Index: On the Pleasure and Perils of Reading

• The War on Words (6/11/04)
• Miss Manner's Guide to Reading and Eating (1/12/04)
• Bookshelves Real and Virtual (8/2/05)
• Favourite Characters (5/3/05)
• Goldilocks (6/3/05)
• Word of Mouth Phenomena (7/3/05)
• When Do You Read? (19/3/05)
• Read and Become Wise (11/4/05)
• Biblioculling and Bibliocide (4/5/05)
• Literature Abuse (10/5/05)
• Prequels, Sequels and Morequels (13/5/05)
• Bibliotypes (31/5/05)
• Skimming Scanning Scumming and Skinning (2/7/05)
• Twelve Steps to Salvation (19/7/05)
• The World's Biggest Readers? (18/7/05)
• You Are what You Read (21/7/05)
• Of Thickie Pariahs and Books by the Yard (17/8/05)
• The Film of the Book (12/9/05)
• Would Would You Like a Free Book? (20/9/05)
• What Flavour is Your Novel? (23/9/05)
• Soap Oprah (26/9/05)
• Pretentious? Moi? (25/10/05)
• Judged by the Cover (26/10/05)
• Bookshelves Real and Virtual (9/12/05)
  
• Birthday Books (28/10/05)
• Reading - At Your Convenience (22/7/06)
  
• Tagged and Totalled (26/9/06)
  
• The Colour of Books (26/9/06)
  
• Shelfish Reasons (9/10/06)
• It's Official - Fiction Readers are Better People (25/10/06)
• Guilt Free Low Lit (12/11/06)
• Booksniffers Anonymous (20/11/06)
  
• A Reading Challenge or Two (6/12/06)
• Guilty Pleasures (4/1/07)
• Reading for Empathy (25/1/07)
• Liar! Liar! Books on Fire! (26/1/07)
• Great British Dumpees (13/3/07)
  
• Loving Lousy Lit (6/5/07)
  
• A Question of Length (11/5/07)
  
• Beloved Baldy Boy Book (24/5/07)
  
• Travelling Companions (23/6/07)
  
• 20,800 and Counting (6/7/07)
  
• Summer Reading for Every Kind of Reader (10/7/08)
  
• Does Listening Count as Reading? (4/8/07)
  
• Free Books, Crossed Books (10/8/07)
  
• Bad Borrowers (22/8/07)
  
• Campbell Tops List of Dumped Books (1/9/08)
• Jealous, Huh? (23/8/07)
  
• The Pleasure Killers (22/9/07)
• What the Best Dressed Books are Wearing (16/9/07)
  
• How to Take a Book of the Shelf (16/12/07)
  
• The Gentle Art of Literary Bluffology (29/12/07)
  
• Some Reading Goals for 2008 (9/1/08)
  
• Love the Book, Love the Author? (12/1/08)
  
• The Art Garfunkel Reading List (22/1/08)
  
• Happy Bookish Valentine (14/2/08)
  
• Reading McCullers (10/3/08)
  
• Stop (Book) Thief! (18/3/08)
  
• Cheers! (28/3/08)
  
• BiblioBathtime (29/3/08)
  
• The Society of Slow Readers (2/4/08)
  
• Gauging Compatibility ... Through Books (3/4/08)
  
• Author Fatigue (10/4/08)
  
• The Close Reader (21/6/08)
  
• Reader's Block (28/7/08)
  

Index : Readings@Seksans and Other Venues

“Readings” is a monthly gathering of writers which was started in 2005 by Bernice Chauly. The aim is to encourage writers by giving them a platform for them to read their work and socialize. Each session features 6 writers – and there is always a mixture of the established and newbie, published and not yet published, in Malay and in English.

Our venue is currently Seksan’s beautiful space (the ground floor gallery of a landscape architect’s office 67, Jalan Tempinis 1, Bangsar).

