Big book love

The two months of travelling were good, but there was one thing that I sorely missed while I was there - there were few English bookstores in Vietnam, not even in the big city or popular travel destinations (the second-hand book shops are filled in unloved crime fiction and 100 copies of Animal Farm). Having finished reading my Milan Kundera on the flight in and only medical textbooks in my suitcase I ran of choices pretty quickly. I have luckily bought a rather battered and poorly bind copy of Zadie Smith's White Teeth from the street hawker near the lake in Hanoi which sailed me through a few short flights and bus rides - while nurturing my nostalgia for cooler London. That was the first time I actually wanted a Kindle - having only one book to read in 7 weeks is not an ideal situation. 

Having finally got my hands on a Kindle last week has changed my way of reading. (No, not the one with a glossy screen. I've got a Kindle paperwhite from Argos!) It really holds like real paper and I was instantly hooked, loading samples after samples of books that I've always meant to and wanted to read - including ones that are not usually available in the store (one of which is Patti Smith's Woolgathering - a short, dreamy beauty) Reading books that usually in big hardback is especially a joy - now I can finally read in bed comfortably without awkward positioning and book hitting my face, and carry books around with me while I am in cafes or in transits, dipping in and old of pages and stories. 

My recent favourite big (and small) books while travelling

• The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
• Letters to Monica by Philip Larkin (more like an all time favourite)
• Swimming Studies by Leanne Shapton
• Kitchen Diaries II by Nigel Slater
• The Old Ways and The Mountains of the Mind, both by Robert MacFarlane
• Reveries of a Solitary Walker by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Journal of Katherine Mansfield

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Bibliophile

*Images by Juliette Tang

Cannot believe I only stumbled upon Juliette Tang's most amazing collection of book photography today! I am in love with her juxtaposition of images and quotes, and how she illuminates the aesthetic front of a shared literary obsession.

You can see her tumblr here and flickr here.

Bookish Club

How I wish I could lounge on a bed, or by the pool to read during the bright summer days - but since I am working during most days, my only reading time exists through the fleeting moments when I am travelling to and fro around town, squeezed between commuters. I did try to embark on Kafka's The Trial but it got too dark and heavy for a leisure read - and mostly, I felt like I am undergoing metamorphosis myself, being squashed in the densest city in the world and transformed into an anonymous being in yet another black skirt and heels.

I have so far read two volumes of Kafka's short works, which I would share next time. Meanwhile I would like to list a few favourite books of mine for your reference - they all employ illness as a metaphor for the human condition, and has transcended the emotions pertaining to the illnesses into something more macroscopic, poetic and illuminating.

Blindness By José Saramago

The Plague by Albert Camus

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby

I especially recommend The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, a beautiful and poignant memoir by the former editor of French Elle editor who had a stroke and was locked inside his own body. He painstakingly dictated the memoir by moving the only possible body part - by blinking his eyelids. Only through his perseverance in breaking the silence of the diving bell could we finally hear the fluttering wings of the butterfly.

What are your favourite books?

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Book List

The weight of the book sinking in your palms as you read, cold lemonade, breeze.

To be finished by August:

All books by Oliver Sacks

All books by Francoise Sagan

Virginia Woolf's diaries

Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason - Michael Foucault

Anything on Philosophy of Science

The Selfish Gene

The Middlesex - Jeffrey Eugenides

Poetry by Philip Larkin, Ted Hughes, Charles Bukowski (!), Auden

The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters

Such lavish joy of savouring the remnants of trees and ink, of absorbing past knowledge and intellect and emotions and milieux.

bonjour tristesse

gritty with sand, dazed with sun; naive, youthful charm, sometimes exquisite but always beautiful.

some book covers:

my copy: penguin books from my local secondhand bookshop
(it was marked 15p! the shopkeeper just gave it to me for free)