Bedtime story

I didn't read much when I was a kid. And when I read, I only read Malay books, to be exact, those translated Enid Blyton's books. I never knew they were translated. I thought Enid Blyton was a Malay with a weird name. And I also thought that Enid is a male's name. How wrong I was at that time! And it was easy to get hooked to any of her books, since most of the times, you can relate to the character in the books, or imagine that you were one of them.

My favourite series would be the Secret Five. I'm sure almost all of you would have at least read one of the series. In Malay, it was translated to Lima Penyiasat. The main character is Gemuk, who was a master in disguise and always outwitting the local policeman, Encik Goon. He was assisted by John, Mary, Samy and Saroja and also at times, his dog, Buster.

There were a few tricks that they did in the book that was quite impressive. I still remember some of them, which includes the invisible ink trick (supposed to be lime juice) and to reveal the ink, you need to iron the message. Also the one where they were locked in a room, and what they did was slipped a piece of paper underneath the door, and poke the key out until it fell down onto the paper (of course the key needs to be in the keyhole on the other side of the door).

And I remember Gemuk has this shack where he hid his disguises. And he would disguised himself as different characters and walked around town to fool people (especially Encik Goon). Somehow, Goon and his bicycle always provide the humour in the story (with Buster occasionally barking and biting his legs).

Other than that, another one of my favourite is the Lima Sekawan series. This one is about Eddie, Dean, George, Mona and their dog, which I can't remember its name. Also about kids playing detective, but it is more like stumbling into a case rather than looking for one. Eddie, Dean and Mona are siblings, with George (Georgina is her real name, but she prefers to be called George, and likes to wear boy's clothing) being their cousin who lives in a house near the sea. So there were plenty of secret caves, islands adventures with the occasional pirates and treasures.

I think that was why I yearned for adventures and mystery during my childhood years. I even formed my own detective club in school, with our secret meetings and codes. But we didn't solve any mystery. It was more to creating our own mystery and solving them with our imagination. Something like role-playing (of course at that time, we had no idea what Dungeons and Dragons were). But all in all, we had a lot of fun. I still have our membership card, tuck safely in my drawer back at home.

I think I shall rummage that drawer the next time I'm home.

Books galore

This tag is long overdue, but since I have to recall the books that I've read for the past few years, it took a while to compile the list. Thanks to Seademon, for sensing that I am a bookworm and read to fill in my time (I don't do anything else, come to think of it). The original tag was supposed to be 50 books, but Seademon limited it to 30, but as promised, I'm listing down 100.

Dragonlance (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman)
1. Dragons of Autumn Twilight
2. Dragons of Winter Nights
3. Dragons of Spring Dawning
4. Time of the Twins
5. War of the Twins
6. Test of the Twins
7. The Second Generation
8. Dragons of Summer Flames
9. Dragons of a Fallen Sun
10. Dragons of a Lost Star
11. Dragons of a Vanished Moon
12. Dragons of the Dwarven Depths
13. The Soul Forge
14. Brothers Majere

Death Gate Cycle (Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman)
15. Dragon Wing
16. Elven Star
17. Fire Sea
18. Serpent Mage
19. The Hand of Chaos
20. Into the Labyrinth
21. The Seventh Gate

Jeffrey Archer
22. Not a penny more, not a penny less
23. Shall We Tell the President?
24. Kane & Abel
25. The Prodigal Daughter
26. First Among Equals
27. A Matter of Honour
28. As the Crow Flies
29. Honour Among Thieves
30. The Fourth Estate
31. The Eleven Commandment
32. Sons of Fortune
33. A Quiver Full of Arrows
34. Twelve Red Herrings
35. False Impression

J.K. Rowling
36. Harry Potter & the Philosopher Stone
37. Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets
38. Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban
39. Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire
40. Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix
41. Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince
42. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows

David Eddings
43. Pawn of Prophecy
44. Queen of Sorcery
45. Magician's Gambit
46. Castle of Wizardry
47. Enchanters' End Game
48. Guardians of the West
49. King of The Murgos
50. Demon Lord of Karanda
51. Sorceress of Darshiva
52. The Seeress of Kell
53. The Diamond Throne
54. The Ruby Knight
55. The Sapphire Rose
56. Domes of Fire
57. The Shinning Ones
58. The Hidden City
59. Belgarath the Sorcerer
60. Polgara the Sorceress
61. The Redemption of Althalus (with Leigh Eddings)

