AuthentAsia: Bookworm or Not, You'll Love it.

Frankly, I am not a bookworm, but this book is the exception. I flip through the first page and I couldn’t find a second to pause reading. I think this is the only book that almost got me weeping. Well, I’m pretty sure plenty of people out there have read this book, but if you haven’t…time to get yourself a print. And if you’re an emotional kind of people like me, its best served with a box of tissue. And the great thing is…everything written was based on a true story.

Before we head on the brief summary, let’s have a look at the few specs of the book.

-210 pages overall

-27 different acknowledgements, or should I say, chapter

-Easy read font and size

-Affordable price for a very good read. RM34.00 and less

There are ample of characters in the book, but throughout the story, the only characters mainly focused were Mitch and Morrie.

Mitch Albom

Morrie's former student; he has since become a journalist and leads a very fast paced life; finds Morrie after hearing he is sick on "ABC's Nightline" and visits him every Tuesday.

Author of the novel as well as the protagonist of the story.
His autobiography on his life. Reading his book is alike to reading his diary.

Morrie Schwartz

Mitch’s former college professor who was diagnosed with ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. They both meet in Mitch’s home every Tuesdays, deliberating about the meaning of life.

Mitch is one of his favorite students.

Short synopsis of the book:

Morrie Schwartz was Mitch Albom’s favorite college professor. At the start of the novel, Albom recalls a memory from his college graduation day: he is saying goodbye to Morrie and gives him a tan briefcase with his initials on it. They hug and when Mitch steps back he sees that Morrie is crying. Mitch promises to stay in touch with Morrie but he never does after college.

Since his graduation, Mitch has become a newspaper reporter and husband. He leads a very fast paced life and is constantly working and traveling. He has become so engrossed in his work that it consumes his life.

The novel recommences about sixteen years after Mitch’s graduation day; Morrie has since been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. Since Morrie’s diagnosis, he began jotting down ideas and thoughts onto scrap paper, yellow pads or even envelopes. He also wrote philosophies about living knowing death was very near. One of his friends was so taken with his writing, he sent them to the Boston Globereporter, who wrote a feature story about Morrie. The story intrigued one of the producers of the show, “Nightline”, who then did a feature story about Morrie. Mitch happened to see the “Nightline” show and recognized his old professor. He called him to set up a visit.

Mitch began visiting Morrie every Tuesday. Their discussions ranged from the world, regrets, death, love and money; the purpose of their meetings was to discuss Morrie’s view on the meaning of life. Mitch became so intrigued by Morrie’s philosophies that he began taking notes and even recording Morrie.

Morrie’s philosophies included rejecting popular culture morals and following self-created values, loving others, and learning to accept death.

With each lesson, Morrie becomes increasingly sick; during their last meeting, Morrie was bed ridden and near death. As he and Mitch hugged for one last time, Morrie notices Mitch is finally crying.

Morrie dies a short time after. At his funeral Mitch tries having a conversation with Morrie, as he had wanted. Mitch feels a certain naturalness and comfort to this conversation and realizes that it happens to be Tuesday.

After Morrie’s death Mitch regains contact with his brother who lives in Spain and is battling cancer.

Interested ?

There are different kinds of bookstores around Kuala Lumpur. The bookstore I would suggest is “Kinokuniya”, Malaysia’s biggest bookstore, yet with the most variety of different genres of books.

Here are that following details on the bookstore:

Location: Lot 406-408 / 429 – 430, Level 4 (highest level), Suria KLCC

Operating Hours: 10am – 6pm (Monday to Friday), except Public Holiday

Telephone Line: 03-2164-8133, 03-2161-9133 (fax)

E-mail: mys@kinokuniya.com

If the book failed to make you weep, the movie will.

As mentioned, its best served with tissues. Now that its a movie, you will need 2 boxes or more.