Book Review: Superior Saturday (Garth Nix)

Who still reads my book reviews anyway? Hands up, all 1.5 of you.

I haven't been reading much (actually I have, but have been too lazy to review them); but since I've been traveling so much lately, I've managed to finish quite a number of books in the past three weeks or so. Among them, books 2 and 3 of Glenda Larke's Mirage Makers trilogy, Poul Anderson's The Broken Sword, and a couple of Batman graphic novels (I had to satiate my hunger for more Batman and Joker stories, but ended up with Tim Sale and Jeff Loeb's Batman and Two-Face stories instead).

And of course, this one - Garth Nix's latest, and the penultimate book to his Keys of the Kingdom series - Superior Saturday.

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Title: Superior Saturday (Book 6 of The Keys To The Kingdom
Author: Garth Nix

Synopsis (from Amazon.co.uk):

On the Sixth Day, there was Sorcery...

Arthur Penhaligon has wrested five of the Keys from their immortal guardians, the Trustees of the Will. But gaining the Sixth Key poses a greater challenge than any he has ever faced before. Superior Saturday is not just one of the Trustees, she is also the oldest Denizen and the most powerful and knowledgeable sorcerer within the House. She has tens of thousands of sorcerers at her command -- and she has been preparing her forces all along for the Will's escape and the activities of the Rightful Heir. Everything is all just part of a greater plan she has been hatching for ten thousand years....

What I Liked:

• Despite the year-long wait, you can STILL remember what happened in the last books, unlike SOME series *AHEMHAIRYPUTTERAHEM*
  
• Finally, Will faces off against the most powerful Trustee of them all!
• The office cubicle denizens are damn funny
• Ending damn kan chiong
• Now I'm REALLY curious to see how Lord Sunday is like...
  
• Cliffhanger!
  

What I Didn't Like:

• ARGH! Cliffhanger!!!
• ARGH! FINISH SO FAST!
• If you haven't read the last few books, you'll get really lost.
  

Summary:

If you've been following the Keys of The Kingdom this far already, then this book won't disappoint. It's exciting, and it's intriguing, and it's got Arthur facing off against the most powerful Trustee of them all, the one who has been hounding his footsteps since the very first day.

Nix's style is still very much the same, and the book itself is extremely easy to read and follow, unlike SOME so-called young adult fantasy books *COUGHHEAVYPLOTTERCOUGH*. Though if you're not familiar with the series you'd get lost with all the references to the past characters in the past books.

This is probably the most exciting book in the series, IMHO, mostly because Superior Saturday is so much more powerful than the rest of the Days. And THAT ENDING. DAMMIT. Lord Sunday can't come soon enough!

Read, Drink and Be Merry!

I read got this off Sharon Bakar's blog today, and thought it was the most bizarre yet brilliant plan to get people to read EVER:


Blokes bribed with beer to read books

Organizers of New Zealand Book Month are offering free beer to try to entice blokes to read books. To promote reading as a "manly" activity, organizers have invited fathers and their sons to an evening of male bonding over sports, adventure and literature.


Beer + Books has to be one of the strangest combinations ever, yet I look back at all those times I've read books while having a beer in hand (usually at airports when I have nothing to do or in Amsterdam when it's raining outside), and I can see the appeal.

The problem is, when blokes get together for beer, reading is usually the LAST thing on their minds - especially when there's sports on the telly. And what are they gonna read anyway? Have any of you even tried reading say.. Lord of The Rings or Moby Dick while guzzling pints of beer?

Heck, the free beer alone is a recipe for disaster, and I reckon it won't be long into the event before people start using the books as coasters instead...

But then again, who cares? It's free beer! WHEE!

The Book That Is the Best Booker of Bookers Booked By All Bookies

Salman Rushdie wins "Best of Booker" award

British author Salman Rushdie won the "Best of the Booker" prize on Thursday to mark the 40th anniversary of one of the world's most prestigious literary awards.

"Midnight's Children" won the Booker Prize in 1981, and the Indian-born writer was hot favorite to take the award decided by the public from a shortlist of six in an online poll.

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Ok, Midnight's Children is an undeniably good book, probably one of the best I've ever read, I must say, and I don't say that kind of thing lightly. But this Booker Booker thing is a little bonkers.