• Readings at Darling Muse (5/1/05)
• Oh Darling Muse! (9/1/05)
• Saturday Perambulations (20/3/05)
• A Surfeit of Readings (17/4/05)
• A New Home for Words (22/5/05)
• Brown Sugar and Special Branch (26/6/05)
• Winning Wimmin (31/7/05)
• Captured! (1/8/05)
• Occasional Nudist Pumps Deltoids On the Road to Elvis (25/9/05)
• Painted Piggies, Winging Words (30/9/05)
• Inky Little Fingers (19/11/05)
  
• Rain and Readings (20/11/05)
• Cold Rain and Hailstones, Jitlessly (23/9/06)
  
• Seksan's on Saturday (26/11/06)
  
• Stesyen Elarti (26/12/06)
  
• Riveting Readings (28/1/07)
  
• Saturday in Photos (21/5/06)
• Texts Alive (8/2/07)
  
• The Python and the Poets(1/4/07)
  
• Teapots, Fundamentalists, Pipes and Convivial Company (30/4/07)
  
• Heartache and Laughter at Seksan's (26/5/07)
  
• Grandparents and Political Prose ... an Afternoon at Seksan's (1/7/07)
  
• Voices@Seksan (29/7/07)
  
• Readings - Piece of Cake (28/10/07)
  
• Tales From the Other Side (25/11/07)
  
• Happy Third Birthday, Readings (29/1/08)
  
• Wena's Wet Weekend (23/3/08)
• Opium, Marauding Islamic Extremists, and a Squished Cat (20/4/08)
  

Index: Malaysian and Singaporean Authors and Poets

This index is still under construction. It is not an exhaustive list, only featuring those writers I have written posts about on my blog. I have included Malaysian/Singaporean authors resident overseas, and non-Malaysians resident in this country.

My criteria for inclusion here is that these writers have had a book published or a play performed.

These are links to the labels which should bring up all the posts about a particular author. Where there are a large number of posts and not all of them show up via the label I am listing posts separately.

I have also listed authors by first name.

A. Samad Said

Adibah Amin

Amir Muhammad

Andrew Leci

Ann Lee

Antares

Awang Goneng

Bernice Chauly

Beth Yahp

Cecil Rajendra

Chew Siah-Teh

Chong Seck Chim

Chuah Guat Eng

David Byck

Dina Zaman

• Dina's Ancestors (6/4/08)
• Wena's Wet Weekend (23/3/07)
• More Awang Goneng (2/3/08)
• Readings Gets Respectable (31/12/07)
• Bloggers Breakfasted (3/5/07)
• I Am Muslim 2 - Over to You (28/4/07)
• Pascakolonialisma in Pink (16/4/07)
• KLILF Round Up (8/4/07)
• Some Litfest Photos (30/3/07)
• I Am Muslim (25/3/07)
• Eight Pages of Booknews! (25/3/07)
• Pages from the Literary Tatler - Dina's Launch (24/3/07)
• Texts Alive! (8/2/07)
• Dina Gets YouTubed (5/2/07)
• Here, Not Here .... (2/1/07)
• Stesyen Elarti (25/12/06)
• Congrats, Dina (6/11/06)
• Bloggers in Bali (11/10/06)
• Islam and Modernity (6/10/06)
• Not Just Pretty Faces (6/10/06)
• Opening (5/10/05)
• Desa Kala Patra (5/10/06)
• Rhino Extinction (12/7/06)
• Saturday in Photos (21/5/06)
• Dina's KLUE Reading (16/4/06)
• The Dina Zaman File (14/4/06)
• Occasional Nudist Pumps Deltoids on the Road to Elvis (25/9/05)

