StarMag, 29th April 2007
Classic fantasy is the clear winner
THE Lord of the Rings, J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic tale of the struggle between good and evil, is a clear favourite with Malaysian readers.
It topped StarMag’s poll of Malaysians’ top 10 favourite works of fiction by a large margin, garnering 25 more votes than the Harry Potter series, which came in second, followed closely by the American classic To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
From StarMag, 21st April 2006.
Books Malaysians Love
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The grumbling continued, though. As one reader, lawyer Animah Kosai, says, “If not for the deadline, I’d still be vascilating. It was a tough choice – I had to decide, one (book) per author. Otherwise there’d be more Murakami, Kundera and Nabakov.” Asked how long the list should have been? She says, “How long is a piece of string? I bet if I had to submit the list again, it would be slightly different.” The list Kosai did submit includes Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Haruki Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.
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Should we restrict our readers to just books originally written in English? No, we decided that this would mean leaving out some really important works of literature, like Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, Miguel Cervantes’s Don Quixote and Pramoedya Ananta Toer’s This Earth of Mankind.
Of course, we fully expected to be inundated with lists featuring The Da Vinci Code, but Dan Brown’s bestseller doesn’t seem to be a favourite of as many Malaysians as evinced from local sales of the book. It might be a case of anonymity not allowing some readers to be as honest as they otherwise might be about their preferences.
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We received e-mails from the day the poll was announced (April 1) and the overall response has been healthy considering that we are a nation who, supposedly, reads an average of two books per person per year. Look out for the final results in our Reads Monthly pullout next week.
Leow predicts that J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings will top the charts. Do you agree? You and your book club buddies can start placing bets now on what Malaysians' favourite books are!
Continue reading "In Anticipation of Malaysians' Top 10 Books" »
The British chose their favourite books for World Book Day (1st March in Britain) and now Malaysians will get a chance to do the same.
StarMag announced its Malaysia’s Top 10 Favourite Books survey today. It will soon be available online as well. Keep checking back here to find out when and where to do it that way. BUt if you can't wait, email or snail mail in your list.
In The Daily Mail yesterday, "According to a survey, Britons spend an average of £4,000 on books
during their lifetime, but fail to finish almost half of them."
The novel that topped the poll of book the British buy but don't read/finish is DBC Pierre's Vernon God Little. (Check out John Crace's hilarious synopses of some of the books, in The Guardian Unlimited's The Digested Read.)
Have a look at the full lists (fiction and non-fiction) and see if they match yours.
My list includes Marcel Proust's Remembrance of Things Past and Diana Wynne Jones's Dalemark Quartet.
I don't think I'll ever read Proust's seven-volume novel. (Actually, I'm on the verge of selling the four volumes I own. I am suddenly unsure if I should though. )
I recently started Cart and Cwidder (the first Dalemark book), again (probably the sixth time in as many years), and would have continued had I not been distracted by Terry Pratchett and Death.
One of my reading resolutions for 2007 is to read it. And The Wizard of Earthsea.
World Book Day was celebrated in the United Kingdom and Ireland yesterday (2 March 2006).
To mark the event, The Guardian Unlimited held an online survey about readers' tastes in endings in novels. The results show that most people prefer to close their books feeling happy, and Pride and Prejudice seems to be a big favourite when it comes to novels with happy endings.
Other World Book Day celebrations included children's authors entertaining kids in The Guardian's Newsroom Theatre. You can listen to Malachy Doyle reading his picture book The Dancing Tiger; Ian Whybrow singing songs; and many more.
It looks like there are quite a few of you out there who are really into the idea of Harry Potter dying. I've received several emails asking about the poll that appeared and then disappeared. Well, here's the link again. You probably have to join the Yahoo group SO what do YOU think to vote, so if you think that's more bother than it's worth, just post a comment with your suggestion(s) for the best (i.e. worst) way for Harry to pop his cork.
If you want Harry to die but aren't sick enough to think of the way he should go, here are a few ideas:
So go on then. Think slow, think painful, think no more bad books! Yayyy!!!
Harry Potter: Death by Playmobil
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
| 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 |
| 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 |
| 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
June 2008: Jenny Wagner (Author) & Ron Brooks (Illustrator): John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat
John Brown is an old English sheep dog. He belongs to Rose, an old widow, and is a deeply devoted companion. Says Rose, "We are all right, John Brown. Just the two of us. You and me." But one night, Rose notices a cat in the garden. A midnight cat. She is fascinated by the cat. John Brown doesn't approve. He tells the cat to leave. But Rose wants the cat. She longs for it. She leaves it milk in a bowl, which John Brown tips over. Finally, Rose takes to her bed and declares that she might stay there forever. John Brown is sad and decides that, because he loves Rose so much, he will put up with the midnight cat. This is a strange picture book - quite gloomy and sombre. The midnight cat is slightly sinister - could it be a symbol of death? When John Brown finally allows the cat into the cottage, is he really accepting Rose's death? Perhaps being a true friend includes being able to let go.
