Michael Jackson "extremely well-read"

Picture: MJ (?) in a bookstore
Source URL: http://www.thisisjuststupid.com/stupid-celebrities/michael-jackson-at-barnes-noble/

Now, here's some little-known information about the king of pop that pleases me, the librarian.

MJ - the reader!

Of course, I don't know for sure how true this one is, since MJ had always been a bit of mystery. But assuming the 10,000 books in his Neverland home were not trophies for show, it's nice to know that MJ was also a voracious reader.

Article: Michael Jackson "extremely well-read", had 10,000 books
Source: Seattlepi.com
Author: Stephen J. Gertz

Excerpt from the article:

In the midst of a lengthy interview in the L.A. Weekly, Jackson attorney Bob Sanger revealed the following as his last of three golden attributes that defined the Gloved One.

"Michael was extremely well-read…I knew Michael, but I got to know him a lot better at the trial. The judge was doing jury selection, and it was time for break. Judge Melville said, 'Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to know that jury service is very, very important.' He's trying to convince people not to have stupid excuses to get out of jury service. All judges do this. He says, 'The jury system is a very time-honored system. It's been around for 200 years. We're going to take a break and come back in 15 minutes.'

"We stand up and the judge leaves, and Michael turns to me and says, 'Bob, the jury system is much older than 200 years, isn't it?' I said, 'Well, yeah, it goes back to the Greeks.' He says, 'Oh yeah, Socrates had a jury trial, didn't he?' I said, 'Yeah, well, you know how it turned out for him.' Michael says, 'Yeah, he had to drink the hemlock.' That's just one little tidbit. We talked about psychology, Freud and Jung, Hawthorne, sociology, black history and sociology dealing with race issues. But he was very well read in the classics of psychology and history and literature.

"He loved to read. He had over 10,000 books at his house. And I know that because - and I hate to keep referring to the case, because I don't want the case - the case should not define him. But one of the things that we learned - the DA went through his entire library and found, for instance, a German art book from 1930-something. And it turned out that the guy who was the artist behind the book had been prosecuted by the Nazis. Nobody knew that, but then the cops get up there and say, 'We found this book with pictures of nude people in it.' But it was art, with a lot of text. It was art. And they found some other things, a briefcase that didn't belong to him that had some Playboys in it or something. But they went through the guy's entire house, 10,000 books. And it caused us to do the same thing, and look at it."

"And there were places that he liked to sit, and you could see the books with his bookmarks in it, with notes and everything in it where he liked to sit and read. And I can tell you from talking to him that he had a very - especially for someone who was self-taught, as it were, and had his own reading list - he was very well-read. And I don't want to say that I'm well-read, but I've certainly read a lot, let's put it that way, and I enjoy philosophy and history and everything myself, and it was very nice to talk to him, because he was very intellectual, and he liked to talk about those things. But he didn't flaunt it, and it was very seldom that he would initiate the conversation like that, but if you got into a conversation like that with him, he was there."

[snip]

Turns out that Michael Jackson was a sort of Johnny Appleseed of reading, spreading books to all children. Former Los Angeles resident Cynde Moya remembers that "back when I worked at the Bookstar in Culver City, his people would have us keep the store open after hours, and he'd come in with a vanload of kids, who could buy whatever books they wanted."

As MJ's life got stranger over time, so did his book buying habits. He would wear a surgical mask during his book shop visits, and in a video of him from New Year's Eve 2008, he's at Hennessey + Ingalls browsing for books, a black umbrella, held by an assistant, shielding him from the unflattering glare of florescent lighting.

Or, maybe to prevent his love for books from being exposed.

The New Asian Hemisphere

Image Source: East versus West by Derrick Sobodash in Flickr. Used under CC licence Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivative works 2.0 Generic.

I read another good book recently - The New Asian Hemisphere: The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East by Kishore Mahbubani.

This is considered a controversial book because it revealed the shortcomings of the West in international policies making while exhorting the East. I was deeply suspicious of the intent of the author initially, knowing the background of the author is Professor in Practice of Public Policy of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Now I think everybody knows that our MM has made no apologies about pointing out the errors of the Western countries in the past.

However, after reading the book, I feel that the author has presented a lucid argument for where the West has gone wrong in foreign policies and where Asian countries have done right. He has also substantiated his case on the hypocrisy of Western countries when implementing economic policies and twisting international laws in their favour.

One poignant illustration that I read of is the problem of greenhouse gas emissions.

