As everyone is aware, the last of the Harry Potter series came to an end with the release of the 7th and final installment of the book in the series last week. There was a mad mad rush for the books with some resorting to camping overnite at the bookstores to grab their copy first hand. And, of course there was a big furore over the RM40 premium that MPH, Popular and Times were selling the books compared to Carrefour and Tesco after which they decided not to sell the books at all. Which just goes to show how expensive books have gotten over the years….compared to the RM10 to RM20 of yonder years. Nowadays, to get a book, have to wait till the warehouse sales or question myself whether I really need the book. Sigh….reading magazines are much cheaper I guess….
Anyway, sad to say I haven’t read any of the Harry Potter books. They are just too thick and anyhow, I reckon the movies are oredi out so it saves more time (and money) to sit thru a 2 hour movie (RM11) compared to spending RM70 and at least 2 days to finish reading the book. Yeah, my fave books have always been less than 2 inches thick unless it’s a compelling read like “Wild Swans”, which is like 3 and half inches thick, the thickest book I’ve ever read! However, it’s good to know that Malaysians are avid readers especially the younger generation. My niece puts me to shame as she’s read the Harry Potter series when she was uh….very young….of course sometimes, my sis reads them to her as some of the language are more suited for teenage reading. I leave you with my fave quote from Professor Dumbledore.
“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
For those who are not planning to read the book like yours truly, here’s the plot, spoiler and ending to the book…
I wanted to go swimming on sat as my body was too ’siong’ from the fri’s assault but I sprawled on the bed loathing to wake up. I told LM that my body cannot take any yoga or whatsoever BP/BA classes that day and the only exercise that I can bring myself to go for is swimming. Unfortunately, I went a little too late and the pool was closed. That upsetted my plans for the day! Sod it. So I went home, have a nice lunch and went to the MPH sale instead. I loitered too long that I didn’t have time to go for my massage. Ugggghhhh….
Gosh, it’s like a sauna inside the warehouse!! Nevertheless, I trudged on turning and picking up books and novels to see what great bargains I can find. The good thing about MPH sale is that the books are much more organised than the Times book sale. They arranged the authors, the novels, self-improvement, childrens section, cooking bla bla bla accordingly unlike at Times where everything are just splattered all over the tables regardless what categories they fall into. I had a real headache looking for the books! Being extremely kiasu, I just grabbed whatever books that appealed to me and later discard those that I figure I would not have the time to browse through on second thoughts. (btw, there were tons of people doing this and they were carrying boxes!!!) Heck, I still have some books in the shelf which are awaiting me. Hmmm….not to mention the half-finished Angels & Demons, Memoirs of a Geisha, Diary of Anne Frank, the stack of this month mags beside me….urm….I think that’s about it….at the mo’. *evil cackle*
Right, I eventually got myself 3 new books after prodding around the entire warehouse and satisfied my kiasu self that I have not left any corners un-discovered…*rubbing hands with glee*…yay, I got mostly fluff materials. I figured since I have been under so much stress recently, I needed lighter reading materials so as not to further aggravate my insomnia. Like Angels & Demons, it’s not really an appropriate bedtime book becos there’s too much ‘brainworks’ involved to digest the material.
