The Prolific Blogger Award

I click on Jessica’s of  The Bookworm Chronicles latest post and she wrote about the Prolific Blogger Award. Jessica had picked 7 of her favourite bloggers to pass the award to. Number 1…. number 2… halfway through the list I thought, wow, awesome… well, I wish I could win an award, somewhere, somehow…anything, it’s a long shot but can I win something?

And guess what??!!! I am at number 6.. Wow I’m gobsmacked and stunned. 14 months of blogging and this is my first award!!! I have never been so happy at number 6! Jessica had passed the award to me for being a treasure trove of in-depth book reviews of which I haven’t even made a dint into reading all there is to find here. Awww…. you are  so sweet Jessica. I tried to be as thorough as I could, I’m just wired that way at work and at home. I gave it my best shot and try to make the world a better place by giving out my best.

Recently I have reduced the number of books I read as I put my cyber life and reading life on hold and focus on making some new changes in my life. I am itching to get back to reading voraciously as soon as I can. Thank you everyone who kept my blog hits on expected average and not suffered with my lack of reading.

These are the people who kept me reading and blogging, in no particular order here they are:

First, there is Mee of Book of Mee maintains a visually very beautiful blog (ok that’s not the reason to be nominated). She read books which I would love to read and she is very creative in her blog entries. She entertains with entries about movies which originated from a bestselling book, youtube videos, authors, food, movie characters and the reading challenges that she participated. She has the most varied format of book blogging I have ever seen.

Next, Michelle of Su[Shu] as her blog implies reads books that is comforting to her. She writes in a comforting way too, like sharing thoughts with a friend. Michelle replies to every comment and at one point blogs 3 books in a row that I was crazy about and it seals my belief that we could be great blogger friends (only if I get back reading and blogging consistently again).

In number 3, there is Vulpes Libris, the book foxes. The Book Fox clubs really consists of a group of writers (published and unpublished), journalists, librarians, actors – as well as wildlife painters, craft-workers, opera-buffs and dog-lovers based in London. It is a club of intellectuals really and they blog about books that inspires me to read, because of them my TBR kept piling up. Their reviews are always profound and insightful, some might qualify for academic reviews, and that’s the way I like it!

Next I am going for husband and wife team, Jill and hubby at Rhapsody in Books. Jill reads YA books and hubby is into military and war. The husband and wife team made me wanted to read Moby Dick again and are ever so encouraging of my every review that I post. I think every blogger need a cheerleading Jill to spur us on the days that we don’t feel like blogging!

Ok Mel U of Reading Life has already been nominated for the Prolific Award once, I’m just going to pass the award to Mel again as Mel reviews are a good source of sociopolitical and economic analysis and deserves to be nominated. Mel U has similar reading taste as mine in reading up on South Asia, South East Asian and Japanese literature . I love reading about people of another country and culture, Mel U’s blogs offers many alternatives to learn about the world around us.

Moving on to Bernadette of Reactions to Reading, Bernadette is a pro when it comes to blogging about Crime fiction. Bernadette start blogging the same time as I am and is instrumental in being there in my early days of blogging. Although Bernadette blogs about crime fiction which is a genre I hardly read, whenever I’m in need, Bernadette never fails to offer help. Bernadette very recently went out of her way to recommend books from her country, Australia, to me. Not only is she a prolific crime fiction blogger, she is also a prolific reading habit analyst and statistician. I believe we share the same love in charts and analysis!

Last and definitely not least, it’s Adrian of The Reading Monk. Adrian writes in-depth and thought provoking review. Adrian is also a member of Culturazzi. Adrian’s review and support is a source of inspiration to me. Besides being a prolific blogger, Adrian is a prolific lawyer in real life. Although Adrian is taking a break now from blogging, organising a Legal year (in English Law, the Legal year is the calendar during which the judges sit in court) for the nation and coping with a new addition in the family. I hope when his busy schedule eased up, he would come back and start blogging again. 

So if you see your name in the list above I am passing the award on to you. If you wish to take part please read the rules.

For all who happen to read this post, please take a look at these prolific bloggers’ labour of love, their blogs. Spread some love and vote for 7 more of whom you think deserves the prolific blogger award.