"Put yourself in China's shoes: 500 years ago, average incomes in Europe, India and China were about the same. Then the Europeans got the jump on everybody else technologically, grew unimaginably rich and powerful, and conquered almost the whole world. They also industrialized, and for 200 years it was their industries, their cities, their vehicles that emitted excess greenhouse gases. Now the rich countries are concerned about the consequences, some are even willing to curb their emissions - but they can afford to, because they are already rich and bound to remain so. But if China imposes the same kind of curbs on its emissions, it will not become a country where most people are prosperous and secure in the generation, or perhaps ever. The same goes for all the other once-poor countries that are now experiencing very rapid economic growht. So the deal must be that they get to keep on growing fast, and the rich countries take the strain. .." - Gwynne Dyer

"Instead, many citizens in the Western societies are led to believe that global warming is a result of the recent decisions of China and India to industrialize. Their greenhouse gas emissions are pushing our earth to the "tipping point"...

Some book reviewers (that I read in Amazon.com and Facebook reviews) have pointed out that this book has its merits in presenting the author's big idea for the world, but while pointing out the mistakes in Western foreign policies and international decisions, the author has failed to highlight equally poor decisions made by Asian countries. That may be true. Overall, I felt that this book is quite well-researched and it has painted a realistic picture of how Asians view the West in its role as global leader. I recommend this book if you want to have a general understanding of the current world political situation written from an Asian perspective.

Reading by Paperback, ipod, Kindle or iphone

I've always wondered about this: what is the reading experience like when comparing the ubiquitous paperback, the ipod (audio books), Kindle and iphone? If and when the print books fade away, how will they be replaced?

I have never had a chance to test since I don't own a Kindle and iphone yet.

Thankfully, someone put these formats to the test and shared about her experience here:

Reading Dickens Four Ways /Ann Kirschner, The Chronicle Review, 12 June 2009

The writer tried to read Charles Dickens' "Little Dorrit" in paperback, ipod, Kindle and iphone. We are all familiar with the ups and downs of reading via paperback, so she didn't need to explain more. The writer liked the audio books because it allowed her to multi-task. She could listen to the story being narrated while she was driving, putting on her makeup or jogging. I agree audio books are a great way to get through the contents of a book for busy people who enjoy listening to narration. Unfortunately, I am not such a person. It is important for me to pause and think whenever I come across some useful/meaningful information in a book, and make notes in the book itself, so audiobooks never appealed to my personality very much.

The writer compared Kindle and iphone and found that apart from a longer battery life, the iphone can easily replace Kindle because the iphone can perform so many other functions beside ebooks, hence its overlapping ereading function can render the Kindle redundant.

If iphone is going to become the ubiquitous mobile equipment, libraries will need to look into how to exist in this space. Thankfully, there are already plenty of examples in libraries locally and overseas that are extending their services as well as putting their contents into mobile applications.

The writer also pointed out something that I wasn't aware of. She mentioned that the Amazon's business model for Kindle is not selling the Kindle readers, but "that Amazon cares less about our choice of screen than our choice of store. Amazon wants Kindle to be a verb, not a noun, as in "I Kindled that book," which could mean that I read it on a smartphone, computer, or dedicated electronic-book device." Now that is the right way to sell technology in today's world.

Geography of Bliss

Image Source: Ignorance is Bliss Road by Parl from Flickr. Used under CC licence 2.0 Generic.

I read an excellent book by Eric Weiner (interestingly, he calls himself a 'whiner' in the book too) - The Geography of Bliss: One Grump's search for the happiest places in the world.

Have you ever travelled with the thought 'If I can only get out of this country, I'm sure people must be happier elsewhere'?

This book that manages to be funny and profound at the same time attempts to answer that question - are people who live in "happy" countries happier, and what are the causes for their sense of happiness?

Weiner travelled to countries that score high on the World Database of Happiness (based in Netherlands, which is by the way, one of the top happiest countries in the world) as well as countries that scored low on the WDH, to investigate and interview natives why they are/are not happy. And in case you are curious, for your information, the author did not appear to be impressed with Netherlands (free drugs) and Switzerland (boring). [But I think he meant it in the humourous way, otherwise that would be too much stereotyping]

In one of his interviews, he visited Bhutan, a country known for its measurement of Gross National Happiness (GNH) as opposed to GDP. He interviewed a Bhutanese who said "I have achieved happiness because I don't have unrealistic expectations...basically, I find that living itself is a struggle, and if I'm satisfied, if I have just done that, lived well, in the evening I sigh and say it was okay." I thought this statement sounded rather fatalistic. Basically, if you have low expectations of life, you can be happy. But it didn't come as a surprise to me because this seems to correlate to Buddhist beliefs as well, and Bhutan is a Buddhist country. In fact, it seems that the less you talk about happiness, the happier you are. Weiner mentioned this in "In America, few people are happy, but everyone talks about happiness constantly. In Bhutan, most people are happy, but no one talks about it. This is a land devoid of introspection, bereft of self-help books, and woefully lacking in existential angst" It is also true in his visit to Thailand where people don't think too much but just be.