So, now the book has won the Booker, the Booker of Bookers, and now the Best of Bookers, what other Bookers is it going to win? The Best of the Bookers of Bookers? The Bookie's Booker Choice?The Bonkers Booker Book?

And has there REALLY not been a SINGLE Booker-winning book that can challenge this book in all these 40 years?

Don't get me wrong, I think it deserves the award. I'm just wondering if there ARE any other books that can at least challenge this one for the title of Best of the Booker of Booker of Bookers.

(News taken from Sharon Bakar)

Saturday is Superior to An Anti-Climatic Last Man

Some book blog this is turning out to be. I just realised that my last post about books was... in MAY. Sheeeesh.

It doesn't help that I haven't been reading much either, with the exception of several graphic novels, and comics.

Now, I'm not trying to address that imbalance here. I'm just gonna post about two books I bought last night at Kino, two books that I'd bee waiting FOREVER for them to arrive....

first Up, the new Garth Nix!



I only got it yesterday, and am already halfway through it. Will review it when I'm done ok?

The other book I boughti s not a book - its a graphic novel - the last volume of Y: The Last Man:



I must say, it's good that the whole story is finally complete because IMHO, it was already begin to sag by the end of the last book, and this last book was a little anticlimatic, if you ask me. But still, it's a pretty damn good series, highly recommended for all!

So there you have it, a post on books. Now can I get back to Batman Week?

Hunt Down Them Bloody Library Book Thieves, Godammit!

Opened Sharon Bakar's blog this morning and read about this:

Errant borrowers fail to return more than 6,400 books to library

JOHOR BARU: The reading campaign here seems to be successful, judging from the high number of books borrowed from the Sultan Ismail Library here. But when it comes to honesty on the part of the borrowers, it is another story altogether. Of the 6,471 books borrowed from the library, only 40 have been returned.


What Le Feck? Only FORTY out of 6417 books returned? Do Johoreans even KNOW the concept of a LIBRARY?

What were they thinking?

• "Oooo, look it's a place with books you can take out for free and all you have to do is give them some sort of card."


• "Oooo, free books! I think I'll go get a free book go choose the most expensive looking book and keep at home and collect dust."


• "Eh, why this place giving out free stacks of paper ha? Samore got system to 'return' the what they call booku booku. Don't care lah, just take and recycle la! can get money samore!"

Heck, they even have to have a “Compassionate Book Return Month” just to get those idiots to return the books!

Book-return month at Sultan Ismail Library

JOHOR BARU: The Sultan Ismail Library is organising the “Compassionate Book Return Month” from May 2 to June 1. The two-month campaign will nullify any penalties or fines of those who returned borrowed books late. It is to encourage borrowers to return borrowed books to increase the library’s stock.


I say FORGET about being compassionate lar. The more 'compassionate' you are, the more they will take the books for granted. I say Start a state-wide MANHUNT (or rather, BOOKhunt) and TRACK DOWN those idiots who STOLE the books, and then charge them with THEFT instead. THEN maybe they'll learn to respect books and libraries as well.

SHEEEEESH. And you wonder why libraries suck so badly in Malaysia.

A Dictionary and an Empty Box from the MPH Sale

Yes, I went to the MPH Warehouse Sale and all I got was a RM10 dwibahasa dictionary and an empty box. I'd post a picture of my 'haul' here, but it really isn't THAT attractive a box.

SIIIGHHHHH... And there I was all ready to buy some books as a little birthday treat, but all I saw were books I was utterly uninterested in and a mess of non-fiction/self-help books mixed up in bins of uninteresting books by authors I'd never heard off. Oh well, at least the hall was air-conditioned...

Sigh, I think I'm beginning to lose faith in warehouse book sales these days, especially those by MPH... I don't seem to have the patience to go through bin after bin and scour each bin for good books anymore. These days I just take an overall sweep of a bin of shelf and if nothing catches my eye I just move on. If the bin is all messed up and the books strewn all over the place, I don't even bother moving them around anymore... sigh...

Now if Penguin were to do another one, that would be a different question altogether...

But anyway, if you MUST go to the MPH sale (who knows, YOU might find it more interesting than I did), then here are the details:



Oh, BTW, Kinokuniya is having a MONTH-LONG PROMOTION on EVERYTHING in their Comics Section... 20% off with another purchase! WOOHOO!!!