The Mind Gym : Wake your mind up

10 years ago, I was a self-help buff. There wasn’t a self help book in the market that I didn’t know of. How to live our life and stop worrying, Men from Mars and Women from Venus, Why nice girls don’t get the corner office blah, blah..  you name it, I know it. (Actually I still hold on to the principle of the last book! i.e. Why nice girls don’t get the corner office). My interest in those books had waned, life poses its own unique set of challenge in every way and every time it seems I need a different skills to pull through.

The point is if we are not consciously aware of our own habitual programming, and made a conscious effort to change our own ineffective ways, we will go on living as we always do, not knowing what levers to pull. The key is having a high self-awareness and practice, practice, practice.

Once I started reading this book, I quickly realized it’s a book I should have read years ago. It’s so much more than the title suggests. But if you ever need one book for self-development, just one book to help you be a better person. This might be it.

The book is laid out in 5 sections with sub-chapters.

• Taking Control of your life
• Making the right impression
• Managing tough conversation
• Stress and relaxation
• Creative Juices

So you either read the book back to back, or you can do a quick little quiz and find out which programme is tailored to your urgent needs. I recommend to do it both ways. Read what you need to fix it and also read the books back to back to learn a thing or two, because this book is a gem.

The one thing I find very profound was the refreshing way to look at optimism and pessimism. Most books will tell you to read the book about positive thinking, go away and live a positive life! Instead here it defines what is the “Best kind of Optimism”:

It was believed that optimists took responsibility for positive events and put the responsibility on external factors for negative events. There is however a danger that if someone gets carried away with their optimism, they end up ducking responsibility or they ignore a problem until it grew out of proportion.

The attentive optimist is the sort who treads a careful path between taking too much responsibiltiy and too little. But you can be sure they will recognise and be pleased with what they have accomplished.

It goes on to say there are circumstances when it actually pays to be pessimistic. Something that I am all too familiar with, but good to know it does pay to be pessimistic at time.

This book doesn’t propose to be using techniques that have never been thought of before. It is informative, easier to use with succinct explanation. It presents a different way of looking at things. It didn’t fall into the trap of other self-help books reiterating the same concept over and over again. It adopts a no-nonense, cut to the chase sort of advice and then put you through actionable plan. There’s just the right combination of interaction, anecdotes and explanation; and it’s structured as a book you can dip into and get ideas straight away for any particular life challenge you face.

 The exercises and the very workable step-by-step approach really make it easier for reader to take what they read into actions, especially useful for inaction person like me who don’t exactly know what I should do next after reading so many self-help books filled with advice and tips. I grapple my way trying to find a way to de-programme my bad habits without actually fixing it.

Rating: 5/5 

If you buy one self-development book buy this one. You also get access to their website for even more useful tools to support your development. 65% of Amazon readers rate it 5 star, 19% rate it 4-star. It is exceptional value. Unlike most books in this genre, it delivers much, much more than the title suggests.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.” – Chapter. 1, said Carraway Senior to Nick Carraway.

Nick is a young bachelor who graduates from Yale [New Haven] in 1915, he moves to New York City to “learn the bond business” in 1922, secrets that only Midas, Morgan and Maecenas knew. He rented a place in West Egg, with a rich neighbour who throws lavish party to hundreds every weekend, and all who are invited and not invited comes over for a good time.

Daisy is Nick’s second cousin once removed and who is married to Tom Buchanan, a football player at New Haven. Nick met Jordan Baker, a wellknown female golfer at Daisy’s and told him that Tom has a mistress in New York City. Tom offers Nick a lift and on the way they stop at a shabby garage owned by George Wilson, where Nick is introduced to the owner’s wife, Myrtle (Tom’s mistress).

Nick soon finds out that his next-door neighbour is a surprisingly young, mysterious Jay Gatsby, and was invited one day to his party and an unlikely friendship between Nick and Gatsby began. There were a lot of question of how Gatsby made a fortune and why he is throwing lavish party every weekend to hundreds of strangers.

