Dewdrops of Mind

My Books and Me

I love books very much. Sometimes I think that I love buying books more than I love reading books. Ha… ha… that is not true, of course. I love reading, but because of my limited spare time, my speed in reading is slower than in buying books. So, maybe some day I don’t have to buy books and still am able to read because I still have many books which I’ve not read yet (which is not true, since there are always new interesting books).

Among my favourite books, I like the one written by a Chinese writer lives in London. The book was “Wild Swans: 3 Daughters of China”. It was the first English book I read completely (not mention my textbooks). The book was mainly an autobiography, a memoir, of the author (Jung Chang) during the cultural revolution era in China. However, it was not only about the author herself, but also about the survival of her grandmother and her mother through the years (that’s why the title was “3 Daughters of China”, daughters of 3 generations). It was very impressive and touching. I might have reread it again and again if it did not consist of almost 1000 pages.

After reading this book, I love this kind of books. A memoir, a biography, especially about how people struggling for their life. Other books on this topic that impressed me are “Life and death in Shanghai” and “Falling Leaves”. I borrowed both books from my friend, Karen, since it was difficult to find those books in Bandung (though finally I found “Falling Leaves” in a small bookstore).

I also loved “Angela’s ashes” and “’Tis” by Frank McCourt. Those ones were about an Irish immigrants’ life in America. “My Forbidden Face” by Latifa also has left a deep impression for me. This book told us the story of a little girl in Afghanistan during the Taliban era, when there were many restrictions on women’s activities.

Besides a memoir, I also love books about history, especially those about World War II. Among this kind of book, I read “Band of Brothers” by Stephen E. Ambrose and “The Longest Day” and “The Last Battle”, both by Cornelius Ryan. I also have some more books on this topic. I bought most of them online, from Amazon, except books by Cornelius Ryan which I bought in a garage sale, for only Rp.4.000,- each.

For fiction genre, I love books by Michael Crichton and Erich Segal. I also loved “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time”, “Timequake” and “Einstein’s Dream”. I think the writers of those books are very smart (I always like smart people:D).

Other kind of books I like is on science topic. For this topic, I have been reading (not finished yet) “Mapping Human History” and “A Short History of Nearly Everything”. The former was a book which told us about DNA trace of human on earth. It was impressive and confirmed my conception on the first human being. I thought that Darwin’s theory was not completely wrong nor completely true. I thought that Adam and Eve might not be the first human-like creature, however, they represented the first ‘homo sapiens’. The latter was a book about earth and universe written in a popular style (its title was ‘plesetan’ from Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” and “The Theory of Everything”).

I also love many other books, but it will be too long if I mention all of them.

I always try to find a book I’d like to read in its original language, since it reflects the writer’s style and original thought. We will have a different impression when we read the original version of a book from its translated version. For example, I read the translated version of the first and second book of Harry Potter. I didn’t like it. Then I read the original version of the third book of Harry Potter. I liked it (I didn’t mean to say the translation was bad, I just felt that the translation was kind of childish).

After all, the most important part in being a book collector is book hunting. I feel satisfied when I buy books in a bargain price, or find a rare book in an ‘unusual’ place.

posted by rini @ 2:13 AM