Reading List Update.

For my future reference, I:

am currently reading

The Darkness of Wallis Simpson by Rose Tremain
Started reading this last night. Was hoping the LRT ride this morning would last longer than usual so I could find out what happens in the title story (the first short story in this compilation). I hope the rest of the stories are of the same quality as this one.

have recently finished

Aug 14, 2006: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
Brilliant and enjoyable collection of short stories. Proof that Murakami is indeed master of the surreal as well as the unreal.

Aug 2, 2006: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Melancholic and nostalgic. Though written in simple language, the story is engaging till the end.

Jul 30, 2006: Roald Dahl and His Chocolate Factory by Andrew Donkin
Found this book lying around in my parents's house and gave it a read. Finished it in a few hours. It was okaaaaay. Some things I didn't know about Dahl were in the book, but I think those factoids could've have easily been found on the Internet if I had bothered to look.

might be reading these next

Advencer Si Peniup Ney by Faisal Tehrani
His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
The Grand Complication by Allen Kurzweil

also finished listening to this in the car

The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry
Great book! Makes you want to write poetry right then and there. Which was hard for me as I was driving.

Previous Reading List Update:

Comments

I'm going to Clarion West!

So yeah! I'm going to Clarion West this year! If you didn't know, Clarion West is a really awesome science fiction and fantasy writing workshop that runs for six weeks in summer every year at Seattle and is usually taught by a faculty of award-winning authors and editors. Many students who attend this workshop also go on to have illustrious writing careers of their own too. I've been meaning to attend this workshop (or its sister workshop, Clarion UCSD, which is the original Clarion workshop but runs in San Diego around the same time) for years now but never had the courage to apply. Many reasons as to why: didn't think I'd have money for the most part, didn't think I was good enough, didn't think I could leave work long enough, didn't think I could leave family behind, etc. But something sparked inside of me late last year. I felt I should at least give it a go this time round. So I did. They requested a sample of my best work and an applicatio...

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 ...

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...

Ted Mahsun

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