I bought two Malay books yesterday at Mischief Bookstore located at the mezzanine floor of Plaza Ampang(next to Amoang Park shopping complex,Kuala Lumpur.This is my frist visit there to look for books for my son. I think this new bookshop has something to offer for everyone despite its small size and limited stocks.

The books are:
1. Tenggelamnya Kapal Van Der Wijck-for me.
2. Cerita Kayu-for my son.

Yesterday I visited the Malaysian International Book Fair at PWTC and managed to get an old book written by the famous ulama Hamka of Indonesia-Kenang Kenagna Hidup.Lately I have been reading too much of western philosophy and thoughts and I feel I need to know more about the scholars from my own kind. The balance of ying and yang is important to harmonise one's philosophy of life...

I just bought On Writing by Stephen King. Hope to read it in the next two weeks.Someone told me it is a good read -for readers as well as writers.I hope to learn from the master story-teller how to write well;-)

Now, I am half-way through a story called Odessa File. It is very interesting reading how a journalist trying to track ex-Nazi..

Yesterday, I bought the first edition of Disclosure by Michael Crichton for RM 15. This is my first time reading a novel by the author. I love the movie( starring Michael Douglas) but only now I got the chance to read the book. Now, I am on page 88;can;t put it down!

To-day I read in the newspapers that the government( Malaysia) declared July
as the reading month. Previously,it was in August every year. The theme for
this year is: Reading Frees the Mind!

Unfortunately,from my personal view our Malaysian reading culture has not
improved very much despite all the efforts taken by th government
agencies.My question is what has gone wrong?

I stopped reading Anil's Ghost last week because I found it dull and leading to nowhere.Then,I pick up a collection of short stories by Hanif Kureishi and again I am bored after two boring stories:-((.

May be I should try reading Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Golden;this novel havs been sitting on my bookshelf since 30/10/1999!