Life is Good with Good Books!! Part 1

Sharing my notes on my book collection and thoughts. (Oct 23 2007)
Copy and paste from my MULTIPLY


One night while thinking of what show on tv, I landed my eyes on a shelf full with arranged books located at the edge of my mattress. The books seemed to be overflowing and appeared to beg for more spaces. Wondering why the titles are all scary... Hunting Down Amanda, Scavenger Hunt, Spook Night, Nightmare Inn, Whisper of Death and can say many many more... Just several with less threatening title like Midnight Warrior, Mentor, Marrying Mom, Iona... very few with motivation sort of title like Going To the Top, Management Thoughts, not to mention story books in bahasa (but priced book) and several religious book like Himpunan Doa Doa Pilihan (will add more to the collection..InsyaAllah). Those who browse through the title will surely in no time could guess what sort of book I read.

The Beginning

My life as early as I could remember, is always surrounded with books. I love reading particularly story books. When I was a kid, my late father used to bring me to a book shop in Kangar near Pawagam Kapitol opposite to BSN . He would say for RM10, choose whatever book you want. Those days, I could get four books of bahasa translation of Enid Blyton or Nancy Drew. Then I started to conquer Perpustakaan Kanak Kanak Perlis, I would borrow four books using my sister’s and my library cards. My sister cared for less to use the facility. Just not her type, I guess. During those days, English story books were considered alien to me. Though I excelled in my English class, I did not get enough exposure or can I say brave enough to try to read English books, until I turned thirteen and was not allowed to go to the kid section anymore. Changed my blue library card to red one, I still remember my first English book I borrowed from the same library at Adult Section, Razor Blade by Robin Cook... Hahaha... I could not understand the story line at all.. It is a medical fiction with lots of out of the world medical terms. I did not even finish reading the book.

Later, I forced myself, kind of... I started with a book titled Princess of White Dragon or something like that. Then move on to Dean R Koontz, Lightning.. love at the first sentence I could say..luckily the library has had a good collection of Koontz book..then tried Stephen King, Sidney Sheldon and long list of other authors. I started reading Robin Cook when I was in university. This time, it was superb.

Books heaven on earth

I started buying and collecting story books after SPM, working as an operator (minah karan) in a hard drive factory in Penang did pay me enough money to cater my passion. Most of my earliest bought books were from Popular Book Store in Komtar. The price was as high as fourty ringgit. Every month, I would allocate part of my salary to buy books as well as financing my British Council classes. Then later, my sister introduced me to Bazaar Chowrasta where I could get four paper backs of Stephen King’s (a bit old but not second hand book) for only RM40. Since then, I was one of the regulars and always get special price.

My next book heaven is Rope Walk, a famous place where you can find many unimaginable things from rusted horse shoes, screws, antique stuff, stickers, RM3 jackets, hair /car accessories to cheap fresh fruits. An uncle laid his merchandise, second hand books on the tarred area over a ground sheet. Loads of books are scattered around him. Books are sold as cheap as RM1 to RM5. I would buy at average of three books every time I went there. But of course I have to dig out, restack and rearrange the books until I find books that I find interesting or of known author. Since the books are all second handed, you would then expect the books to carry someone’s name. Some memorabilia wording like a present by someone..., for someone I love... for my wife... I just don’t understand how these books ended up here. These books deserved a place in a proper shelf and of course in heart and priced for life...

to be continued...