Book Review: Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi)

The Hopefully-Weekly-Book Review (aka. The Almost-Monthly-Book-Review) is back this week, and this time, it's a really good book I'm reviewing. No really, don't watch the movie for Persepolis yet - the book is the original, and you HAVE to read it!

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Title: Persepolis
Author/illustrator: Marjane Satrapi

Synopsis (from Amazon.com)
The story of Satrapi's unforgettable childhood and coming of age within a large and loving family in Tehran during the Islamic Revolution; of the contradictions between private life and public life in a country plagued by political upheaval; of her high school years in Vienna facing the trails of adolescence far from her family; of her homecoming--both sweet and terrible; and, finally, of her self-imposed exile from her beloved homeland. It is the chronicle of a girlhood and adolescence at once outrageous and familiar, a young life entwined with the history of her country yet filled with the universal trials and joys of growing up.


What I Liked:

• Awesome, awesome book. Best I've read in ages.
• It's a comic, but not really a comic!
  
• It's absorbing, and very entertaining at the same time.
• It's funny! Though in a rather sad-funny kinda way at times.
• The story's pretty damn good too.
• She's very good at putting things in perspective.
• She's also suitably candid when dealing with the heavy issues
• I love how candid and blunt she can be with her words and drawings
• The drawings are cute! and yet very tragic at the same time.
• You actually learn a lot about what happened (and happens in Iran, and some world history too.

What I Didn't Like:

• The grown-up Marjane in the second book, The Story of a Return; was not as entertaining as the child Marjane.
• I couldn't tell the some of the characters apart at times...

Summary:
I dare anyone to read this book and then tell me that graphic novels are for kids, or are just about superheroes, or cannot be considered 'literature'.

This is a perfect example of a REAL novel, a REAL novel put into pictures, and with REAL serious issues put in the most whimsical, yet engaging way possible.

It's a comic, but sometimes you don't really feel it's a 'comic' at times, more like a proper novel, told in the most simplistic, yet thorough and visual way possible. It also helps that Marjane's life is one of the most incredibly warped journeys I've ever read, but it was still engaging to read about how she and her family had to cope with the regimes in Iran, the war and how she managed to cope in liberal Europe on her own, then come home to the completely different culture of Iran again.

It hits hard at issues, but not hard enough to make you wanna take up picket signs or press nuclear weapons launch buttons. And when it's funny, its really funny. And it doesn't feel boring one bit (except a few parts when she's in in Europe).

The first part of the book (the version I read combines Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood & its sequel Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return in one book) is the best one, because we see Marjane actually growing up in Iran, with war and over-zealousness regimes all around her, and how her thoughts and behaviors are shaped by everything. It also helps that little Marjane is damn cute.

The second book, however, is a little more serious. It's a lot more adult-Marjane oriented, obviously because Marjane is grown up and thinks about things more deeply than a Kid Marjane would. That doesn't mean its any less entertaining or good to read though - it's stil good, but a little more serious than the first one, that's all.

Anyway, no need to say anymore - Buy, beg or steal, you HAVE to read this book. So go get it!!!

Celebrate World Book Day With More Cheap Books!

I'm gonna be away in the land of tomyam for a couple of days... so unless I miraculously get some form of wifi connection while I'm there, I doubt I'll be updating... but anyway, here's a little announcement from all-time favorite EoE bookshop BookXcess, who're celebrating WORLD BOOK DAY (the worldwide one this time, not the UK & Ireland one I mentioned last time):

And of course, there's gonna be DISCOUNTS! WHEE!

Here's the flyer...



That's all for now! Time to go pack for the trip! Whee!

KL International Book Fair: Lots of Books, a Sharon and a Big Red Dinosaur

Last weekend, I went to the KL International Book Fair at the PWTC.

What did I see there? Well....



BOOKS....



BOOKS....



And MORE BOOKS....



Yes, it's a BOOK FAIR after all. So of course there were lots of books. Duh. And it's a REALLY BIG ONE too. It spans like almost FOUR HALLS all across the PWTC, and is so big that the announcers had to constantly remind people over the PA system to head over to the OTHER halls as well.



But while one can't deny the sheer size of the book fair, and the amount of books there, I also have to say that this is the greatest amassment of books I am NOT INTERESTED IN that I have ever seen in my life.

