TIMES Bookstore Year-End Warehouse Sale

I wrote in the previous entry that I have so many books lined up to be read.

So, when my sister asked me to go to a book sale with her, I only tagged along to keep her company. I quietly resolved not to buy anything.

heh~

Turned out I bought 6 books:
1) Hegemony or Survival by Noah Chomsky
2) The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
3) Enemy Combatant by Moazzam Begg
4) The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
5) Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith
6) The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith

All of them cost RM12 each.

Surprisingly, the warehouse sale has a lot of new titles as well. So, do check the place out if you have the time :)

X X X

Al-Jaahiz, the writer, advises you to repel anxiety through reading books. It will repel boredom and depression. He said:

"The book is a companion that does not praise you and does not entice you to evil. It is a friend that does not bore you and it is a neighbour that causes you no harm. It is an acquaintance that desires not to extract from you favours through flattery and it does not deceive you with duplicity and lies. When you a poring through the pages of a book, your senses are stimulated and your intellect sharpens. Furthermore, your tongue will find eloquence and grandeur. Through reading the biographies of others, you gain an appreciation of common people and you learn the ways of kings. It can even be said that you sometimes learn from the pages of a book in a month, that which you do not learn from the tongues of men in a century. All this benefit, yet no loss in wealth and no need to stand at the door of the teacher who is waiting for his fees, to learn from someone who is lower than you in manners.

The book obeys you by night as it does by day, both when you are traveling and when you are at home. A book is not impaired by sleep nor does it tire in the late hours of the night. It is a teacher who is there for you whenever you are in need of it and it is the teacher, who, if you refuse to give to it, it does not refuse to give to you. If you abandon it, it does not decrease in obedience. And when all turn against you, showing you enmity, it remains by your side. As long as you are remotely attached to a book, it suffices you from having to keep company from those who are idle. It prevents you from sitting on your doorstep and watching those who pass by. It saves you from mixing with those who are frivolous in their character, who are foul in their speech, who are base in character, and who are woeful in their ignorance. If the only benefit of a book was that it keeps you from foolish daydreaming and prevents you from frivolity, it would certainly be considered to be a true friend who has given you a great favour."

Taken from:
Don't be Sad
by 'Aaidh ibn Abdullah al-Qarnee
translated by: Faisal ibn Muhammad
International Islamic Publishing House
pg. 136