Buku! (part II)

The fantasy of a bibliophile.

If I'm ever to be cooped up for days somewhere due to natural catastrophe e.g. earthquake / killer waves / haze or to be quarantined due to whatever disease, I wish it'll be in a bookstore (MPH /Kinokuniya), or the very least, a decent library. Heh. My idea of a worldly heaven would be close to that.

Books, books and more books. Stacked on the shelves, lining whole expanse of walls. Spread them on the floor, like an ocean to slake the thirst of the minf. Fictions and non fictions. Thick and thin. All colors, all sizes. Bound pages by the hundreds of thousands (dare I say millions?) waiting to be caressed and pondered upon.

And the time to read them all.

Pheehhh.

Have you ever read.....?

• during class / seminars / talks ( there's an art to pretending you're listening when actually you're devouring Stephen King's It under the desk)
• while waiting for the bus / the blind date / your turn during track practice
• while walking someplace
  
• during school assembly
• on the train / car / plane
  
• on the john (eleh come on lah, lots of people do this)
• while taking a shower
• while driving (especially during massive traffic jams)
• while cooking
• while having breakfast / lunch / dinner

I wonder where or what else do people do, that could be supplemented with reading on the side? Tell me.

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Image from "Read or Die" [image credit] :
an anime involving a world obsessed with books - imagine that!

Buku!

Tiba-tiba terasa jauh dari mereka. Buku-buku.

Aku rindu saat-saat membaca. Dulu.

Shahrizal - my first love story

(in lieu of Mukhsin)

We were seven.
His name was Shahrizal. We were in the same class. Satu Merah.

We would buy each other kuih during recess.
The only time he didn't take the curry-puff I gave him was because he had just had his bersunat and there were meat in it. "Kalau makan daging nanti ko*ek aku bentan, mak aku cakap", he said.

On the last day of the year, we had already chosen a place next to each other in our future Dua Merah class. Cikgu Zuraida had to stop us from putting our heads in each other's lap.

At recess that day he gave me packet wrapped in newspaper and told me he will be moving to another school.

I think I still have that pink-beads necklace somewhere.

I've never heard of Shahrizal ever since.

Mukhsin unseen

At the moment, I am officially immensely very-very jeles at The Visitor, Fadz, SM, Roy, NZ and Habri for all six of them have seen Mukhsin, and I haven't.

Jeles tau.
Jeles.

["You know, Aryana, Kak Ted has yet to see us in Mukhsin"]

(Addendum " 15/8/06 - Finally seen Mukhsin. Best.)

Food for the soul