I went to a local bookstore last week and bought a couple of books as they was a sale of 15% off. I love reading and I like books. I like to own books and have books on bookshelves at home. In reality, as I don’t have much space at home, on top of my busy daily routine, I just can’t read that much and that have suppressed my book-buying mood for a long time. I guess since reading is such one of my passions that I enjoy very much, I know for a fact that, soon or later, I would just go to grab a bunch of books regardless, as an outburst to relieve my suppressed desire.
I’m not gonna list out the names of all the books that I bought, cos I’ve a way of thinking that for books that I’ve read, simply owning them doesn’t make me smarter or knowledgeable. So telling others what I own doesn’t mean much. Sometimes, when we visit someone’s home, and see what kind of books they have on the bookshelf, that always got me thinking. Maybe, the owner didn’t read all of those books, but just the topic of the book collection sometimes would give you an idea what the owner is or at least what kind of interest he/she has.
I would say that in last 1 or 2 years, the kind of books that really interested me are some non-fiction titles that can get me thinking. Usually, they are about analyzing something looks very normal, but their interpretation of the causes and phenomenon behind are usually fascinating and unconventional. Freakanomics is a good example, and I like that book very much. The book that I would like to mention here is one of the new books that I bought last week that I’m currently reading it. It is ‘Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell. I know it is not a new book, and the author has other books as well. Since, I’m reading it; I can tell you that I like what I’ve read so far. It is not a difficult book to read. It is talking about, as the title is, the tipping point of incident or phenomenon. This book is enjoyable because I do learn something new from reading it. It helps my thinking and analyzing process as it dissects events in some organized way that I think I can leverage in future. I don’t know when, just like many miscellaneous things that I learnt before. Sometimes, you just never know when they will be brought out to see the light, that’s why as I’m getting older and my memory is weaken, many of those knowledge might have already disappeared in the dark end of my mind. That’s why refreshing knowledge is such a good thing. The way to do that is reading.
Though it is still very difficult to squeeze time to read, picking up books again recently is in fact joyful for me. Looking back my CD collection and the booming of MP3, I did a bit regret of spending so much on CDs back then. Of course, I would have never known CD would fade away like LD did, and would be replaced by MP3, what a wonderful format in terms of cost, and storage size as well. Just grazing the CD shelves at home and the space needs that I’ve, I sometimes do feel sad about that. On top of that, I don’t really have time to enjoy my CD collection for various reasons. The positive side is that I did rip many of them as MP3 and upload them on my iTunes (well before I became a dad or even before I got married when I’d more personal time to do such). Now, when I look at the popping up of e-readers, and the upcoming iTablet, I know that soon or later, I will get one for reading plus other functions as well. In other words, I can see the doom of physical books as the way CD goes. Unlike CD, I know that physical books will have a place to stay for many more years or even decades to come. Still, book in the current physical format will pass as it has done its cause in human history with technology development. When it is time to go, it will. However, for me, holding a book in the hand is just different that flipping a screen with multi-touch function. Yes, books did take a lot of space. That has been my thinking all along. Nevertheless, sometimes I just think ‘the hell with it’ when I’m doing something that out of impulse. So far, I’ve not regret for buying new books. Cos, at the end of the day, reading when I’ve time does give me instant gratification than contemplating what future technology would change our life in future while it may replace certain existing medium.
I’m not gonna list out the names of all the books that I bought, cos I’ve a way of thinking that for books that I’ve read, simply owning them doesn’t make me smarter or knowledgeable. So telling others what I own doesn’t mean much. Sometimes, when we visit someone’s home, and see what kind of books they have on the bookshelf, that always got me thinking. Maybe, the owner didn’t read all of those books, but just the topic of the book collection sometimes would give you an idea what the owner is or at least what kind of interest he/she has.
I would say that in last 1 or 2 years, the kind of books that really interested me are some non-fiction titles that can get me thinking. Usually, they are about analyzing something looks very normal, but their interpretation of the causes and phenomenon behind are usually fascinating and unconventional. Freakanomics is a good example, and I like that book very much. The book that I would like to mention here is one of the new books that I bought last week that I’m currently reading it. It is ‘Tipping Point’ by Malcolm Gladwell. I know it is not a new book, and the author has other books as well. Since, I’m reading it; I can tell you that I like what I’ve read so far. It is not a difficult book to read. It is talking about, as the title is, the tipping point of incident or phenomenon. This book is enjoyable because I do learn something new from reading it. It helps my thinking and analyzing process as it dissects events in some organized way that I think I can leverage in future. I don’t know when, just like many miscellaneous things that I learnt before. Sometimes, you just never know when they will be brought out to see the light, that’s why as I’m getting older and my memory is weaken, many of those knowledge might have already disappeared in the dark end of my mind. That’s why refreshing knowledge is such a good thing. The way to do that is reading.
Though it is still very difficult to squeeze time to read, picking up books again recently is in fact joyful for me. Looking back my CD collection and the booming of MP3, I did a bit regret of spending so much on CDs back then. Of course, I would have never known CD would fade away like LD did, and would be replaced by MP3, what a wonderful format in terms of cost, and storage size as well. Just grazing the CD shelves at home and the space needs that I’ve, I sometimes do feel sad about that. On top of that, I don’t really have time to enjoy my CD collection for various reasons. The positive side is that I did rip many of them as MP3 and upload them on my iTunes (well before I became a dad or even before I got married when I’d more personal time to do such). Now, when I look at the popping up of e-readers, and the upcoming iTablet, I know that soon or later, I will get one for reading plus other functions as well. In other words, I can see the doom of physical books as the way CD goes. Unlike CD, I know that physical books will have a place to stay for many more years or even decades to come. Still, book in the current physical format will pass as it has done its cause in human history with technology development. When it is time to go, it will. However, for me, holding a book in the hand is just different that flipping a screen with multi-touch function. Yes, books did take a lot of space. That has been my thinking all along. Nevertheless, sometimes I just think ‘the hell with it’ when I’m doing something that out of impulse. So far, I’ve not regret for buying new books. Cos, at the end of the day, reading when I’ve time does give me instant gratification than contemplating what future technology would change our life in future while it may replace certain existing medium.
No comments:
Post a Comment