Perpustakaan Raja Tun Uda Shah Alam

The spectacular lake in front of the library

 

 

I braved myself and ventured out from my comfort zone again, this time to Perpustakaan Raja Tun Uda in Shah Alam.  I saw some photos posted by one of my FB friends and was impressed with the amount and choices of books available, they have Chinese, English and BM book titles and not forgetting that membership are totally free and no annual fees.   Unlike the two public libraries we used to frequent, TTDI Public Library and Puchong Library where they still impose annual membership fees and I can't find any Chinese titles there.

View of the lake-facing library

 

We spent a lot of time here admiring the geese.

 

Carpark and the garden landscaping at the background

Opening hours

The Opening hours has since changed to:

 

Mons - 10am - 7pm

Tues - Fris: 9.30am - 7pm

Sats & Suns: 9.30am - 9pm except for Creative Zone (Kids' Section)

where they open until 7pm only

 

Children section where kids can read on a "hill" under a gigantic "reading tree".

 

As the place is fully carpeted, no shoes are allowed.  You have to remove your shoes, put them into a bag provided to you and carry it with you.

 

The place is colourfully furnished.  It is well equipped with fairly new Apple iMac desktop computers!  Kids and parents can go online at an affordable charge of RM1 per hour.

 

The boy having a break at the couch.

 

Some of the boy's favourite books.. Roald Dahl

 

Magic Tree House

 

 

Diary of A Wimpy Kid

 

 

Magic Tree House (Chinese version) ~ Must get the boy to read these one of these days. *evil grins*

 

 

Self registration of membership is done online (there are few terminals there for you to do so) and it will be activated within an hour.  No membership card are issued to adults as Mykad will serve as one but children will be issued a member card on their next visit there.

 

We only managed to explore the Children section on our first visit there.  The next visit will be for myself to explore the Adult section.  6D movies are even available at a fee but the boy wasn't interested at all regardless of the number of Ds so we gave that one a pass.  I heard they have a gym room too and that one will be on my next to visit list too.

 

If you stay around Puchong, Subang and Shah Alam areas, this is the type of library that you would like to visit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2012: Free Stamping Service

Book lovers,

 

Remember to get free stamping service for your books.  The free stamping counter is located just after the cashier check-out.  There are 4 designs and 4 colours (green/red/black/blue) altogether. Some memories for you to bring home with your loots! :)

 

 

Can't really read the top part... Message:  TO YOU,.......

 

This AWESOME Book Belongs To....

 

BIG BAD WOLF APPROVED

 

I Rate This Book 5 TAILS UP!

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Preview Day 2012

 

Yay!! I am so proud of myself!  We arrived at our destination without getting lost!  Phew..

 

While waiting for our turn to pay at MIECC's parking booth, my boy spotted the sign and read out aloud, "Empty your car, drive the books home (Your passengers can walk) to which I replied,"How about that? NO WAY! was all he said. LOL....

 

As the preview day was on a weekday, we paid RM2 per entry for parking. I heard they charge RM3 per entry on weekends.

 

 

A big banner greeted us the moment we drove passed the parking booth. Wow! The only passenger and his driver in the car got even more excited.  The long awaited world's biggest book sale has finally arrived!  Wolfie, you better don't dissappoint the mommy and son team here. 

 

As we arrived way ahead of time for the BBW book sale preview, arriving there at 11am, we walked across from MIECC car park where we parked our car to The Mines Shopping Mall for some shopping. You can also park your car at the shopping mall and the parking rates for the 1st 4 hours are RM1 and RM1 for every subsequent 2 hours during weekdays. On weekends and public holidays, the parking rates are at RM3 for 1st 4 hours and RM1 for every subsequent hour. 

 

Hardly venture into this part of town if not for the BBW book sale so we took our time touring and snapping photos.

 

We spent our time in the shopping mall and had our lunch there before walking back to our car to unload our purchases.  As we planned to go in half an hour after the opening time, it was a breeze and no scene of queuing at the entrance.  I later read from BBW's FB page that the queue before and during the opening time at 12.30pm was a bit chaotic and unruly. 

 

 

The highlights of the Sale Preview opening:  The appearance of a Lamborghini and superheroes' parade.  Photos taken from BBW's FB page.  As we were half an hour late, we missed this one.

 

The place is vast, 3 million books!!

 

 

The entrance

 

The boy's stash

 

Mine

 

My sister's and her two boys'

 

The bad news is the selection of books this year paled compared to previous years.  On the other hand, it's good news that I didn't burn a big hole in my pocket.  The total damage was RM250 for 30 books and 1 silicon bakeware for my sister.  I spent the most time at the children section trying to stock up books for the boy's library but the selection for his age was somewhat limited.  I had no plans to get any fiction novels this time as there were still many in boxes and in the shelves unread but still I ended up buying three copies.

 

Will I go again? Oh, yes for at least one more trip and not forgetting the aftermath sale that follows.  I will be browsing the non-fiction and cookery sections this round as I didn't get to do it before my legs gave up carrying my body around on the sale preview day. :)  I really hope they replenish their books everyday!

 

 

 

There is a Fragile section where all the pop-up books and CDs are just before you exit after paying at the Cashier counter.  Thumbs up, Wolfie.  Those pop-up books were an eyesore with torn edges, crumpled and missing pages and were particularly everywhere at the sales area during last year's aftermath sale. 

