Sunday, June 04, 2006

I love being able to read my head off.

Reading and finishing 'Emma' by Jane Austen recently, is like going back to my roots because classics are basically ALL that I ever buy and of course, read, when I was younger.
Mainly because they are so darn cheap.
Before, one only needs to part with RM 5.80, for a brand new book. Read my lips-oh, no-read the screen,Brand New.
Ah, but thanks to inflation, the passing of time and all that- thank you so very much-
Classics now come at a 'brand new' price of RM8.50 (eh, the numbers terbalik- 5.8, 8.5, heh heh ) each.
But all things considered, they are considerably cheaper than contemporary fictions which soars to as much as RM50 per book,sometimes more, which pretty much explains why whenever I get to step into humongous retail stores like Kinokuniya or MPH, I would head to my Roald Dahl collections, or books that I've heard SO much of, and yet so expensive, touch 'em lovingly and then *sob* achingly placed them back.
I can't afford 'em because I don't have an allowance. Thus, money comes only when money comes and frugality is not so much as an option, but a choice.
Not to say that I don't get what I want, my parents buy whatever I need but I just couldn't bring myself to ask for money.

"Enough money ar, you need any?"

"No need lar, I have enough."

But anyway, I splurged recently at Borders, bought 4 classics at the price of 3, which comes to about RM25.50?
RM25.50 for 4 books! 4 different stories, 4 X hundreds of pages to savour and 4 different covers.
Now, is that not a bargain?

So far I've devoured 2 :
Emma, a romantic classic (my gosh- the first since the phase of Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey, Wuthering Heights, etc. which I had when I was 12/13-ish years old), which I rather enjoyed, surprisingly.
It's about a lady, who wanted to play matchmaker and ended up finding a mate of her own. I knew who the unlucky fella's gonna be the very first second he appeared in the book. The plot is rather predictable, and so the twist is more like benign hula-hooping.
Bear in mind that it was published in 1816, so granted, after almost 100 years later,very little things surprises people, mainly because, well, we are well shocked enough and we're more twisted then ever before ourselves.

The other, The Diamond As Big As The Ritz & Other Stories by F.Scott Fitzgerald was amusing! Perfect as a late night read before going to sleep. Sucks you in then spits you out abruptly. I've been caught being up way past my bedtime reading when I ought to be sleeping.
Dad : "FASTER GO SLEEP !"
Switches off the lights.
Darn.

His stories reminds me of Roald Dahl's adult short stories, less funny, but as dark.

In between that two, I've started on For Whom The Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway. Not wishing for a classics overload, decided on it. My dad says the movie's good, but the book's a little tedious I feel, but I'm not giving up just yet! Bought it for quite cheap too, RM12.90 for Ernest Hemingway 2 Bestsellers in 1 in Popular. A good place for cheap books.

Oh, have I mentioned that I found The Lord of The Rings bookset for ONLY RM15.90?!

Practically grabbed it and ran to the counter.

In case you haven't noticed, I am a bargain hunter. One big vicious bargain hunter.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hehe.. a bookworm u are.. haha.. well, this explains y ur english is so good... you make thoose books all sounded so interesting but i'm kinda sure tht they'll definitely KO me before i finished reading the first one.. i'm not a good reader though.. no patience to sit there and read things... unless it's really interesting. haha... well, it's not tht bored at all! in fact, interesting ur blog are...

amy-da-great said...

to-buttercup
Like Yoda you sound. Lol.
Well, different people different hobby, some, like you, like to kick @$$ with taekwando.
Me? laze my @$$ reading.
That's all. =)

Anonymous said...

apa ni..... i'm not interested in your lament for books la. bosan.

Anonymous said...

aiya sorry. tht anonymous is me la

amy-da-great said...

to-kin wai/anon

Ahem..
you can always Not read.
Blek!