Saying goodbye...

... Something I hadn't meant to do. I can't upload images anymore because there is a 1GB storage limit. It would be boring to just have words so this blog of mine and my photo-blog have come to an untimely end. I have, however, started a Facebook page to highlight my writing work etc, so please click here and 'like' it.

I hope you've enjoyed travelling down the reading and writing path with me on this blog. I hope to see you on my Facebook page 'Zuraidah Omar - Working With Words'.

World's biggest book sale!

I'm in Prague now and thought I'd share a book event coming up - Big Bad Wolf's book sale coming up in December at the Mines Convention Centre - it seems that more than 3 million books will be up for sale! This is the time to stock up your home library as well as libraries of kindergartens and children's homes.

Books in the warehouse waiting to be sold.

In a tree and window

Excuse me for not posting on Monday, as I usually do. My reason? I'm on holiday! Nonetheless, I'd like to share two book-related photos I took.

This Book Tree in Berlin is in my sis Noni's (in photo) neighbourhood. 

Pre-loved books are put there for others to take. 

Old books are used creatively in this shop window in Berlin.

Changing hands

In January this year, I had posted about what to do with books that you don't want to keep. Not that you would have as many to give away as these stacks of books.

One of my suggestions in the post was to hold a book swap party. A group of like-minded people in Subang Jaya has gone further by initiating the Subang Jaya Book Exchange Programme. It's a community effort held at the USJ 2 Community Hall, where people can gather on the first and third Sunday of the month to exchange books. Fantastic, don't you think? I haven't been but I hope to do it soon.

Showpiece shelves

The bookshelves in our house look like... well... bookshelves. But they don't really have to be. Bookshelves can be conversation pieces, if you can get your hands on any one of these.

I didn't choose to highlight the bookshelf below because of David Beckham's book, but because it's a bookshelf that isn't one. Sticklebook is an invisible shelving system of aluminium brackets, combed strips and screws. I wouldn't really consider it a serious bookshelf; I would put it up as a display unit to showcase a few of my books.

The Rolling Shelf is also not a 'serious' bookshelf. But it does provide interesting options for arranging your books, vases and other decorative items. 

Now, this is one serious bookshelf. It stores a lot of books and yet serves as an interesting and attractive feature wall. There would be a problem putting up and taking off books from the top shelves, however.

Back to something frivolous - inclined storage from Germany that gives the impression of suspended shelving.

Let's end this post with the Bookwave - a storage unit that's can be a curtain, a room divider, even a sculptural hanging.

Bookish DIY

You have time on your hands, a brooch that's seen better times and a strip of pretty ribbon. It doesn't take much to turn the brooch and ribbon into a classy bookmark - beautiful enough to give away as a present. You can do the same with an earring that's lost its 'partner'.

What about books that you don't want to keep anymore? Other than giving them away, what else can you do with them? Well, what about a wreath of white roses? Click here to see how it's done.

Book pages can also be turned into book letters and you can learn how to do this here.

An old hardcover book becomes a vintage photo frame. Make a number of them to give out as party favours - a unique giveaway.

If all the above DIY bookish projects are a bit too much for you, then this could be just up your alley - use the book pages for gift wrapping!

Eid Mubarak

Eid ul-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims on the first day of Shawal, the tenth month in the Muslim Calendar. It marks the end of one month of fasting during Ramadan. It is a joyous day of thanksgiving. In Malaysia, this day is 19 August 2012.

Making notes

When participating in the Silverfish Writing Programme a number of years ago, we learnt that we need to always have a notebook with us - for jotting down what we observe around us, descriptions of interesting people we see or meet; in other words, anything that could make good material in our writing. An exercise that we did during the programme was to order a cup of coffee at a nearby cafe, sit at an outside table and make notes of what was going on around us. We also had to create a story based on our notes; I wrote an imaginary conversation between two men I had been watching while drinking my coffee.

Notebooks these days come in all kinds of sizes, colours and designs. I can spend a lot of time just browsing through a bookstore's stationery section, looking over the notebooks; it's hard to resist buying one. Much as I'd like to buy a Moleskine, I still haven't been able to justify buying something so expensive for my note-taking. After all, there are so many cheaper alternatives that will still do the job. I prefer notebooks with blank pages rather than ruled ones - besides writing, the blank pages invite me to doodle or draw as well.