Sidney Sheldon
62. The Naked Face
63. The Other Side of Midnight
64. A Stranger in the Mirror
65. Bloodline
66. Rage of Angels
67. Master of the Game
68. If Tomorrow Comes
69. Windmills of the Gods
70. The Sands of Time
71. Memories of Midnight
72. The Doomsday Conspiracy
73. The Stars Shine Down
74. Nothing Last Forever
75. Morning, Noon and Night
76. The Best Laid Plans

John Grisham
77. A Time to Kill
78. The Firm
79. The Pelican Brief
80. The Client
81. The Chamber
82. The Rainmaker
83. The Runaway Jury
84. The Partner
85. The Street Lawyer
86. The Testament
87. The Painted House

Paulo Coelho
88. The Alchemist
89. Eleven Minutes

Jean M. Auel
90. Clan of the Cave Bear
91. The Valley of Horses
92. The Plains of Passage
93. The Mammoth Hunters

W. Michael Gear and Kathleen O'Neal Gear
94. People of the Earth
95. People of the Wolf
96. People of the Fire

J.R.R Tolkien
97. The Hobbit
98. The Fellowship of the Rings
99. The Two Towers
100.The Return of the King

I can list another 100, but let save that for another time. And I also owned all the books listed above (except for the Deathly Hallows, still waiting for the paperback version). Come to think of it, I can open my own library. Okay, maybe a mini library.

And when folks ask me why I have to buy all these books, when I can just borrow them from the library, or those rent-a-book shops, or from friends, I told them, because I read them more than once (and because it is my hobby).

Nerd!

The Deathly Hallows

I am a Potter-fan, but not to the extend of buying the book on the first day of release.

And not to the extend of spending RM69.90 (only applicable in Tesco and Carrefoure) to buy the hardcover version.

Yes, I am a Potter-fan, but I'll wait until the paperback version (which is way cheaper) is out before buying one. But that doesn't mean I'll wait that long to read it. And read it I did, after I acquired the book on loan from my eleven-years old student. Yes, she finished the book in less than a month, reading it like mad every free time she had. We had a very good discussion about the book just now, and it felt good to be able to share with someone who are as fanatic as me.

It took me two nights to finish the book, and the whole weekend to reread it again, just in case I missed any important details. Reading the book was fun, and nerve-rending, because it was filled with plenty of actions and revelations (and because I know that I would get tired and sleepy at work the next morning for staying up so late!)

The book is simply superb. The first 6 books were written in anticipation for this final book. Things that are mentioned in the earlier books were like missing pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle, fitting in nicely and snugly into the book. Rowling really had her plot drawn, laying it out nicely in 7 books, and bringing it to a perfect end in the final book.

Still, the middle part was a bit of a drag, where Harry, Ron and Hermione travelled the whole Britain in search of the Horcruxes. It was like a never-ending camping trip. That got pretty tiresome after a while. And you would have thought that the three of them would have learnt better from previous experiences not to get into each other's nerve. But Ron being Ron, and Harry being Harry (and a part of Voldemort), I guess they just couldn't help it. It was a good thing that Dumbledore predicted this and gave Ron his deluminator, so that he was able to find them again.

But the best chapter in the book to me was The Prince's Tale. Snape has always been one of my favourite character, not because he was evil, but because he seemed to be hiding a lot behind his greasy hair. And how Snape was doing good things, but all for the wrong reasons. He was doing it out of guilt and if it hadn't been for Lily, he would have been Voldemort's most trusted lieutenant. And the fact that every time he looked at Harry, he saw the eyes of the woman he loved in the face of the man he hated. That part was simply brilliant. Lost love. Almost brought tears to my eyes.

In the end, the arrogance of Voldemort (and Dumbledore's brilliant plan plus Harry's help) brought to his demise. It was beneath the Dark Lord to believe that Harry was more powerful than him. It was unthinkable that Harry could defeat him in a duel.

And of course, the epilogue was necessary, to put an end to everything. I think Rowling really meant it when she said the 7th book will be the last book in the series, hence the 17 years later.

Overall, I am highly satisfied with the book. I shall not reveal the whole story here, I think you all should discover the magic by reading the book yourselves. But of course, if you have read the book and would like to talk about it with me, I would be glad to share.

And here's to Dobby, the brave elf, who sacrificed himself for the greater good.

Here lies Dobby, a Free Elf