Beneath the shimmering surface of his life, Gatsby is hiding a secret: a silent longing that can never be fulfilled. And soon this destructive obsession will force his world to unravel and spiral into irreversible tragedy.

“And as I sat there, brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out Daisy’s light at the end of his dock. He had come such a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close he could hardly fail to grasp it. But what he did not know was that it was already behind him, somewhere in the vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” Chapter. 9

The Great Gatsby tells of the pursuit of the American dream in the “Jazz Age” and also the hollowness that comes with it. It is said, Following the shock and chaos of World War I, American society enjoyed unprecedented levels of prosperity during the “roaring” 1920s as the economy soared. At the same time, Prohibition, the ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol as mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment, made millionaires out of bootleggers and led to an increase in organized crime, for example the Jewish mafia. Fitzgerald, like Nick Carraway in his novel, idolized the riches and glamour of the age, he was uncomfortable with the unrestrained materialism and the lack of morality that went with it, a kind of decadence.

“I see now that this has been a story of the West, after all–Tom and Gatsby, Daisy and Jordan and I, were all Westerners, and perhaps we possessed some deficiency in common which made us subtly unadaptable to Eastern life.”

“Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgiastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter–tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther…. And one fine morning– So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

For me the story is as relevant as it is today as it is in 20’s. Losing a lover because of the state of a man’s poverty is more painful than the fading of love. It propels the jilted lover to prove himself through the gain of wealth. Only to reach the pinnacle, look around and found not a single genuine friend is there on his side.

Rating: 4/5

Besides Nick Carraway, Fitzgerald had created mostly shallow characters in the book, Tom, Daisy, Jordan etc. Fitzgerald captures the longing and hollowness very well. I have heard so much about the book and since my local library is running a Classic novel week, I can’t resist it when I saw the book sitting on the promotion shelf. The Classic novel week is also the reason I have been reading a lot classics this month.

Have a go at this, it’s only 183 page and it won’t take long for you to reflect on what really matters in life. 

I am reading this for 2010 Global Reading Challenge – North America, that completes my 2 books for the continent and 2010 A to Z Reading Challenge.

Paperback. Publisher: Penguin Red Classics [originally published 1926, this edition 2006]; Length: 183; Setting: 1920’s New York and Long Island. Source: Library Loan. Finished reading at: 17 Jan 2010

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About the Author:

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, to an Irish upper-middle class Roman Catholic family, Fitzgerald was named after his famous second cousin, twice removed, Francis Scott Key, but was referred to as “Scott”. where Fitzgerald attended St. Paul Academy in St. Paul from 1908–1911. His first literary effort, a detective story, was published in a school newspaper when he was 12. When he was 16, he was expelled from St. Paul Academy for neglecting his studies. He attended Newman School, a prep school in New Jersey, in 1911–1912, and entered Princeton University in 1913 as a member of the Class of 1917.

Although The Great Gatsby was adapted into both a Broadway play and a Hollywood film within a year of publication, it was not popular upon initial printing, selling fewer than 25,000 copies during the remaining fifteen years of Fitzgerald’s life. It was largely forgotten during the Great Depression and World War II. After its republishing in 1945 and 1953, it quickly found a wide readership and is today widely regarded as a paragon of the Great American Novel, and a literary classic. The Great Gatsby has become a standard text in high school and university courses on American literature in countries around the world, and is ranked second in the Modern Library’s list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century.

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The Girl Who Played Go by Shan Sa

The Girl who played Go, the first of Shan Sa’s books to be translated from French into English – is set against the brutal backdrop of war-torn Manchuria in the 1930s, a prelude to World War II. In the Square of a Thousand Winds, snow falls as 16-year -old Chinese girl beats all-corners at the game of go, the ancient Chinese board game that requires artful strategy and skill to attempt to surround the opponent’s stones. One of the opponents is, unknown to her, a young Japanese officer of the occupying power, rigidly militaristic, imbued with the imperial ethic, but far from home and intrigued by this young opponent. 

