Love Life, Not Stuff

What a heavy book to read on a long haul flight.  Not literally heavy like a dictionary, but the attempt to digest one of Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus' philosophical novels was.   

In The Stranger or The Outsider (L’Étranger), I found this interesting line from the book which I felt like sharing,

"You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

The Carpenters pondered with a song even, did they not?  

"Why do birds suddenly appear, every time you are near?"  

Well...they just do.  And may be we should stop asking why oh why and just get on with life.  I have obviously caught the bug from Camus. 

Let go of your sadness, give up the fight;  
Follow your madness, and take flight.

I know you are capable of.

Cracking The 5 Love Languages

Have you heard of the 5 love languages?  I haven’t in my entire life and until I heard it twice in the last 24 hours and I thought it must have been a hot topic lately, so I went and do some digging.

Apparently, World Peace must have missed out a great deal from not paying attention to the number one New York Times bestselling author Dr. Gary Chapman's book, who encourages the human race to identify, understand and speak their loved one’s primary love language.

It is basically 5 ways of expressing love and everyone has their own love language.  It is deemed vital for us to know what our love language is so that it is easier for others to make us feel loved by them. 

You know what I am thinking?  I think this 5 love languages theory is going to unite the world - which currently has over 6,800 spoken languages spinning around!  Chapman can cut it with 5, isn't that a great saving?

So...I decided to go find out my native tongue and as I am a lazy bum, instead of reading his book, you might like to go where I went for a quick online assessment to see if you and your loved ones belong to the same tribe - http://www.5lovelanguages.com/assessments/love/

And precisely because I am a lazy bum, I shall let the pictures do the talking of what my native tongue is.  

And this has no means of saying I don't like to receive gifts or compliments any more, so keep those coming in please!

Think Big: Donald Trump Style

A friend advised me to pick up a book today out of goodwill because I told her I haven't done so for a while.  Another friend intrigued me with something interesting from a book he just read.  All the directional signage pointed me to nowhere but one destination - the bookstore.


“If you’re thinking already, you might as well think BIG. It’s your choice. No matter what your circumstances, nobody can stop you from thinking BIG. And once you get a taste...you’ll never want to stop and the rewards will come to you”.




These are just the perfect words I was looking for to get me all fired up - whether it be personal, business, travel or whatever I had in mind.

It was a big quote from my friend's recommended reading, "Think Big" by the iconic and successful Donald Trump.

Whatever I had in mind, I have had it for quite some time now.  It is probably a good idea to pick that up and make it happen.  


Will definitely let you know how that goes.

The Art Of War

I was actually aiming for some travel books in the travels section of the bookstore and not sure what happened there, I wandered off and found myself landed in the self-help section! 

I am never a great fan of the "Chicken soup for the soul" thing, in fact, I can't help but feel rather sad whenever I step anywhere close to those shelves, an area I usually avoid.   

"What am I doing here", I asked myself.  Then I saw someone waving at me.

You can't believe it. He was Sun Tzu!  

He must have got lost just like me - how did the wise man land his feet in the self-help section I don't know but at the end, it was me who rescued this great philosopher from the pathetic land.  I bought and brought him home with me.  


“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory.”

No wonder he waved at me - I possess neither. Who is the real rescuer we are talking about here?  


One man's trash, has just become another's treasure.  

The Dukan Diet

From the land notorious for its delicacy comes a weight-loss diet plan that is sweeping the globe?

So you are telling me France is no longer famous for its croissants and winery but is fast becoming known for the Dukan Diet?

According to the first few pages of this book, dieters are required to flush 3 litres of water into the body each day.  

If that act didn't mentally freak you out - you could well be Pierre's target market.

Feeling Like A Million

When do you feel like a million?  If the answer is when you win the million-dollar lotto, then it could sadly be a forever wait.

I recently flipped through this book, the author says that if someone is a good listener, he or she stands a higher chance of winning the hearts and minds of others, making others feel pretty much like a million bucks. 

Can you recall the last time you felt something like that?  I do.

You see, listening is not just hearing the words people utter. If that's all there was to it, we probably don't deserve to be human. 


It involves not just accurately "hearing" what people say, but "listening" and getting a sense of who they are, how they view life, what they want to accomplish, what concerns they have, their fears, how they are feeling etc.

It even involves "listening" with respect to what they aren't saying directly to your face.  That's call reading between the lines - something I have yet to master well. 

