What to eat

This is the title of a book by Marion Nestle. Other than "Rule #1" , this was the other book I borrowed from the Sunnyvale Public Library some weeks ago. I did not know why I pick it up, but I guess I wanted to know more about the American supermarket, especially the "hidden" secrets, if there are really any. This book takes you on a guided tour of the supermarket. I read through the first half of the book, but practically flipped through the rest (2nd half) of it. No, not because it is not interesting. It's just that the book has too much content for me to cover within such a short time. Although this book has not completely made me a changed person, on how I will select my groceries in the supermarket in future, it has certainly opened up my mind and helped me understand the agribusiness. I will still choose non-organic items, most of the times, over organic (though I know organic is good, but it carries a hefty tag); I will still stock some frozen food in my freezer; and of course, I will not give up on my potato chips. Ultimately, I believe it's about making balanced decisions about food on the basis of freshness, taste, nutrition, health, and, of course, price.

Rule #1

This is not the rule that I live by. For those into regular reading, you would know that this is the title of a book "Rule #1" by Phil Town.

This is a book about simple strategy to investing. Frankly, I'm not someone into financial planning and investing. But this book is really quite reader-friendly, easy to read (font size relatively big) and rather simple to understand. Oops, I cheated because I did not complete the entire book! I just completed 75% of the book within 2 hours, and I thought that was enough for me since I would not be doing any investment in the near future anyway, plus some concepts would already be forgotten by today if I were to read the entire book.

Going paperless

The building may not appear as modern but this library's got it going on in Sunnyvale. A cozy place for a good afternoon or evening read; and its magazine corner, well-stocked with many current-issue magazines, happens to be one of our favourite spots in this library. The resources and collections in this library is definitely not restrained by the amount of space it is limited to. One of the best things we love about the library system is that they have eResources such as eBooks, that allow library account holders, like us, to download the book at the comfort of our own home and read at our own convenience and time. The only missing element in eBooks...is the use of your other senses of touch and smell. Yes, you can read the same content in an eBook exactly what you find behind the bookshelves, but you will miss being able to hold on to a good book, feeling and flipping the pages, and occasionally smelling the printed paper pages. I do not think eBooks will replace the traditional hardcovers or paperbacks. It is just another book offering with advantages of portability, price and some new features not possible with paper books.

I have wanted to pick up this book "Early Warning: Using Competitive Intelligence to Anticipate Market Shifts, Control Risk, and Create Powerful Strategies" by Benjamin Gilad, for a read. It would have cost me ~USD25 at the book retail, and maybe ~ USD15 at Amazon. However, with Netlibrary, I am able to browse this ebook version complete, at no cost. I love it ! As the French scientist Louis Pasteur once said: “Luck favors the prepared mind.” Yes, I am indeed prepared for more eBooks, am I lucky or what ?