Sure, you had big local publishers and distributers like MPH, Times Publishing, Sasbadi, Pansing, DBP and etc, but I can safely say that at least 80% or even more of the books there were either textbooks, workbooks, or reference books; and that almost 90% were in Malay.

The only booths I was remotely interested in was the Payless one:



Which had most of the books I'd already seen in OTHER Payless outlets around KL anyway; and this other stall selling old magazines and paperbacks...



...which had some interesting old mags but nothing I haven't seen before as well.

So... after an hour of wandering around the book fair (actually I was trying to find my way to the Kata Suara session on Sunday but couldn't find the damn place. Then again, I was a bit late so I probably missed it anyway), I didn't see a single book that I was even remotely interested in. Which is practically a miracle for me.

I WAS however interested in this booth:



Gila-Gila! Woot! They even had some of their artists there drawing caricatures for people...



Unfortunately, I didn't recognise any of the artists from when I used to read Gila-Gila (geez, has it REALLY been that long since I read it?), so I walked on.

Anyway, it WAS my first time at the KL International Book Fair, and it was an eye-opener indeed. That's because I was so surprised that there were so many people at the book air though. I'd have thought that something as 'boring' as a BOOK FAIR wouldn't exactly be a crowd-puller, but surprisingly, there were a lot of people there, mostly families. granted, There were probably more baby strollers than interested readers there, but hey, at least there is a CROWD. Who says Malaysians aren't interested in books, eh? Whether they READ books is one thing, but at least they're intereseted in them, right?

And who knows, maybe in the future those little kids running around with balloons and those babies in strollers will grow up to equate book fairs to FUN, and think that books are FUN as well!

Who knows, maybe next time, those kids will grow up to be VOCIFEROUS READERS and BOOK FANATICS like a certain Sharon Bakar I know, who goes to book fairs just because there are books there, corrects the grammar on their posters...



...and then take strange pictures with RED DINOSAURS....



So, who says Book fairs aren't fun, eh? :D

Reimagining Alternative Books In The Artsy City

Heads up people, there're some kinda sorta interesting events coming up that might interest you if you are into:

1) Artsy stuff
2) Creative stuff
3) Bookish stuff
4) NON-MAINSTREAM stuff

And yeah, I'll probably be turning up for these two events as well, so if you know me see ya there!

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RE-IMAGINING THE CITY

Dates: April 5 & 6 2008
Locations: Zouk KL & The Annexe, Central Market
More Info: Visit the website HERE.




RE-IMAGINING THE CITY focuses on our shared urban future through the eyes of designers, architects, film makers and creatives. Curated by the British Council and onedotzero, Re-Imagining the City is part of CREATIVE CITIES, a cultural and artistic project promoting global citizenship across East Asia.

Through two days of films, visual art and sound, discussion and on the city we inhabit, featuring UK and Malaysian creatives, we will explore the role artists play in how cities are planned and experienced and how they help us understand our surroundings as we view the city through their eyes.

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Kuala Lumpur Alternative Book Festival (KLAB)

Dates: May 3 & 4 2008
Location: The Annexe Central Market
More Info: email Amir Muhammad, Zulhabri, Dina Zaman



KLAB, or the Kuala Lumpur Alternative Book Festival, is where book lovers, hipsters, politicos, film-makers, anyone who's anyone who love books which feed the mind and soul and champion causes, gather.

SID. Silverfish Books. Gerak Budaya. Matahari Books. Suara-Suara. KiniBooks. These are some of the few names you'll see at KLAB. 13 to 15 stalls selling books you must get.

Book Giveaway - have books to give away for free? Unload them here. And those who want free books, you're limited to only three.

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Book Review: Odd and The Frost Giants (Neil Gaiman)

Holy Cow has it really been that long since I've finished a book / posted a book review? So much for this being a book blog. It's not even a PSEUDO-book blog anymore, I reckon. Gah.

Oh well, back to old habits then. I picked this book up for only ONE RINGGIT (yes you read that right, ONE RINGGIT!) in Kinokuniya, since it was published in conjunction with the UK World Book Day recently. there're are a few others as well going for ONE RINGGIT but since this was Gaiman, naturally I could. not. resist.

So here, is a Almost-Monthly-Book-Review on....

