I am now a digital bookworm

When I first became a mom, it was really, really tough for me to keep up with my reading habit. My first year as a new mother, I only managed to read two books for the whole year. I tried reading often but I was always too tired to finish a book. At that point of time I was already a member of Audible, Amazon’s audiobook store. I was purchasing books monthly on audible but never really started listening to them because I wasn’t used to “listening” to a book.

About two year ago, I moved in to stay with my mum and dad for a while and they live really far out from my workplace. It took me about half an hour to get to work … on a good day. On a bad day it can be between 40 minutes to an hour to commute to work in my car. I got sick of listening to the local radio station (our morning shows really suck by the way). So one day I decided to download the audible app on my iPhone together with all my audiobooks and just started listening to my first audiobook on one of my long drives to work.

The first book I really listened to from Audible was The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Really good choice for a first audiobook, the listening experience was great and I have been hooked on audiobooks since then. Thanks to audiobooks, I’ve managed to continue ‘reading’ despite my hectic schedule at home and at work. In fact on days that I am really lazy to read to the kids, we listen to audiobooks together instead…  LOL. That’s me making good use of technology.

I’ve since moved out of my mum and dad’s home, my commute to work is very much shorter now but I still listen to audiobooks whenever I’m in the car. I absolutely love the experience. I plug my earphones to listen to my audiobook whenever I can; when I go grocery shopping, manicure sessions or anything that I do that doesn’t require serious focus or communicating with others. Last year I went through about 15 audiobooks in total and I am hoping to listen to more this year. I absolutely love listening to audiobooks and the technology has helped me ‘read’ whenever and wherever I can.

I also invested in my first e-reader about a year back. Kobo e-readers are not available here in Malaysia or at least I couldn’t find a reliable source to purchase from. Fortunately for me, I managed to trouble a friend to buy it for me in Australia. I’ll explain my choice of a Kobo over a Kindle at another time; this topic deserves its own post. Again, it took a while for me to get used to reading on an e-reader. Transitioning from a traditional book to an e-reader took me about 6 months. The first time I held my Kobo and tried reading from it, I actually missed the weight, feel and smell of an actual book.

Late last year, during a long holiday I decided to start reading off my Kobo. I’ve since read five books and am now on my sixth book purchased from Kobo.

I am now so in love with my Kobo that I don’t leave home without it. It’s light and small enough to carry around in my handbag. At night if I want to continue reading, I don’t have to leave the lights on and disrupt my husband; who really can sleep through anything to be honest, lights on, off, loud sounds, an earthquake even probably… so the function isn’t that important to me but it’s quite nice to have. I can read anywhere I want and whenever I want; in between meetings, lunchtime, when I’m waiting for people. I just whip out my Kobo and start reading.

But… the coolest thing about going digital is that I have over 500 books with me ALL THE TIME; a combo of my list of audiobook and e-books in my Kobo and Audible library. That’s seriously cool, no?

I still buy books of course, but not as often as I use to. The only thing that I need to research on a bit is whether I can still get tax refund from audible and kobo bookstore purchases in Malaysia.

Anyway, I’m proud to say that I’ve finally gone digital and I’m loving it!

It's Monday What Are You Reading This Week?

It's Monday What Are You Reading is a weekly meme hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. We use this meme to share what we have read in the past week and what our plans are for the upcoming week.

Last week’s reads:

I’ve been pretty busy at work the last week but still managed to catch up on my reading and some reading with the kids. I finished the 4^th book of the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place Series: The Interrupted Tale on audiobook. As for reading with the kids, this week we read Pirate Pat, an Usborne publication as well as a Lego Star Wars book that basically has a shorter, children’s version of A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back that can be read under five minutes. I think I enjoyed reading the Lego Star Wars book more than the kids did to be honest.

This week’s reads:

I started reading We Were Liars last week and was hoping I would be able to finish it over the weekend but it was quite impossible to since we had a couple of social events that we had to attend. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish it off before this weekend. 

Yesterday, I also started listening to The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. Am only a few pages in so it’s still too early to tell if I’ll like it or not. As for reading with the kids well, I am planning to read another Usborne Publication to the kids this week titled The Dressing-Up Box and would like to start listening to Curious George Rides a Bike which I've just purchased on Audible for them.

Have a great week ahead and happy reading everyone!

