Ted Mahsun

So this is me... ...and this is my wife. Anyways, I'm glad it's over! Phew!

Sneezing is no fun when you have no room to breathe (yes i'm still ill).

Stayed in bed. Fever got much worse this morning. Wonder who took over the booth?

My fever is still around and my flu is getting worse and worse. The ridiculously low temperature in the PWTC halls isn't helping much either. Today, I met Zaki Zainol , author of Takluk Jagat 1: Bisikan Ariasha , and also Zamri Mohamad , author of many self-help books, the most recent being Rahsia Bisnes Mamak . They took pictures of me, so to those who still haven't seen me and don't know what I look like, there you go! And as if you needed another reason to go to the bookfair, Wira Bukit, helmed by A Samad Said's son, Helmy Samad, is seeking signatures for their petition to get Pak Samad's copyrights back from DBP. I wish them all the best! Also! Today is Pak Samad's birthday! Happy birthday, Pak Samad! Incidentally, mine is just around the corner... this Saturday in fact. No gift for me aaa? Books would be nice. Thanks!

Weekdays are slow days for the bookfair. The crowd was noticeably lesser and the sales disappointingly reflected that. Monday started out "interesting" for me. My shift for that day only started at 2pm so I had the luzury of waking up a bit later than usual. I promised Firdaus Ariff to have lunch with him at 1pm so at around 12pm I left the house... ...only to be called to the side at a police roadblock. For the record, I drive a 1968 Volkswagen Beetle and for the past five years I've been driving it, I have never been called aside, even when I wasn't wearing the seatbelt. You see, the police have never really given that much a glance at old cars when it comes to seatbelts, so I've never really bothered to wear mine. Dangerous, I know, but I guess I like living on the edge? So yesterday, the policeman comes up to me, sees I'm not wearing my seatbelt and goes ahead and gives me a summons. I'm all okay with that. As far as I'm concerned, it's a fair ...

Day 3 for me was spent mostly running around the fair but during the more quiet times I at least had my wife for company. Kata-Suara Khas went well, despite my worries that the readers/musicians wouldn't be able to turn up (it was raining heavily outside and I was scared they might have got themselves stuck in a jam somewhere). I was also worried that no one would actually turn up to watch, but thanks to Usratika, who started the event, we managed to get a sizeable crowd, although they did begin to taper towards the end. Sharon Bakar came up next and read a hilarious piece excerpt from her still-unfinished novel, about a wife of an expat living in Malaysia and who absolutely hated living here. (Her blogpost here .) Tan Sei Hon came up next and sang two songs, one about rain and another about a couple. I overheard Sharon mention to him later that he sounded like Cat Stevens, and to that Sei Hon replied: "Before he converted or after?" Hah! Intan Rafiza came in late but des...

Pretty busy day. I arrived late at the booth, and the surge of schoolkids, parents with family in tow didn't make things easier. But the huge crowd did give give us quite a number of sales. Certainly much better than yesterday. Met Firdaus Ariff in the morning who was nice enough to drop by and keep me company for a short while. Later I met Azwan Ismail , who wandered into my booth with Fadli Akiti . They told me about Fadli's new sf book, Saga Horizon --" If you liked Opera Angkasa , you'd like this! " I told them I would certainly check it out. In fact, right after they left the booth, I rushed over to the Alaf 21 booth to get my copy. When I asked the lady there about it she looked surprised. "How do you know about that book? We just printed it yesterday! Oh, wait you're one of Fadli's friends aren't you?" I said I just heard about it and wanted to buy it. (But the question remains! So how bout it Fadli? Would you be fwens with me ?) I a...

So we managed to set up the booth without anybody's head getting chopped off. No cats got impaled either although I don't know if the annoying kids singing the nursery-songs-turned-nasyid on the other side survived or not. I'm at Booth #3030 at Tun Razak 3, all day and every day. The booth's name is under Koperasi Buku Malaysia/MLSI but I'm hawking books for Suarasuara Publications . I've got books from Suarasuara, catalogues from RA Fine Arts Gallery, the Mea Culpa book I told you about (only RM20!) and a bunch of second-hand books you may find worthwhile. Even if you're not interested in any of those wares, and you're at the book fair, do drop by anyway and have a chat. Because I am sad and lonely*. I haven't checked for wifi yet, but I doubt it. (I don't even have a plug point to plug my ibook in.) I didn't have a proper look around yet, having been round only the floor I am so far. I'm taking it easy this year since this is the firs...

It looks like I may be at the KL International Bookfair the whole gorram time, looking after a certain booth. I'm not sure the booth is under what name yet but I assume its Suarasuara Publications. Or it could be RA Fine Arts. Or maybe even Koperasi Penjual Buku Malaysia or something similarly proper- and baku -sounding. If you're visiting KLIBF and braving the smelly crowds, don't forget to say hi to me! I'll update details on my booth location when I get them. Hopefully today, but I excel in inefficiency so I make no promises! UPDATE: I'll be at Booth #3030 at Tun Razak Hall 3. Things to look forward to during KLIBF: cheap Dawama magazines (okay, maybe you don't buy them, but I have an odd fascination reserved solely for "approved" Malay-literature), new PTS books (am hoping to get some modernised Malay classics) and fringe literature. One example of fringe literature I think could be Amirul Fakir's new independently published book, Mea Culpa ...