Hometown

This is the place where I used to gallivant 50 years ago.






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Sign of a Happy Dog

Is the old 555 notebook or the new IPad better?

Is the old 555 notebook or the new IPad better?

After 8 years, my dog is going for its 1st surgical operation.

All Joy and No Fun

All Joy and No Fun

An Update of My Status Quo

Studies around the world confirm that passion usually ends.

Am I taking on this path?

I can't answer at the moment. If you take a gander at my blog, it has all the preliminary signs that my passion of writing blog is tapering.

May be, I should keep my nose to the grindstone, so wish me luck.

Stay tuned.

My Mother – A medical Imbroglio

My mother could easily qualify herself as the best prospect for doctors. She has no qualm at all in seeking all kinds of medical treatments; apparently, she finds solace in doing so. Of course,medical expenses take its toll on my father’s financial reserve.

I could not recollect when was the first time I accompanied my mother to seek medical treatment. According to her, she said she had five major operations. However, while writing this post, I realize it is more than 5 times. Let me chronicle her whirlwind tour in the medical eco-system.

The first operation was something to do with the eyes. She was hospitalized in General Hospital, Singapore. At that time, my credit card was not honoured as the expected medical bill exceeded my credit limit by a large margin. Luckily, it was rescued by my uncle. She spent slightly more than a week and the bill ran into the higher end of the four figures.

The second operation was done on her urinary system. Apparently, there were some blockages in her ureters. Well, it was done in one of the private hospitals in Johor Bahru. I could not remember the cost as it was fully financed by my father.

The third operation was done in the USA. Why USA? Well, it was more of a coincidence than pre-arrangement.

Many months prior to this operation, the cancer marker showed that she might have some cancer cells in the alimentary canal. This discovery triggered a series of unwanted and redundant medical investigations and examinations.

First, the doctors from General Hospital, Johor Bahru carried out a procedure on her called colonoscopy. To perform this procedure, she was required to cleanse her colons with liquid laxative. I remembered she had to drink about 5 litres of such liquid. She complained of the pain induced by the laxative. Anywhere, the mind-boggling part of the procedure was that the person(s) who performed it could not administer the endoscope , thus it resulted a failed procedure. She was again required to consume another 5 litres of the laxative in preparation for the next colonoscopy. Fearing that my mother would not be able to withstand such procedure, we decided that she should be discharged from the hospital.

The next day, she was transferred to one of private hospitals in Johor Bahru. They did an enteroscopy on her, but could not deter anything – NAD ( No abnormality detected.)

Notwithstanding the litany of medical tests and investigations, the result of the cancer marker still bothered us, we decided to give mother a last straw. This time, it was handled by the top specialist in gastroenterology in Singapore. He did colonoscopy and MRI. Again , the final result still ended with NAD.

We felt that since my mother had gone through so many medical investigations, we should not subject her to further agony of medical procedures.

A month later, she went to visit my siblings in U.S. While she was there, my brother took the initiative to refer her to one of his colleagues, a surgeon. The surgeon did a laparoscopic surgery on her, puncturing only two holes on her abdomen. To his surprise, my mother was suffering from appendicitis. I did watch a video recording of the operation, the infected appendix was surgically removed and placed inside a zip-lock bag and subsequently retrieved from the inner body cavity. The operation was done in the morning and amazingly she found herself shopping in the afternoon, what a medical feat.

My mother was examined by two top-notched surgeons, both in Malaysia and Singapore, both of them failed to detect the presence of appendicitis, not forgetting the battery of tests. What can I say?

The fourth operation was cataract surgery. Again, it was done by one of the private ophthalmologists in Johor Bahru.

The operation was done in a haste without taking her sugar level into consideration. As expected, her eye did not recover as expected.

The fifth operation was on her left eye. It was done in General Hospital by the Chief Ophthalmologist. This time, the surgeon took the pain to monitor my mother’s sugar level. it was after few months of controlling and monitoring that my mother was given the OK signal to be operated. The operation was a success.

The sixth operaton was done in University Hospital, PJ. She suffered from a mild fall and the pelvic bone cracked. So a metal implant was introduced to link the pelvic and thigh bones.

