I'm back to re-reading my books. The two books that were borrowed from Midget are done for. I'm now with Phileas Fogg and Passerpartout. I never noticed how routine and boring the life must have been for Mr Fogg before his round-the-world adventure. The man sacked his servant (the one before the ever reliable Passerpartout) just for not preparing his shaving water at the right temperature...! His life had to be exact. It must have been tiresome to have everything exactly as you wanted.
The first time I read the book, I was full of admiration for Mr Fogg. I was 11 at that time. The adventure that Mr Fogg went through was inspiring for an 11-year-old boy. The description of exotic India, the wild west train ride and so forth were such that I wanted to experience them first hand. I wanted to be Mr Fogg! But alas, reading it for the second time, I was so embarassed that I used to want to be like him! But hey, I was 11 at that time...good enough excuse, perhaps?
Reading the book reminded me of another book of that period. Lord Jim, if I'm not mistaken. It was about a mat salleh, came to Borneo, had an adventure of a lifetime, settled down there and the locals called him, Tuan Jim. He wrote about the headhunters of Borneo, the tribes that were scatterred along the Sungai Rejang, etc. The book was written by Joseph Conrad, an American, if I'm correct, and was made into a movie back in the sixties. I have a copy of the same in e-book.
I was skyping with Midget yesterday when somehow or rather, we talked about Sandera, by Arenawati. I miss that book. I had a copy some years ago, but lost it to termites. Now, I'm wondering, where can I get another copy? In fact, there is a list of books that I want to buy/have. I noticed that it is easier to find old English books by DH Lawrence, Jules Verne, Joseph Conrad, etc, but it is almost impossible to get old Malay classics. What is DBP going to do about that? Or anyone for that matter? My wishlist (some might not be the correct titles or authors, but the gist of it...):
- Sandera, Arenawati
- Merpati Putih Terbang Lagi, Khadijah Hashim (?) (not a classic classic, quite contemporary, actually)
- Lepaskan Kembali Aku ke Laut, (can't remember the author), Volumes 1-3
- Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan, Shahnon Ahmad
- Desa Pingitan, (can't remember the author)
- Hikayat Parang Puting, (can't remember the author)
2 comments:
If I may help, I believe Desa Pingitan was written by Ibrahim Omar, I read it like 16 times when I was in Form 3 I think, and that was in the early 80's
Yes, you're right. I've asked DBP and they said that except for Merpati Putih Terbang Lagi, all titles can be bought at their Koperasi DBP, Menara DBP. Anyway, do you have the first print of the book, with a picture of a train going through a village as its cover?
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