Big Bad Wolf 2018

Alhamdulillah tahun ini saya berkesempatan untuk mengunjungi pesta buku Big Bad Wolf (BBW) sebanyak 2 kali trip. Trip pertama pada preview day dan trip kedua pada Ahad lepas, 16 Disember. Sebenarnya saya tidak sangka akan diberi rezeki untuk dapat VIP pass untuk masuk sehari awal dari BBW dibuka untuk public.

Trip pertama, saya pergi bertiga sahaja dengan anak-anak. Dan niat di hati memang mahu fokus beli buku anak sahaja, terutamanya untuk anak sulung saya yang berumur 7 tahun. Untuk anak kedua yang baru berumur setahun, saya cuma belikan satu buku, kerana buku lain masih banyak (buku kakaknya). Untuk trip pertama, saya habiskan masa selama 1 jam 30 minit di sana. Tempoh tersebut agak pendek sebenarnya kerana saya hanya sempat cari buku anak-anak dan tidak sempat berlama-lama di bahagian buku dewasa.

Untuk trip kedua pula, saya ke sana dengan anak-anak serta ditemani seorang kawan. Alhamdulillah kali ini saya dapat fokus untuk beli buku sendiri kerana dari awal saya sudah beritahu pada anak bahawa saya tidak akan ke bahagian buku kanak-kanak untuk trip kali ini.

Sudah beberapa tahun sebenarnya saya tidak pergi ke BBW, salah satu sebabnya ialah lokasi event tersebut yang agak jauh dari rumah, dan suami tidak berapa berminat untuk bersesak-sesak di pesta buku, suami lebih suka untuk beli di kedai buku. Jadi bila tahun ini saya berpeluang ke BBW sebanyak dua kali dan dapat beli buku-buku yang diingini, saya amat bersyukur & hargai peluang ini.

Kalau nak tahu, inilah kali pertama saya pergi ke BBW untuk mencari buku berkaitan bisnes. Bermakna, BBW saya yang terakhir saya pergi sebelum ini adalah pada tahun 2013, mungkin. Saya tidak berapa ingat. Kerana saya mula berbisnes pada tahun 2014. Tahun-tahun sebelum ini, saya ke BBW semata-mata untuk mencari buku parenting, novel, self help & buku kanak-kanak.

Apapun, doa saya agar semua buku yang saya beli kali ini, dapat memberi manfaat yang banyak dan berbaloi untuk kehidupan saya & orang lain. Tak penting cepat atau lambat habiskan semua buku tersebut, kerana yang lebih penting ialah, samada saya praktikkan ilmu yang ada dalam buku-buku tersebut atau tidak. Moga Allah permudahkan.

Jumpa tahun depan BBW, inshaAllah!

Trip pertama, 6 Disember 2018.

Trip kedua, 16 Disember 2018.

Buku-buku yang saya beli untuk diri sendiri dari BBW 2018.

7 Reading Tips for Busy Moms

Reading is not merely a hobby. It’s a need! We read not only for leisure, but to help us to improve ourselves, improve our lives, as well as to gain more knowledge regarding the situation or responsibilities that we currently hold. I keep getting this one same question on how do I find times to read?

So I wanna share here some of the tips that I’ve found & been practicing since a few years back in order to make sure that I have time to read everyday.

1)  Read when your kids are asleep. For example, spend half an hour in the morning to read before they wake up. Believe me, it’s the the best me-time moment to be spent with reading. Or perhaps you can read at night after the kids are asleep. Just a few minutes or pages won’t disturb your sleeping schedule. And it’s a bonus if you breastfeed your baby, because you will have longer time to read. Stop scrolling your instagram/fb feed & start flipping pages to read.

2)  Always have your books in scattered areas around the house. Put a few books at the dry kitchen, a shelf in the living room, a stack beside your bed, or 10 stacks on your working table. This can help you to read at any time even for a few minutes. For example, while waiting for your cupcakes to bake, you can enjoy reading a chapter or two from any books available near you.

3) Never go out without a book in your handbag. If you really want, you will definitely find time to read books. In the car (if you’re not driving), in the train, while waiting for the grab/uber, while waiting for your foods to arrive your table, or while queueing to order your favorite coffee.

4)  Read lots of books at once. Meaning to say, you don’t have to wait till you’re done with one book in order to proceed with another one. (But if you’re reading novels, the game might be a bit different since leaving the book for a long period of time will make you forget the flow of the story). If you ask me, I rarely ready novels or fictional books, so it doesn’t affect me much if I don’t read a certain book continuously till the last page.

5) Read the topic that you really want to know & can apply right away. Hey, do you know that you don’t have to read a book from cover to cover? You can simply look at the content and choose the topic which is new to you, or important for you to know. It will be much better if you read about the stuffs that you can practice right away. Let’s take a parenting book for example; you are in need to know the correct way to deal with your kids tantrum. You can read the topics that are related to your situations or needs only. Because, admit it, you won’t remember the whole book even at the moment you finished reading the last page of it.

6) Make a reading log/diary. Have a list of your “want to read”, “read” & “currently reading”. You can make it online (eg: make an account at Goodreads) or offline (buy a book to jot down your reading journey). Why? Because when you have this log, it can help you to be more motivated to read books. Sometimes it’s not that we’re so busy to read, we just haven’t found the motivation to do so.

7) Find the books that you’re really passionate about. Don’t buy a book just because it’s a bestseller. Buy it if you love it & really excited to read it, doesn’t matter if it’s not a bestseller book. As for me, since I am mompreneur (mom + entrepreneur), my most favorite genres are parenting, entrepreneurship & motivation. So when we already have the book that we really love available near us, it’s not so hard to actually spend time to take the book and read it.

Hope these help! 😄 If you have any tips to add, feel free to drop it the comment section.