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Title: Odd and The Frost Giants
Author: Neil Gaiman

Synopsis:
Odd's luck has been bad so far. He lost his father on a Viking expedition, his foot was crushed beneath a tree, and the winter seems to be going on forever. But when Odd flees to the woods and releases a trapped bear, his luck begins to change. The eagle, bear and fox he encounters reveal they're actually Nordic gods, trapped in animal form by the evil Frost Giants who have conquered Asgard, the city of the gods. Can a twelve-year-old boy reclaim Thor's hammer, outwit the Frost Giants and release the gods?

What I Liked:

• It only cost ONE RINGGIT!!!!!
• Short and Sweet!
• Light enough to read with one hand while stuck in a traffic jam!
• Very light-hearted and whimsical writing.
• I kinda like Odd. He's like a new Will Stanton.

What I Didn't Like:

• Too short!
• Er... too short to have many flaws too.

Summary:
Like I said, it was World Book Day (the UK one, anyway) a while back and Neil Gaiman was one of the authors commissioned to write this book. Last year my pick of the lot was Garth Nix, this year Gaiman.

This is a short and sweet little book. It's almost like a short story in fact. Gaiman's fascination with the Nordic gods continues here, but then, they are merely supporting characters for the more interesting Odd.

I like Odd. Despite all that's happening, he's a calm and collected little kid, just like Will Stanton in The Dark Is Rising (The books lar, not that obnoxious little American fart in the movie). Even the Frost Giant isn't so bad either. The way Gaiman has written the book, no one seems to be purely evil, just kinda, sorta, maybe bad; it's written in such a nice little whimsical way that you don't really want it to have any outright distressingly bad, evil moments. (oh, there ARE a little sorta dark bits in it, but nothing to distract you from the rest of the story).

Anyway, this book is a charming little read, even if it's a little too short, and I wished it were longer at times (especially when I finished it I was going ARGH NOT LONG ENOUGH!!!)

I hope Gaiman revisits the character of Odd sometime in the future, and make him the star of a PROPER novel (READ: in a not so short book!).

BTW, if you wanna get the book, go to Kinokuniya and look in the Children's Books section. The other RM1 books are also there for the taking. Go get them!

Cheap Graphic Novels For Sale! Very Good Price! Everything Must Go!

So... yeah. Like the title says, I've been cleaning up the bookshelves a bit, and found some graphic novels I have that I reckon I don't really wanna keep around anymore...

So I'm selling them off CHEAP! Well, RELATIVELY cheap, compared to the market price out there, at least. And hey, most of these books are also in VERY GOOD CONDITION, some ALMOST NEW too, if I may add. And here they are....

If you're interested in buying them, email me at eyeriz@gmail.com so we can arrange to meet (Which also means I'm too lazy to mail the items and will only entertain buyers from Klang Valley... SORRY!)

Note: Market price for each of these tradepaperback graphic novels in a bookstore is about RM68-70, so the prices quoted here are actually REALLY cheap oledi... which also means that they are FIXED. Sorry, no negotiations! :P )




Title:
The Complete Normalman (by Jim Valentino)

Price:
RM40


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So, if you're interested, DO drop me an email at eyeriz@gmail.com, and we can get in touch. kthxbai!

PS: If you wanna buy some toys too, I have some for sale over HERE... they're not THAT cheap though...


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RESERVED OLEDI!!!!

Titles:
Constantine: Hellblazer - Setting Sun
Constantine: Hellblazer - Haunted
Constantine: Hellblazer - Son of Man
Constantine: Hellblazer - Highwater

Price:
Buy 1 for RM40,
Buy 2 for RM75
Buy 3 for RM95
or buy all 4 for only RM110!

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RESERVED OLEDI!!!!!

Titles:
Kabuki (Book 1) - Circle of Blood
Kabuki (Book 2) - Dreams

Price:
RM80 for both books.

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RESERVED OLEDI!!!!!


Titles:
Transformers: Dark Designs
Transformers: All Fall Down
Transformers: Primal Scream
Transformers: End of The Road
Transformers: Rage In Heaven
Transformers: Matrix Quest

Price:
RM150 for the entire set!

How to Match It For Pratchett And Wear It Proudly

I bought a shirt today!

Ok, it's not just any shirt. it's THIS shirt:


Match It For Pratchett? What Brand is that you ask? And what's so special about it?

Well, for one, the money I paid for this shirt is all going to research for Alzheimers disease. What's a shirt got to do with Alzheimers?