Every day the town folks mostly, amidst the impending Japanese invasion, bring along their tea pots and wait for anyone for a game of Go (a sign of placing the tea pot in different position indicates whether you are waiting for a specific person to play with or anyone will do!). The girl (whose name are not revealed until the end of the book) played a game of Go, they do not know each other’s names, they do not speak during the game. At the end, the girl will record the state of the game, and continue the next day.

Their encounters are like the game itself, restrained, subtle and surprisingly fierce. 

Each move sees my sinking soul take another step downwards. I have always loved the game of go for its labyrinths. Each stone’s position evolves as you move the others around it. The relationships between them become more and more complex; they alter and never quite tally with what you conceived. Go makes a nonsense of your calculations, and defies your imagination, each new formation is as unpredictable as the alchemy of clouds and it is a betrayal of what might have been. There is no rest, you’re always on the alert, always faster, heading for some part of you that is slyer and freerer, but also colder, more calculating and more deadly. Go is a game of lies; you surround the enemy with monstrous traps for the sake of the only truth – which is death. – ch.85

The book contains alternate chapters narrated by both the Chinese girl and the young Japanese soldier. The interplay of two youngsters and two empires drives the narrative, allowing the author to counterpoise the Japanese story with its Chinese counterpart. This Japanese boy comes to her as an enemy soldier maintaining his father’s samurai ethic and his country’s pride; she comes to him as a member of an aristocratic Manchu yellow-banner family that has served the Qing emperors in Peking. His side is on the rise, hers in decline. But as their two stories unfold, the Japanese army moves inexorably through their huge land, in the vanguard of a greater war, leaving blood and destruction in its wake.

My brother, after my first battle the only thing I now worship is the sun, a star that represents death’s constancy. Beware of the moon which reflects our world of beauty. It waxes and wanes, it is treacherous and ephemeral. We will all die some day. Only our nation will live on. Thousands of generation of patriots will together create Japan’s eternal greatness.- The Boy 

At my age, one friendship wipes out another, flaring up like a fire then dying down; they’re never constant but each glows fiercely. – The Girl 

Although translated from French, Shan’s voice is unmistakably Chinese — feminine but hard, finely tuned and precise. Not a word is wasted, no excess of emotion shown. Shan Sa writes very lyrical and poetically. Her dialogue has a staccato rhythm with sharp prose. The structure of her tale is very clever. Shan has created two wide-eyed, adventurous youths who came from different cultures, fast forward to adulthood in their own ways (one became a soldier, another morphed from a girl to a woman) before their time, cheated of a full youth and the critical years when they might have discovered their humanity, eventually shattered in a hellish war that carries them and millions like them to early deaths.

The only thing that brings them together was the game of Go. The love was not prevalent until towards the end of the book, as the Chinese girl caught up with her own betrayed love. The tale is also symbolic in reconciliation between two cultures in animosity since WWII. I learnt so much from Shan about little culture and history of Japanese, even-handed in her treatment of both main characters, she allows a reader to see the richness of both Japanese and Chinese culture, making us imagine how they might each enrich the other once again.

Ratings: 4.5/5

My only criticism is that it ended in haste and abrupt. The development of the feeling for each other wasn’t that memorable or deep enough to warrant such self sacrifice act at the end, I finish the book feeling somewhat cheated. Even if you don’t understand the game of Go, it doesn’t stop you from enjoying the book. Overall it’s a beautiful and well craved story. Read it and understand the intricacies of both Chinese and Japanese culture.

I am reading this for 2010 Global Reading Challenge, The China Challenge and 2010 A to Z Reading Challenge.

Paperback. Publisher: Vintage [first published in french as La Joueuse de go 2001, this edition 2006]; Length: 280; Setting: 1930’s Manchuria. Source: Library Loan Finished reading at: 16 Jan 2010 

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About the Writer:

Shan Sa was born in Beijing, China, to a scholarly family. Her real name is Yan Ni Ni; she adopted the pseudonym Shan Sa, taken from a poem by the Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi. At age 8, she published her first poetry collection, and went on to obtain the first prize in the national poetry contest for children under 12 years, an event that created a public upheaval. After graduating from secondary school in Beijing, she moved to Paris in August 1990 after obtaining a grant by the French government. Settling there with her father, a professor at the Sorbonne University, she quickly adopted the French language.