Book Review: Jack and the Beanstalk

Written by: Richard Walker, Niamh Sharkey

Narrated by: Richard Hope

Length: 12 mins

Format: Unabridged Audiobook

One day, when they have no food left, Jack's mom sends him to market to sell the cow. On the way, Jack bumps into a funny little man wearing a big, baggy jacket with big, baggy pockets. In the pockets lie six bewitched beans, but the funny little man has lost the instructions for them. Jack's adventure begins when he swaps Daisy the cow for six magic beans that grow to the land of the clouds.

My thoughts:

Jack and the Beanstalk is a classic which most of us have read when we were children and I really wanted to share this story with my two boys. 

To be honest, I found the music at the beginning and the end a bit annoying. But I suppose I am not the target audience. My boys love it and danced to the tune whenever we’re listening to this audiobook. (Not a good thing if you’re listening close to bedtime!) After a week of listening to it, I kinda got use to the music.

Apart from the music, the narration for this audiobook is actually really good. It’s quite animated and my kids paid attention to the audiobook from beginning to end. My 4 year old especially loves the part where the giant says ‘Fee-fi-fo-fum, I smell the blood of a stinky man’ and now keeps calling everyone a stinky man. Sigh.

This version is slightly different from the ones I used to read as a child but the main storyline is still the same.

Anyway, I dare say that this is one of my son’s favourite audiobooks. I just had to post this video up. Yesterday, my four-year old was trying to tell me and my husband the Jack and the Beanstalk story at bedtime. Well, his version of the story anyway…

This video only proves how much he loves listening to Jack and the Beanstalk. 

Definitely recommended listening for the kiddo’s. I gave this a 5/5 on audible.  

February Blog Improvements

I recently decided to come back and blog on this site which has been left idle since 2011. Because of this, I felt that I needed a new look and feel that would be more suitable with the current times. I wanted to improve the blog design, layout and navigation. So in the past two weeks I was working to improve my blog somewhat. This will obviously be an ongoing project as I won't have the time to update everything at one go. These are the improvements I’ve done so far:  

Blog design

My previous blog design was implemented sometime in 2010 and I thought a refreshed look was much needed to suit my current style. I cluttered my layout with so many widgets and links to multiple sites that honestly would not benefit anyone who visited my site.

I worked with a designer I found on Etsy and requested for a design that is cleaner and minimalistic. The current design that you see is the new look. What do you think?

Pages

I’ve also created different pages with information that is more relevant to the blog’s purpose. Pages I’ve created:

1. An about page – This page gives a little more detail of who I am and the purpose of my blog.
2. Policy – When I did research a lot of the bloggers advise that one should have a blog policy featured. My policy page is really a brief outline of my blogging principles and also just a few words to say that the blog content is mine nothing fancy.
3. 2015 Reads and 2015 Reading Challenges – The whole purpose of my blog is to keep track of my reading habit and connect with other book lovers in the digital sphere. So I thought creating pages of what I’ve read and the status of my reading challenges so far would be of interest to other book lovers. The 2015 Reads page also links all my latest reviews for the year.

Widgets Column

As I mentioned earlier in this post, I use to feature so many widgets on my widget column. I’ve decided to review which widgets would be useful to keep and what should be deleted. I used to have widgets like number of people who visited the site, number of google followers, a live twitter feed, a grab button and also a Shelfari bookshelf that allows people to see the books I’ve read in the past.

First off, I don’t think people care how many visitors and followers you have on your blog except for you.

Secondly, if people wanted to read your Twitter feed or find out how many books you've read, they can follow you on Twitter or Shelfari.

Thirdly, no one wants your grab button or at least I don’t think they ever wanted mine. I assume if people like the content of my blog they can subscribe to my blog via the multiple widgets available to get updates on what I post.

I think the new widget column looks much cleaner than the last one I had. What I feature on the column now is:

1. About Me –Previously, I blogged under the pseudonym Ms Ulat Buku (don’t ask me why, I just thought it was cool at the time). The updated version of the about me section reflects the real me. It has a short summary of who I am and automatically links to my google+ account and a link to a more detailed background of myself on my About page. I think this is better because all my other social media sites uses my real name and not a pseudonym. Hopefully it makes it easier for people to find me if they wish to link up.
2. Social media links – the designer I hired designed all my social media links. This link is so much better that featuring my twitter feed or shelfari bookshelf.
3. Subscribe to - allows visitors to subscribe to my blog and get updates on posts and comments. 
4. Currently reading, currently listening to widgets – so that visitors know what I’m reading right now.
5. Archives and a labels widget- so that visitors can click and read what I wrote in the past.