 

We were done book hunting after 3-1/2 hours, not really done, just that our legs refused to move. Before  stepping out from the door exit, we were asked by a minion if we wish to return to continue shopping and a stamp would be placed on our wrists for re-entry later.    We had to reject his offer as our legs didn't allow us too. Ahahaha...

 

We took some photos before leaving.

 

 

 

 

A matt black Lamborghini bearing WOLF 1 plate number was on display in front of the entrance

  

 

The boy pampers himself with a cup of orange juice and boiled eggs courtesy of OCBC Bank after spending hours being my porter. ^.^ Thank you, son and you will be rewarded with more books!

 

 

Our car was parked at Level B1.  There was no hassle dragging our book loot to the car.  We took an elevator down to Level B1 and my little porter volunteered to push the trolley all the way to the car as it was parked quite a distance from the elevator.  Well done, boy!  I now announce you "My Best Shopping Partner Of The Year!" LOL!!!

 

Tips:

 

1. Bring your own trolley, luggage bags to lug your books. 

2. Bring drinking water.

3. Have a filling meal before stepping into the sales area.

4. Wear something comfortable

5. Sort your books by price before proceeding to the cashier check-out. It minimizes chances of miscalculation and speeds up payment process.

6. Last but not least, don't forget to bring your credit card / lots of cash! :)

 

 

Read about Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2011 here:

 

Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Preview Day 2011

Wolf Hunting Again For The 2nd time 2011

  

  

Chinese Reading Frenzy

Content of the novel

I bought the boy this Chinese illustration novel when I was at Popular Bookstore two days ago.  This novel was recommended by one of my friends whose daughter also loves reading, mostly English books though, Geronimo Stilton in particular, hardly any Chinese story books.

She got this novel for her banana girl recently and to her surprise, she started flipping through the novel as it has the same funny font characters as Geronimo's, one of the strong factors why kids are drawn to the book.  As I am writing this post, the series of this novel by Odonata has just published its 4th book. 

My boy, though reads Chinese and BM story books too but he is still inclined towards English books given a choice.   I hope he will be like mommy one day who reads not only English books but Chinese and BM books too when I was his age if not older and that's how I picked up Chinese though I went to a Kebangsaan school.

Content of Geronimo Stilton books

I also bought him comics books, also by Odonata as requested by him. Yes, He requested for those Chinese Books!  Previously, he would never have asked for any Chinese books unless I bought and put them on the bookshelves, then he would read it but the priority would still be English books! 

I think he is influenced by his classmates who are mostly from Mandarin speaking families unlike his previous school where majority of them spoke English.

The content of the comics

The dinosaur comics he pre-ordered through his school.   It has become a hit among kids in his school.  One of his classmates even attempted stealing one of those books from his bag but the boy soon recovered it as someone in the class who witnessed the incident reported to the teacher, the culprit was caught red- handed. Lucky him!

And this too, to prepare him for std 4 as by then, they are required to use Chinese idioms to make sentences and write essays.

I hope by reading more books, my boy would not have to memorise those long essays they have to write during exams, it's torturing having to do all the memorising. Gosh.. And yes, now that he is in std 3, essay writing is coming real soon as the Chinese standard in his present school is higher compared to the previous one.  The boy hasn't gotten back their exam papers but he told me they already had one Chinese essay during the recent exam but much to a simplified version where some of the words were given and they're required  to fill in the blank to complete the whole essay.  

Last but not least, I must admit that he is still not quite ready to reading a 'real' novel which I bought for him at his request too.  I think this one novel gotta sit and wait on the bookshelf until he is ready. Hehehe...

A 'real' novel with no pics or funny font characters in between..

Popular Book Fair @IOI Mall (07.03-18.03.12)

I made a trip to Popular Bookstore after dropping off the boy at school yesterday.  I promised my nephew and niece that I would get them some books when we 'balik kampung' this coming Sunday. Yes!  School holidays start this Saturday and we are going back to my hometown in Sabah for a week!  Yippeeeee.... 

When I was about to march into the bookstore, I saw a banner at the entrance informing customers that they are having a book fair starting tomorrow.  Since I will make quite a bit of book purchases, I decided to hold my bullets for tomorrow but yet I still came home with a Chinese story book for the boy during my visit there.  

I got myself a tall cup of pearl milk tea from 'Dong Cha' before heading home.  Both the boy and myself enjoy drinking cold milk tea and it seems to be a trend now.  What about you? Do you like Dong Cha too as much as we do?

Pearl Milk Tea RM5.90 @Dong Cha, IOI Mall

Milk Roasted Tea RM5.90, add RM1 for pearl

@Chatime, Sunway Pyramid 

  

We Won An iPad 2!

I didn't know I was crowned the champion in the Skin Food 12 Days Challenge until our third day in Bangkok when I was checking my emails and FB from the hotel lobby.  My boy was with me while hubby was resting in our hotel room on the 5th floor.  The internet connection was soooo slow at the hotel lobby and I had to wait so long for each page to load with the boy kept buzzing in my ears if we had won.  I let him read the FB announcement of winners by Skin Food and he went Wow! We won, We won!  He quickly excused himself and dashed back to the hotel room and broke the good news to his daddy, leaving the mommy behind at the lobby. *roll eyes*

We are going to collect the iPad 2 from Skin Food this Saturday and the boy is counting down to the day, he just can't wait to lay his hands on the brand new iPad!  Thanks Skin Food!

On top of that, I also won a set of 3 novels by Maggie Stiefvater from Scholastic Books.  Skynet delivered the books to our doorstep this afternoon.  I must acknowledge that December is indeed a lucky month for me! ;)