As I've already lamented before on this blog, Terry Pratchett announced a few months back that he has Alzheimers, and he recently donated one million bucks to the Alzheimer’s Research Trust Network (go read his letter to the Trust here: it's got L. Ron Hubbard, Greek Choruses, and Lara Croft's buttocks, making for one of the funniest 'donation letters' I've ever read).

Here's an excerpt:

Ladies and Gentlemen. My name is Terry Pratchett, author of a series of inexplicably successful fantasy books and I have had Alzheimer’s now for the past two years plus, in which time I managed to write a couple of bestsellers. I have a rare variant. I don’t understand very much about it, but apparently if you are going to have Alzheimer’s it’s a good one to have. So, a stroke of luck there then…

Anyway, where does my T-shirt come in then? Well, a bunch of Pratchett's fans have apparently set up a fund in which they are trying to get Pratchett fans from ALL OVER THE WORLD to help MATCH Pratchett's donation, and you can check it out at MATCHITFORPRATCHETT.ORG.

There, you can either donate by giving money directly to the Alzheimer's Research Trust, use the Tip Jar to give a donation or like me, buy a T-Shirt. Of course, you don't actually have to spend any money if you chose to. You can just blog about it, or tell your friends about it. Jsut spread the word!

So there you have it. If you love Pratchett's books, and you believe in supporting a good cause, then head on over to Match It For Pratchett and show your support now!

PS: Take note that the website is actually an UNOFFICIAL one, so if you really want to make sure your donation goes to the right place, you can donate directly to the fund HERE. Me, I liked the shirt so much I decided to buy that instead. :D

PSS: check out also this cool interview with Pratchett. Now I REALLY WISH I could just have one interview with the guy... sigh...

R.I.P. Arthur C. Clarke, Legend of Science Fiction

R.I.P.
Arthur C. Clarke
(1917-2008)

Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Science Fiction Writer, Dies

Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90.

And another one bites the dust. Sigh.

I'm ashamed to say that I wasn't not even sure if Arthur C. Clarke was still alive until I found out he just died. I mean, this is one of the Science Fiction Legends we're talking about, one of the names spoken in the same breath as those of Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert and Philip K. Dick. And I didn't know he was still alive. Oh the shame...

Although Clarke wasn't exactly one of my favorite writers (I've only ever read 2001: Space Odyssey, though I do own a couple more of his books), I have to salute him for what he brought to the Science Fiction genre. And for helping Stanley Kubrick make one hell of a film.

So here's to you, Arthur C. Clarke, creator of worlds, visionary of the future, collaborator of Kubrick, and Legend of Science Fiction. Say hi to Isaac and Frank for me.

It's World Book Day Today! Stop Reading Blogs And Go Read a Book Instead!

It's World Book Day today! Well, it is for the UK and Ireland, at least. The UNESCO one isn't until 23 April.

But who cares! Any World Book Day is a World Book Day to celebrate!

And to celebrate World Book Day this year, I shall now do something I haven't done in this 'book blog' for quite a bit.... write a post about BOOKS!

In case you didn't know, every year for World Book Day, several authors are chosen to write a short little children's book that will then go for sale for One Quid (that's about RM8, I think), and this year, the following books were published:

• Paddington Rules The Waves (Michael Bond)
• Princess Poppy: The Fancy Dress Party (Janey Louise Jones)
• Magic Kitten: A Very Special Friend (Sue Bentley)
• Adventure According to Humphrey (Betty G Birney)
• Where's Wally? (Martin Handford)
• Jane Blonde the perfect spylet (Jill Marshall)
• Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (Dav Pilkey)
• Odd and the Frost Giants (Neil Gaiman)
• CHERUB: Dark Sun (Robert Muchamore)

Yes, Neil Gaiman wrote a nice little children's story specially for World Book Day too! I gotta get me one of those... Hmmm, maybe Kinokuniya might have some... Then again, their March newsletter didn't mention anything about World Book Day also...

But wait... Payless Books did!

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In celebration of WORLD BOOK DAY, PAY LESS BOOKS offer discount up to 50% off Storewide. HURRY!!! Visit us at Ampang Point and 1 Utama from 1 - 31 March 2008 to enjoy 20% off on Children and Best-selling Author Fiction. Everything else is 50% off.
For further details, please call 8068 2170 or log in to http://www.blogger.com/www.paylessbooks.com.my.
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And so did Times!