In 1994, she finished her studies of philosophy. From 1994 to 1996 she worked as a secretary of painter Balthus. Thereafter she published her first two novels and a collection of poetry, meeting with great critical acclaim including the 1998 Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman (Prix Goncourt for first novel) for Porte de la paix céleste. In 2001 she reached the top of her success with the publication of her most famous book so far, The Girl Who Played Go (La Joueuse de Go in French). The book received good feedback from readers and was awarded a number of prizes, including the 2001 Prix Goncourt des Lycéens (Prix Goncourt of the High-school students), the fiction winner of the 2004 Kiriyama Prize. The Girl Who Played Go (translated by Adriana Hunter) is also available in 19 other languages, and is being adapted for film.

The rules of the game, see here: The Game of Go

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The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

I thought I have a back-to-back Graham Greene week, so here’s another Greene’s book review.

Maurice Bendrix affair had ended 2 years ago. Out of the blue he was invited to have a drink by Henry Miles and rekindles his love and jealousy of Maurice to Sarah Miles. The love affair between Maurice and Sarah flourishing in the turbulent times of the London Blitz, ends when she suddenly and without explanation breaks it off. Bendrix hires a private detective named Parkis who trails his subject with his young son. Slowly Maurice love (or hate) for Sarah turn into an obsession.

The end of the affair definitely feels like there is no beginning and there is no end, and is an apparent parallels with Greene’s own famous love affair with Lady Catherine Walston. We also offers some hints about Greene’s own writing habits. Bendrix the protagonist is a writer, and he writes a disciplined 500 words a day, has a passion for clean, singled-lined foolscap, mulls over his work before retiring to bed.

What strike me profound was that Bendrix who was so afraid that love would end one day that he tried to hasten the end and get the pain over with, made himself into a jealous and unbearable lover.

Insecurity is the worst sense that lovers feel; sometimes the most humdrum desireless marriage seems better. Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust.

I became aware that our love was doomed; love had turned into a love affair with a beginning and an end. I could name the very moment when it had begun, and one day I knew I should be able to name the final hour. When she left the house I couldn’t settle to work. I would reconstruct what we had said to each other; I would fan myself into anger or remorse. And all the time I knew I was forcing the pace. I was pushing, pushing the only thing I loved out of my life. As long as I could make believe that love lasted I was happy; I think I was even good to live with, and so love did last. But if love had to die, I wanted it to die quickly. It was as though our love were a small creature caught in a trap and bleeding to death; I had to shut my eyes and wring its neck.

Bendrix hated Sarah because he thinks Sarah does not love him, but eventually he found out that:

It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved when you know that there is nothing in you for anybody but a parent or a God to love.

Rating : 3.5/5

There is hardly any plot in this novel, but it an intimate account of emotions and passions so intense that can be both riveting and frustrating. Understandably, Greene’s theme of Tortured Catholicism is nothing new, but adding on extra dose of miracle healing and apparition in the dreams, it began to sound trite and frustrating (come off it!). Although Greene objected strongly to being described as a Catholic novelist rather than as a novelist who happened to be Catholic, Catholic religious themes are at the root of much of his writing, especially the four major Catholic novels: Brighton Rock, The Power and the Glory, The Heart of the Matter and The End of the Affair. The End of the Affair is the fourth and last of Greene’s explicitly Catholic novels. Thank God. To top it off, Monica Ali wrote an uninspiring and over-analysed introduction to the book. I can’t even get into Monica Ali’s books before making several false start and ditching her latest one, “In The Kitchen”.

This is the third book of Greene   I reviewed. Incidentally, all three of them displayed a very gracious attitude in marriage and adultery. It’s like Fowler in The Quiet American tells Pyle, yeah you can have her if you want, even though I want her for my own. In The Heart of the matter, Scobie encourages his restless wife Louise to spend more time with Wilson, take a long walk, discuss about books and poetry, just as long as she is happy. In the End of the Affairs, Henry Miles pimps her own wife by ignorance, inviting the man(Maurice) who slept with his wife for drinks and to share his house even after he knew about the affair. I thought it’s just bizarre. It projects a very laissez-faire attitude towards adultery.

