Subjects: Books 書物

Arrival of first book from The Book Depository!

About nearly two weeks ago, after having found out about The Book Depository’s free worldwide shipping and handling, I immediately placed an order for Jay Rubin’s* Making Sense of Japanese (ISBN-13 9784770028020) book that I so really wanted, yet would cost so much if ordered from Amazon. I paid only £5.98 in total!! Such a steal ^_^. Anyway the book arrived and I must say I’m not disappointed at all. (Actually I already read quite a number of pages from this book via Amazon before getting the book so there’s no way I would have been disappointed)

Subjects: Books 書物

Tags: Japanese

R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke

One of my favourite authors of all time, Arthur C. Clarke, passed away yesterday at the age of 90.

Besides being an extraordinary writer of science fiction novels, he also conceptualised the invention of modern geosynchronous communication satellites. Some of his books that had the greatest impact on me were “The Fountains of Paradise” and “Childhood’s End”. They were mind-blowing sources of inspiration to me during my undergraduate days. The world feels somewhat a lonelier place without him. He will be sorely missed.

Subjects: Books 書物

Mood: Sombre

Tags: Arthur C. Clarke, death

Absolute Sandman Vol. 1 - やっと手に入った!!!

Finally got my hands on the first volume of The Absolute Sandman!

This is one of the most gorgeous books I have ever laid my hands on. And I thought The Photographer’s Led Zeppelin was yummy. XD

Firstly, it’s humongous!! The graphic novels feel so miniscule in comparison. Definitely not something you’d want to take out of the house — but that’s the point of a collector’s book anyway, duh.

Secondly, the recolouring work is amazing. The graphic novels look so drab when put side by side. Additionally, the printing paper used is so much better; everything seems to pop and come alive now.

The only negative thing I can say about it for now is that when I took my book out of the slipcase, I found some nasty little weird cardboard remains sticking to the leather case of the book. I think it’s something leftover from preprocessing that wasn’t removed thoroughly. Such a pain to remove! There’s some very tiny patches of sticky patches left. Not very noticeable but I shall have to find some way to clean it. Anyone knows what’s the best way to gently clean leather? I hate being such a nitpicker but I can’t help it ‘cos I have the collector’s syndrome.

Subjects: Books 書物

Mood: Gratifications, Raves and Rants

Tags: Amazon, BK1, book, Neil Gaiman, Sandman

Colibri

Met 傑義 for dinner tonight. He passed me the autographed copy of Fragile Things (which I very shamelessly got him to carry back from San Francisco), but the coolest thing was learning from him about this software, Colibri, which allows one to open software on one’s PC, favourite URLs (FYI: it even opens a new tab on Firefox), etc, without having to use the mouse!

I have a love/hate relationship with the mouse: I need it especially for designing stuff but really hate using it to open software. The XP pinup menu makes it bit easier, but still, you have to either click on the Start button and keyup/down, or search through the gigantic list of items in the complete Start Programs menu AND remember to sort them alphabetically.

Mac users have probably been going nahh nahh ni nahh nahh for ages and ages. Argh, this makes me feel like saying good riddence to WinXP!!!

Colibri Banzai!

Subjects: Books 書物, Technology 技術

Mood: Discoveries & Relevations

Tags: book, Colibri, Neil Gaiman

Absolute Sandman Vol. 1 -- Released?!

Just checked out Amazon today. Couldn’t believe what I saw: Absolute Sandman Vol.1 for sale? I thought it was supposed to be released in November. This kind of wrecks my plans of using my Amazon Associates voucher that should be paid at the end of the month. Now I’m wondering if I should just go ahead and get the book and save the voucher for next time (maybe for Vol.2).

Subjects: Books 書物

Tags: book, Neil Gaiman, Sandman