Woohoo! Discounts! Vouchers! New Books! Whee!

And if all else fails, there's also BookXcess, or Acmamall!

So what are you waiting for? It's World Book Day!

STOP READING BLOGS AND GO READ A BOOK INSTEAD!

Read Neil Gaiman's American Gods Online for FREE!

This just in.

You can now read Neil Gaiman's AMERICAN GODS for FREE! Yes, FREE! GRATIS! PERCUMA! And it's all perfectly legal and officially endorsed by Gaiman himself!

Why is this possible? Well, apparently Gaiman decided to give away the book for free to celebrate his blog's 7th birthday. So he allowed readers of the blog to choose which book we wanted to him to post up for free.

For the record, I chose M for Mirrors because its the only one I have yet to read, haha. I doubt that was even one of the top three most popular choices though.

Anyway, American Gods was the lucky novel chosen (though it's a book that Gaiman himself wouldn't have chosen it, apparently); and so, for those of you too cheap to go buy the book yourself, you can now read it online for free, by clicking HERE or on the book cover below:



Enjoy! And tell your friends to go read it too!

Book Review: To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animation Studios

Today I'm reviewing something different. It's a book, but its not a novel or a comic. It's more like an encyclopedia of sorts, or rather, a biography not of a man, but an entire company.

But it's not just any company, mind you, it's the Pixar Animation Studio, which is defintely MY favorite film studio like, evar. So when I saw this book sitting on a shelf in Kinokuniya with a blue 20% discount on it (which meant I saved almost RM50 on it), I just... could.. not.. resist... sigh.

Anyway, let's just see what this book has, shall we?

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Title: To Infinity and Beyond! The Story of Pixar Animation Studios
Author: Karen Paik (based on interviews and research by Leslie Iwerks)

Synopsis:
What synopsis? It's a book about the rise of Pixar Animation Studios from a tiny breakaway little Computer Division to the mega-successful computer-animation film studio it is now, with stories of how they built the company, and how they made the films from Toy Story to Cars (this book was done before Ratatouille, I presume).

What I Liked:

• It's Pixar!
• It really inspired me.
• Lots of cute and cool little pictures of the movies!
• I love the movies, so I loved reading about how they made them as well
• The layout and the way its written is not boring like other such books.
• Doesn't go into too much technical details like I expected it to
• It was fascinating to see how the company progressed
• They included the production of the animated shorts as well, and not just the features.
• Did I mention it's Pixar?

What I Didn't Like:

• First few chapters about how they built the company was a bit slow, I kept wantingto skip to the part when they start making movies.
• Could have been more up-to-date, especially with Ratatouille being Pixar's first self-funded movie and all.
• I wished there was more in-depth and detailed elaboration on the actual making of the movies themselves, and not just the usual 'story is king' and general top-of-surface issues alone.
• I couldn't help thinking that the image painted of the company was TOO squeaky clean at times...
  

Summary:
This ain't a novel you read to sleep at night or for your leisure, but to my surprised, I was more engrossed with this book than I have with any other fiction novel or fantasy in the past two months. I think it harks back to the times when I used to pore through atlases and encyclopedias to find out about stuff.

This being Pixar, a subject I'm genuinely interested about, it was more engaging to me than the usual 'encyclopedia' or 'biography'. I loved all their movies, so I enjoyed reading about them in the book, and I was really intrigued and inspired by all the 'characters' in it, especially John Lasseter himself. Now THERE'S another name to add to the list of 'people I really want to interview'.

All the pretty pictures and concept drawings of the movies also helped, and to tell the truth, I'm a real sucker for nice big glossy pictures in encyclopedias, so that was another plus point for me.

Sure, it's just a book, and they usually gloss over the ugly bits of the company in these things, but as it is, it's still an inspiring read for me. It may not be as squeaky clean as the book makes it out to be, it still somehow inspired me to think about what I'm doing right now, to be a bit more creative in my thinking and writing.

To me, it's not just another boring book about just another successful company - it's also a book that company that is fueled by the sort of creativity and imagination that I aspire to achieve one day.

Old Boy Clinches It With Rest House Synopsis

I already had one book in hand, and I was looking for another book with one of those "20% off with another purchase" blue stickers so I could get BOTH books at 20% off.

