Ted Mahsun

I went to the KL International Book Fest on Saturday even though I hadn't really planned on going. The book fest hasn't really done anything for me for the past--I dunno--5 years or so. They're boring, crowded, and full of educational workbooks and textbooks. The book fest just doesn't give me any sense of enjoyment like the book warehouse sales of Times, Big Book Shop and Payless do. But there I was anyway, mingling with the crowd at PWTC. My friend had suggested we go to the fest after a wedding we had attended that day (congratulations, Colin!) and not having anything else to do, I agreed. Good thing I went. I finally got for myself two copies of Dewan Sastera , of which I haven't been able to find any issues since last year. I was interested in reading this month's science fiction-themed issue after reading Nisah Haron's post . I also bought two back-issues of i , an Islamic magazine (one about apostasy, the other about liberal Islam*), and one copy of ...

I suppose I've got to come out of my coconut shell now that I've got a mention in Quill magazine. I haven't seen the issue yet, but I hope they say nice things about me and my blog. Anyways, speaking of magazines, I picked up something odd recently. By odd, I mean something that doesn't really lie in the general populace's interests. I speak of Steam World . " Britain's Best-Selling Historical Railway Magazine ", the banner claims in full caps right at the top of the cover. I purchased this magazine for two reasons: 1) The concerns of said magazine is covered by my areas of interest, which is to say, I have more than a slight passing interest in choo-choo trains (blame Thomas ); and 2) it only cost six bucks, because it was a back issue from November 2006. When I found the time to browse through it, I was blown away. I was merely expecting articles with perhaps some generalised trivia sprinkled about, perhaps accompanied by some old archive photographs...