I finally got to Skoob Books in Menara Mutiara Majestic at PJ Old Town last Friday (31 July) after work. I actually went there a week earlier, and although the shutter was open, the glass door was locked and there was nobody inside. I went back after a while.
This time, there was nobody there again. I was a little crestfallen. But I waited, and a couple of minutes later, the owner was in and he let me in. He apologised for the mess in the shop (books are strewn on the floor - that's how my room could look like) as there was a sale recently (damn it!).
So I wondered among the shelves, wondering what I would find. I was the only customer there at the time, so I felt quite comfortable. There were hardly any of those bestsellers about, although I did spot one hardcover copy of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It had a lot of books from decades earlier, that are probably out of print.
It's definitely not the typical Malaysian bookshop as we know it, filled with money-spinning bestsellers and novel cinta, and a treasure trove for the serious book lover.
The owner is Thor Kah Hoong, a literary critic who used lecture in University of Malaya (UM) and who had just finished writing a column for Malay Mail (http://www.mmail.com.my/source/thor-kah-hoong). Do read it, Quite interesting.
After browsing for a while, he came up to me and started chatting, first of all about the upcoming (now past) anti- and pro- ISA rally on August 1. Then we talked about so many things, and that's when I found out he too was from UM. He was really a treasure trove of memories and information, who peppered his conversation with "expressive" language. I felt right at home. Not that my family used a lot of expressive language at home.
For those who didn't know, Mr. Thor (not son of Odin) acted as the cranky Cantonese-speaking father in Sepet and Gubra. Loved that part when he said to his long-suffering wife in Sepet, "Meh peng kai lei ge?" (what sick chicken is this?), and his upset wife got up to whack him but was prevented from doing so by their elder son.
I walked away with four books, the first, a collection of plays by Anton Chekhov, and the second is The Story of Srebenica by Isnam Taljic, a novel about the war in Bosnia, translated from Bosnian and published by Silverfish Books, with a foreword by Tun Dr. Mahathir.
The last two are pure Malaysian treasures. The first one is Ways of Exile, an anthology of poetry by Wong Phui Nam, possibly Malaysia's best-known poet and described as the creme-de-la-creme of South-East Asian poets. The cover of this book was a painting by Latiff Mohidin.
The second one is Haunting The Tiger: Contemporary Stories from Malaysia, by K.S. Maniam. He is widely considered to be one of Malaysia’s best short story writer (he also writes plays).
Both of them graduated from Um and later went back to teach at UM in the department of English. These two are sterling examples of academics who practice what they preach. Both of them have produced great works that are widely acclaimed locally and abroad. Sadly, we can hardly find their works in most local bookshops (except probably for Maniam’s The Return, which is a literature component material for secondary school English). Such is the fate for many of our best writers, including authors like Usman Awang and Shahnon Ahmad.
These two books were published by Skoob Pacifica, an imprint of Skoob Books Publishing based in London. Skoob Books and Skoob Books Publishing are closely related. Thank goodness for Skoob Books, I can find works by these two acclaimed Malaysian authors. Malaysia is a land of many talented people, but for some reason, they tend to be sidelined...
Mr. Thor was really friendly and shared loads of stories about people he knew and things he went through. Some of these stories will leave you somewhat amazed and indignant.
I left Skoob Books after spending nearly two hours there, feeling really good.
Skoob Books is at Lot 122 & 123, Menara Mutiara Majestic, Jalan Othman, PJ Old Town.
No comments:
Post a Comment