Then I saw this book, faced out on one of the Asian Literature shelves:



I'd heard of Kam Raslan's book before, but never actually thought of reading it, let alone buying it. And I wasn't gonna buy it then, because it didn't have a blue sticker on the cover.

But out of curiosity, I picked it up and read the synopsis.

Dato' Hamid—The Old Boy and civil servant who's been everywhere and seen it all (even though he never wanted to). Here he 'spills the beans' on his adventures dating back to the 1940s, from Kuala Lumpur to Monte Carlo, Los Angeles to Algiers, London to Temerloh Rest House and much more. Along the way...

And that was it. I didn't even finish reading the synopiss, and decided to get the book anyway, blue sticker or no blue sticker.

The clincher? The words "Temerloh Rest House" which was one of the landmarks in the little town I lived in, and had the best pork and chicken chops I'd ever tasted when I was a kid.

Here's to some nostalgic moments in the book, eh Kam?

Datin, Pramugari dan Menteri... and other Potential Malaysian Bestsellers in 2008

After reading on Sharon Bakar's blog about THIS LIST of potential bestsellers you WON'T be seeing in bookstores anytime soon, I decided to come up with a Malaysian list of books you may not (or may, you never know) see in bookstores anytime soon.

Presenting the list of....


Potential Malaysian Bestsellers in 2008:

Datin, Pramugari dan Menteri...
An anthology of the best Malaysian sex videos ever made, with minute-by-minute descriptions of the action, reviews from professional porn DVD sellers, and interviews with the stars (excerpt: "IT'S ME"). Includes a handy guide on how to ask for said videos when shopping at your local DVD pirates.

Elections and Erections
The bestselling biography from the nation's latest porn star. Find out first hand why he decided to give up being a politician for some fornication; and his shocking plan to run in the coming elections using his 'movie' as campaign material.

Zombie Kampung Pisang: The Illustrated Children's Pop-Up Book
Hot on the heels of the (not so) best-selling children's book based on Puteri Gunung Ledang comes this illustrated pop-up book of one of last year's hit local movies. Relive the horror of the movie with your kids, and be entertained by the numerous pop-up pictures of bananas, amusing zombies, and scary pictures of Awie!

LaLat-man
Malaysian cartoonist extraordinaire Datuk Lat attempts his first super-hero comicbook about a kampung boy who eats a goreng pisang infected by a mutated fly and gains the powers of a fly. Be amazed as he goes to smelly public toilets without blinking an eye, and lands on the straws of evil villains in kopitiams!

The Harmony Sidek Factory
A fictitious story of how the Sidek family became the nation's number one badminton family. Set in pre-Merdeka Malaya, and it is a strange yet predictable yarn involving a love triangle, communists, and a shuttlecock-making factory. (Warning: may be overly exoticised to cater for Western readers who don't know what badminton is).

Samy Vellu Says The Darndest Things...
Under pressure to come up with a quick-fire sequel to his bestselling 'Malaysian Politicians Say The Darndest Things', Amir Muhammad takes the easy way out and focuses on just ONE politician instead...

An Alzheimic Embuggerance To Mr Pratchett

Yes, I know this is the third post that is not a "Filler Post Disguised as a Proper Update" today, but I felt this bit of news was too important to wait for tomorrow to post.

I was alerted today by Ted Mahsun to this letter by Terry Pratchett posted two days ago on Paul Kidby's website:



NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frankly, the thought of dear old Terry Pratchett having Alzheimers is just a little too distressing for me. Surely dear old DEATH wouldn't be visiting him this soon? Can't he just do a Rincewind and RUN AWAY or something like that???? After all, if Granny Weatherwax can negotiate with Death himself, surely, the all-mighty creator of the Discworld can do the same as well?

Sigh.... :-(

For now, it's still early days yet, and since Pratchett himself sounds rather optimistic and prefers that people "kept things cheerful", I shall also follow in his wishes and interpret the situation as Pratchett says, as in 'I am not dead'. He also promises a few more books yet, so at least that cheers me up a little.

Here's to you, Mr Terry Pratchett, and hopefully I can still get that interview with you sometime in the near future, before the inevitable happens.

Stay CHEERFUL, dammit! CHEERFUL!

Sigh, where is Dr. Gregory House when you need him most?