Four weeks ago, she was referred to consult a kidney specialist in Johore Bahru as her level of creatinine was three times higher than normal. It could mean that her kidney is operating at about 5% of a normal person. In other words, she may have to go for dialysis. After two consultations, the doctor did not give any conclusive decisions. Instead, my mother was given erythropoietin therapy. My mother is 80-year old and lives in a very quite kampong and my father is a first class husband, why the doctor had to ask for HIV test.

Two weeks ago, she complained of the pain coming from the metal implant. So, we took her to an orthopedic clinic in Johor Bahru. The surgeon did not comment anything about the metal implant but pointed out that lumbar vertebrae ( L2, L3, L4 ) had degenerated so much that they are actually touching each other. Due to her age, surgery was not an option. So, the surgeon could only prescribe pain killer and bone enhancing tablets.

Two weeks after the orthopedic consultation in Johore Bahru, the radius of pain had extended and I promptly received a call from her. She told me that she had to seek a second opinion. Well, the nearest clinic is in Kluang.

The pain was in fact caused by the failure of orthopaedic implant. If you look at the x-ray shown below, the main part of the implant had no support whatsoever and it became a moving part.

The four metal rods had conveniently detached from the main support.

My biggest disappointment was why the surgeon in Johore Bahru did not detect this defect, even without this x-ray taken few months ago.

Instead, he conveniently diagnosed the pain to be originated from the lumbar vertebrae.

Prior to the operation, the anesthetist gave me a long catalogue of warnings and asked me to sign the letter of consent. The biggest complication in the surgery could result in a heart attack. OMG, I was conveniently given to shoulder all the responsibilities should the operation fail. To be or not to be, it was a decision that you wished that you never had to make especially when you were out on a limb.

Despite her age and diabetic condition, in the throes of making a decision, my mother took a gamble on her life and went along with the operation. The operation took two and half hours to complete, replacing the old metal implant with a new one.

For the curious readers, the new implant looks as follows.

My mother was discharged after 7-night stay at the hospital. Now, she can walk much better than before with the help of the walker.

After the pelvic surgery, she is on a 3-month Forteo ( teriparatide ) program, why the doctor still prescribes calcium supplement. This is another soul searching answer?

As you can see, they are competent and non-competent doctors. Even if they are competent, they do draw the wrong conclusion. There are so many unanswered questions why the doctors chose to take certain decisions and actions, their conducts are moot, do they have a special axe to grind? I am not discharging a deluge of complaints and belittling the conducts of doctors, but just stating the facts, I hope the learned readers could read between the lines.

Life is based on Papers

Very good, very, true, very meaningful !!!

出生一張紙，開始一輩子；
畢業一張紙，奮鬥一輩子；
婚姻一張紙，折磨一輩子；
做官一張紙，鬥爭一輩子；
金錢一張紙，辛苦一輩子；
榮譽一張紙，虛名一輩子；
看病一張紙，痛苦一輩子；
悼詞一張紙，了結一輩子；
淡化這些紙，明白一輩子；
忘了這些紙，快樂一輩子 !

這週是世界好友週，如果你願意，
請把這條資訊發給你所有的好朋友 。

也包括我 ⋯⋯ 看有多少人會回發給你。

當大部分人都在關注你飛得高不高時，
只有少部分人關心你飛得累不累，
這就是 友情。

再忙，也要照顧好自己，
朋 友 雖不常聯繫，卻一直 惦念。

天涼時記著多穿衣！

世界好 友周快樂！

少喝奶茶、不吃剛烤好的麵包，
遠離正在充電的電源。

白天多喝水，晚上少喝，
一天不喝多於兩杯的咖啡。

少吃油多的食物，
最佳睡眠為晚上十點至早上六點

晚上五點後少吃大餐，
每天喝酒不超過一杯。

不用冷水服膠囊，
睡前半小時服藥忌立刻躺下。

睡眠不足八小時人會變笨，
有午睡習慣的人不易老。

手機電池剩一格時不要打電話，
剩一格時輻射是平時的一千倍。

Why English Is Such A Difficult Language to Master?

Without prejudice.

I received this email from a friend. Please take a look.

