4 April, 2026

I'm currently reading Murakami's Pinball, because I love Hear the Wind Sing and the book about running so much, they made me sought for more from this author. Half a decade ago a friend lent me Norwegian Wood, I left it on my table for a few months without flipping a single page, then returned to him because he wants it back, today I finally understood why he was so obsessed about this author, though I feel I'm a little more obsessed than him.

I see the same pattern when I pick movies to watch, when I love a movie I'll look for other movies that the director has filmed, might be some sort of mild parasocial relationship, or it could be the effect of comfort zone, it feels good watching, reading, listening to a certain director, author, artist and I just want more of that feeling, it could be my nature of obsession.

At least now I'm reading more than I used to.

I notice when it comes to books, it gets more personal, like for Murakami, I wouldn't be as interested in his books if I didn't know about his personal story, it was mentioned in both the running book and in the foreword of Hear the Wind Sing, it's so inspiring, it has actually inspired me to start writing, not to write a book or anything, just to write more.

Before Murakami, I was obsessed with Hermann Hesse after reading Siddhartha and Steppenwolf, the former is still my favourite book of all time. A german author gave me, a freethinker, enlightenment through a story about Buddhism, I remember reading it on a flight back home alone, I can still see and hear the moment clearly, baby crying, I feel lighter and the surrounding seems brighter, I was smiling the whole time, almost to tears, all from that few paragraph of words on paper, it's magical.

Yet today it's almost the opposite with Murakami, a kid screaming and I was feeling so sleepy, trying my best to read without falling asleep, his style changed so much from his first writing, and I was craving for that, there's still bits by bits, he's doing that style every alternate chapter, so I was literally feeling sleepy, then awake, then sleepy again and again during the whole flight, which led me to write this.

The role of an artist is exactly the same as the role of a lover, if I love you, I will need to make you conscious of the things you don't see.

No wonder I tend to start picking up my reading habits again after each break up, maybe I've known this unconsciously this whole time, filling the holes in my heart with the love from book authors.

Many years back while driving to therapy, I listened to this audiobook by James Clear called Atomic Habits, back when my attention span was nonexistent I had to keep rewinding back because my mind kept wandering, or maybe some parts of that book are just too boring?

If so, it's boringly life changing to me. It's the keystone habit, I know this is from another habit book -- The Power of Habit, that has turned my life around. James Clear is still doing that to me every Friday with his newsletter, I always look forward to it popping up in my mailbox, in fact the quote above might actually came from newsletter too.

Months later I had a discussion with a friend about how amazing that book is, he read it too and he mentioned a few things that I have actually forgotten, might be from one of the parts that my mind still wandered after rewinding back to listen, or I just simply forgot about it because my memory was really bad.

I took that as a lesson, knowing the benefits that come from reading, I decided to try different ways to retain the things I read so they will never leave my mind like how it was for Atomic Habits, so I pulled up my sleeves and started to take notes for the next book, The Courage to be Disliked.

Love that book, I still have the notes in my Notion, but if you ask me, I don't think I can remember that much of what I've written, even though I've read it twice, the second time few years later, I'll get onto that later why I did that, but that's the second lesson to me, I'll never be able to know everything from cover to cover, took me two books to realize that.

It's the things that I do after reading them that matters more, and one of the habit, meditation, gravitates me towards The Power of Now, found the audiobook voiced by the man himself, Eckhart Tolle and it was unbearably hard to listen. It's a gem, I love the book so much, the story about the little monk has stuck with me for half a decade, but his voice is just too soft and slow, I'm just glad that the months I took to listen I didn't fall asleep at the wheel.

The three books above shaped who I am today, okay not entirely but at least a big chunk of me, I believe.

They didn't only shape me through words, but in ways I didn't think of, such as becoming a remedy to better sleep, it makes long commutes a million times better, it's such a no brainer I always tell people, you just haven't found the right book yet!

My friends started to gift me books, one of my favourite, Tools of Titans by Tim Ferris, remains and always will be the most obvious book on my bookshelf because how thick it is. The audiobook is the total opposite of The Power of Now, it's so engaging with all the people he interviewed in his podcast, it has introduced me to so many new authors.

8 April, 2026

With my long booklist, those few months after you'll find me spending hours in bookshops, one hand holding a few books and the other holding my phone with Goodreads opened, reading the reviews comparing the ratings. It's because I allow myself to only buy two or three books each time, so I had to choose the ones that interest me the most.

With so many new authors, I've also became more careful when making choices. I find myself easily affected by books, sometimes. I was so close to becoming a vegan after reading a book by Osho. Being aware of this, I stopped reading 48 Powers of Law after a few chapters, because it's giving me such a bad taste, I couldn't stand it.

When selecting books, I would also lean more towards philosophy (Camus, Seneca, Aurelius) and classics (Hesse, Orwell, Hemingway), since they have stood the test of time and it's still being read by millions today, they must be great it's a no brainer, it's always a delight reading them, I've just finished Pinball and started The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, such a great start.

Above I also mentioned about The Power of Now, which led me to spiritual books, not religion wise but somewhat Buddhism, not anything too extreme like Tolle's second book, it's also surprising how common this is non-fictions as well. Another book that shaped me that I forgot to mention above, The Untethered Soul, this book showed me nirvana.

I'm also really into books that feels personal, but not biological, though I love Steve Job's one because of Walter Isaacson's prose, rather from the author themselves like Anne Lamott, Murakami's running book and Stephen King's On Writing, and it's not surprising many authors share their own stories like David Goggins, or in less obvious ways, Steppenwolf.

I still have too many books on my bookshelf, many of them I bought because I had to pass through the bookshop, from one exit to another to reach the gym. So I used to visit at least three days a week and often books I want just shows up out of nowhere, or being the last copy there, I would just grab it immediately without thinking twice.

There's also one bookshop that I love to visit, not so frequently because it's far from where I stay. It's a indie bookshop opened by a couple, and they usually have the books that I'm looking for, that can't be found in other popular bookshops. The owners would just sit there, reading different books every time I visit, that's my dream.

9 April, 2026

Yesterday morning I had a conversation with the friend who I borrowed Bird by Bird from. It was his baby daughter's full moon, everyone was paying attention to his baby except me, my eyes were looking at his bookshelf. I was surprised because of how similar our taste are for books, there's Tolle, Isaacson and to my surprise, Autobiography of a Yogi.

I asked what books are his favourite, he said Antifragile by Nassim Taleb, Denial of Death by Ernest Becker and Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker. We're not that much of the same in terms of favourite books but the more we talk the more similarities we discover, the topics we discussed are literally this and the previous few posts of this blog, how he take notes and his relationship with sleep.

When I was reading Bird by Bird, there were highlights and underlines, also writings around the margins like KP for key points and sometimes "Wow!" and such. I've bought second hand books and seen these, so I thought he got this book second hand as well, but turns out it's all written by him, but he has stopped doing that.

He said that even if we flip back we can't immediately know what's that about before reading the paragraph, so now he write questions instead of KPs. Based on the questions it'll be easier for him to look for parts of the books that he need later, which I find interesting. He also has a commonplace book in Dropbox, mine is in Telegram, which we both learned from Second Brain by Tiago Forte, he showed me a long list of it.

Then to the topic of sleep, which he prioritise, but doesn't seem as much as I do, still he has read Walker's book and I definitely need to pick that up as well. He then shared about a time he talked to a guy who would work past midnight and start his day at 6am every day on repeat, and he asked my friend, do you want a long life of doing things for yourself, or a slightly shorter life of doing things for others?