Books or eBooks

Another milestone in the media world has started to replace traditional book reading. Go to a local Starbucks or just stroll though a mall and you'd bound to see some tech-avid reader nestling an iPad or a Kindle or whatever digital reader or multimedia devices pervading the consumers' world these days.

Textviewers is just another name for a book replacement. I really cannot fathom the sense in spending close to $200=$400 (RM800 to RM1200) for a device to enjoy one of the most basic pleasures in life, reading! Granted, eBooks go for anywhere between $1.99 to $10.99 or more, depending on the product. You can even "bookmark" the pages and write notes on the marginal notes or whatever configuration is designed, but for me, nothing surpasses the tactile feel to wood pulp and the smell of ink on good ol' flippable books.

Try bring your Kindle or Iriver near a pool or into your bath.

Reading in the dark? Backlights and LEDs a good way to do it? Or simply just nesting in a cozy corner in your room with your book, a cup of your favourite beverage and a book. One which you can choose to fall asleep to and NOT risk cracking the LCD screen.

Reading just goes beyond text. It's the feel of the pages as you flip them forward or back and the satisfaction of occupying your self space with rows of paperbacks and hardcovers. You know the illustrations and print on the covers can be a collector's item? Not to mention to presence of colour, form and characters to draw perspective from which the contents derive it's substance from.

Not Eco-friendly to print books? Well, don't drive to work and stop using electricity then. Being immensely naive and altruistic about eco-conservation certainly will not spell the demise of books.

I doubt I'll be prepared to switch over to a textviewer device in the near future. As it is, the job requires my attention to a computer screen almost half the day. I would rather read from paper after a long and tiring day. Besides, I am still entitled to $265 (RM1,000) tax relief for book purchases. I don't think the Malaysian IRB recognize eBooks as a tax relief item in the meantime.

For these simple reasons, I don't believe that Borders or MPH will phase out anytime soon.

Read More for Less

Looking for a bargain with books? Well, check out BookXcess in Amcorp Mall.

These guys started a small store in 2006 with the objective of making reading a habit for people from all walks with books going for as low as 70% off their normal retail prices. A warehouse sale of books everyday! From Agriculture to Sci-Fiction, most readers would be able to walk out with a book to digest on.

I picked up 2 paper bag novels today for only RM30.00! If I had gotten these books normal retail, I'd probably would have paid about RM100.00 for them.

• For those who fancy coffee table books, there's a fine selection of novels going for RM9.90 including Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code. These are thick paper bag novels.

• Lost for choice? Well, there's always the "Staff Selection" behind the cashier with changing selection of books for various readers. Just pick one up if you can't decide on your own.
  

• Not a good enough bargain? Well, pick up books worth RM100 and you can sign up for a BookXcess Privilege Membership Card giving you a discount of 5% over and above the unbelievably low prices when you make purchases of RM50.00 and 10% for purchases over RM100.00!

BookXcess is located at L3-60, Amcorp Mall, 18 Jalan PSN Barat, 46050 Petaling Jaya, Selangor. You can contact them at 03-7956 0455 or email them at email@bookxcess.com

"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor pleasure so lasting."
Mary Wortley Montagu

Voyager: Full Circle

For Trekkers who wanted more from the legendary crew of USS Voyager, these two books are the perfect read: Full Circle and Unworthy.

The continuing encounters of Captain Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay and Seven of Nine will spurn interests which was once since the tv series which saw its last season finale in 2001. The timeline :places the characters about two years after Voyager's return from the Delta Quadrant. The story unfolds when the vaunted vessel , now equipped with the new slipstream drive and a few augmentations is assigned to return to the Delta Quadrant supposedly for a recon mission to ascertain the balance of power after the massive defeat of the Borg but as the story unravels, you'd see that the storytelling sets out whole new possibilities in the Voyager franchise. And you'd think you saw the end of it when the future Admiral Janeway helps her younger self and the valiant crew get back home.

Kirsten Beyer is a brilliant writer.

Her writing grips the reader with her understanding of the characters and she interpolates the canon sources with her stories with remarkable outcome. The books left sanguine expectations. It was hard to put them down once I started.

Beyer is working on an unannounced Voyager novel scheduled for release in 2011. I am looking so very forward.

The Art of The Film Star Trek 2009

I think this 100-pager houses fantastic conceptual renditions and illustrations of film. The Art of the Film: Star Trek 2009 houses palatable paintings utilizing gouache and marker techniques with minimal computer enhancements.

For me, what bears lacking is the screen props used for the filming. Although I am grateful for the working drafts of the Starfleet Phaser and Communicator, there is nothing much beyond one or two photos of the final versions. I thought the addition of detail of Nero’s staff (which deploys into a 3-bladed spear), Romulan and Klingon weaponry would have made the book’s “inventory” more complete. No harm could be done by detailing the shipboard phaser banks, pulse cannons or photon torpedoes. Perhaps those lies in store for the next coming book for Star Trek II said to be scheduled in June 2012.

The artwork and drawings does justice to the visionary ideals of J.J. Abrams in the making of the film. We all know props and sets play a crucial part in any good film and as a tailor’s creed, the suit is only as good as the man wearing it. The landscapes and gargantuan structures which fill them are functional as they are beautiful.

The initial ideas of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701 lays present in The Art of the Film as expected with the book now putting on record that according to scale, the Enterprise is about 1200 meters long, putting to rest the discrepancy in length due to ILM’s on-screen rendering which made the ship appear between 760 meters to 1000+ meters long in different screenshots. Leave it to ardent Trekkers to figure the discrepancy and scaling of the flagship.

My favourite work is that of James Clyne, whom I think is a commendable film and conceptual artist having credit in Transformers and X-Men 3 amongst others. As a teenager, I somewhat possessed the penchant for poster colors and pencil sketches. I remember making rough sketches of what I thought the new Starship Enterprise was going to look like after the Original Series and without exaggerating, my visualization on paper was quite close to the USS Enterprise D which made its debut on celestial TV back in 1990 as far as I could recall.

I like this one: Clyne’s rendition of the Enterprise-Narada confrontation. The piece invokes a surreal feeling of David and Goliath with the behemoth and the flagship in orbit against the backdrop of Vulcan’s atmosphere. The movie’s one is almost identical, save as additional shadows and lens flares (a J.J. Abrams signature) creates an intimidating marauder imposing on and completely overshadowing the sized-challenged Federation flagship.

Price at RM109.90 (now available at the Kinokuniya Bookstore, Suria KLCC), The Art of The Film is more worthwhile than collecting Ship of the Line/ Star Trek calendars published by Pocket Books every year which costs about RM70.00 each. Come to think of it, my office charges RM0.50/ page for photocopies and I’m getting 100-pages of artwork and drawings for roughly RM1.00 each from The Art of the Film.