Ted Mahsun

Well it's almost 24 hours since I unleashed my first ebook into the world. (You didn't buy it? Why the heck not? Go and correct this grievous error right now!) How many people have bought it so far? *drum roll please* A grand total of TWO. That's actually two more than I expected so I guess that's not so bad, even if I sold those two copies to two close friends. Definitely not something to sniff at!

About four years ago, I wrote a story about alien home appliances that came to Earth to save their fellow instruments from the shackles of human enslavement. It was called: The story was published in an anthology called Write Out Loud which I haven't seen in bookstores for quite a while so I think it must be out of print. Even when it was in print many people complained they couldn't find it and unfortunately I could not help them as distribution was out of my control. Well, four years later and we're in the midst of a digital revolution when it comes to book publishing. I thought I might as well publish the story as an ebook and see what happens. Consider this some kind of experiment on my part. You can get The Secret Operation in the Matriarch's Kitchen on Smashwords for US$0.99 in every digital format you can think of. If I'm lucky, one day maybe the ebook will appear on the big online bookstores such as Amazon, B&N and Apple. Related: Bibi Misb...

I started out reading Murakami's behemoth of a book, 1Q84 , but when a friend gifted me an e-book copy of Stephen King's 11/22/63 , I read the first few pages to check it out... and was hooked. Now I cannot go back to 1Q84 . Well, at least for now. King has me caught in his death grips of superb writing and excellent plotting.

Okay. I can now admit it. I love e-books. Digital ink. O! glorious digital revolution, let it wash over me and cleanse me of my perve for paper! A friend let me testdrive his Kindle some time back and ever since then I've been slowly falling in love with the idea of digital books. Today, I had a trial run of sorts with my iPad loaded with Stanza and Naomi Novik's Tongues of Serpents by taking it on my daily commute to work, and it's been brilliant so far. Enjoying very much the ability to define words as I read them. Vocabulary +1!

Well, I just bought something: Thing is, as huge a Murakami fan that I am, I wasn't planning on buying it so soon. I felt I had outgrown Murakami and didn't really feel like reading a huge tome, especially if it was a meandering one like Kafka on the Shore. Not that I do not like Kafka. Far from it. It's just that, well, I want to read other stuff too. But it seems the God of Books has other plans and sent fate to intervene? I was made aware of some excerpts of reviews with statements such as "his best work since Wind-up Bird!" and "the opus that would define his oeuvre!" I realise this might be hyperbole but come on! I had become intrigued. And then today a colleague said he had it for his Kindle and had already started reading it. He said it was great so far. That was the last straw. I knew I had to read it as well. So, one trip to Borders... and here I am. I haven't even ripped off the plastic wrapping yet. I am savouring this delight o...