Skip to main content

My Sunday.

Went to Xeus's talk at MPH MidValley yesterday. Finally got to meet Lydia Teh and Yvonne Lee, and along with Xeus, we chatted a bit before Xeus started her talk. It was great meeting you guys!

Xeus talked about the ways of making money from writing (query newspaper and magazine editors because they're always up for interesting stories or features for their lifestyle or expertise sections), her experience writing Dark City (took her two months to finish the first draft), and what she has in store for the future (a children's book, of which a synopsis is available on her blog).

I also got for myself a copy of Diane Setterfield's Thirteenth Tale, which is absolutely amazing. I wasn't planning on reading this just yet, but while I was waiting for Xeus's talk to begin, I read the first page... and well, I couldn't stop reading it. Have had to ditch Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies aside for now 'cause I've been totally sucked in.

The book is a love-letter to books and reading; the protaganist is the daughter of an antiquarian bookstore owner, and she's an amateur biographer who admits to a preference of talking with dead people by reading the books written by them. Throw in a prolific writer with a mysterious past - "the Dickens of our time" - and is famous for publishing a much-publicised book called "Thirteen Tales" but strangely contains only twelve, and have her request the protaganist to interview her out of the blue. That's the premise of The Thirteenth Tale.

Setterfield's prose just grabs you and you just want to go along for the ride and not wanting it to stop... and... well, you get the picture. The book's just good.

Check out the official website, or the Amazon page.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Artemis Hunt11/9/06 5:31 pm

    Thanks for coming, Ted! Just waiting for your book launch. BTW, after that, we went to Payless too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted Mahsun11/9/06 5:35 pm

    So I hear from Yvonne! Haha... heard she picked up some good books. How bout you? Or you scared no space in the house? :p

    ReplyDelete
  3. Artemis Hunt11/9/06 8:22 pm

    No space in the house :) But I asked the others to get The Horse Whisperer and The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood :)

    After that they all came over to my house, and I begged them to help me get rid of my stuff too!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Eric Forbes11/9/06 10:06 pm

    Hello Ted - I believe you will enjoy reading Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale (2006). I absolutely enjoyed it. It is one of those books which you will enjoy reading the second time. Happy reading!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ted Mahsun12/9/06 12:14 am

    Thanks Eric. It is certainly an unputdownable book. I'm usually a slow reader but I've zoomed through the first three chapters in what usually takes me a few days!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous19/9/06 9:27 am

    Ted..I will get this book!Eliza.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ted Mahsun19/9/06 9:31 am

    Great! Hope you like it!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
5 comments
Read more

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 ...
5 comments
Read more

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...
6 comments
Read more