Subject: RE: xxxxx Nite 2010
Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:07:57 +0800

Hi there,

Good day.

Thank for your attention and interest.

I regret for my late inform, which about the dateline of registration. The registration has already closed, due to there was a dateline for us to finalize the number of table.

Anyway, i was glad to heard from you with the replied, thank you. we shall arrange another dinner to involve all of u, perhaps it will be next xxxx Nite, will inform u guys earlier.

Thank you, and have a prosperous tiger year~^^

Regards,

xxxx

Reputedly, this email was written by a profession graduated from University of Malaya. I think it is best that I keep silence on his profession lest I might offend his fraternity. Maybe, we have a simplified English in Malaysia. Don't forget that language is a living thing and it can evolve.

This is another written work of Y.B. Teresa Kok which appeared in her facebook.

Visited snatch thief victim and family in Salak South for second time

Yesterday (18 March 2010), I went to visit snatch thief victim 18-year old Chong Chooi Yoon at her home in Salak South area which is part of my Seputeh constituency. You might have read in the papers that she was a victim of snatch thief just a few days before Chinese New Year. It was…

Any comment on her writing?

Did she go to two places, namely the victim and another family?

I wonder why she wrote “ I went to visit” instead of “ I visited”, was it a translation from Chinese language?

“Go to” is always followed by “someone” or “ something”.

Example:-

i. I went to her for advice. – someone

ii. I go to the bank. – something.

Maybe, Y.B. is correct and I'm just ignorant of the inflected usage of "go to".

The private secretary to the late Tunku Abdul Rahman once told me that he used to vet the latter's written works in "The Star". He was not allowed to change the style of writing but only allowed to correct glaring grammatical errors. If Tunku could make grammatical error, so were we.

I do not profess to be an expert in English language. It does take a toll on one's effort and time in order to achieve high level of proficiency. It is best illustrated by the graph shown below. Time is on the x-axis and y-axis represents level of proficiency. You could put in a lot of effort and time, however the return on the proficiency is negligible. So, what is the solution? I leave it to the readers.

Time ( in arbitrary unit )

Another Problem for Hacking Your Brain

Last year, a good friend of mind suggested I should take up the position as a private tutor in maths, giving tuition to students studying in Singapore. You can always reap a handsome return in this kind of endeavour. However, my friend liked to inflict on me some of the maths questions which were presented by his daughter in Sec One. He told me that he was literally thrown off from his chair after seeing the question.

OK, this was the maths question:

Matt, who is often late for appointments, walks up a moving escalator in the MRT station one step at a time. When he moves quickly at the rate of 2 steps per second, he reaches the top after taking 24 steps. When he is tired, he climbs at the rate of 1 step per second and reaches the top after taking 15 steps. How long would Matt take to reach the top if, on a rare day, he just stood on the escalator?

This question is not difficult if you apply algebra. The catch is that you are not allowed to use algebra in solving this question. Again, wishful thinking is the way to go.

How about this question given by a US Professor .

A census-taker knocks on a door, and asks the woman inside how many children she has and how old they are.

"I have three daughters, their ages are whole numbers, and the product of the ages is 36," says the mother.

"That's not enough information," responds the census-taker.

"I'd tell you the sum of their ages, but you'd still be stumped."

"I wish you'd tell me something more."

"Okay, my oldest daughter Annie likes dogs."

The US Professor suggests that you should get your hands dirty in doing this kind of analysis.

Difference between Problem and Exercise

I just watched a university lecture about problem solving. How long do we take to solve a problem, less than a second, a minute, an hour, a day, a month , a year or a life time.

The professor poses a problem as follows:-

a. The doctor categorically says that the drug will work if you take it religiously everyday.

b. The drug consists of two type of pills, i.e. Pill A and Pill B.

c. You are required to take only one pill each of A and B at the same time.

d. Any imbalance of dosage taken will kill you.

E.g.

A + A = fatal

B + B = fatal

A+A+B= fatal

B+B+A=fatal

A alone = fatal

B alone = fatal

A + B = OK

B + A = OK

e. There is no marking on the pill and both pill A and B are identical in look.

f. One day, while taking a phone call, you happen to drop 2 A's and 1 B in your palm.

g. As the pills are identical to each other, you have no way to isolate the pill A and pill B.

g. If you take 2 A's and 1 B, it will end your life.

