Second-Hand Book Store : Stranger Encounters

One of a few places that always possess magnetic attraction to me is secondhand bookstore located in Bras Basah. Everytime my friend and I went there we lost track of time and scanning a title one by one suddenly is not a tedious work at all. My friend had always pulled me and tried her best to hold me from stepping inside, she knew better we won't be out in less than thirty minutes once we walked in. When can you get good books for $2.9 in Singapore? If you don't mind scent of old books and yellowing pages, you won't think twice.

Another thing I have kind of recently experienced a few days in a row is the conversation that takes place there. Perhaps because it was not a very common place and people who went there would at least have one interest in common. I was with a friend of mine when a man, seemingly over middle age tourist broke in a silence "They are pretty cheap. A lot of collections too." That is when we found out he was an english man living in Malaysia in venture for good Malayan books. He is quite a thin guy just slightly taller than me, his hair has thinned and whitened and he wore patterned shirt that looks like Batik but not quite the same. He admitted he like living in Malaysia despite some grudges he threw over the people "Yes means no, no means yes." I asked him to further explain it, he basically sum up by saying "How do I say it.. people just don't know what they are talking about." To that I need to gather bits of this and that to make sense of what he might mean. It might be simply language barrier it also might be what we acknowledge similar as what some of Indonesian is lacking, the straightforwardness, in contrast to Singaporean. You say yes when you kind of mind it, you say no when you kind of just want to play hard to get. Anyway he also came to venture for good healthy breads, the hard baguette preferably. He then went on asking about culinary places here. Being homebody I am I could not tell much beside the ones surround my place, so my friend became an instant guide here. We could not guarantee the name we mention would stay with him after he left the bookstore but he did not bother to note it down anyway. The conversation went for a little more awhile yet we needed to hurry back. He somehow read our gesture and we had our farewell there. Of course, what are the odds, we might see each other again, right? I said "Bye" he said "see you", He is an english after all.

The next day I was with the same friend we were in the middle of mural project that takes place in Bras Basah. Wrapping up and called it a day on the last second day, we hurried for food nearby to later rush to my place before rain got any heavier. Walking across National Library, we bumped into the man we met yesterday. Yes.. right, what are the odds?! But I got to remind my self it is Singapore. You could bump into three people you know in the same mall at Jakarta, perhaps a few you would call unfortunate encounter. This time we got to know his name and his contact if any future info on secondhand bookstore. He  said he was just now lost and people weren't helpful about location. We said it is Singapore, people depend on GPS our spatial sense had long not been put to much of use, I muttered in my mind another possibility is that random people these days are too anxious to be approached by strangers they say "i dont know" before even process the question. A few minutes passed now we were on a topic of tight regulation Singapore has on everything, that he could not just dump his secondhand stuff to sell here. "In Malaysia you won't need All those, you can just sell it." "Indo too." I relate. It comes in a package of course, more news of good deals more news of scam. We parted away again for the second time and this time we were somehow quite sure that no more encounter will happen. I mean who knows but that has been the universe rules that no odds happen over twice right?

We were right, up to now.

But the next few days I did not know how did I make myself comeback there after piling up my unfinished readinglist. Upon searching row by row, an interesting conversation took place between an old american man and a Singaporean man I'd assume on his 40s? They were talking about being happy in old days. The SG guy suggested to do volunteer work as it can be quite depressing to not do anything especially in Singapore. "It is good to work, you'll feel empty after you retire." That kind of reflects on the old aunties and uncles in Singapore who takes up so much physical works despite their slowing movement expose undeniable need of rest. Some has totally walk bending down as they sweep the floor. When I asked my friend about it, she went "because you don't want to burden your kids" There might be more to it but all I can make up for now is that the living cost is too high that to go according the old way by having your kids returned the favor by sending money is not enough. Is it financial issue or mental issue of being in need of doing something, I am not sure. No matter how much you have gotten used to the view day by day, you can't still yet fully normalize it. It better not.

They talked about job the SG man said how hard it is to be an engineer that he downgraded from the previous job. The old man said he too was an engineer but on the side of construction. I forgot the following lines but somewhere nearing the end of this topic, the SG man said "I think you are up there. I am nothing compared to you" His voice sound confident, humble but not the self-pity kind of tone. The old man of course, denied humbly with his hoarse mumbling voice. It is quite funny now you think of it they could have a few stages away and such conversation will rarely happen in professional basis but the bookstore got them talking like buddies. The things about strangers, you can't really grasp of who a person is so your action toward them genuinely represents you before knowing the respect you should've thrown upon this actually-somebody-or-nobody depending on your boxes. Interesting fine line huh what professional world can make upon connection of two persons, the jump of persona and trait that attracts your "friends" but not your 'friends'.

After awhile hoping they didn't catch me stepping closer toward them as I scanned over the books to eavesdrop, they have changed the topic into some political influence that has turned Singapore of what it is today and of course, the China's economy. I was now in lost of the books and now had stepped far enough to only catch unclear mumble of them in a distant.