I will make it one of my new year resolutions for 2011 - making people around me feel like a million starting from today.  It shouldn't be that hard, right?

Tipping Point for Insomnia

I thought Baileys on the rock will easily put me to sleep, but nope.  

It is 3am again and I am going to try reading as my new sleeping therapy. 

The tipping point for me tonight would be defined as the time I fell asleep with this book!

If this one doesn't work, the next to pick up would be Lord of the Rings, or...one of Harry Potter's

A Blink In Time

There are two types of non-fiction books I enjoy reading the most: those written by an eminent specialist summarizing the current state of his or her field like Jamie Oliver's, Donna Ray's cookbook series.  They can be a sheer pleasure just flipping the pages!

And those written by a journalist, tracking a particular idea, crossing the boundaries of disciplines when required by the pursuit.  A nonetheless, very inspiring and informational stuff.  Joyful enough to read almost any time. 

Malcolm Gladwell's Blink is a bravura example of the latter sort of book.  After Outliers, I am on to his second book in his career - Blink. 

Here's my take of Blink in a nutshell:

Split decisions can be good and even better than decisions where we take a lot of time to carefully weigh our options and use scientific evidence. 

In other words: Save your brain cells.  Forget about all the analysis.  Just do it.  


Just think about that for a second - It's the thinking of not thinking.  I am liking the sound of it. 

Wish I Had Sherlock Holmes' Power of Observation

I once came across a wise man who told me
"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible to others."

What a perspective!

Don't you wonder why some people see things differently when we all got a pair of eyes?  One of the strangest things about us human is the way we have to unconsciously ignore most of the information available to our senses. 

Think about your day today, I am sure you have to be blind to most of what you see and deaf to most of what you hear simply because, that helped you get by your day, or else you would probably be too overwhelmed by today's data-driven society. 

Unfortunately there is a flip side to that.  The fact that we are so in the habit of not looking, of not hearing, of not noticing, we are missing a great deal of very important stuff.  More so when it comes to our increasingly complex work environment, where office politics and competing personalities can leave us baffled and floundering.

I saw this book in the bookstore today "The Noticer: Sometimes, All a Person Needs is a Little Perspective" by Andy Andrews.

"When we notice things about ourselves and other people that allow us all to regroup, 

take a breath, and begin our lives again, the best is surely yet to come. "

From New York Times Bestselling Author

May be just the book I need to get closer to Sherlock Holmes' power of observation?  

A Convivial Companion for Foodies

I am fascinated with books like this.  More so when they were found so reasonably priced in a relatively expensive place like London!

A bit thick in size to smuggle under the table in a posh night out, but a companion that is surely convivial enough for me to just flip through randomly at leisure.

The Habit of Dipping Fingers in Ink

Yesterday, I was on about an idea of using an iPad for perusing newspapers, but as soon as I woke up today, I knew my habit of picking up the Sunday Post won't go away.

Simply because, I do not want to abandon a dedicated time slot for reading newspapers.

Sunday's the only day when I can sit poised and do nothing but read the papers.  When I said nothing, I meant nothing during the period of time when my fingers are dipped in newspapers ink!  

You see, I do not want to touch anything else with my ink-stained fingers and I honestly won't.

I won't be allowing myself to crack my toasts, type on keyboards nor play with the remote controls.  

Working with that rule, I know for sure I won't get carried away and that I can totally devote the time to reading my papers. I can then finish the full stack of papers in one go, off I went to wash my hands and for the rest of the day, I won't touch the papers again.

A ritual I thoroughly enjoy, which can't be replaced by iPad just yet!

Freakonomics

I hold an Economics degree but it would be total fakery if I said I know exactly know supply and demand works.  

In fact, all that Econometrics has not made the slightest sense to me nor can I work out theories behind market economies.  I can't even do maths remember?  Let alone the monetary effect on interest rates and exchange rates. 

This new book I have in front of me provides premium delights as the authors argue that economics is, at root, the study of incentives and not merely supply and demand!  I can't agree more!

I am reading this with great anticipation and I can't wait to explore a new way of looking things - one that may literally redefine the way we view the modern world altogether. 

Who knows, some day I could publish my thoughts like no other, in a book as well!

My Sci-Fi Idol: Wesley [衛斯理]

Came across these series of books at a friend's house today and scenes from the 40 odd stories I read flickered upon me.  

I got introduced to the Wesley Sci-Fi series at young age and have hailed him as my imaginary idol ever since.    