How do you solve this problem ?

Clue to this problem:

This problem can become an exercise for those who have wishful thinking.

I have googled the internet and could not find any solution. Do you want to slow down the emergence of Alzhemier's disease.

Coffee Shop That Dares to Dictate Terms on Customers

This is one of the many bustling coffee shops found within the vicinity of Tmn Tebrau Wet Market, Johor Bahru. As it serves fairly good foods, you can't help but to go to this place for your nutritional landfill.

This coffee shop wishes to distinguish itself from the rest of its rank in its choice of clients, shaping itself as a definitely snobbery eatery.

As you can see the message displayed on the pillar, if you are fastidious, always looking for a slight oppertunity to kvetch, temperament is definitely a variable in your final bill. Maybe, you are the one who likes to test the water. Please let me know the outcome.

Maybank Share 100305

Maybank was traded at 7.25, an increase of 3.424%. Any explanation for this increase considering the fact that it is trading after ex-cum entitlement.

Does it make sense to keep money in f d and earn only 2% in one year?

The next question, should I sell ?

MAY BE ( NOT MY ORIGINAL WORK)

I suppose to forward this email, perhaps it is more effective to post here.

Due credit is given to the maker.

.......................................................................................................................................... MAY BE Maybe. . we were supposed to meet the wrong people before meeting the right one so that, when we finally meet the right person, we will know how to be grateful for that gift. Maybe . . . it is true that we don't know what we have until we lose it, but it is also true that we don't know what we have been missing until it arrives. Maybe . . . the brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; after all, you can't go on successfully in life until you let go of your past mistakes, failures and heartaches. Maybe . . you should hope for enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human, and enough hope to make you happy. Maybe . . . the happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. Maybe .. . . the best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you've ever had. Maybe . . . happiness waits for all those who cry, all those who hurt, all those who have searched, and all those who have tried, for only they can appreciate the importance of all the people who have touched their lives. May be . . you should do something nice for someone every single day, even if it is simply to leave them alone. Maybe . . . there are moments in life when you miss someone -- a parent, a spouse, a friend, a child -- so much that you just want to pick them from your dreams and hug them for real, so that once they are around you appreciate them more. Maybe giving someone all your love is never an assurance that they will love you back. Don't expect love in return; just wait for it to grow in their heart; but, if it doesn't, be content that it grew in yours. Maybe .. . . you should dream what you want to dream; go where you want to go, be what you want to be, because you have only one life and one chance to do all the things you dream of, and want to do. "Life is only traveled ONCE; Today's MOMENT becomes Tomorrow's MEMORY. Enjoy every moment, good or bad, because the GIFT of LIFE is LIFE itself."

Did I Buy a "Dead Ringer" in Guangzhou?

While I was in Guangzhou last month, my travelling cohort bought two sport items from this shop, namely basket ball and badminton racket. These two items were not in my shopping list, but the prices were too attractive to give it a miss.

The boss admitted that this bag was a fake but given as a goodwill.

The basketball was well dressed and accompanied with an authentically verifiable certificate.

The retail price printed at RMB 280

The model of my purchased basketball is listed in the Spalding.com.cn website.

The moment of Truth.

The 16 digits found on the card were rejected by the website as it had already being used or registered by someone else.

As per para 4 found on the overleaf of the certificate, it says that the verification number can only be registered once. This clause is silent on the authenticity of the product.

My dear readers, can you be the Sherlock Holmes for this case?

By the way, I paid RMB60 for this basketball. My friend told me a similar product was sold for RM200 in Kuala Lumpur.

AM I BEING FLEECED FOR THE MAXIS DATA USAGE

Usually I don’t scrutinize too much on the phone e-statement if I feel that the monthly bill is within the norm of my usage. However, this February bill showed a higher usage that warranted me to take a closer look. This mysterious item silently appeared as Maxis Mobile Internet which is shown below:-

I was slapped RM127.24 for 15.714KB. Upon checking my iphone, I realized that my iphone did some hand-shaking with the Maxis’s GPRS.