Eddin Khoo

Khoo Keng Hor

Lee Su Kim

Lim May Zhee

Lloyd Fernando

Lydia Teh

Kam Raslan

Karim Raslan

Kee Thuan Chye

Nizam Zakaria

Preeta Samarasan

Rani Manicka

Robert Raymer

Saradha Narayanan

Shamini Flint

Tash Aw

• Twan and Tash the Litera-nauts (5/11/07)
• Tash's Report Card (14/5/07)
• Tash and the Struggle for Independence (30/4/07)
• And Tash Aw's Second Book is ... (6/4/07)
• Some Litfest Photos (30/3/07)
• Litfest Fringe (27/3/07)
• Ooh ... Flashy Tashy (6/2/07)
• AwTish ... Who? (16/10/07)
• Tash Takes the Prize (6/1/06)
• Commonwealth Champs (11/2/06)
• Thor's Silk Factory Grouch (18/1/06)
• Tash Got Longlisted Again!!!! (15/8/05)
• Wah!!! Tash Got Longlisted!!! (10/8/05)
• You Are What You Read (21/7/05)
• One Aw-Some Day (26/6/05)
• Tash Dash (18/6/05)
• The Harmony Silk Factory - Review (12/6/05)
• Tash Splash (12/6/05)
• Tash for Cash (4/6/05)
• Tash Bash (2/6/05)
• Postscriptum Tashum (14/4/05)
• Tash Aw (12/4/05)
• Edgy Choices (1/1/07)

Teoh Choon Ean (Cean)

Tinling Choong

Tunku Halim

Shirley Lim

Shahril Nizam

Tan Twan Eng

Viren Swami

Vyvyane Loh

Wena Poon

Xeus

Yang-May Ooi

Yvonne Lee

Index: Building A Writing Community

How do we build a writing community in Malaysia?

• A Lazy Colony of Silverfish?? (15/5/05)
• Giving Writers a Chance (18/5/05)
• Writer's Centre (19/5/05)
• Welcome Reissues (3/7/05)
• Finding Lloyd (25/7/05)
• Is There a Market for Malaysian Fiction in English? (21/8/05)
• Write in English? Don't Be so Disloyal! (22/8/05)
• Inky Hands Needs You! (25/5/06)
• The Birth of Neohikayat (14/4/06)
• Rhino Extinction (12/7/06)
• The Book Project (30/7/05)
• Best of Silverfish (4/4/06)
• Writers in the Deep Freeze (26/8/06)
• The Writing Ecosystem (20/10/07)
• The Long and Winding Birth Canal of LRT (27/12/06)
• A Malaysian Literature? (16/1/07)
• SNW6 - Best Yet? (24/1/07)
• Where Novels Thrive (15/2/07)
• What We Need (29/4/07)
• The Expat Malaysian Author (19/8/07)
• Wot? No More Silverfish New Writing? (3/10/07)
• A Post on Kindness and Criticism Written in Horribly Clashing Metaphors (26/12/07)

Insights from elsewhere

• Writing from the Diaspora (13/8/05)
  
• The Need for "Adda" (29/12/06)
  
• Writing from Here Vs Writing from There (15/2/07)
  

Rogues Gallery of Fakers and Plagiarisers

Oprah Chops Frey Into A Million Little Pieces (Fries Him in Hot Oil) (28/1/06)
A Clutch of Bogus Memoirs (6/2/06)
Fabricated Memoirs - Even More Fakery (15/2/06)
Holy Plagiarised Madonnas! (1/3/06)
Severe Warning - Plagiarists Around! (17/3/06)
Kaavya and Carver: Cryptonesiacs? (30/4/06)
More Kaavya Fallout (8/5/06)
Dan Brown's Trial by Magazine (13/6/06)
Biographer's Betjemen Bombshell (4/9/06)
Jeffooied! (2/11/06)

Index: On Publishing

General
Happy Birthday, Penguin (6/7/05)

Self-Publishing
Thumbs Up for Self-Publishing! (18/2/05)
Self-Publishing (31/3/05)
First Fictions (1/3/05)
The Underground Route to Self-Publishing (14/6/05)
Pretentious Prat Pronounces Prodigiously (26/8/05)
Gems in the Slush Pile (15/8/05)

Locally
MPH Writers' Circle (16/1/05)
Gary Gets it Together (3/10/05) (on print-on-demand publishing)
International Young Publisher of the Year (15/8/05)
Free-Falling Fiction (2/6/05)
The Power to Publish (21/12/05)

Malaysian and Singaporean Publishers
The Silverfish Bug (18/9/06)
The Birth of Neohikayat (13/4/06)
New Voices (24/3/06)

Index: Reading Lists

This is a list of reading lists featured on the blog, and will give you some very useful reading suggestions. For later posts which have not yet been archived, please click here.

