April has truly been “the cruellest month” for me*. It started with my lower back acting up, and then an extremely uncomfortable eye infection. Then, this week I gave myself a fright by falling down in the bathroom. It was my first spill after my spine re-injury of 2022 which led to my disablement. So … Continue reading Notes from the Bibliotheca 15/04/2026
Reading occurred at a leisurely pace for most of March; mostly because I was reading thicker books. I finished rereading Robert Jordan’s Path of Daggers after I got hooked on the story again. It’s really different rereading it this time because this is my first time systematically rereading all volumes of the Wheel of Time … Continue reading Notes from the Bibliotheca 31/03/2026
What, another post so soon? Well, I have THINGS I want to share and I might just explode if I don’t. I finished reading Tash Aw’s The South, also Strangers on a Pier. I’m just so haunted by the worlds within worlds he’s revealed in his fiction and by his compelling authorial voice. While I … Continue reading Notes From The Bibliotheca 6/03/2026
I’m half-awake right now, honestly. Nevertheless, I’m determined to do one of these posts a month so here’s my roundup of my February reading; my reading update also includes a chess update because I feel too bashful to have separate blog posts for chess given I’m really not that great at it even though I … Continue reading Notes From The Bibliotheca 28/02/2026
January’s been my best reading month since, well, December! I’ve read 12 books this month and all of them were most excellent. Some highlights include my Ursula K LeGuin reread, Nghi Vo’s Singing Hills novellas, Malka Older’s Infomocracy from her Centenal Cycle, Bethany C Morrow’s A Song Below Water and A Chorus Rises, Tash Aw’s … Continue reading Notes from the Bibliotheca 31/01/2026
Happy New Year! I think that when you’re a literary academic, it’s a given that your job involves reading. A lot of reading. Not just monographs, and collections, and philosophical treatises. You read multiple dissertations as supervisor, and as examiner. What this means is that your reading for the year will likely be 80% for … Continue reading A Survey of my 2025 Reading Habit: Returning from a Reading Block
For the past few years (since the pandemic began, really) my reading has not been the same. I used to average 60-80 books read per year even with a busy schedule but then other things took my time. For one, my supervision/teaching load increased and other factors included returning to formal music-learning and composing, language … Continue reading Notes from the Bibliotheca 18/11/2025
It’s the day after Deepavali and I’ve maximised the three-day weekend by reading up a storm; mostly because I’ve also been nursing some extreme fatigue so reading in bed seemed to be about the only productive thing I was capable of achieving during this period. This also means I managed to finish reading three books … Continue reading Notes From the Bibliotheca 21/10/2025
It’s Malaysia Day and also Pythagorean Triple Square Day (btw this only works if you count the date in the American Way: 09/16/25)! On this auspicious occasion (and the not so auspicious occasion of the very sad demise of Robert Redford), I am posting my reading updates! This is the last day of a four-day … Continue reading Notes from the Bibliotheca 16/09/2025
The urge not to post until I’d finished reading a few more books was strong but I think it’s more important to be fairly more consistent about posting these things. Besides, my brain needs a break from the academic work I’ve been doing this weekend. I’ve been pretty overwhelmed with work, personal and health matters … Continue reading Notes from the Bibliotheca 10/08/2025