I lined up near to the cashier as the old man departed with the SG man. That has finished the stranger series of today. I paid my book and went home. 

Review : Sidney Sheldon, Master of the Game

Having ever read two of Sydney Sheldon's book and
thought it was worth it, it got me less hesitant in picking another one by him. This time it is titled Master of the Game. Being more picky I am than I ever was back then, I checked on its rating and review and made even more sure to purchase it. With so much time in hands during holiday as well as getting absorbed with the story itself, I managed to (almost) finish it within two or three days. By (almost), what I mean was that I just could not manage to finish it yet because.. well I'd tell you later about that.
spoiler allert, guys.

The story is about a poor guy named Jamie which was portrayed with naive dream yet great will, went through a journey to find diamonds all the way across the sea to the land of Africa. After all the hardship, almost eaten by vulture, he made it to his destination and returned with lots of diamond that could turn him into millionaire in a day yet he ended up being lied to by his boss or business partner. With all the dreams and expectation being crushed to bits, he set a revenge by impregnating the boss's daughter, a girl who naively thought he was true lover. Such a thing was deemed immoral that it brought shame for the father, considering that he is a devoted church member every Sunday. So with that, born a baby boy in which Jamie was reluctant taking care of. But as time went by and the bonding unexpectedly grow stronger between them, he decided to keep the baby with a given condition by the girl that he will have to marry her. So there they were, married but totally disconnected because it has never been love for Jamie. Not long after, a second baby girl was born, named Kate. This little rebel Kate is soon to be the next head for their already grown big corporation. The next focus now has turned to Kate, as the previous main character (Kate's dad) has passed away.

This Kate was ambitious and passed on a lot of her dad's trait. With her, the corporation has grown  bigger than ever. A little shortly after awhile, she gave birth and named the baby boy as Tony. With all the luxury he was born into, Tony was grown anxious. He felt intimidated around his mom, because he felt like he could not live up to her expectation. He wanted to be an artist which to her mom is not a serious profession compared to passing on  future and there is no one else she would let having more than her only son. But her son felt like a puppet so he decided to live far off the house to pursue his art career. But turned out her mother Kate was still creeping in behind his decision, planning an encounter of his son and Art dealer, negative art review from a famous art critic, as well as paying a model to be his girlfriend to watch him over. All goes to her wish to have her son working for the company. After a marriage her son had with a girl that his mother secretly arranged, they were blessed with two daughters, a pair of twin. But the mother died. Tony's wife died after giving birth. This is where things get a little bit unsettling for me.

Knowing about her mother's intervene on his artistic journey as well as her crazy idea of risking his wife for the sake of reproduction, he went total mad and shot her mother Kate. Kate did not die but Tony was put into an asylum due to his mental health.

Turned out Kate's twin grandaughters consist of one that dies to kill another one, while the other one is a naive innocent, and a stupid one if I might add due to her incapability of standing up for herself. I started to not really into the plot since this twinnies took over.

I think that the plot was quite strong at first, the character, in spite of the fool he had made of himself for being too naive, was somewhat inspiring. Kate's period was alright, I think the author was intentionally draws the reader a hate and love relationship with Kate. I tended to dislike her most of the times but it is still pretty acceptable. Tony's period was somehow quite interesting either due to our common interest in arts and its journey depicted there or because he was the only one with different mind set and life goal than the rest of the character. But when the twin sarts to take over the story, I started to get less fond of where it is going. It was clearly made who is evil and who is kind but the evil sister was made as a very cliche character. The motive was cliche, her monologue is a boring evil thought that you would find quite frequently on Indonesian's soap opera. I like villain if it shows how complicated and conflicted our interests are, moved by particular motive. But this one is a mere plain hatred.

The thing about Sydney Sheldon's story is that sometimes it does not quite clearly show the depth of thought and feeling by the character instead it shows more of their action or the chronological events without getting too deep on how and why. Say, on the whole book it was explained how Kate has ben crazily in love with David since she was young but David always has always been reluctant about that. Til one day, with less than one page it was said that David finally realized and they finally got married and having a kid. Or another sample, Kate thought producing guns are a good business, shortly after in the book it was said that their company has improved much on their newly expanded products, gun and war ammunition. It is not necessarily bad to me in fact it is what made it unique of his works but sometimes you feel like there is a too much to take in. As in you're not connected enough with one yet  another shocking news fill in the story. The change of character was a little too fast on this book, as in the focus almost completely turn from one to another, taking the wheel of the story. I am used to few characters at once but I'd rather have it to show different point of view instead of a complete story of one's character, passed on another.  I think it is common on action based stories to show more action rather than feeling and thoughts, as long as it is kept up with right balance of consistency.

in conclusion, I definitely did not regret picking up this one and honestly the first few parts were rather inspiring and I will always carry with me. Only that I am a little disappointed with the direction it is going. I like Sydney's book titled The Sands of Time much better.