• The Big Gay Read (21/8/05)
• The Transgender Reading List (23/11/05)
• Reading Map (23/11/05)
• Books of the Year (27/11/05)
• More Best Books (3/12/05)
• Richard and Judy Go Forth (15/12/05)
• My Friendly Guides to Japanese Fiction (7/9/05)
• Literature for the Sub-Literate (4/3/06)
• A Writer's Reading List (13/4/06)
• 1001 Novels You Must Read (19/4/06)
• Best Gay Read (12/5/06)
• Seeking The Great American Novel (15/5/06)
• All American for Animah? (26/5/06)
• An Easy Way In (1/6/06)
• Novels to Inspire Writers (12/6/06)
• More Best Holiday Reads (9/7/06)
• Custom Reads (19/7/06)
• Prose on Prose to Emulate (28/8/06)
• Best of British (9/10/06)
• The South-East Asia Reading List (2/11/06)
• Guilt-Free Low Lit (12/11/06)
• The Best of Best of Lists (1/12/06)
• Young Adult Fiction (12/12/06)
• My Best Books of 2006 (29/12/06)
• Looking Back, Looking Forward (30/12/06)
• Liar! Liar! Books on Fire! (26/1/07)
• The Most Precious Book (4/3/07)
• What Are Your Favourites? (1/4/07)
• Top Tens (13/4/07)
• Comparative Literature (23/4/07)
• Malaysia's Top 10 (29/4/07)
• Boys into Books (17/5/07)
• Books of the Times (6/6/07)
• Cult Fiction (15/6/07)
• Summer Reading for Every Kind of Reader (10/7/07)
• The Greatest Love Story? (13/8/07)
• Ten Best Reads About Asia (11/9/07)
• The Didn't-Make It-But-Excellent titles (15/9/07)
• An Australian Reading List (14/11/07)
• 100 Notable Books of 2007 (23/12/07)
• This Year's Best Fiction (2/12/07)
• Still More Best of Lists (16/12/07)
• Richard and Judy's Picks (28/1/08)
• Great British (5/1/08)
• The Art Garfunkel Reading List (22/1/08)
• The Slippery Eel of Literary Fiction (27/1/08)
• Tie-In Titles and Hollywood Respect (23/2/08)
• 50 Best Crime Novels (24/2/08)
• Literary London (26/4/08)
• 50 Best Cult Books (26/4/08)

Index: On Book Retailing

In General:
How Squidgy is Your Bookshop? (30/11/05)
More Love Among the Bookshelves (12/2/06)

Chain Bookstores:
Bookshop Snakes and Ladders (19/6/05)
A Quick Guide to Bookshop Chains (16/2/06)

Independent Bookstores:
Independent Bookshops (22/3/05)
Not Daunted by Squidginess (2/12/05)
A Bookshop that Thinks It's a Hotel, A Hotel that Thinks It's a Library (9/12/06)
Skoob is Books Drawkcab (17/1/06)
A Home for Bookworms (20/2/06)
Pay Less, Read More (25/2/06)
The Lure of the Independents (9/10/06)

Warehouse Sales:
(inder construction)

Unusual Ways of Selling Books
Books Among the Baked Beans (16/3/05)
Food for the Mind: By Vending Machine (23/8/05)
Teh Tarik Books (29/8/06)
Thinking Outside the Bookstore (4/11/06)