What I have been reading for the last two months

Salam w.b.t and hello dear readers,

It has been nearly two months I have been staying in Doha (I am used to the solitude now). I went to the base for two days sometime last week to do some tasks. That’s all.

Claudia came back to the apartment two weeks ago and she stayed here for about 5 days. It was good to have a mate to talk to. Then she left last Friday to go back to the designated hotel for the 14 days self-isolation before going to the rig. For me, well I am lined up for a rig and it will happen at the end of this month. Will see about that. I am not interested to write anything related to job now.

I would like to share what I have been reading throughout my time in Doha for the last two months. I think sometime end of last year, I decided to read more fulfilling and complicated reading materials instead of easy going  or cheesy materials. Let me give you a context. Since I was a kid I love to read mysterious, investigation, horror genres both in Malay and English language. Towards high school and university, I included the love, romance, fantasy genres. One of the reasons I remember was these book genres price were quite cheap to buy and also easily available at public libraries.

It went alright but after some time, then I felt bored. I kind of get the idea most of the storyline and there was no value added to myself.

So, I decided to make a shift to what I fed to my mind. In the meantime, I advised my sisters to stop buying these genres and try to change to more advance topics. I did not want to jump straight away to heavy materials, otherwise I will easily get bored. For a start, I looked for reading materials that were trending at that time, recommended by people, wrote by personalities I recognized.

My book collection in my closet. Yep, closet.

If you remember in one of my old post, I mentioned that bookstores in Qatar is not as many as in Aberdeen. However, I found one bookstore in Doha Festival City. It is known as Border. It is not huge, but it offers many motivating and different reading materials. Ranging from biography, businesses, motivations, guidance, self-help, and of course all these romance/fantasy/mystery genres.

It is open! In normal situation, Starbucks inside it will be opened. They are close now due to Covid-19 

 

I came to know the existence of the bookstore probably mid last year when I came to the mall just to watch a movie. I strolled around the mall and Voila! I saw this book heaven. Since then I have been coming back again and again to buy books. From the visit last Sunday, below is the books I bought and I am excited to read these. Although some of the books I already had I haven't finished or don’t even start.

Catch from my recent visit to Border

I spent nearly three hours to decide what books I wanted to buy. Initially I roamed around and collected all books I interested in. Nearly 10 books actually. Mind you, the price is quite expensive if I don’t be careful. Average of the book costs is QR100. There is no way I spent QR1000 to buy all these 10 books. Then I sat down to filter which I really want to read and beneficial for me. I need to save money as well, I cannot spend recklessly. Finally I ended up with these three books.

That’s good for now.

I understand, I can actually just Google all the books I interested in, download it for free and I can save money there. However, I still strongly incline towards the physical books. Reading the digital materials do not give the satisfaction or pleasure feeling. I managed to finish one digital book, but really my eyes were sore.

As for now, I will keep going on with conventional way of reading materials.

Okay, let's share what I have read for the last two months. 

• Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, downloaded from internet

I did not know who is Trevor Noah initially but I came to know him from Youtube. I watched most of his hilarious videos, shows and immediately admired his confidence in public speaking as well as his knowledge on many things in the world. Then I kept digging his background, that’s when I realised he wrote a book. I was intrigued, thus immediately search on Google if there is a soft copy. Indeed, it was. I downloaded and finished reading in less than two days.

• MBA Day by Day by Chris Dalton

I bought this in Malaysia during my last vacation. The reason I bought this book is not because at that time I want to do MBA. The reason I bought it because several of people I know always said they want to pursue MBA. I always heard MBA, MBA, and MBA. Honestly, I don’t understand what is it with this MBA.

I skimmed through all the books related to MBA in the business sections, most of them are too thick, too details and too complex for a beginner like me (See how many toos here). On top of that, they are very expensive. For me, I just want to understand "What is this MBA about". That’s all.

Then I saw this. It is not that thick, it does not use too much jargon, and importantly its price is reasonable. So I bought it.

Now after finishing the book, I have basic idea what is this MBA about and better understanding why people said they want to do MBA.

• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

I know, I am not an extrovert personality but I hardly say I am an introvert. Although people who thought they know me claimed I am an extrovert. How come other people can describe me but I cannot describe my own self? So, what am I? How am I going to describe myself? That’s why I bought this book because my goal is to understand myself better.  This book is rich with researches, journals, findings, theories. It is quite heavy subject. I believe this is the first time I read a book full with scientific research and findings. I read it last year then I stopped not far from the first page. It was too much information and I got bored.

Then, in mid-May I tried to open my mind and pushed myself to read it. I cannot just let people freely define and categorize my personality. I said to myself, let's read even 1 page per day but don’t stop. It was difficult at the beginning, I put a target to finish it by June, then slowly I flipped the pages and Yes! I finished reading it.

Through this book, it helps me to understand the types of personalities available in the world, the arguments and examples to support it. It is not simple as I thought; A or B, White or Black, Introvert or Extrovert. No, it is not like that. In some parts of the book, I felt like the author is describing myself in real detail.

I will revisit this book to collect and note down all the information.

• The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh

I brought this book from Malaysia last year, I think one of my sister bought it. After reading Quiet, I was thinking to read some light materials so I chose this book. I started reading it about 3-4 days ago and finished today. Yes, it is a light subject about mother-daughter love. Not just that, it is also include the real dictionary of flower definition at the end of the book as well as the interview with the author. I would say is not a cheesy book about love, but it is good light reading to understand about flower, foster care system, personality of adopt daughter.

Overall it was a good reading and I enjoyed it.

So, now I am planning to read the recent book I bought, When to Jump by Mike Lewis. When I saw this book on the shelve it resonates very well with the current state of myself. Therefore, I am excited to read it.

On a different note, I have set a target to read more and reduce the screen time like Social media, Youtube, Netflix. I want to do different this time. It will be tough because it is so much easy just to click the button rather than flipping the page. But I need to do differently in order to enrich myself with knowledge.

I hope you enjoy reading this post. I would like to encourage you, let's start reading if it is not part of your habit. Read. Anything. Let's build this habit together, shall we?

Take care and Salam w.b.t. Hopefully I will see you in the next entry.

P/S - I have this ambition to have a mini library and cozy reading corner in my dream home. I will have variety of books arranged on the shelves, a medium-size couch with pillows, a little coffee table at one end of the couch, and small open area on the floor to lay down. The best case is to locate it nearby the balcony facing the lawn. Well, if there is no balcony, I can settle with a wide horizontal window facing the sky. I would say, I am in a mission of collecting good books to put on the bookshelves in my mini library 💖💖💖