Spoiler?!

I’m frustrated. Furious. More than that, I’m enraged. I feel like killing somebody. And I’m surprised that some people have the audacity to show their stupidity where the whole nation can see them.

The thing is… I was reading the paper today when a headline of an article caught my eye. Really caught my eye. As you probably know, the last of the Harry Potter books have gone on sale. I haven’t bought it yet. If you read my previous posts you’ll also realise that I’ve only read the sixth novel recently. Since I read it so late, I’ve known who died in that book before reading it. Not anybody’s fault; I was having dinner with some friends when the subject of Harry Potter slipped into the conversation and somebody inadvertently mentioned the spoiler. Perhaps because we were really into it, that that person thought that everybody there had read it; and almost everybody had read it anyway. So it was alright, sort of. And she did apologise to me afterwards.

However, this time, it was not forgivable. The books were just on sale for a few days. Regardless of whether millions of people are reading it right now, or the fact that you’re covering the news of fans rushing to the bookstores to buy the books, you just don’t put a spoiler on the newspaper. And most definitely NOT on the title! You don’t say “Fans are [insert emotion here] because [insert spoiler here]”. This is not some kind of amateur journalism, this is one of the most widely read broadsheet paper in the nation! What was the writer thinking? In fact, what was the editor thinking? Gee, thanks. You just spoil the ending for thousands of people. Such professionalism.

Sigh… in some other countries they take spoilers seriously. The fact that a spoiler like that can be published in a major newspaper shows that the mentality of people, at least some of them, in this country is not mature enough, at least where books are concerned. I wish they’ll be bombarded with tons of letters of complaints. The least of the satisfaction that I can get.

Yaz.

The Library

See, the thing is… I can’t really say for sure that the National Library deserves the ‘National’ in its name. Well, the main building is huge, and it has several floors with lots of shelves filled with books but they’re really lacking in what really matters to me. I’ve known lots of clever people, and it just goes that they all read books like ‘Seven Habits of Highly Effective People’ or ‘The Road Ahead’. They tend to indulge in books about self-motivation, self-improvement, or political and philosophical thoughts. But me? I prefer fiction, mainly fantasy. Ha ha, so much for the clever image that I’m trying to build.

But I disgress. The thing is… the fiction section of the National Library is in a separate building. I last went there in 2006 before I flew to Cambridge for the winter term. As such, I was expecting new books after my one year absence. However, to my dismay, there aren’t any. There aren’t any that I’ve noticed anyway. If possible, there seemed to be even less books than my last visit.

So there you go. The library is probably a disappointment to any fiction freaks like me. In the end, I ended up borrowing two ancient and tattered copies of book 6 and 7 of the Wheel of Time (I left my copies in Cambridge, haven’t gotten round to reading them yet). They look so fragile that I’m afraid to read it, just in case they suddenly fall apart and I have to pay for the damage to the books. Still, in any case, I’ll keep going there cause you can’t go to a bookstore every time you have a book craving.

Yaz.

P.S. Don’t you hate it when you found a series in the library and they’re missing like, the first book or one somewhere in the middle, making you unable to read the series? Yeah, me too.

P.P.S. I found Sergei Lukyanenko’s Day Watch for RM70 in Kinokuniya. It was quite surprising! I bought the Night Watch for half that price in Cambridge. Guess it’s a good thing we have all these second-hand bookshops that I can peruse at my leisure.

Update

Hey there! Been awhile. In case you were wondering, I was sick. Caught a cold straight after getting here in Malaysia. Must be the shock of the climate change. Then I was whisked away to a place with no internet connection for like, ten days. Hence the reason for me disappearing off the face of the earth. However, now, as a friend put it, I’m back in civilization.

One thing I don’t like about holidays is the lack of things to do and people to do it with. I prefer the December and Easter ones, because I’m not going home and I can always visit people in the UK and do something. But summer is just three long months without much people contact, not to mention the dial-up connection. I once offered to change the connection to broadband, but the ‘rents don’t agree since for nine months of the year I’ll be gone and there’ll be nobody using it so it’ll be a waste of money (one year is the minimum for broadband service). Good thing before I go back home I stocked my computer with animes, movies and games so at least there’s something to do. Though recently I’ve discovered this aquatic centre nearby so I’ll probably spend some more time there. And I also might go to the national library to read some fiction. Ha ha, it’s a holiday and the place I’m looking forward to is the library.

In any case, I’ll probably keep the blog alive with a few postings every now and then. Don’t expect too much, though.

Wherever you are, hope you guys have an excellent summer holiday! Righty then, I’m offski.

Yaz.