I called 123 and spoke to the Maxis Consultant about this extra ordinary item in my statement. The consultant gave me some vague answers as follows:-

1. I did make a request to cancel the 3G service on Jan, 2009.
2. The 3G service was activated via my iphone on 17 Dec, 2009.
3. The 3G service could be activated by sending *136# or deactivated with *136#4#.

On checking all the available records that transpired on 17 Dec, 2009, I could not find the lead on why the phone was activated with internet service.

The only conclusions that I could draw from all the possible circumstantial evidences are as follows:-

• My friend did a prank on me, keyed in the *136# using my iphone.
• The Maxis Computer System activated itself the service without my knowledge.
• I keyed in the *136# myself during my sleep.
• Someone had cloned my sim card and activated the system.

Can the learned reader offers any better postulation on why my phone was activated?

Would you want to pay about RM8 for 1 MB for internet usage?

English Usage in China

This signage is displayed prominently as you enter the bathroom.

According to the Canon Law and its Interpretation, are you supposed to wear slipper inside the bathroom or otherwise?

The concierge of the hotel offers no better explanation either. On the safer side, please ignore the English equivalent. Brush up your Chinese while you are in China.

A Tale of Two Cities

This novel is a must in your reading list, even the Nobel Laureate Chen-Ning Franklin Yang could recite the first para without looking at the book.

I will read again this novel on my trip to China tomorrow. Medically speaking, if you stare at black alphabets or numbers for a certain numerical time frame, the book has the hypnotic effect of putting you to sleep.

As China still maintains the ban on blogger site, my blog will be on animated suspension for five days. So, my dear friends, please take a short rest, visit my blog after five days.

Books That You Must Read

New Year resolution comes in many flavours. As far I am concerned, I would like to spend much of my time on watching movies and reading books. So, the books listed below are my recommendation. I will list the highly recommended movies in my next post.

 

 

