That would be the last Saturday of the month, what I like to call my literary Saturday. That’s when I attend two literary events back-to-back – the MPH Breakfast Club for LitBloggers in the morning, and Readings at Seksan’s in the afternoon. It’s a good thing they are held in the same neighbourhood, Bangsar, and within walking distance, too.

Yesterday was the last Saturday of the month (and the last Saturday of the year), but I had to make do with just one of the two events, the afternoon at Seksan’s, as MPH had its last Breakfast Club meeting of the year last month. But the Seksan’s readings more than made up for it as it turned out to be the best readings of the year – well, at least for me.

Readings, a birth child of Bernice Chauly lovingly fostered by Sharon Bakar (to borrow Sharon’s description), has always sought to give a voice to both published and yet-to-be-published writers. Yesterday’s event was no different. There was a good mix of fiction and non-fiction, and poetry, too, read by their writers, both published and soon-to-be-published. There was Dina Zaman, Patrick Teoh, Awang Goneng, M K Ajay and “bad boy” Amir Hafizi.

I attended most, if not all, of this year’s Readings (beginning from February), enough for me to be called a regular. I try to help out in whatever way, even if it was just setting out the chairs, trying to open a bottle of wine, or taking the used glasses to the sink for the guys (yes, guys) to wash. Yesterday, I helped with a rather important task, plugging a two-pin plug into a three-pin socket, important because otherwise, there would’ve been no sound system. But I digress …

I’ve enjoyed every one of the Readings attended, I always come away feeling rejuvenated and positive that there’s a future for the Malaysian literary scene. I’d even been invited to read, but chickened out at the last minute, but well, that’s just me.

Mostly, I just enjoy being there, being part of the crowd. Yesterday’s crowd was probably the biggest for the whole year, very special because family and friends of Awang Goneng, author of Growing Up in Trengganu, came especially to see him and hear him read. It was like a family reunion … a Trengganu family reunion! It was all the more special for the presence of Awang Goneng’s other half, Kak Teh. I’d first met Kak Teh at the launch of Dina’s book I Am Muslim in March. When I saw Kak Teh yesterday, I apologised for leaving a silly comment on her blog. In the comment, I’d offered to go around the bookstores to help check on how the book is doing and to take pictures, too. The comment was silly because it showed that I’d not read her blog carefully to know that both of them were back in Malaysia for the book’s launch! Duh, Chet.

Yesterday’s Readings was special for a couple of other reasons.

For one, I’d started my literary “participation” this year listening to Dina Zaman read (among other readers, including Kam Raslan and Tan Twan Eng, at the Night of the Living Text in February), and ended it listening to her read at yesterday’s Readings at Seksan’s.

For another, yesterday’s Readings featured someone from my youth, someone who started as my favourite deejay and went on to become a good friend, even a former boss, and probably the only person who still calls me by my other name – Patrick Teoh. No, no, that’s not what he calls me; Patrick Teoh is the someone from my youth, in fact, the voice of my youth, from the days when he was a deejay on Rediffusion, that’s how far back we go. I call him the Voice of Malaysia, altho he insisted the Voice of Malaysia is someone else, but that’s what he’ll always be to me. I’m sure, after yesterday, he’s won himself a new legion of fans among the young ‘uns who might have heard of him but never heard him for themselves.

This morning, when I checked my email, I found that I’d been tagged in a couple of photos by both Sharon and Dina. Dina’s photo shows what I do best …

This is what I do best in life, too – I’m an onlooker (on-looker?), a spectator, an observer. I like the last description (observer) best. Hopefully, in the new year (my 50th year, if anyone is interested), I will do more than observe.

Here’s to a great new year ahead to you and yours.