I remember following Wesley in his quest to the earth's core and back, up to heaven and down to hell....dealt with half-breed and the fragmented, talked to prophecy and encountered the extraterrestrial!  

I wonder where all that passion for Sci-Fi has gone after all these years. May be time to pick up Orson Scott Card's Enders Game for a starter?

Read A Person Like A Book

A few months ago, I read a book with immense interest on body language, titled  I Can Read You Like a Book, by Gregory Harley and Maryann Karinch. 

Later that day, I experimented the concepts learnt from it and held a conversation with a friend online.  She was surprised when I told her I knew what was on her mind and how she was feeling at that time!

You are thinking "Psychic" isn't it?

There ain't no rocket science here, but a certain pattern which, if you can master, will allow you to "decode" a person just like I did.  

Well, I thought I had things in my grasp.      

The same friend above caught me totally off guard yesterday when she saw right through me and read me like a book!

So...either my book is too easy for her to read, or she must have read the same book!

I need to invest in...another book!

The Outliers

Received this bestseller written by Malcolm Gladwell as a gift.  

After reading a few pages, a strong message conveys that I fall in either 1 of the 2 categories...really. 

1.0) Outlier 
2.0) Failure

I would have known better if I am an outlier, so logic tells me I am the latter. 

Let me read on and see if I stand any chances of any in-between. 

Wait a minute, but do I really want to be 

 1.5) mediocre?

Sounds Familiar?

The worst sin a man can commit with the woman in his life is not to listen to her when she is speaking. Every man has heard the woman accuse, angrily,
“You’re not listening to me!”

The typical male response is to quickly say, “Yes, I am.”

Then she has you. She folds her arms and asks demandingly, “All right, then. What did I just say?”

It is only if he can feed it back to her with some accuracy that she knows for sure that he was really listening.

Sounds familiar?

According to a book that I am reading "The Power of Charm", the author states that when a woman communicates and what shows in a MRI scan, would be a full seven centers of her brain involved while in men, it is only two.

Men often listen halfheartedly to women, especially if the television is on. That’s because men can only process one sensory input at a time. They cannot, for example, both watch television and listen to someone else speaking, which women can do much more easily.

Here comes the relevance and precis of the book: for you to become a completely charming person, you must learn to master the techniques of listening - especially if you are a man.

God Explained In A Taxi Ride

Author Paul Arden was responsible for some of Britain's most successful advertising campaigns and now he writes really useful, well designed books.

This is precisely a comic book that you can just flip through in a ride, presented in Arden's trademark visual style, he investigates and examines our relationship to the divine.

In it he says something like, "we can't easily believe things that we cannot fathom" (which to me is a fair statement).

"Yet if we can, then that's not what you called Faith" which I totally agree as well.

He also says, the answer is like blowing in the wind, you can always feel the wind but you can never see or touch it - just like god and just like faith.

An intriging little read that made me scratch my head. The book performed magic - it shut me up and now I stop asking "why".

100 Simple Secrets of Successful People

You don't have to buy the book, US$12 not worthy enough as a reminder of common sense. I encourage you to discover the beauty of Amazon's online reader - you can read the entire book here for free.

This is the first 23 out of the list of 100 taken from the book.

Not that I agreed to all, but worth putting them down for future reference I guess.

1. Competence starts with feeling competent
2. It's not how hard you try
3. Creativity comes from within
4. Take small victories
5. You can't force yourself to like broccoli
6. Resist the urge to be average
7. There is plenty of time
8. It's never just 1 thing
9. Don't keep fighting your first battle
10. Change is possible, not easy
11. Seek inputs from your opposites
12. Write down the directions
13. Anticipate irrationality
14. The best defense is to listen
15. Winners are made, not born
16. Do things in order
17. Get experience any way you can
18. Self-motivation works once
19. Speak slowly
20. Where you stand depends on where you look
21. Use your own self-interest
22. Remember who you are and where you are
23. Negotiate with confidence, or don't

Enders' Game

I seldom pick up story books, the novels section never attract much of my attention when wandering in bookstores.

The other day, someone highly recommended this novel "Enders' Game" by Orson Scott Card, claiming it is the best science fiction ever with a captivating plot, suspense overwhelming, once you start reading and won't be able to put it down, etc etc.

Sounds really intriged for a starter, but still not enough to get me to purchase. Not until another colleague told me this is compulsory literature for U.S. Military training material, did it really get me to order a copy through Amazon.

Looking forward to killing time with it, and I shall be able to share my personal comment in here very soon.