My favourite paragraph from the novel would be:

The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.

Anyone who has been in love before would relate to the emotions and passions portrayed in this novel.

Paperback. Publisher: Vintage Classics [originally published 1951, this edition 2004]; Length: 160; Setting: Post-WWII London. Source: Library Loan. Finished reading at: 14 Jan 2010

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About the Author and the book:

Greene suffered from bipolar disorder, which had a profound effect on his writing and personal life. In a letter to his wife Vivien he told her that he had “a character profoundly antagonistic to ordinary domestic life”, and that “unfortunately, the disease is also one’s material”.

Bendrix is loosely based on Greene himself, and he reflects often on the act of writing a novel. Sarah is based loosely on Greene’s mistress at the time, Catherine Walston, to whom the book is dedicated. Graham Greene’s own affair with Lady Catherine Walston played into the basis for The End of the Affair. The British edition of the novel is dedicated to “C” while the American version is made out to “Catherine.”

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The Heart of the Matter

The Heart of The Matter tells the story, principally, of Scobie, a colonial policemeant trapped in a loveless marriage. Scobie has an overdeveloped sense of pity and responsibility which spell his doom. He is never so moved by his wan, cheerless and complaining wife than when she looks ugly and vulnerable.  

As you might expect from any novel by Greene there is plenty of wrestling with religious faith. The state of Scobie’s own is neatly symbolised by the broken rosary he keeps in his desk. His difficult relationship with religion isn’t hard to understand once you learn that he and his wife lost their daughter when she was just a young girl, Scobie spared the ordeal itself by indifference (noted in his diary with the simple ‘C. died’) but cruelly taunted by two telegrams arriving in the wrong order: the first telling of her death, the second almost miraculously talking of the doctor’s hope that she might survive. His memories of that painful loss resurface after a group of shipwreck survivors are found after enduring over a month on the open sea. Having escaped the immediacy of his own daughter’s death he is forced to witness the last moments of a young girl, Helen Rolt, who later became his mistress. At the same time, he is pursued by a Syrian merchant, who runs a grocery store but suspected of diamond smuggling. 

Scobie also found an enemy in the young Wilson who is an accountant cum informer. Young Wilson is infatuated with Scobie’s wife, Louise and has been plotting his downfall so that he can have Louise. 

They had been corrupted by money, and he had been corrupted by sentiment. Sentiment was the more dangerous, because you couldn’t name its price. A man open to bribes was to be relied upon below a certain figure, but sentiment might uncoiled in the heart at a name, a photograph, even a smell remembered. 

A victim of sentiment, Scobie found himself compromising his integrity and found himself blackmailed and conducted corrupted act to cover up his adulterous ways. If you think personal life and professional life don’t mix, the development of Scobie’s demise will make you think differently. 

It is true that life always comes back with the same nightmares that haunt you. Scobie is repeatedly placed in sufferance ways. First he is called to deal with the aftermath of a suicide involving Pemberton, a young district commissioner (Scobie thinks Pemberton should be absolved for sin of his suicide, because he is so young), the shipwreck, and the eventual death of his loyal servant. 

But Greene makes clear how ingrained religious teaching can be. As Scobie embroils himself in adultery and corruption his real terror is of damnation, of receiving communion without having been absolved of his many sins. 

Despair is the price one pays for setting oneself an impossible aim. It is, one is told, the unforgivable sin, but it is a sin the corrupt or evil man never practices, he always has hope. He never reaches the freezing-point of knowing absolute failure. Only the man of goodwill carries always in his heart this capacity for damnation.  

Thinking that it might be more meaningful if I read the book then read the introduction later, turns out to be a good thing to do. James Wood introduction seems like a spoiler rather than an intro or analysis.   

The truth, he thought, has never been of any real value to any human being – it is a symbol for mathematicians, and philosophers to pursue. In human relations kindness and ties are worth a thousand truths.  

