On My Bookshelf

I have digitized most of my book collection. Physical space is expensive, and e-books are so much easier to carry around. Kindle is amazing. If it wasn't for Kindle, I would never have finished Les Misérables, because it's too freaking big to carry around and I do most of my reading when I'm out and about. Many of my textbooks are digital, too.

When I'm not reading an e-book I'm likely reading a book I checked out from a library. It's free, which is the best. I am very blessed to have access to multiple great public libraries and my university's library. Library is my one of my few happy places. There's an unpopular room that no one ever goes to in my university library, and being there makes me super calm.

As much as I love the convenience factor of e-books and free factor of library books, I still own some paper books. I have this bizarre fear than one day the industrial society will collapse and then we wouldn't have power system to charge the electronics with or a library system to get books from. Hopefully that will never happen, but power outage and blackouts actually happen from time to time. Reading is one of the very few things I can do under candlelight. Also, I will always love the feeling of paper books.

I have a hand-picked selection of books that I keep paper copies on my bookshelf.

1. Economics: The User's Guide by Ha-Joon Chang

This is an incredibly informative book. Not only does it explain economic concepts very well in a way that a non-economics major pleb would easily understand, it offers great insight as to what the economy is and what happens in it. I watched "The Big Short" the other day with my dad and I knew all of the economic terms without even having to read the explanation the movie provided.

2. Cosmos by Carl Sagan

This may not be for everyone but I need this book. That's the physics major in me, I suppose. I love all things Carl Sagan, but this one is my favorite out of all.

3. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton

This is one of the books that made me who I am now. I was a lost teenager at that time. Ponyboy is my homeboy :P This is so touching and beautiful. Because of this book I will always stay gold.

4. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

I don't really like classics, to be honest. However, Pride and Prejudice is pretty amusing. I wouldn't have gotten this if it weren't for my class, but now that I did, I enjoy this book very much. Who would have known that I'd care about English rich people's shenanigans from few centuries ago? It turns out I kind of like 'novel of manners' type of books.

5. Starseeker by Tim Bowler

I don't really cry when I read or watch, but this book did make me cry. I try to stay away from young-adult, coming-of-age books as I'm getting older, but honestly, I will always read this book. This is my favorite work of Tim Bowler.