Skip to main content

First is the Worst, Second is the Best, Third is the one with the hairy chest.

So the literary corner of the interwebs is abuzz with the latest news that the number one of the 50 best-loved authors is Enid Blyton. And people have since come out to say that they too like Enid Blyton, warts and all.

To say I'm dismayed is an understatement. I hate Blyton. Always have, always will. This may have happened because I was introduced to Roald Dahl first and only to Enid Blyton a few years later. If that have happened the other way round maybe my feelings for her books would be a lot different. But since we do not have the benefit of a time machine or a device capable of peeking into parallel worlds, who knows?

But I'm not here to complain about people liking Enid Blyton. For what it's worth, she was responsible for instilling the love of reading into at least a couple of generations so that's okay by me. Also, if it weren't for Enid Blyton, I would have never known what a Gollywog is. Ho ho!

As for the rest of the list, I think it's spiff that eight (EIGHT!) SF writers made it to the list.

Isaac Asimov, H.G.Wells, Arthur C. Clarke, George Orwell, Iain Banks, Arthur Conan Doyle, J.G. Ballard and Ray Bradbury.

All worth reading.

Okay, so Sir A.C. Doyle is a bit pushing it, but remember, he did write The Lost World, which inspired a lot of SF dinosaur stories afterwards, the most notable one being Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park.
Labels:

Comments

  1. Jo27/8/08 9:08 pm

    I love Asimov, he was the one who got me into Sci Fi in the first place. I did like Enid Blyton as a child although she is not one of the enduring child writers I would read today, there are several who's books I do pick up now and again, not least C.S. Lewis.

    OK Ted, this is an even more aggressive little bear.

    Now I'm reading your blog, only fair you check mine out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted Mahsun27/8/08 9:19 pm

    Hi Jo! Thanks for visiting.

    I reread CS Lewis once in a while too! But of late the one book I keep coming back to is The Voyage of Dawn Treader. The rest just don't do it for me anymore.

    I not only checked out your blog, I have subscribed to it with Google Reader, so now you can be assured I never miss a post of yours. Hoho!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous4/11/08 1:31 am

    what comes after third is the one with the hairy chest?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ted Mahsun4/11/08 10:09 am

    Fourth doesn't get anything because after third they're all runner ups. Losers don't get anything!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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: Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami.

UPDATE: My Wind/Pinball review can be found here . ISBN: n/a Publisher: n/a Paperback: 160 pages In Murakami fan circles, simply owning a copy of Pinball, 1973 is a mark of hardcore-ness. Like Hear the Wind Sing before it, Haruki Murakami does not allow English translations of Pinball, 1973 to be published outside of Japan. Back in the 80s, Alfred Birnbaum translated it into English and Kodansha published it as a novel for Japanese students who wanted to improve their English. While the English edition of Hear the Wind Sing continues to be reprinted and sold in Japan (and available for a moderate sum via eBay, see my review ), Kodansha stopped its reprint runs of the English edition of Pinball, 1973 and has now become a collector's item, fetching vast amounts of money on auction sites and reseller stores. Last time I checked, the cheapest copy went for USD$2500. Of course, Murakami addicts or the curious can always download a less than legal PDF of the book, painst...
18 comments
Read more