, I think everyone should read it.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Sell Back Your Book

I just found out about this site, Sell Back Your Book, and I wish I had known about it back when I was selling a lot of my books before moving here!

I still have some of the books I wanted to sell left, mostly textbooks and a few non-fiction; so I decided to check how much I might’ve gotten for them. They have a field on the front page where you can key in the ISBN numbers of books you want to sell, and they’ll quote you prices for them in seconds!

I don’t have the books with me now, obviously, so I couldn’t key in the exact ISBN numbers to get the exact price quote, but I got the ISBNs of the same books in different editions and I would’ve been able to get $101.44 for 3 of the books! Wow!

Ok, since the editions I keyed in are newer than the editions I have, the amount probably could be less, but even if I only got half the amount quoted, it’s still really good! Oh, how I wish I knew about this site earlier!

They even pay for the shipping with a pre-paid postage label that you can print out and just attach to your package, and they pay you for the books via paypal or check as soon as they receive and confirm the contents of your package!

The most important part for me, is that the company who owns Sell Back Your Book is an accredited member of the Better Business Bureau with no complaints! Having worked for a company that was also an accredited member of the BBB, I know how important this accreditation is, and I have many times, trusted and chosen to use a company’s services simply because of their BBB status. 

I’m really kicking myself for not searching for a site like this when I was selling my books! I definitely could’ve used the extra money!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

All My Patients Have Tales by Jeff Wells

All My Patients Have Tales by Jeff Wells

Just a couple of weeks ago, I read a book called Every Patient Tells a Story by Lisa Sanders. Click on the title to find out more about it.

I was tickled when I found this book because of the similarities in the titles, and also because I was sure that a book about animals as patients would be really fun and amusing to read.

Well, it wasn’t a bad book, there are a couple of funny stories, but somehow it just left me feeling somewhat indifferent to it.

It’s probably not so much the stories as it is the writing style and the presentation of the stories, so in all fairness, I’m not criticizing his experiences or expertise in his practice, but the book itself.

With many of the stories, I found myself wondering what his point was. These are amusing anecdotes, sure, but they don’t seem to be worth spending money on to buy the book. It was a little disappointing as I expected more from it.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Scaring myself

So I know Halloween’s over, and Christmas is coming, but somehow I’ve been in the mood for horror and ghost stories. Which is really stupid, because now that there’s only me and DH at home, and it’s winter and it’s dark by 5pm, and DH works most evenings and I’m home alone…

What’s *even* more stupid, is that I’ve borrowed books from the library about true ghost stories in ALBERTA! Which is where I am now.

Why do people scare themselves? =P

Normally I read books really, really fast, and it’s all short stories, so I *should* be reading them really fast anyway, but because of the timing; I have to only read the ghost stories during daytime and only when DH is at home, it’s taking me ages to finish.

Actually, it’s taking me ages to even start!

I feel like I should go to the library where there many more people other than myself and stay there and read until they close so I won’t be alone.

Hmmm….good idea, actually… except that I still need to cook and clean and eat. =P

I need a dog or a cat to keep me company. I miss my doggies back in Malaysia. =(

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