I talk too much my mouth hurts

from Amazon

One of my goals for 2015 is to read a book a month. This month I am choosing: #Girlboss by Sophia Amoruso.

One day, I will settle down long enough to own a small, finely-curated, selection of coffee table books. For now, here is a quick peek at some of the books I've been dreaming about.

book covers from the links below

• 1/ This may be my favourite book of the year. Beautiful photos of people going about with their every day lives. But take care to talk to them, starting with a simple question, and we start to get to know them. How they got to live in the city, how their upbringing has formed the person that they are today, what their current worries and hopes are. I would like to recommend this to my parents.
• 2/ Being in Europe is fantastic for travelling. There are heaps of low-cost airlines here, and trains and even sharing car rides are not very expensive. Let's face it, apart from money - for transport, accommodation and food, the other big factor is time (which is also money). This book outlines the top to-do lists for weekend trips around Europe. There are also books for the other continents, too. For your newly-wed best friends, for their multiple mini trips on their honeymoon.
• 3/ Eating out is so easy, especially when one's travelling. But from time to time you do want to actually spend some time in your kitchen. I always dream of having more dinner parties at home. This book outlines the recipes you have tried on your travels. Those exotic tastes you still dream about from time to time, simplified so you can recreate with your average local ingredients. For my sister, as a silent hint to eat better quality things.
    
• 4/ Coffee in France is difficult. Bordeaux does not have a Starbucks (yet), and yes, there are Nespresso machines in every apartment, but those 'good' slash 'hip' coffee shops that are popping up in Paris haven't descended down on us yet, either. Except this one place where I go every weekend. When you can't have good coffee every day, read about them. Even if you can have them every day - lucky you! - read about the history and evolution of how they came to be one of the most popular drinks worldwide. For my girlfriend with whom I like to pass my afternoons in coffee dates.
• 5/ This last one is an interesting, unusual choice, but a fascinating one, I find. Criminals tattoo themselves to identify their beliefs and gangs. A former police officer collated information on these Soviet criminals in jails and this book tells us of their culture. For the teenage brother for whom gifts are the most hard to pick. 

Each city and person has a distinct smell and/or colour. The more affect it or he or she has had on me, the sharper the said smell/colour.

From time to time it attacks me in hits of nostalgia. The crisp misty winter mornings of Angoulin, the music I used to listen to in Toronto and Montreal, the perfume that you used to wear.

Bordeaux is still too fresh for me to have a particular smell, yet. I wonder what traces of you will be left lingering on me after this year, Bordeaux.

I found a library box near my temporary home and in it, a book I've been searching for the past three years. It is one of the French books recommended by my professor from Sciences Po, Paris. Génial !

'And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.'  - Paulo Coelho

I want... but then I feel so greedy, at this time of giving. I can't help it though. I want, I want, I want!
All I want for Christmas is...

A has just boarded the plane to be with his family for Christmas and the New Year's. Bon voyage ! It will surely be cold where he is headed. Make sure you wrap up, please. N'attrape pas le froid !

While I may be home alone until after Christmas, I am quite enjoying the quiet, winding down the year and busy planning for the new year ahead. Happy holidays!!

I love good illustrated children's books. Some of the few books I carry with me are children's books, such as the Giving Tree.
When H and I visited the ACMI, I was pleased that one of the exhibitions were of a Shaun Tan's work. He is a well known Australian illustrator with award winning books.
The Lost Thing is the first of his works to be made into a movie. From the first spark of an idea to the finished product of a movie, it took nine and a half years, can you believe! But the actual hard core works of the movie was done in four years. Still, this is a very long project we are talking about. It has paid off, though, because the illustrated movie is beautiful, and has gone onto win an Academy Award.
It was inspiring to see some of the processes that had gone into the making of. Definitely a book I would consider giving to a small friend, soon.

I love reading. Mum used to tell me not to read when I was younger, because once I started I couldn't do anything else. Meals would be skipped; sleep would be put off for as long as possible.

Picking out good books is like a treasure hunt. Or shopping. I don't buy just any clothes, and I don't read just anything. Second hand books and clothes are fine with me, however, more so than online versions. I like to be able to feel the materials in hand.

I usually make film lists for my friends, and here is a reading list for guys who don't like reading. Batman is not a book. I have tried to keep the list as short as possible, and since there are so many good books out there, I am never going to be satisfied with this list. But, here we go.

Let's start slow. Lots of drawings, not so many words. I love children's books.

- The giving tree - Shel Silverstein. So sweet and sad. It's as much for grown ups as well as children.
- Where the wild things are - Maurice Sendak. Let your imagination run free with Max!

Ready to read something longer?

- The hatchet - Paul Garyson. A classic tale of survival in the wild.
- The giver - Lois Lowry. A Utopian society at first glance, the protagonist boy learns that he really lives in a dystopian one.
- Holes - Louis Sachar. This book was apparently originally going to be titled, 'Wrong time, wrong place, wrong kid'. Kind of gives the story away!
- The handmaid's tale - Margaret Atwood. I studied this at high school and came to admire the Canadian author very much. An extreme Christian-inspired totalitarian society, this tale has also been adapted into a film, an opera, and a play.

Now that you have gotten into the swing of reading..

- Time traveller's wife - Audrey Niffenegger. Probably the first adult book I loved. Many who didn't like books before actually found that they liked this. A love story that goes beyond time and logic. Don't watch the movie, it sucks so much in comparison.
- 1984 - George Orwell. Two words. Big brother. Dystopian societies seem to be a recurring theme on my reading list...
- The kite runner - Khaled Hosseini. A historical fiction set in Afghanistan, about two boys' friendship despite differences in the social status, and a father's love.

There are more. Oh, so many more. Hope you will ask for more, soon.

On self image:

'...many of the limits we accept as real are illusory.'

 Once we conform ourselves into a label and become too comfortable in a mindset, we become dependent to it. Only in my early, almost mid, 20s, I don't want to become mindless in this self-induced dependence just yet. The fear of the unknown may lure me into staying put in the city I have become so used to, where I have met many lifelong friends in a close circle around me to call and meet up at a moment's notice. But it is also that same fear of the unknown that excites me to broaden my sense of self. To test myself in an unfamiliar territory, to taste the vulnerability of being in a new surrounding and setting myself up there.

It would be easier to develop tentatively little by little from where I already am, meeting new people and learning new skills where I have a firm support close by, ready to hold my hand when necessary. But I am young and, perhaps foolishly, daring. If I cannot plunge myself into a deep adventure now, when else would I be able to? What if I regret playing safe later on?

You always gain some, lose some. Others invest on properties, for a secure future. I am not at that stage yet, I guess..

The weekend was good, starting with after works drinks and ending with drinks and a roast chicken feast... And the fifty shades of Mr Grey. Started on the trilogy box set I received for my birthday - thanks, Y! - and I can't seem to do anything else. It's been a problem since the school days. Whereas other mothers would encourage their daughters to read more, mine discouraged reading too much, since I become almost dysfunctional once absorbed in the other world inside the pages. I'm onto the second book at the moment and can't wait to finish it as soon as possible ;)