After a full blast of spending over clothes and whatnots in the glorious world of online shopping, I have finally moved on. It was nice not to see part of your paycheck flying away right after payday, but ha, that only lasted me a few days. I found a new way to spend it on, and I’m not sure everyone would agree it’s the brightest idea.
Books. The real thing.
I loved books when I was young. It made me feel knowledgeable. It took me someplace else. It was a form of escape for me from the real world of multiplication tables, Algebra and Physics. But when I grew older, I lost the interest of reading books. Like somehow, I got preoccupied with something else that I disregarded my first love.
Some weeks ago, I realized that I miss that side of me- the one people call the geeky weird hobby that introverts put themselves into to shut themselves out of the world. Then I remembered, I’m into personal development and self help lately. I read small chunks of inspirational and motivational essay pieces online, but somehow it still made me feel disconnected with what I’m going into with life. So I thought to myself, I’ll start there- from books that tackle success, insecurities, stress, and thinking. That’s also the reason why I’m posting a lot more book-related posts lately.
Not like I hate eBooks, they’re cheap and convenient to take anywhere Plus I had a phase of ghostwritng eBooks for a living so what’s to hate. But holding an actual book, flipping through actual pages, and smelling ’em and keeps me in better comfort of indulging into stories and vocabularies.
And that’s where my hoarding started. In the past 5 days I bought 10 from both fiction and nonfiction books (and I’m still looking for more but I can’t find them yet). Most of them I picked based on Amazon and Goodreads reviews. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish all of them and I’ll be posting book reviews when I do. You can check my latest book reviews here.
My mom’s currently out of town, she’ll probably scold from buying too much books (and at once at that) when she gets back. Especially when she just cleared out the shelf from untouched books lol.
Here’s my current hoard! 🙂
The Success Principles of Jack Canfield
This is my current read. The slogan is exactly what I’m going through right now. I have no idea what path to take. So far I’m enjoying it despite going for slow-paced reading to absorb everything I’m reading. You can check my progress here. You can read my partial review here.
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
The only reason I bought this book was through a book seller’s recommendation. I gave it a go since it had a 4.5/5 rating in Amazon from 700+ users, which in my opinion is pretty high for any book.
The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck, M.D.
Another book I got from a recommendation by a book seller. (Right now I realized she was just probably wanting to earn off me huhu) Also a 4.5/5 in Amazon from 900 users.
Atlas ShruggedThe book didn’t actually appeal to me, but a 4.2/5 from almost 6000 users would entice you into knowing why, despite being just another recommendation by the same book seller.
Eats, Shoots, Leaves by Lynne Truss
Enhancing my writing skills was also part of my priority when I decided I want to go back to reading. I came across this book through Google when I searched for books for writers. And got encouraged to buy because look at that cover!
Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark
Another book I came across that were recommended by numerous blogs and sites. Only skimmed for a few seconds and it seems promising enough as a refresher even for tenured writers like me. Has a 4.8/5 eating from almost 300 users on Amazon.
Night by Elie Wiesel
This book was recommended to me by my former editor-in-chief when I was part of my university’s publication so I grab a hold of it when I had a chance. A 4.7 out of over 3000 users sounds promising, too.
Amazon’s free Kindle app recommended this book to me. After reading the synopsis, I decided to give it a shot. Good thing I found a copy in my local bookstore.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Gotta admit I want to read this book since it’s going mainstream. Also saw this from the blog of one of my friends so I thought why not.
Wanted to read this so bad when it came out, but I’m too far from bookstores that I can’t even buy one till I forgot about it and came across it again the past week.
Life and Lemons 