Obligatory Birthday Post.

I was reading The Malaysian Reader, a really good local book blog which celebrates its second birthday today.

That made me wonder when my blog's birthday was. Turns out its today as well. Oops. Totally forgot!

I made a promise to myself in that first blog post (get a story published in an American magazine) and I've still to deliver on that. Probably because over the years I forgot what I started this blog for... it started out as a blog to document my writing and over time it slowly became a blog about books and writing in general.

Well, I'm still young (or so many people tell me) so I've still got time. But I'd better work harder because the competition is so much more tougher and crazier than it was in 2006.

I really want to make 2012 a year where I write more than I've written before, and so far I've been more productive in my fiction than I've ever been in the past six years. Hopefully I will be able to show the fruits of my efforts before the year is out.

For those who've been reading my blog over the years, especially those who kept asking why I didn't post during my wilderness years (2009-2011) where I didn't post much and even when I did it wasn't about books, thanks for being loyal and sticking around.

As you can see, I'm blogging about books and writing consistently again and hopefully I will continue to do so for many years to come. :)

And for those who've been bugging me for a digital copy of Haruki Murakami's Pinball, 1973, boy, have I got something special for you soon...

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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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