Sunday Post

                         

Yet another week has passed by. What did I accomplish this week? Two reviews, which is a feat considering how slow I am to write reviews =). I'm pretty much excited about my upcoming trip to Semporna (the coastal town in the state of Sabah, Malaysia). One more day to go and I'll be on my way to my island getaway. Ill post all about it next week. 

Yesterday I had a fun outing with my friends. We went to Ampang Lookout Point to enjoy the splendid view of entire KL city. Alas, the topmost lookout point was closed due to some safety issues. We made a u-turn and headed to the next best thing, a mini lookout point just a few meters away giving us an equally fantastic view. There were plenty of stalls selling burgers and fried noodles and fried rice. Pictures are below, captured using my humble phone camera.

  Dusk is falling gently, painting the sky above KL city in the softest pink, peach and blue.

 Sequential snapshot as darkness descends over KL city, seen miles away on Ampang Lookout Point. Awesome!!!!! The tree is sort of a distraction, but a beautiful distraction nonetheless. =)  

After the good food and the great view of the city, my friends then dragged me off to karaoke. I am not a good singer but I belted out some hits with as much gusto as possible, songs like My heart will go on, We are young (sang only the chorus =p ), when you say nothing at all and love you like a love song. My it was fun. After the tiring but fun Saturday, today I relaxed at home with my laptop. There's some problem with my blogger, as sentences are highlighted without me doing them. Hope it'll be fine after a while. I'll be back after a week's time. Happy Sunday to all and have a nice week.

Sunday post

 

                                  

Hi there,

Its been a great weekend and I'm satisfied with how I spent my time. I'm a bit slow on writing up my reviews these days. Currently I'm reading The Postmistress by Sarah Blake and recently have finished reading Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye. Reviews are pending and I hope I can roll them out soon. 

Meanwhile, I've been contemplating on writing and writing styles. I've been dreaming of being a writer and pulling off the most brilliant fiction that would ever emerge in the shelves. Dreams aside I've been thinking of  just putting my pen on a empty sheet and just scratch away and see where it goes.  

If you were to write a fiction, what genre would it be and how would your writing style be, to the point, sharp and blunt or lyrical and beautifully worded? Which author's writing style would influence you the most? I believe the books we read would undoubtedly influence us without us realizing it. I also believe the ability to hold one's attention lies in the very first sentence. Though its not the case all the time, I find myself catching my breath and really looking forward to know what happens next when the first sentence hooks me in.

Do you believe that writing fiction requires a strong background in literature and writing as I noticed that the most acclaimed authors are mostly writers in profession. 

As I read Margaret Atwood's book, I realized how beautifully worded the prose was and when I was reading the Shadow of the wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, I was moved by the beauty of the prose, the lyrical way the story went forward. I love beautiful wordplay, strong characters and medium fast paced stories. I would love to be able to connect to the protagonist and move along with him/her as the story unfolds.

Thus, if I were to write, mine would be contemporary fiction (literary fiction is too high end for me). I would love to be able to write in that fluid, flowing style of Carlos Ruiz Zafon, with a strong wordplay like Margaret Atwood and a heart warming story that sticks in your heart like The kite runner. I love to combine and alternate the story from past to present as that requires a lot of careful planning and skillful wordplay to keep readers in track.

I would love to hear from all of you on what you think and how would your fiction look like. Comment away dear booklovers.

    Cheers and happy Sunday !!

Sunday post

Hi there. Its another Sunday and oh Im so very happy this week for so many reasons. Happy is too generalized, I'm upbeat, optimistic, exuberant and positively beaming. Ok, so I haven't finished with my thesis, but Im pushing myself to do my best. I've nearly made up my five year plan, figuring out my 10 year plan and did the groundwork for job application. So far so good. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

As far as blogging goes, I'm happy that I'm slowly garnering more followers but my aim is to read good books and give reviews on them. Blogging is such fun and I'm never tired of tweaking here and there to make my blog look good and neat. Yes, Im all for neatness over clutter. I made my own blog button after so many tries, my oh my i loved the look of it. Blogging has really given me lots of experience and energy. Positive comments from other bloggers also cheers me up. Keep the comments coming.

My aim is to join reading challenges next year , as its too late to enter for this year and I'm too busy with my labwork to commit to reading 100 books and so on. I have to forcibly remind myself that its 100 scientific journals that I have to read. =)

Another thing im happy about is I'm going shopping today, shopping books. Yippeee. I hope to get 2 books from my wishlist. So long, happy Sunday everyone and have a great weekend.

Sunday post

This is the second time I'm gathering my thoughts on a calm Sunday evening. I can't say the same for my mind though, it seems there are non-stop buzzing, alarm bells going on in my head. The reason is simple enough, time is running out, thesis is not ready yet. Welcome to a MSc student's life, where chaos rule and calmness goes out of window. Its long holiday here for eid mubarak. What did i do? I went shopping books and came back with 2 new books, Sophie's World by  Jostein Gaarder and Mirage by Soheir Khashoggi. Both are new authors for me since I have never read their work before. 

A gentle warning if my post today is a tad disjointed, its all due to random thoughts racing around looking for empty ports.

Firstly, this morning I happened to notice a new miniature pinscher at the front neighbour's porch. He's got two dogs already and here I am, still trying to get one for myself. The poor pinscher has been going crazy, barking at every single thing that moved beyond his cage. This seemed to irritate the housebound shih tzu  cutie who barked in annoyance. The next door german shepherd joined in and a very off-key band went on barking and howling in an unsynchronized orchestra. It amused me so very much. What a Sunday morning.

Later in the  evening, I received a dear compliment and encouragement from my closest friend on my blog posts. It warmed me to my toes and made my day better. Talk about healing therapy of best friends. Music, too made my day.Yes I've been listening to a whole lot of soothing music by my latest favourite Indian singer, Madhu Balakrishnan. He has got a heavenly voice. 

It's been as usual  up and down week, a very down, tumbling down more than uplifting week. But posting review and reading other blogs has kept me happy. As for the reading part, I've just started reading Mirage  and Sophie's world . I'm enjoying them and will post the reviews soon. 

Cheers and Happy Sunday to you too.

Sunday post

Its Sunday again. I've decided to sum up my last week's activities and upcoming events. Its been an uneventful week. Lab results were not encouraging  but ive realised that i can bear disappointments much better lately. Thats what research is all about i guess, trial and error till you find something significant.  But my books help me get through it. I've finished two thrillers and I'm pretty happy about them and i would give the ratings soon. I'm panicking as August is nearly over. Here comes September, bringing more datelines that i have to achieve. Thesis to finish typing, scientific paper to be drafted and  powerpoint presentation to get ready. However i look forward to September. I hope there's a new chapter with new subplot, twists and turns waiting for me.  The upcoming week is a busy week for me with lots of labwork to be done and not forgetting  the coming tuesday is a holiday to commemorate independence day of my country, Malaysia.

     

Happy Independence Day Malaysia,
Selamat Hari Merdeka!!

Happy Sunday everyone and have a good week ahead!