Posted on 1 August 2007 @ 15:52 in Books
I have just finished reading Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits. I came to the book late, having been introduced to her via Daughter of Fortune and holding off reading this, her first book, for a long time. I didn’t even own a copy until about 2 months ago.
This is a book I enjoyed very much, so very much that I want to share it with my sister. But I can’t just let her have my copy of the book because my sister is Chinese educated and the English words would not mean much to her. I need to get her the Chinese translation. I know there is a Chinese translation; I found out from Allende’s website! But the thumbnail of the book cover was too small for me to make out the Chinese title, and my trip to the Chinese section of Popular at Ikano proved fruitless as I did not have the Chinese title, or even Allende’s name in Chinese, to search for. On the other hand, I was very surprised to find translations of books by the likes of Michael Ondaatje and V S Naipaul, and even a Chinese version of Toni Morrison’s Beloved! But I digress …
Since that trip, I’d managed to find the Chinese names for both the author and her first novel, with the help of Angie (fellow Paula Tsui fan). We managed it online via MSN chat (she’s in Sydney). She’d never heard of the author or the book but that did not stop her from helping me. Thanks, Angie! I hope this has piqued your curiosity and you will get a copy to read for yourself what it’s all about.
Here’s how Allende’s name and the book’s title look like in Chinese:
I’m going to get a print-out and take it to Popular Ikano to get them to see if they have a copy somewhere in their Chinese section, or if they can order it for me.
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Posted on 11 July 2007 @ 16:29 in Books, Friends
This time from Canada. Brought over by Anne. Canadian authors, of course.
Three by Margaret Atwood, two of them non-fiction that I’d specifically asked for, while the third is a bonus, that Anne saw and thought I might like.
The lone non-Atwood book is by Wayson Choy, a Canadian Chinese author I’d discovered while browsing at a bookstore in either Toronto or Vancouver in 1997. It’s the same title – The Jade Peony – as the one I bought in 1997 which, for some reason, I gave away as a token of friendship that I now recognise as plain silly.
In return, Anne got from me autographed copies of Dina Zaman’s I Am Muslim and Kam Raslan’s Confessions of an Old Boy.
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Posted on 8 July 2007 @ 21:08 in Books
Still accessing the Net from Hoxe’s, but beh tahan, so decided to give a try at posting from a public hotspot.
Most avid readers have TBRs (to-be-read lists), and those with blogs have posted their TBRs online. Well, I have a TBR of sorts – whatever I’ve been purchasing from the various bookstores in recent months, but that’s the point of buying books, right – to read them, altho I’ve mostly been just piling them up, but I digress … where was I?
So, last night, after finishing Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun, I decided to take a look at what I’ve finished in recent months and was pleasantly surprised to find I’d finished 11 books since October 2006, including reading one of them twice (the second time to help the author re-proofread the book).
I went round my apartment to gather together the books for a picture:
Not bad for someone who used to fall asleep after reading the first para or so of any book.
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Posted on 6 July 2007 @ 11:48 in Books, People
“There’s no one here!” Zhang Su Li, the morning’s featured author (of the book A backpack and a bit of luck), cried out.
“Oy, I’m here, lah!” Me, the lone regular, standing next to her, countered.
“Oh yah. Sorry.” She offered, looking over.
I can speak the way I spoke to the author because we used to hang out together quite a few years ago. She was horrified to learn I still have the pictures from those days. *evil laughter*
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Posted on 29 June 2007 @ 18:22 in Books
I wish I could say they – or rather their books – are everywhere in Singapore. But the truth is, they (the books, specifically Kam Raslan’s Confessions of an Old Boy) were hard to find even in the bookshops. I had to go to the information counter to ask if the book was available in the shop.
Well, yes, Dato’ Hamid is available in both Borders and Kinokuniya in Singapore, but not where it should be. In Borders Singapore, Dato’ Hamid is shelved in the “Southeast Asian History” section, right next to his brother Karim’s Ceritalah. When I told the customer service person who took me to that section that the book is actually fiction, she said well, maybe it’s based on history. Which would make it historical fiction, and not … oh, never mind.
Can you see Dato’ Hamid in the picture below? (Clue – purple)
In Kinokuniya (Ngee Ann City outlet), Dato’ Hamid can be found in the “Culture & Tradition” section, along with Lee Su Kim’s A Nyonya in Texas, Lydia Teh’s Honk! If You’re Malaysian, and Adibah Amin’s two-volume As I was Passing.
If you’re looking for Antares’ Tanah Tujuh and Zhang Su Li’s A Backpack and A Bit of Luck, you’ll find them correctly shelved in the “Anthropology” section and the “Travel” section in Borders Singapore.
Dina Zaman’s I Am Muslim is also correctly shelved in the “Religion” section in both Borders Singapore and Kinokuniya (Ngee Ann City). There’s also a bonus – at Borders Singapore, I Am Muslim is featured in a display, “Insights to Islam” , and in good company, too, with Karen Armstrong’s Muhammad, as well as Irshad Manji’s The Trouble with Islam Today, Ed Husain’s The Islamist, and Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel.
However, both Borders Singapore and Kinokuniya (Ngee Ann City) are still carrying the “First Printing” edition of I Am Muslim.
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