Obviously, there is still much to improve on this 'ol blog of mine. 

For example, I’d like to develop a contact page, add a search widget, post sharing options etc. All this will require some time for me to do. So it will be a slow process but am gonna chronicle all that I do so that I remember what I've learned. 

If you have recommendations on how else I could improve my blog, please do provide some feedback. I’m open to ideas on how I can make my blog nicer and easy to man oeuvre.

Book Review: The Twelve by Justin Cronin

Written by: Justin Cronin

Pages: 624 pages

Format: Ebook

Genre: Fiction, Supernatural, Post Apocalypse

In his internationally bestselling and critically acclaimed novel The Passage, Justin Cronin constructed an unforgettable world transformed by a government experiment gone horribly wrong.

With TheTwelve, the story continues.

In the present day: As a man-made apocalypse unfolds, three strangers navigate the chaos, desperate to find others, to survive, to witness the dawn on the other side of disaster. Lila, a doctor and an expectant mother, has been so broken by the spread of violence and infection that she continues to plan for her child’s arrival even as society dissolves around her. Kittridge, known to the world as “Last Stand in Denver,” has been forced by loss of electrical power to flee his stronghold and is now on the road, dodging the infected, armed but alone and well aware that a tank of gas will get him only so far. April is a teenager fighting to guide her little brother safely through a minefield of death and ruin. These three will learn that they have not been fully abandoned—and that in connection lies hope, even on the darkest of nights.

A hundred years in the future: Amy, Peter, Alicia, and the others introduced in The Passage work with a cast of new characters to hunt the original twelve virals… unaware that the rules of the game have changed, and that one of them will have to sacrifice everything to bring the Twelve down.

The scope widens and the intensity deepens as the epic tale of sacrifice and survival begun in The Passage surges forward in its breathtaking sequel—The Twelve.

My thoughts:

I read The Passage a couple of years back and really loved it. I’ve been looking forward to reading The Twelve for quite some time but to be honest the 600++ pages deterred me from picking up the book much sooner.  I’ve always been a bit fearful of reading chunksters.

Overall, I loved The Twelve but not as much as I did The Passage. The first few pages of the Twelve started with biblical-type writing which really felt weird to read. I felt that the biblical style of writing came across trying too hard to make the book seem bigger than the last.

The book also is a bit scattered and jumps from the present to the past and back to the present which had a flow that was sometimes hard to follow. It has a lot of characters to keep track of and I got lost a couple of times reading some of the chapters and had to re-read and remind myself the connection between the characters or the events that brought them together.  So I did struggle a bit with the book.

Despite the confusion, The Twelve was overall an enjoyable read.  The book had a vastness to it that brought out the main characters history; stories and events set in various time periods that gradually comes together at the end.

I was still really engrossed with the characters and the storyline. My favourite character in this book is still Amy. I also love reading about Peter.  I was a bit disturbed to read about Alicia but I'm not one who goes into details as I wouldn't want to spoil it for those of you who have not read it.

The Twelve is an epic book that one should take the time to read. It was a satisfying read but as much as I’d like to give it a 5 star review and whilst I did enjoy reading it, it fell short from my expectations and experience from The Passage. I gave it a 3/5 star in Goodreads. 

Quick update: Last night in Singapore

It's our last night in Singapore. It's almost 12 midnight and I've just finished packing. Our flight back to KL is tomorrow.

Everyone has knocked out for the night and I thought I'd try writing a quick post on the blogger app from my iPhone.

We've been here for the past three nights. I was hoping I could have some down time and read a bit but no such luck. 

I had my ereader fully charged before we left KL and even chose a book to read for this holiday a few days before we left. I was hoping to start reading We Were Liars by E. Lockhart. But throughout the time we've been here, my ereader never left my luggage bag. 

Well nevertheless, this has been a short but really great holiday. We were at Universal Studios the whole day with the kids, did some shopping at Marina Bay Sands and of course spent a lot of time at the beach and pool. 

I'll try and write more about our holiday sometime this week. I've always love Singapore and this holiday experience deserves a separate post.

Anyway, I'm sad that the holiday is coming to an end but hopefully we'll have more holidays to look forward to in the future with the family. 

On a separate note, drafting a blog post from the blogger app on my iPhone is pretty cool. Am gonna say goodnight now and see if I can post this up without any problems. 

Till next time!