I went to the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair, also known as Pesta Buku Antarabangsa Kuala Lumpur (PBAKL) yesterday. I’ve been joining the bookish crowd ever since 3-4 years ago and have promised myself to make it into an annual thing. Well, as long as it continues to be held yearly.
To be honest, when I first attended the book fair, I went home with nothing. This is due to the fact that I rarely read Malay books and PBAKL is famous for a wide variety and majority of Malay books. I remembered going 3 years ago and bought only 1 book by my friend who wrote Fizik-lah.
It was only 2 years ago when I started writing for The Patriots that I had some sort of an awakening and started to give Malay (and Indonesian) books another go. Some of those books were listed in my previous posts.
This year however, I did not really buy much considering all the books bought during the Big Bad Wolf book sale that I haven’t had enough time to read yet. And also because I did not have any titles in mind that I’m actually looking forward to buy.
I’m proud that the Patriots Publication booth was super packed (compared to last year), which means that Malaysians are accepting and supporting our efforts in educating the public on various aspects, not just through social media but also books as a medium. One of the books under the publication, Dunia Tanpa Tembok II even won the Anugerah Buku Negara (in the Geopolitics category) which I’ve also bought and are anticipating to read soon. And my friend has published another interesting book, Alegori Naruto, which I bought and got his signature in it as well.
I was expecting more Indonesian book varieties this year but was left disappointed. I did saw some books by Tere Liye and Andrea Hirata, which can be bought online with much reasonable prices. Since I’ve enjoyed reading Padang Bulan last year, I’ve decided to buy it’s continuation, Cinta di Dalam Gelas. Come to think of it, I’ve been hunting Eka Kurniawan’s Cantik Itu Luka for some time now. Kinokuniya sells one but it’s the English version (and quite costly at that too) and I’d rather read the original Indonesian version. I guess I’ll have to wait till any of the online book sellers have one in stock.
I’d also love to know your suggestions on books, if you guys have any.
SCRAWL SEASON 