Above are a few still-to-be-used notebooks that I have. The gilt-edged notebook and the one in the middle are both gifts. I had bought the one on the right from the Islamic Arts Museum shop, which sells beautiful stationery items. An exquisite notebook (below), which my sis-in-law gave me, is from Japan and attests to the craftsmanship of the Japanese. It's handmade and so pretty that I don't think I shall be writing anything in it at all.

I have been following the tip learnt from the writing programme till today - there is always a notebook tucked into my organiser, which goes from bag to bag with me.

Writers are not the only ones who carry notebooks with them. This site delves into the pocket notebooks of 20 famous men, including Mark Twain (writer), Charles Darwin (scientist) and Ludwig van Beethoven (composer/musician), while this one takes a look into the notebooks of several people, including Marilyn Monroe (actress) and Frida Kahlo (artist).

So start carrying a notebook with you (and use it) - you will be in distinguished company!

Meaningful mementoes

When on holiday abroad, like many people, I would head for the souvenir shops and come home with stuff that were really not special at all. After a few years of such pointless purchases, I felt it worth the money to buy local craft, pottery, artwork or, being a bookaholic, books. Not big books because they would take up too much space in, besides adding unwanted weight to, my luggage. But little books with a unique attachment to the towns and sites I visited.

Places in England are particularly good at turning their literary heritage into meaningful mementoes. When in the Lake District in 1995, we took our son Amir (who was about nine years old then) to The World of Beatrix Potter at Bowness-on-Windermere, Cumbria. To remind us of our trip, I bought Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Peter Rabbit and other stories in the series, reproduced with the original pictures.

On the same trip, we also stopped by at Keswick and I went away with this beautiful book of poetry.

This anthology celebrates "the powerful beauty of the Lake District's landscape" with poems by England's Romantic poets, including Wordsworth, Keats and Byron, which are matched with photographs by Rob Talbot and paintings by contemporary artists. 

On an earlier trip to England, in 1991, when we had driven through another part of the country, these two little books, A Shakespeare Treasury and Winston Churchill: Wit and Wisdom, were my souvenirs of two places we went to - Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, and Blenheim Palace, where Sir Winston was born.

Now, decades later and in a new century, I would sometimes take out these books, read them and remember those times and places.

To catch your eye

How many books are there in the world? According to Google, there are almost 130 million! A writer/blogger reveals that approximately 3 million books were published in 2011 and it has been estimated that 15 million ISBN numbers will be issued in 2012. With such astounding numbers, how can a book stand out on the shelves of a bookshop? Of course, the writer and writing must be top-notch in the first place. The next factor, I think, is the design of the book cover. The design has to be outstanding enough to catch your eye.

The book cover above has been listed as one of 90 beautiful book cover designs by 1st Web Designer, a design blog. If you want a treasure trove of book cover designs in one place, check out the Book Cover Archive, which features the enchanting one below:

Designing the covers of a series of books must be a challenge in itself, as the designer has to create a unified look for the series while maintaining each book's identity, such as the following example:

The Folio Society is renowned for the beauty of its publications. I have a number of their book sets and this is one that I particularly like in terms of the cover designs:

In an article on books at guardian.co.uk, Kathryn Hughes reports that Julian Barnes, in his Man Booker Prize 2011 acceptance speech, did the unexpected by thanking his book designer amongst others. Hughes points out that "judging a book (partly) by its cover has become a legitimate thing to do". There is greater attention now on how a book looks.

Need a good laugh?

Time for a light-hearted post, so why not get a good laugh out of the many translation bloopers of the English language. Here are a few examples I got just by googling:

Probably not difficult to do for yoga enthusiasts...

As if you would want to...

Wonder if you have to pay if they leave your luggage alone...

I think we know who they mean...

Don't laugh! We're no better...

The standard of writing and speaking in the English language in our country today is far, far below what it had been when I was in school. At my uni in New Zealand in the mid-1970s, Malaysian students were commended for their excellent English, when compared to students from other Asian countries. We have now come to a point where we need TV programmes such as 'Oh, My English' to help people who are struggling with simple usage of the language and committing bloopers unheard of at one time.