	Author.	Title.
	Aeschylus	Prometheus Bound
	Alcott, Louisa May	Little Women
	Anderson, Sherwood	Winesburg, Ohio
	Anderson, Hans Christian	Fairy Tales
	Aristotle	The Poetics
	Augustine of Hippo	The Confessions
	Austen, Jane	Emma
	Austen, Jane	Mansfield Park
	Austen, Jane	Northanger Abbey
	Austen, Jane	Persuasion
	Austen, Jane	Pride and Prejudice
	Austen, Jane	Sense and Sensibility
	Balzac, Honore de	Colonel Chabert
	Balzac, Honore de	Cousin Bette
	Balzac, Honore de	The Country Doctor
	Balzac, Honore de	Father Goriot
	Barrie, J.M.	Peter Pan
	Bellamy, Edward	Looking Backward
	[Anonymous]	Beowulf
		The Bible, King James Version
		The Bible, New Testament (KJV)
		The Bible, Old Testament (KJV)
	Blake, William	Songs of Innocence and Experience
	Boccaccio, Giovanni	The Decameron
	Bronte, Anne	Agnes Grey
	Bronte, Anne	The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
	Bronte, Charlotte	Jane Eyre
	Bronte, Charlotte	Villette
	Bronte, Emily	Wuthering Heights
	Browning, Elizabeth Barrett	Sonnets from the Portuguese
	Browning, Robert	Selected Poetry
	Bunyan, John	The Pilgrim's Progress
	Cather, Willa	My Antonia
	Cather, Willa	Death Comes for the Archbishop
	Cervantes, Miguel de	Don Quixote
	Chaucer, Geoffrey	The Canterbury Tales
	Chekhov, Anton	The Seagull
	Chekhov, Anton	Uncle Vanya
	Chopin, Kate	The Awakening & Selected Stories
	Coleridge, Samuel Taylor	Poetry & Rime of the Ancient Mariner
	Collins, Wilkie	The Law and the Lady
	Collins, Wilkie	The Moonstone
	Collins, Wilkie	The Woman in White
	Conrad, Joseph	Heart of Darkness
	Conrad, Joseph	Lord Jim
	Conrad, Joseph	Nostromo
	Conrad, Joseph	The Secret Sharer
	Conrad, Joseph	Typhoon
	Crane, Stephen	The Red Badge of Courage
	Dana, Richard Henry	Two Years Before the Mast
	Dante, Alighieri	The Divine Comedy
	Darwin, Charles	Origin of the Species
	Defoe, Daniel	Robinson Crusoe
	Defoe, Daniel	Moll Flanders
	Dickens, Charles	Bleak House
	Dickens, Charles	A Christmas Carol
	Dickens, Charles	David Copperfield
	Dickens, Charles	Great Expectations
	Dickens, Charles	Nicholas Nickleby
	Dickens, Charles	Oliver Twist
	Dickens, Charles	Pictures from Italy
	Dickens, Charles	The Pickwick Papers
	Dickens, Charles	A Tale of Two Cities
	Dickinson, Emily	Collected Poems.
	Donne, John	Songs and Sonnets
	Dostoyevsky, Fyodor	Crime and Punishment
	Dostoyevsky, Fyodor	The Double
	Dostoyevsky, Fyodor	The Gambler
	Dostoyevsky, Fyodor	Notes from the Underground
	Dostoyevsky, Fyodor	The Idiot
	Douglass, Frederick	Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
	Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir	The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
	Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir	The Hound of the Baskervilles
	Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir	Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
	Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir	The Return of Sherlock Holmes
	Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir	His Last Bow
	Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir	The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes
	Dreiser, Theodore	Sister Carrie
	Dumas, Alexandre, pere	The Count of Monte Cristo
	Dumas, Alexandre	The Three Musketeers
	Eliot, George	Adam Bede
	Eliot, George	Daniel Deronda
	Eliot, George	Middlemarch
	Eliot, George	The Mill on the Floss
	Eliot, George	Silas Marner
	Eliot, T. S.	The Wasteland
	Eliot, T. S.	The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock & Other Poems
	Emerson, Ralph Waldo	Essays
	Fielding, Henry	The History of Tom Jones
	Fitzgerald, F. Scott	The Great Gatsby
	Flaubert, Gustav	Madame Bovary.
	Forster, E. M.	Howard's End.
	Forster, E. M.	A Room With a View.
	Forster, E. M.	Where Angels Fear to Tread.
	Frost, Robert	Collected Poems.
	Gibran, Khalil	The Madman
	Gibran, Khalil	The Prophet
	Gissing, George	New Grub Street
	Gissing, George	The Odd Women
	Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von	The Sorrows of Young Werther
	Gogol, Nikolai	Dead Souls
	Gogol, Nikolai	The Inspector General
	Gogol, Nikolai	The Overcoat
	Hardy, Thomas	Far from the Madding Crowd
	Hardy, Thomas	Jude the Obscure
	Hardy, Thomas	The Mayor of Casterbridge
	Hardy, Thomas	The Return of the Native
	Hardy, Thomas	Tess of the D'Urbervilles