However, I had a conversation with my friend Cleopt recently about Bhutan and GNH and we both agreed that no matter how much Bhutan has been painted as the romanticized Shangri-la, we wouldn't want to be born there as access to good education is limited. Sure there are plenty of uneducated people in the world who seem happy with their lot, but I wouldn't want to be them. No, I'd rather be a thinking, unhappy person than an uneducated happy one. My existence would be a very dull one indeed if I did not have the opportunity to receive education and the environment that encouraged thinking, reflecting and the pursuance of knowledge and understanding of the world around me.

Weiner mentioned a finding in his book that I thought interesting.

"In 1978, psychologist Philip Brickman studied two groups of people. One group had just won the lottery...another group had been in accidents and was now paralyzed. Not surprisingly, shortly after these events, the lottery winners reported increased happiness, while the accident victims were less happy. But as Brickman tracked the groups, something wholly unexpected happened. The lottery winners soon returned to the same happiness levels as before they struck it rich. The paralyzed accident victims, meanwhile, rebounded to happiness levels only slightly lower than before their accident." This shows that an extensive amount of money cannot sustain the feeling of happiness while misfortune, if accepted and gotten used to, will not cause everlasting unhappiness either. I call the first scenario the law of diminishing returns, a term that we learnt in Economics lessons. I remember the first time I bought a car. It was a small 1.5L Japanese car, but I was so happy to upgrade from a car-less person to one with a vehicle of my own that I drove it happily to many places. I loved it, took pictures with it and even gave it a nickname called "Bluey". When we upgraded to a 2L German car a few years later, I was happy but my happiness level was not the same as when I got the small Japanese car. I didn't drive it often and I didn't give it a nickname. The law of diminishing returns have kicked in. We could continue to upgrade to better cars but the level of happiness would never be the same as when we went from car-less to small car owner. So money cannot sustain a continuous emotional high.

Now, has the thought "if I could stop working, I will be happy" ever crossed your mind? Weiner's book mentioned that several studies have found that "unemployed people in Europe are significantly less happy than people with jobs, even though the laid-off workers still receive the equivalent of a full salary, thanks to the generous welfare system. This inconvenient fact pokes holes at notions that the good life is a languid one. In fact, researchers have found that people who are too busy are happier than those who are not busy enough."

Weiner also visited Iceland, a country "at the edge of the world" with rather extreme living conditions. But Iceland ranks as one of the happiest countries in the world. He interviewed an Icelander who said he "cherishes his melancholia" because "it's like a buzz that makes you feel alive". In Iceland, happiness is a choice. Inspite of extreme climatic conditions and isolation from the rest of the world, Icelanders chose to be happy.

Weiner also visited an unhappy country - Moldova, a country between Romania and Ukraine. In Moldova, people don't trust anything - the system, neighbours and even friends. This results in corruption and inefficiency. The recipe for such unhappiness, Weiner discovered is "Moldovans derive more pleasure from their neighbour's failure than their own success. I can't imagine anything less happy".

Now, if you think happiness is the ultimate goal for all men, Weiner's investigation also proves otherwise. "Some people don't want to be happy, and that's okay. They want meaningful lives, and those are not always the same as happy lives." So that explains martyrs, war heroes and other great people in history books.

Another finding which is so utterly simple but wise. He interviewed people who chose to remain in a certain country despite its ups and downs - "you come home because this is where you live". In relation to space and happiness, Home is where the heart is. So if you want to find your home, ask yourself, where is your heart?

In his epilogue, Weiner's summary says: "Money matters, but less than we think and not in the way that we think. Family is important. So are friends. Envy is toxic. So is excessive thinking. Beaches are optional. Trust is not. Neither is gratitude. To venture any further, though, is to enter treacherous waters. A slippery seal, happiness is." and "Our happiness is completely and utterly intertwined with other people: family and friends and neighbours and the woman you hardly notice who cleans your office. Happiness is not a noun or verb. It's a conjunction. Connective tissue."

This is a wonderful book to read, I highly recommend it.

Random Shelving

Image source: Bookshelf by CarbonNYC. Used under CC licence 2.0.

Recently, I posed a question to my FB friends as I wondered aloud.

"What will happen if we don't shelve books according to subjects in the library? What if you find a gardening book next to economics? Will that lead to a serendipitous encounter with books that you will never think of reading, if not for random shelving? Can this be an experiment at the library?"

