Why Blog?

Last night as I lay in bed, I decided I wanted to start a blog. I had been tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable but I was sweating profusely under two blankets and my head was propped up high on two pillows. Then the mozzies came. "Hey, welcome to the party!" thought this sitting duck.

Anyway, I digress.

The idea for this blog did pop into my head last night and under those circumstances. I have been down with a throat infection this last week that's made me really slow, dull, listless and achy all over. So I've had lots of time to read my books which have somehow accumulated over the last few months now.

Then I thought I would like to share my impressions with more people. I had shared my impression of two books I read recently with my husband yesterday, and there was no one else I could think of who would listen to the the whole replay again. So hello, anyone out there?

Let me explain why I call this blog The Cheap Reader. In recent months, I discovered that there are cheap books to be found. Well, maybe calling them cheap is not flattering but I have managed to pick up many worthy books for less than RM20, RM10 and even RM5. Oh yes, I kid not.

I've been lucky to find these books at clearance sales. Times the Bookshop had their roving book sale at SS2 Mall and later at Citta Mall. There's a large but diminishing supply of RM3 books. In between the two Times sales, I stumbled upon The Big Bookshop's closing down sale at the Atria Shopping Centre. I got novels there for RM2. How's that? My older son insisted on picking up classics for RM4.95 and RM5.20 each. Why not? Mind you, my boys got their other books there too. Some for RM3 and some for more. But still less than full price. (Well, what you save from your choice you can splurge on the more expensive books. Especially when the younger comic-reading son asks for novels. Right, other mums?)

This got me thinking. I can now afford to pick up books by authors I'm not familiar with but look readable. Hey, there's that classic I've never read but remember from a movie decades ago. Look,  biographies of celebrities and famous authors. Brand new copies of my son's favourite classics really, really affordable. Some books we buy to keep. Some books we buy to read and pass around to the other readers in the family and among friends. Some we read and give to the school library.

So on this premise, I decided to call this blog The Cheap Reader. I'll write about the cheap books I've bought  and maybe throw in some more expensive books I happen to read too. But right now, I think I will go back to being ill and read my latest cheap book. (Yes, I'm starting a new book today! Yay!)