	Hawthorne, Nathaniel	The House of the Seven Gables
	Hawthorne, Nathaniel	The Scarlet Letter
	Hawthorne, Nathaniel	The Blithedale Romance
	Hawthorne, Nathaniel	Twice Told Tales
	Hesse, Hermann	Siddhartha
	Homer	The Iliad
	Homer	The Odyssey
	Hugo, Victor	Les Miserables
	Huxley, Aldous	Brave New World
	Ibsen, Henrik	A Doll's House
	Kafka, Franz	The Metamorphosis
	James, Henry	Daisy Miller
	James, Henry	The Ambassadors
	James, Henry	The American
	James, Henry	The Turn of the Screw
	James, Henry	The Portrait of a Lady
	James, Henry	Washington Square
	Joyce, Jame	Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
	Joyce, James	Dubliners
	Joyce, James	Ulysses
	Kafka, Franz	The Metamorphosis
	Keats, John	Collected Poems
		The Koran (Qu'ran)
	Kipling, Rudyard	Captains Courageous
	Kipling, Rudyard	Kim
	Khayyam, Omar	The Rubaiyat
	Lawrence, D. H.	Sons and Lovers
	Lawrence, D. H.	Women in Love
	Lewis, Sinclair	Babbit
	Lewis, Sinclair	Main Street
	Locke, John	Second Treatise on Civil Government
	London, Jack	The Call of the Wild
	Machiavelli, Nicolo	The Prince
	Malory, Thomas	Le Mort D'Arthur
	Marlowe, Christopher	Dr. Faustus
	Marx, Kar	The Communist Manifesto
	Melville, Herman	Bartleby, the Scrivener
	Mellville, Herman	Billy Budd
	Mellville, Herman	Moby Dick
	Mellville, Herman	Typee
	Meredith, George	The Egoist
	Milton, John	Paradise Lost
	Milton, John	Paradise Regained
	Moliere	The Miser
	More, Thomas, Sir, Saint	Utopia
	Nietzsche, Friedrich	Beyond Good and Evil
	Orwell, George	1984
	Orwell, George	Animal Farm
	Paine, Thomas	Common Sense
	Plato	The Republic
	Poe, Edgar Allen	Collected Tales
	Pope, Alexander	The Rape of the Lock
	Rousseau, Jean-Jacques	The Confessions
	Rousseau, Jean-Jacques	The Social Contract
	Sand, George	Mauprat
	Rowlandson, Mary	Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration
	Scott, Sir Walter	Guy Mannering
	Scott, Sir Walter	Ivanhoe
	Shakespeare, William	Sonnets
	Shakespeare, William	As You Like It
	Shakespeare, William	All's Well That Ends Well
	Shakespeare, William	Antony and Cleopatra
	Shakespeare, William	A Comedy of Errors
	Shakespeare, William	Hamlet
	Shakespeare, William	King Lear
	Shakespeare, William	Macbeth
	Shakespeare, William	The Merchant of Venice
	Shakespeare, William	Much Ado About Nothing
	Shakespeare, William	Julius Caesar
	Shakespeare, William	Romeo and Juliet
	Shakespeare, William	A Midsummer Night's Dream
	Shakespeare, William	Othello
	Shakespeare, William	Twelfth Night
	Shakespeare, William	Two Gentlemen of Verona
	Shaw, George Bernard	Candida
	Shaw, George Bernard	Pygmalion
	Shelley, Mary	Frankenstein
	Sinclair, Upton	The Jungle
	Sophocles	The Oedipus Trilogy
	Stendhal	The Red and the Black
	Sterne, Lawrence	Tristram Shandy
	Stevenson, Robert Louis	Treasure Island
	Stoker, Bram	Dracula
	Stowe, Harriet Beecher	Uncle Tom's Cabin
	Sun Tzu	The Art of War
	Swift, Jonathan	A Modest Proposal
	Swift, Jonathan	Gulliver's Travels
	Tennyson, Alfred	Idylls of the King
	Thackeray, William Makepeace	Vanity Fair
	Thoreau, Henry David	On Civil Disobedience
	Thoreau, Henry David	Walden
	Thucydides	History of the Pelyponnesion Wars
	Tolstoy, Leo	Anna Karenina
	Tolstoy, Leo	War and Peace
	Trollope, Anthony	Barchester Towers
	Trollope, Anthony	The Way We Live Now
	Truth, Sojourner [Gilbert]	The Narrative of Sojourner Truth
	Twain, Mark	The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
	Twain, Mark	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
	Twain, Mark	The Innocents Abroad
	Twain, Mark	Life on the Mississippi
	Twain, Mark	The Mysterious Stranger
	Twain, Mark	On the Decay of the Art of Lying
	Twain, Mark	The Prince and the Pauper
	Twain, Mark	Pudd'nhead Wilson
	U. S.	United States Constitution
	U. S.	Declaration of Independence
	Verne, Jules	Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
	Verne, Jules	Around the World in Eighty Days
	Voltaire	Candide
	Wells, H. G.	War of the Worlds
	Wells, H. G.	The Time Machine
	Wharton, Edith	The Age of Innocence
	Wharton, Edith	The House of Mirth
	Wharton, Edith	Ethan Frome
	Whitman, Walt	Leaves of Grass
	Wilde, Oscar	The Picture of Dorian Grey
	Wollstonecraft, Mary	A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
	Wordsworth, William	Lyrical Ballads
	Wordsworth, William	The Prelude
	Woolf, Virginia	A Room of One's Own