A friend RDR tagged this and fielded it to her friends as well.

From the responses, it is clear that

1) Everybody preferred libraries to be shelved precisely for practical reasons of finding the book title that they want, in other words, serendipity is very low priority for library users.

2) Some librarians felt that the libraries do practise random shelving to a certain extent e.g. new arrivals book display.

3) Librarian friends also felt that such a shelving method will invite 50/50 reactions. Some browsers may be pleased but most readers will not. To a large extent, even browsers will prefer to browse within a subject category.

I then suggested random shelving for second-hand bookstores. I always felt that if I am not a librarian, I may work in a bookstore and preferably a second-hand one. I am very neat and organized in person, but when it comes to second-hand bookstores, I like those that are overflowing with books and generally disorganized. I think it heightens the sense of adventure and treasure-hunting for the gems within.

Of course friends have interesting things to say about this suggestion as well.

1) A number of them felt that some second-hand bookstores are already practitioners of the random shelving method (whether intentional or not). Someone mentioned Sultan Books at Selegie (no idea whether it still exists) and another recommended GOHD Books at Serangoon Road. (I must remember to check out this store)

2) Someone recommended a book that we should read: The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski. The recommender said the author did fantastic research about books and how in the old days, books did not have spines but were written on scrolls, or they had spines with no titles so they shelve the books with spines inwards.

3) An ingenious person even suggested "six degrees of separation shelving". I quote her example, "a novel which mentions mining, leads to a gems and mineral book". (This would be tedious work for the librarian though! But what an idea!)

I did not continue the discussion, although I really enjoyed the contributions from friends from all walks of life. What I would like to ask is what about digital books? Do digital books encourage greater serendipitous encounters with books, especially with links and recommendations of read-alikes?

Yu Hua 余华 remembers 4 June Tiananmen

One of my favourite Chinese writers Yu Hua 余华 remembers the Tiananmen Square incident on 4 June 1989 on its 20 years anniversary.

China's Forgotten Revolution / Yu Hua, translated by Allan Barr
The New York Times: Opinion

Excerpt: "I realize now that the spring of 1989 was the only time I fully understood the words “the people.” Those words have little meaning in China today."

[snip]

"Although unarmed, they stood steadfast, confident that their bodies alone could block soldiers and ward off tanks. Packed together, they gave off a blast of heat, as though every one of them was a blazing torch.

That night I realized that when the people stand as one, their voices carry farther than light and their heat is carried farther still. That, I discovered, is what “the people” means."

The Comparing Reader

I would never dream of walking into another country's library and make comments like "why aren't you doing things the same way as my/other countries".

I find it terribly rude, imperialistic and condescending to make such statements on the host country's soil. Yet, this is precisely the thing that people here at my library do all the time. And surprise... it's not even always Singaporeans. You would think that readers from Western countries may not act this way, because the statement above sounds like it comes from spoilt brats right? But it's so not true. A fair portion of readers who like to demand why our library doesn't do things the way their countries do are people who hail from Western countries. With their beautiful English, they eloquently condemn our library's policies ("this is so stupid") or our country's wireless network ("this is so dumb") for instance as compared to their developed Western country's system.

I wonder if these people will go to a less developed country and make the same remarks. Perhaps, they will be more forgiving, because they have lesser expectations on them. Singapore's efficient and modern city image sometimes act like a double-edged sword. Visitors may have unrealistic expectations on public service. Nevertheless, I still find it very rude to make such comments in someone else's country. Even if I were in a more developed country, I would never tell the people there "your system is so stupid, why didn't you do it like country X? What's wrong with people here that you have to do things this way?" for instance. I feel that when I am in other people's land, I should respect them and their way of doing things. There may be cultural reasons why they don't do things in a certain way which might appear more efficient, and being a visitor, I cannot possibly understand the country enough to question why they do things in a certain way.

I read a book recently. "The White Tiger" by Aravind Adiga. The book won the Man Booker prize in 2008. There's a character inside who is a rich man who just returned to India from the United States after studying there for years. He was aghast of the way how India works (instances in the book include bribing officials, caste system etc). The way India worked in the book may not be one that appeals to the "righteous" mindset of the man who was educated in the West, but that was how India worked.

In another country, you may feel that the system is "wrong" only because it does not meet your value system, moral criteria or your own righteous mindset that again comes from a totally different cultural and educational background.

Perhaps, the system in question may change for the better over time. But in the meantime, while we are still merely visitors to the host country, better to keep criticisms to ourselves and not act all self-righteous, demanding the country to do things according to our value system and moral criteria.