Rating: 4.5/5  

What I like about Greene’s novels are the tales about good people turning bad due to unforeseen circumstances, self-preservation or what not, rendering no clear distinction of the hero and the villain, about the good and bad of the human nature. Perhaps due to his faith and unbelief that he is acutely aware of good people who did bad things, but trying to be perfectly good and acceptable in the eyes of God.  

Another of Greene’s novel which may keep you thinking about it long after you put down the book. 

Paperback. Publisher: Vintage Classics [originally published 1948, this edition 2004]; Length: 255; Setting: WWII Sierra Leone. Finished reading at: 10 Jan 2010 

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About the Author: 

Graham Greene, OM, CH (2 October 1904 – 3 April 1991) was an English author, playwright and literary critic. His works explore the ambivalent moral and political issues of the modern world. Greene was notable for his ability to combine serious literary acclaim with widespread popularity. The Heart of the Matter (1948) was the winner in 1948 of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. During World War II, Greene worked for the Secret Intelligenc Service in Sierra Leone, which became the setting for the novel. Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.

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China Challenge!

Ok now that I’m at it, I might as well sign-up for another challenge….the…

China Challenge !!!

I’ll be taking the fast train to Shanghai:

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Fast Train to Shanghai:

From 1 Sept 2009 – 1 Sept 2010, read 5 books about China

1 should be a translated work of fiction by a Chinese author (or not translated if you have the language skills.) I will make exceptions for Chinese authors that also write in English– their English works are fine.

1 should be nonfiction

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Discovered the challenge a little too late. Looking at my last year’s stats I would have qualify for the “Hiking to great wall” challenge.

I’m game for it! Lets get the ball rolling!!

2010 Global Reading Challenge

Seek and you will find.

I haven’t started out my new year trying to look for reading challenges to participate. But I found another one which I think holds dear to what I aspire to do: read books from different countries and continents.

2010 Global Reading Challenge

I’ll be taking up the Medium Challenge:

The Medium Challenge
Read two novels from each of these continents in the course of 2010:
Africa
Asia
Australasia
Europe
North America (incl Central America)
South America

Try to find novels from twelve different countries or states.

Note : Now Bernadette, can you help identify two good novels from Australasia which is worthy of my time? Thanks a million!

Dear Undercover Economist

I have read the The Undercover Economist in early 2007. I remember it was a fun read but remembered very little of the actual content.

Economists might not be the first person you would turn to as the Agony Aunt that would solve some of your daily dilemma like parenting, the intricacies of etiquette or the dark arts of seduction. But for years Tim Harford has been doing just that with the Financial Times (FT): answering the most challenging questions in his column, where he uses the tools of and studies of economics to give advice about everyday issues, conundrum and concerns. From family rows and the stock market to buy socks or speed dating, you’ll find Harford has a rational economics solution to all of them. Although I opined, contrary to the publicity opinion, not always practical, often blunt and at times digressing from the real issue, but it would surely bring a smile to your face.

Each page of the book opens with a fresh question and a half page answer. There are so many strange questions and dilemmas that you wonder if Harford had cooked some of them up, or if there are quite a few strange people out there who reads FT or if they are writing to the column just to irk the editor? Harford is always able to provide answers to strange questions like: are there tangible benefits in flossing? Is it wrong to fake orgasms? Should we bother doing the ironing? Should one leave the lavatory seat down? And some of these questions sounds like one that I could write myself:

• If I am a rational economic agent, how am I able to succeed in fooling myself systematically by setting my watch up 5 minutes fast? – answer hint: being early is costly, and I probably have a warped view about time.
• Wedding list is fraught with inefficiencies, the efficient way is to get rid of wedding list and charge an admission fees, but his wife will be crossed, wonder why. Little does Harford knows, Chinese are already an established practitioner of such admission charge.
• I recycled and adopt a green living everyday only to book holidays by clocking air miles. I’m not the only one, apparently most governments are Green Hypocrites too!
• Someone asked if they should keep the gym membership going as incentive to get fit? I actually did that, I paid hefty gym membership fees so that every time I think about the huge sum of money paid, I am compelled to pack up my gym bag and pump some irons.
• Being nice and not write negative comments about a bad seller in Amazon or ebay just stop the market from being efficient. So go ahead and say it like it is!
• The law of comparative advantage suggests people should use their talent but we’re also told ‘do what we love’. What if I have no talent for what I love? Is it worth time and effort pursuing a dream career I’m no good at? The economist said there is no conflict. Being good at a job means you will earn more; enjoying a job means you will not mind earning less.