Surprise surprise

I had a little more to go to finish this book in other word I have not completely finished it while writing about it because I want to see if there is any change after completing one. I will edit this post to have it updated.

We Live off Stories

Somewhere in the last grade of highschool I vaguely committed in my mind that I will slowly cut off my book reading due to one or two personal reason, to the point where even my college room mate found it weird seeing the sight of me reading a novel. The idea kind of tickled me thinking how much of a bookworm I was back then.

Even though I didn't really cut it off and instead read some more ebook in kindle, a week ago I felt the urge to buy the paperback ones. I went to secondhand book store at Bras Basah complex, back there in Singapore. I had been there once and stunned by the collection they had and the fair price they offered. The book has turned yellowish-brownish with golden spots, as if aging of a living person. The price ranged from $2.00 to $10. I think some are over $10 but they must be newly produced. I spent hours there scanning each title. and came up with four books in total because in fact I still have dozen unread in kindle and paperback form. I bought Never Cry Wolf, City of Joy, The popular classic Pride and Prejudice, and Master of The Game by Sydney Sheldon in which I am going to post a review of.

I just noticed that while I kept myself away from books all this time, I actually moved to movies. In other word, the story telling aspect never tires me. Good stories often give off odd and unusual understanding, of the most misunderstood people. It made you see from the point of view of the minority, the oppressed. Sometimes a prostitute, a psycopath, and other criminals even ghost which despite being non-supertitious you are, could still blow your mind for its oddly commonsense. Or just particular situation or character depicted that alerted your mind for its familiarity with whom you know, or yourself. I had lost count how much a good story had f**ed me up, in a good way. Whenever I am carried away with one, the ending got me stunned for a moment. How on earth a story could stir up my mind this far. How on earth one could be that brilliant coming up with those and bring them alive.

Good thing is that they are being produced over and over again, not just it could live off in the shelf far longer than the author, it also live off in the reader's mind and subconsciously changed them even when it is just a tad bit decision change. And we have not yet included the people around being passed on of the story, directly or indirectly (when the story has been planted into the reader itself). If there is one thing I could tell the most special privilege about being an artist is that they got to access you right in the mind and emotion.

Harry Potter : a Late Fan Here................

I have been watching Harry Potter since I was so small and could only be impressed by the look of magically moving newspaper pictures, flying broomstick, a giant troll, and all that. It was elementary school what do you expect. Also, guilty as charged I was, I bought the cheap copy one that was all over the market basically and it came in package with bad subtitle and some glitches, if you are not that lucky. I could not speak english at that time so malay/bahasa turned to be the only choice. Well, above all of that, basically I was not there yet to understand all the emotional and plot twist of this movie. So there I stopped on HP : Half Blood Prince and never continued.

til three or four days ago I asked my room mate to watch Harry Potter since she had only watched the sixth one right away and of course, did not understand shit. So we watched from the very first series, which was basically just the introduction into the wizard world, so it would appeal the kiddie me back then but a little bit boring for us now. However, I like all the magic atmosphere and the throwback vibe seeing all the cast back young again.

The next Harry Potter got our nerves intense due to its beginning of the dark story. He-Who-Can't-Be-Named is getting more parts. As we got to the next movie, it is unexpectedly getting better and better. We ended up finishing everything within three days. Every day when we finished one, we cursed the night for being so short and this weak sleepy eyes for having to sleep. The Prisoner of Azkaban used to be my number one favorite back then (after watching it third time or so) but now I really can't choose which one got me the most, except Deathly Hallows because it has to be great indeed.

The thing about having all powerful series is that it serves the function as life memory of the character for many years and the interlink of them by recalling one and another got it even more mind blowing. I got goosebumps every now and then.

I really liked the vibe of the dark magic and these whole series feed it well...not just visually, but the plot and character and basically the whole dark atmosphere built.

After we finished the whole movie, it got us crazy it was too overwhelming. My room mate, like usual, smiled and giggled on her own like a blockhead. I also could not help to not yell and roll over here and there. So if you have never watched it, or have but not impressed, I recommend to watch it all over again but in a row shortly after one finished. (movie marathon) It is just great how powerful a story is and how your whole brain was like being tilted by it.. if that makes sense. I don't know the word. Now I wonder how it felt like being a Harry Potter die hard fan back then when you have to wait for years for the next one to come. I really salute you all, I can't even wait for the next night to come and watch. Also I wonder how the book is like, because usually the book is always better than the movie. And I just could not imagine what is better than this.

Shortly after we finish everything, my room mate wants to watch the bloopers and behind the scene, which I tried to restrict. At least for me. As much as I love seeing the behind the scene, I hate that it is just movie and there is making process behind. I want to keep the story remained as a real life in my mind. :"D At least not now.

I can't thankful enough of the power of one's mind to be able to create such story. J.K. Rowling... how the h*ll did you do that..