21 June 2012:
There are some answers now.
I know why J is so sad now. The guy he likes doesn't like him back. He's certainly rather distraught by it; I can only wish him the best of luck with things.My bookshelf has a few additions recently:
From left to right: 笑傲江湖 book 1 to 4 by 金庸; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by late Stieg Larsson; Only Time Will Tell by Jeffrey Archer; Emma by Jane Austen; Stand Alone by Simon Tan; 后青春期的詩 by 九把刀; Selected Works of Edgar Allan Poe; Macbeth by William Shakespeare; The Chinese Mind by Boye Lafayette de Mente.
Both The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2008) and Only Time Will Tell (2011) are part of a series. For the former, the second and last instalment are already published in 2009 and 2010 respectively. The latter is more recent, and its second instalment in a five-part series is just out.
Stand Alone (1991) is a re-published edition of short stories. This is a local book, which has very good reviews based on online information. Some schools even use it for their literature text. Yet, Wikipedia doesn't have an entry of it, and the first few mentions of it on Google search are from people's blogs. Why is local literature in such a sad state? It is true that other countries have a larger trove of literature since they were independent earlier, but I believe that Singapore's literature can be equally fantastic. More should be done to promote local literature, instead of works that lack in substance by foreign authors.
后青春期的詩 (2008) ... When I saw this title, I thought: isn't this one of 五月天's album's title? When I searched online just now, I couldn't find any explanation as to why the novel has exactly the same name as the album. Wikipedia says the novel was published 29 October 2008, and the album released 23 October 2008. If you go by the saying that 'the earlier one is the original owner' (of the name), then I guess you can say it belonged first to 五月天 ...? I'm not too sure myself.
As for Edgar Allen Poe and Macbeth, I was really delighted to find them. I found them at the last instant, just before going to the cashier. I was roaming around my last round when I saw the staff place new books onto the tables. So I went over and saw these two books amongst others. I immediately took these two up and displaced one or two other books in my tray.
I remember one of the eliminated books was Bring Up the Bodies (2012) by Hilary Mantel. The book did seem interesting, but I somehow felt that EAP and Macbeth were more interesting. Maybe next time I shall buy that book eventually. It's about King Henry VIII and things that happened around then, and it's actually a sequel to Mantel's previous book.
TTFN.