Bookaholic's haven

Having discovered that there are cafes around the world dedicated to bookaholics, I wondered whether there are boutique hotels or bed & breakfast places for lovers of books. I wasn't altogether surprised to find out that there are - and one of them is in the city that I called home for four years of my life.

This charming place, Booklovers B&B, is in the city of Wellington, New Zealand. Located downtown, it is the place to stay for people "who love books, cafes and culture". The owner is herself a writer and she shares the story behind her B&B, "I hadn't thought of opening a B&B - but halfway through renovating, I realised the house would have to make a living... After serving breakfast, I mainly spend my days researching and writing... 'B&B lady' sounds like a comic role, but for me it's a wonderful balance with writing. It would be difficult to hear better stories than those told at my own breakfast-table or to meet more interesting characters than the people sitting there." The B&B's rooms are named after authors and when you leave, you get a selection of books to take home with you!

On the other side of the world, on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia, Canada, is a B&B called Between the Covers Bed & Breakfast. The owner is a writer of children's books and you can see where she gets her inspiration from. Imagine staying in this place, with a book in your lap, and looking at this view!

You might be so taken up with the scenery that you won't be able to read a page! Of course, the two rooms in the B&B come full of books and you may take one home with you. These rooms "overlook lavender and green fields hemmed by towering pines."

In Oregon, USA, at Nye Beach, is the Sylvia Beach Hotel, "a hotel for booklovers". Its rooms are named after famous authors and the one below is the Jane Austen room.

There are volumes of books in all the rooms and be warned - "there are no TVs, radios or telephones in the rooms. And no wi-fi." You have to enjoy the company of real-life people... and books, of course. 

For those who prefer a holiday in England rather than North America (distance being a main factor), there is a hotel for book lovers in Dorset. The Booklover's B&B is located on the first and second floors above the owners' bookshop. It has two rooms, one of which faces the sea. 

There are books aplenty in the bedrooms as well as in the sitting/dining room.

If anyone knows of such a hotel or B&B closer to home, please let me know.

Postscript - Su Blackwell's papercuts

My sister Zakiah posted this video on my FB wall:

So enchanting, don't you think?

I have, in fact, blogged about Su Blackwell's work in an earlier post.

My dream shop - still dreaming

I remember, years ago, having lunch with a few of my business friends, all high-flying career-women. After a while, we started imagining a life free from the stresses and strains of our corporate existence. And what we each wanted to do was to have a little neighbourhood shop - someone thought of selling flowers, another cakes, while I of course wanted my little dream shop of bookish things.

My little dream shop would be a cosy place, something like this:

Photo source

Wouldn't you feel so good when you walk into a place like this? It's so welcoming... and whiling away the time in the cafe at the back, with those delicious treats on your table, would be the best way to spend a part of your day. I don't think I'd have a problem stocking up the cafe with the most delectable delights - many of my cousins and friends are brilliant bakers!

My dream shop could also look like this one in Berlin, Germany. It looks rather modern but it still has that cosiness about it, I think.

Photo source

In Florida, USA, there is the Book Lovers Cafe, which also has outdoor patio seating. The outside tables do look like they have seen better days but doesn't that just add to the atmosphere?

Photo source

Perhaps my dream shop could be made of recycled wood and other materials. That, I think, would make it just perfect.

Some celebs read...

Next to bookshops, I love libraries but I have to admit that I've not visited any in our country in decades. When my siblings and I were in school, our father would take us on some weekends to the British Council library, where we would spend the morning and leave with borrowed books tucked under our arms. The library that I really enjoyed being in was that of my alma mater. Who wouldn't, when you have views such as this? I think I spent more time looking out the window than reading my text-books!

I found this website, which is all about libraries - public and private. Amongst others, the site features the libraries of some celebrities - singer/musician Sting; actress Diane Keaton; producer/director/actor Woody Allen; and designer Ralph Lauren. Can you match the library with the celebrity?

Well, these libraries belong to, from top to bottom, Diane Keaton, Sting, Ralph Lauren, and Woody Allen. Did you guess right? 

Here's one more library belonging to a celebrity, and you wouldn't have a hard time naming him.

Their libraries are really impressive, don't you think? I hope they do read the books they have and that the libraries are not just 'must-have' rooms in their houses, like swimming pools and mini-movie theatres.