well today was a normal day at work ... i had a meeting with the new boss this morning ... i think i'm pretty pleased with the way that went ... good first impression ... he knows i exist thanks to email but that was our first one-on-one time ...
i booked my flight online today ... for those who don't know i'm going to beirut for a week ... went to the bank to pay the fare during my lunch break ... i picked up some food like i normally do on the way home from work ... for today it was one small spicy pizza from little caesars ... and one small order of cheese bread ... showered ... and drove out to the airline office to get my ticket ... the airline is called sama and it's a private one ... i went with it because it's much cheaper than say flying with saudi airlines ... less than half the price actually ... so yeah their office is really far away ... it's all the way at the end of olaya ... but thanks to my google maps print-out i made it there without getting lost ... anyway so i get there at eight and they have one of those number queue systems ... when i got there it was number 71 and my number was 82 ... anyway there were only two counters working and i guess some people got sick of waiting ... because some guy came up to me and asked me what my number was ... i told him it's 82 ... he said here have mine ... he was 79 ... and left ... i was like wow thanks man ... anyway so after a painfully boring wait i got my ticket and my flight was confirmed ... i leave next friday and return the friday after that ...
on the way home i passed by this bookstore that recently opened close to my house ... for those who live in saudi it's a jarir bookstore ... a huge one ... for those outside saudi and have no idea what jarir is ... well it's a bookstore ... but like their motto says ... "not just a bookstore" ... anyway so i was like why don't i pop in ... i need a book for the plane anyway ... besides i never read anymore ... so i was like yallah ... an hour later i walk out with eleven books i just bought ... i'm not kidding ... i have enough books for the rest of the year now ... the books are ...
- tuesdays with morrie: i used to always see this book at bahrain airport when i was traveling back and forth between beirut and dammam during my college years ... and i would always pick it up and ponder buying it but i never did ... well i finally did ... plus i heard a lot of good things about this book.
- the road: written by cormac mccarthy ... that's the same guy who wrote no country for old men ... which i have not read ... but i did see the movie and i thought it was brilliant ... so that was why i got this book ... plus it won a pulitzer so it has to be good right?
- lord of the flies: a famous classic ... we had to read it in school but i never did ... i just used spark notes hehe ... well now i want to read it.
- the art of war: i've heard of it before and it definitely seems interesting ... the only non-fiction book i bought today.
- holes: i've never heard of this book but i have heard of the author louis sachar ... he wrote there's a boy in the girls bathroom ... i know that sounds like a silly title but it's actually an awesome book ... so i'm hoping this one will be as good.
- girls of riyadh: english translation of the famous book banat ilriyadh ... i remember seeing this book at virgin megastore back in beirut during college ... and thinking what a bunch of crap ... but now that i live in riyadh ... i find myself strangely compelled to read it.
- to kill a mockingbird: another classic ... always been on my want-to-read list ... i've never seen the movie by the way ... i hear it's also good.
- slam: again i've never heard of this book but i have heard of the author nick hornby ... he wrote high fidelity which i actually wrote about on here once upon a time ... that was a great book.
- the adventures of sherlock holmes: i've read a bunch of sir arthur conan doyle's sherlock books ... hound of the baskervilles ... the valley of fear ... the sign of four ... and i enjoyed them ... so i figured i would enjoy this book as well.
- alice's adventures in wonderland: another classic i've never read ... it was the cheapest book out of the eleven ... only 15 riyals ... it's also the thinnest one.
- one hundred years of solitude: by the same dude who wrote love in the time of cholera ... which i have not read nor seen the movie but i know of both ... anyway this book's a nobel prize winner ... plus the description on the back seems pretty interesting.
now the question is ... which one should i start with ... hmmmm ...
February 23, 2009
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8 comments:
awwal shee, sa7tein 3al pizza..
ya3ni khalas, raye7 3ala beirut ? nseet shou kint baddi 2oul;) yalla, trou7 w terja3 b salameh..will u write a day to day account of stuff and food and observations.....and will u eat a chicken shawarma sandwich with pickles for me ma3 orange soda:D
ba3dein haidi small flight, u don't need a book, talk to the person sitting next to you loool
They don't have public library system in Saudi like here..I borrow books for 21 days and movies for a week ..It can save you some money...
I loved "to kill a mocking bird" both the book and the movie but start with "One hundred years of solitude"..
hahaha no 3al aghlab i will not blog while im there .. bas when i come back of course i will write about the trip .. binnisbe lal talab i dont like pickles or orange soda :/ .. chicken shawarma bidoon pickles ma3 pepsi byimshi il 7al?
and ya i know its a short flight but its been so long since i read a book anyway so its good if i start reading again .. i feel i am becoming braindead lately .. and ya they do have public libraries here bas the books are mostly in arabic plus the really good libraries are too far from my house ..
talk to the person next to me .. never .. i always have headphones on when flying .. and reading .. either magazine or a book ..
not sure what ill start with .. maybe i will write down the names on paper and put them in a bowl and do a sa7eb ..
Isn't jarir just soo pretty I LOVE JARIR and yeah from the list the only ones i read was to kill a mocking bird and girls of riyadh but i do have the art of war and 100 years of solitude but I cant be bothered to read right now, anyways of the two books I can recommend, the girls of riyadh was the worst < this sentence deosnt make sense
Also hope u have fun on your trip
hell ya jarir rules :D
ya i know G of R is crap and even i know some ppl who read it told me its crap .. it doesnt deserve to be mentioned on the same list even .. but like i said i wouldve never bought if i wasnt living in riyadh
tayyeb mashi.. pepsi, no pickles bas double the toom :) I can almost see you at barbar looool or maybe at a nice place downtown near the big clock..
Mom told me, it has been really cold lately, so be ready..
I recommended "One hundred years of solitude" although I haven't read it, but when I searched it at the public library website, this what i found: Probably Garcia Marquez finest and most famous work. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of a mythical town of Macondo through the history of the Buendia family. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, alive with unforgettable men and women, and with a truth and understanding that strike the soul. "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is a masterpiece of the art of fiction."
This sound interesting, am going to get it too.
I'll be looking forward to your account of events..trou7 w terja3 b alf salameh :)
barbar .. 3indo kteer shaglat taybeh .. i used to order so much from there .. kan kteer 2areeb 3a bayti :)
btw i started reading with alice in wonderland.
and thx Allah ysalmik :)
Nice list, but honestly, don't waste your time with Tuesdays with Morrie, I really REALLy disliked it.
I've read Love in the Time of Cholera, and I'd be interested to know what his other books are like. It's weird though, Love in the Time of Cholera was actually written in Spanish then translated (I wonder if One 1000 Years is like that also) and it almost felt like I wasn't reading what the other actually wrote. I mean there's so many ways you can translate a paragraph and how you choose to translate it can be different, its almost like the translator IS the author.
Anyhoo, I babble. Don't waste time with Tuesdays with Morrie, SigFig and I both hated it.
ok so leave tuesdays for last hehe .. about translation i know what u mean but for example i read "i saw ramallah" which was originally written in arabic and is more prose than a novel .. and i still loved it .. so ur probably right ino the original is well the original .. but it doesnt necessarily mean translation is a negative thing like a knockoff or something.
i think ill read "slam" next.
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