Some suggestions are outrageous, suggestion to pay your children to visit and call more often so that they can get a bigger piece of inheritance;  and if the market is efficient, you can auction and pay whoever who can provide information about your husband’s infidelity; ask your circle of friends whom you meet up frequently to pay up a deposit, so that there is no free-rider in the group (not a bad idea actually); bribe your best friend enough to assuage your guilt for not attending her wedding and enjoy an extended 4 months of backpacking holidays in Down Under, rewarding your cleaner is not a good idea, best pay low and use the extra money to get a second cleaner etc…..; repulsive, but it makes economical sense. But I think I won’t have the heart to do it.

What did I learnt from the book? Loads.

• For one, some cultures are more economic efficient than others. There is no hesitation to split the bill when dining together. Sharing of food only happens in with the closest friends and perhaps only with buffet lunches. Wedding showers and wedding lists, Christmas gifts are literally alien, instead money in a packet replaces all these in festive occasions.
• No gain is better than tiny grain.
• Not expecting too much is the first step to happiness. Andrew Oswald, an economist says that happiness increases with higher income but it falls with higher expectations. This is not good news for reader Karl. “Since you ask smart questions and read the Financial Times, you must expect a lot out of life. Oswald suggest that you are unlikely to be happy.”
• It clearly is more efficient if the world operates in pure economics. But the more economics life is, the less heart it is.

Rating: 4/5

I never did very well in economics. Of all the subjects that studied, economics is one that eludes me, twice. My only criticism is that some advice can be distasteful. Some advice you will have no clue of, because he uses economics academic theory and jargons, and doesn’t seem to quite answer the question.

It’s a small book, full of practical ideas and some sensible advice. In my view, at 179 page, it’s a gem.

I’ll leave you with two teasers:

When it comes to cinema tickets, adjustable pricing does not apply. Why is that so? After all big budget movies deserve higher pricing, don’t they?; and

Are extended warranties and travel insurance a waste of money? 

Paperback. Publisher: Penguin [in series 1946-7, in book form 1951, 1994]; Length: 192; Finished reading at: 3 Jan 2010. Source: From the Library.

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About the writer:

Tim Harford is a member of the Financial Times editorial board and presenter of “More or Less”, Radio 4’s look at the numbers in the news and in everyday life.

Tim’s FT column, “The Undercover Economist”, which reveals the economic ideas behind everyday experiences, is published in the Financial Times and syndicated around the world. He is also the only economist in the world to run a problem page, “Dear Economist”, in which FT readers’ personal problems are answered tongue-in-cheek with the latest economic theory.

Tim’s first book, The Undercover Economist has sold nearly one million copies worldwide in almost 30 languages. His second book, The Logic of Life, was published early in 2008 in English, and has also been widely translated. He presented the BBC 2 television series Trust Me, I’m an Economist and is a frequent contributor to other radio and TV programmes, including the Colbert Report, Marketplace, Morning Edition, Today, and Newsnight.

He has been published by the leading magazines and newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic, including Esquire, Forbes, Wired, New York Magazine, the Guardian, the Times, the Washington Post and the New York Times. He won the 2006 Bastiat Prize for economic journalism.

Before becoming a writer, Tim worked for Shell, the World Bank and as a tutor at Oxford University, from where he earned an MPhil in economics in 1998. He is a senior visiting fellow at Cass Business School, and he lives in London with his wife and two daughters.

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Pensioners burn books for warmth

Today I picked up a Metro newspaper on my way to work. The headlines said:

Pensioners burn books to keep warmth

I find the idea of burning books repulsive, but I do not in one split of the seconds blame the pensioners for burning books. Used hardback books have become cheaper than heating and charcoal. Who is to blame them for finding a cheaper alternative “fuel” to keep warm in this unprecedented harsh winter in England?

I blame the policy maker. It is so wrong, so wrong.