Sells Better in Paperback.

Kim Edwards and her debut novel, "The Memory Keeper's Daughter", is selling much better in paperback form:

The book sold about 30,000 copies in hardcover when it was published last year by Viking. But since it came out in paperback in late May, it has been climbing best-seller lists and enjoying rapid sales at places like K-Mart, Barnes & Noble and independent bookstores across the country, inspiring comparisons to previous paperback sensations like “The Kite Runner,” “The Secret Life of Bees ” and “Bel Canto.”

Perhaps this reflects a trend of current readers's tastes? I, for one, prefer a nice, tasty paperback, as compared to a hard, heavy, tome. There will be people who disagree with me, of course, because they prefer the advantage of durability, and hardbacks simply exude a little more "class".

I understand where they're coming from, but one of my criteria when purchasing a book is that it must be portable. I must be able to take the book anywhere, so I can read it on the LRT while going to work, and I can keep it back in my bag when I'm in a position unable to do any reading.

Eh? I digress... Erm, anyway, from a review of "The Memory Keeper's Daughter" at Blogcritics:

The book leaps from that moment to other parallel moments in the lives of twins Paul and Phoebe, and those involved in the choices that made those lives so very different. There's a spiraling structure, each moment that's revealed moving us closer to the character's interiors, until you've wound your way into their cores. Each time that Edwards chooses to show us, there are echoes of those decisions, reflections upon them, leaving the reader to deduce the causes and effects that have lead to each scene. In some ways, as time marches on, we're really seeing the same moment, over and over, played out in new ways.

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Lesson: Commemorative Covers are Lame.

Well, I got the first day cover that commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Except that it's not a first day cover, it's a commemorative cover, which is a slightly different beast. I guess I should read the news article properly next time! The difference between the two is that first day covers are specially-designed envelopes stuck on with specially-designed stamps, and marked with a specially-designed postmark. A commemorative cover is a specially-designed envelope... and that's it. All in all, it's an unremarkable affair, especially if you're used to well-designed first day covers (not that Malaysian first day covers are well-designed... but I digress). Oh sure, a commemorative cover has a stamp printed right on to it but that's just like an overglorified aerogramme. Lame. On the whole, what a disappointment. I haven't been collecting first day cover...

REVIEW: Confessions of an Old Boy by Kam Raslan

Kam Raslan's right. In the preface for his new book, Confessions of an Old Boy: The Dato' Hamid Adventures he writes that we've known Dato' Hamid all our lives. Seeing as my own dad is an old boy of MCKK, the people I get to meet when he drags me to an Old Boy function and the people he tells me of, reflect the characters found in Kam's book. It really does feel like I've known Dato' Hamid all my life. Dato' Hamid is a civil servant of the Tunku Abdul Rahman generation. He is the sort of person you rarely see nowadays, a fine example of the anachronistic Malay. This generation, groomed in the ways of the colonial British would be out of place not just in 21st century Malaysia, but in Britain too. And yet, Dato' Hamid, in all his snobbishness and patronising ways, is essentially a Malaysian. Without people like him, our country would probably never exist at all. At least not like we know it now. I'm glad that Kam Raslan decided to capture this ...

An Ipoh Ghost Story.

When I was growing up in Ipoh in the 90s, the only good bookshops around were Mubaruk's, which specialised in textbooks (and still does), and Novelhut, the second-hand bookstore that used to be in Yik Foong (and maybe still is there, but I haven't checked in years since I prefer going to their Ipoh Parade outlet when I'm in town). There was also a pretty good bookstore in the Parkson Grand in Ipoh Parade which could have been a Berita outlet, but I don't remember. This was in the days before they expanded Ipoh Parade into what it is today. (And temporarily causing the Convent school next door to consider moving.) I recall this because I was thinking of when exactly I started reading "serious" fiction, trying to pinpoint the years when I moved from young adult/fantasy/sci-fi books into non-genre fiction. I still can't remember, but it brought back memories of a book I bought from a short-lived bookshop in Old Town. Mum had brought me there, because she must...

Ted Mahsun

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