BookOutlet.ca Haul / Review

I recently stumbled upon BookOutlet.ca and with the holiday sales, I thought I would give it a try. I had everything shipped express because it ended up cheaper than standard! My package arrived 5 days after ordering. I am super impressed with the quality of all the books. They were practically new; only a few had bends or tiny rips on the cover.

My biggest disappointment with my order was one OOS book that I was looking forward to the most. sadface. I'll have to wait for another time if it ever shows up again... Other than that, service and delivery was good. The selection isn't as vast as other bookstores, but I'm not complaining given the prices and the fact that it's mostly used books. 

I took advantage of the manga on sale for this order. Between Here and April and Cheated were two random picks (each $1!) just to reach my discount minimum. I'm excited to have GitS (huge fan) and The Flowers of Evil in my possession even if they are odd volumes. Nichijou is a classic comedy that I just knew I would read over and over whenever I needed a good laugh. My total was $30 (discount and shipping included) which is a huge bargain.  

Less than just a Christmas wishlist.

Christmas is in two weeks and honestly, I could not care for it other than the family time. I come from a household that isn't very festive nor do we celebrate many holidays, so over the years, it's not uncommon that the 'magic' of Christmas has worn off for me. On the flip side, I admit that I do use Christmas as an excuse to indulge in consumerism and materialism. However this year, for the life of me, I couldn't come up with a more generous wishlist which is partially due to my desire to remain minimal and also... I just don't need anything anymore. I think I have finally come to the point in my life where I don't feel the strong need to want anything (material-wise). I'm content with this satiation in life actually because

Cambodia 2016

As part of my trip to Vietnam, I was fortunate enough to fit in a road trip to Cambodia. We traveled for four days and three nights between Siem Reap and Phnom Penh making stops at monumental landmarks like Angkor Wat and Silver Pagoda.

There is actually a pretty significant population of Khmer people living in Vietnam and I met a handful when visiting the countryside. I would say the opposite also exists in Cambodia since our tour guide was Vietnamese living in Cambodia. Both countries are very similar and located right next to one another so it is not a surprise. Although I wasn't expecting anything new or exciting about Cambodia, I found that the people really resonated with me (or maybe because they were aware I was a tourist). Overall, my trip was very insightful. I learned a lot about the history of Cambodia. I had the opportunity to explore a realistic Cambodia (rurals) too.