Hooked On Bookz

What a privilege it was for me to be able to interview Andrew Matthews, the author of the well-known 'Happiness in a Nutshell', even though it's only via email. Special thanks to Odelia of Pansing for arranging this :) 1) Do you often get fans who say to you ‘Can you draw for me…’ at your autograph sessions? If yes, do you ever get tired of it? I love to draw at autograph sessions. When readers come to meet me in bookstores they usually expect that I will draw cartoons. For me, drawing cartoons at autograph sessions is a joy and I find it far more interesting than just sitting at a desk signing my name. 2) What’s the most difficult question you get asked about ‘happiness’? Sometimes people have just lost a loved one and they ask me, “how can I be happy I just lost my husband?” It is very tough when we lose someone we care about. Sometimes only time can heal. At the same time, life goes on. My new book Happiness in Hard Times includes stories of people who have bounced back ...

After queuing for 30 minutes to get in, I came out empty handed. The sales sucked lah...Not worth the time and wait. The previous one was better - more books, more variety, and more spacious. If you haven't been there, don't bother wasting your time if you've been to their previous one and the recent Pearson Warehouse Sales. My verdict for this sales? 1 out of 5. I was so disappointed with it, that my hubby decided to bring me to Kinokuniya instead to satisfy my insatiable hunger of seeing stacks of GOOD books. Go there only if you're thinking of getting a great variety of children's books and probably, magazines too. Their fiction selection was disappointing! Anyways, this time's categorising of books was better than the previous one's. If you hate queuing, go around 3-ish, but be prepared to find a fewer selection of books. If you go in the morning, be prepared to queue. Some however, loved it. They managed to get some really good reads, but I think they w...

It's very unlikely that I'd pick this book up for a read, unless it comes highly recommended. Coincidentally, my boss' daughter told me that I should give Dessen a try. So I did. Someone Like You is about 2 very good friends, Scarlett and Halley, who are going through the rough stuff of teenage life. Scarlett found out she was pregnant after learning that her boyfriend was killed in an accident, while Halley was in the journey of discovering what's it like to be in love. Reading this story was quite a pleasure as it brought me back to my yesteryears. Those squabbles with my mom, emotional conflicts with boys, fear of not being accepted by my peers that felt so important then, seem so petty now that I have 'bigger' problems to solve. I guess that's how it is in life - we experience the ups and downs, make mistakes and learn from them, as they make us who we are today. Pick this book up if you want to walk down memory lane. It could also probably teach you a t...

You would want to take your time reading this book. The narration is breathtakingly beautiful (his words are almost poetic!), you'd want to savour each and every page you read. The storyline is really simple. It's about a boy, Daniel, who discovered this book titled 'The Shadow of the Wind by Julian Carax' in the Cemetery of Forgotten Books, a labyrinthine library of obscure and forgotten titles. Daniel was so intrigued by the story that he began on a journey of discovering who Julian Carax was. Little did he know that he wasn't the only one who's interested in Carax. Years go by and the mystery on Carax thickens...Daniel then hears a story about someone going from town to town seeking for Carax's books and burning them. There are many characters in this story which play a vital role. Normally, one would get lost in all the names and their various backgrounds. But Zafon is such a good storyteller that he lures you into his story right from the start. There a...

Hello there booklovers The Big Bad Book Sale is back! Due to popular demand, this time the book sale will be twice as big as before, with over 200,000 books and magazines coming in for the Big Bad Book Sale. Best of all, the prices are 70% to 90% off the recommended retail prices for all books! So mark this in your diary: The Big Bad Book Sale Dae: 26 November – 2 December 2009 Venue: Level 3, Amcorp Mall (former cinema lot, opposite McDonald’s) Time: 10am to 9pm Get a free collectible bookmark with any purchase while stocks last! Limited to one bookmark per customer. Get ready to stock up your library as the Big Bad Wolf takes another big bite off the prices of books! Oooowwwwwoooooooo… Howling his regards, The Big Bad Wolf. http://www.bigbadwolfbooks.com