Sumbat

Dia terikat. Mulut disumbat. Panik.

Hazlan diam. Telinganya peka mendengar bunyi tapak kaki. Mungkin mereka masih di luar. Dia kena senyap. Kalau mereka perasan, habis musnah rancangan.

Dia tahu, ini akan terjadi. Masa mereka mengikat tangan Hazlan, dia bijak untuk menggenggam tangan dan meninggalkan sedikit ruang, supaya mudah untuk meloloskan jarinya. Bila Hazlan pasti mereka dah pergi, dia mulakan rancangannya.

“Sial la. Sakit tangan aku.” Keluh Hazlan dalam hati.

Sikit demi sedikit jarinya mula bebas. Bila tangan dah lepas, mulut bukan lagi satu masalah.

Hazlan lega. Pintu stor dibuka. Dia mengeluh. Perkara buli seperti ini akan terjadi lagi. Sampai bila-bila. 

2013

I hope this year will end well..

Big Bad Wolf is back bitches

Big Bad Wolf is back!

 

Aku tak percaya cepat gila masa berlalu and now, here he comes! Okey, first for introduction, what is Big Bad Wolf? Bid Bad Wolf is super awesome events where they sell books for 80-90% off their real prices. The real owner of BBW also owns BookXcess. 

BookXcess has the same concept however, it is not mass produced as BBW. The prices are lower than average bookstores (still cheap, you could get books for rm20+ when all the other bookstores sell those at rm30++). I went there before and I must say I’m quite satisfied. Not good at explaining so check The Malaysian Reader’s blog and see for yourself. 

Okey. Back to BBW. 

Since I went there before, I feel obligated to give a few tips for those who wanted to go. There’s a few thing you could do before going to BBW. As one would say, a battle will be lost without a proper preparation. 

Before going :

1. You have to know that there’s thousands (in fact, BBW announce it will be MILLIONS) of books there. Nak tak nak mesti rambang mata. With all those cheap prices, who could resist? So kena prepare dulu buku apa nak dengan surf website BBW : http://bigbadwolfbooks.com/ . The website gives nothing but the title of the name and the writer. So kalau nak tengok buku ni best ke tidak, do like what I did. 

i.                  Surf for any books that might catch your eyes.

The Boy Who Could See Demon? Interesting….

ii.                   Got your title? Then surf into GoodReads.com and search for your book.

iii.                  Interested? Put it in a list so that you won’t forget.

Easy peasy. But you have to remember, there are thousands of books that are not listed in here. So be prepared to spend some more money than you budget. Who knows what you will find there.

2. Wear your battle outfit. No high heels or anything that made you uncomfortable. Remember, you are going to a battle. Long hours of hunting and possibility of pushing through a lot of people just browse some books.

3. Bring big case (or roller bag, anything you fancy). Because after paying they’ll give you this cheap (easily rip) plastic bag and you’ll need something tougher than that to hold you books. Well if you are going by car then it’s no problem. But for me who gonna use the public transportation, I might wanna be more careful about this. Taknak la nanti buku rosak pulak kan

During the battle:

1. While you are browsing for books, please please please be nice to other people. You have to remember that other people wanted the books in a nice condition too. Too many people browse around for books, and then THEY GOT GREEDY. They take every book possible and then when they decided not to buy them, they just put it somewhere else. Susah sangat ke nak bagi kat staff yang ada. KAN KE SUSAH UNTUK ORANG LAIN AMEK BUKU TERSEBUT? KENAPA SELFISH SANGAT?!

And the other thing is, bila browse buku, tak reti nak letak buku tu balik elok-elok. I mean come on. That’s the reason why I didn’t want to go on weekends. I’m expecting to see people who touch every book and then placed it wrongly. Abes terlipat-lipat buku tu. I probably end up as BBW staffs, handling the books and placing them back.

2. Last year, when I went to BBW for the first time, I was so overwhelmed for the massive cheap books and I grab every book possible. (I’m GUILTY AS CHARGED). So eventually your books won’t be enough. As a solution,  the smart wolf provides a counter and boxes, for us to drop our books there and continue hunting other books.

 Picture courtesy from here

And lastly, happy hunting! I wish you the best hunting possible and may the rest of your life (until the next BBW) be filled with books and excitement! :D

Without You

I want you to be brave.
to have faith in yourself.I want you to be strong and believe in your decisions.
never regret, never look back.
there's nothing frighten me more than the thought of someday,
when you look back in this moment, and you start to think,
"how I regret the decision I made that day".

your decision may hurt someone, and you have to know that it is okay.
It's okey to be selfish sometimes.
It's okay.
It's okay even if it's me you've hurt.

I want you to live your life proudly, even though it not as big as anyone else,
even though it is just a small achievement,
I want you to know that I'm so proud of you.

I want you to always live in your dream.
To be running and climbing one step after another,
with nothing stopping you,
I want you to live your life to the fullest.
sky is the limit.
to climb every mountain,to finish every task.
even though it hurts, I don't want you to quit.

Things happened. they just do.
and sometimes we are weak.

I want you to know that I can be your strength.
even if we are apart,
I can be there when you need me.
I'll be your back bone.
even if your heart can't take it anymore, I will.
I want you to know that you are never alone.
you have me.
and I have you.

and I'll be just right here.
waiting.

They all think I have it all.
I've nothing without you.
All my dreams and all the lights mean
Nothing without you.

Without You - Lana Del Rey

Sang Bohemian

Aku baca buku ni dah lama. Dari bulan 7. dah aku masih terkesan bila sewaktu membalut buku ni, dan menyelak helaian demi helaian, melompat satu bab ke bab yang lain. Buku ini diolah dengan hampir sempurna. Lompatan cerita ke cerita yang lain amat menarik. Bagi aku tiada cacat cela. Kisah Tirani, perwatakan beliau, menarik. Seperti sang bohemian. Kau tahu apa itu Bohemian?

Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic, or literary pursuits. In this context, Bohemians may be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds.

 Unconventional lifestyle. Lari dari norma kehidupan. Kau bagitahu aku, siapa yang sanggup mengutip tin kosong di tepi dewan makan, di tepi Seksyen 2, untuk menyara hidup? Siapa yang tak kesah asalkan rezeki itu halal? Dan fikiran Tirani... Mengagumkan. Aku suka lelaki sepertinya. Scruffy. Kau tahu bagaimana lelaki scruffy?

The twist in this story was just amazing. It still amazes me. Aku terbuai dengan keindahan kata-kata penulis, memahami pandangan Tirani dan setiap tingkah laku. Penulis bijak menyusun setiap langkah,setiap peristiwa supaya ianya kelihatan tersusun,membongkar setiap peristiwa yang membawa ke arah peristiwan yang lain. Setiap ayat yang diolah menarik, penuh puitis sehingga membawa pembaca masuk ke dalam alam khayalan. Bait-bait yang sangat menarik. Aku tertanya-tanya kenapa buku sebegini tak dapat perhatian yang sepatutnya. Adakah sebab dia bukan dari Fixi so it wasn't cool enough? It was a really good book. Kenapa buku ini langsung tidak dikomersialkan dengan lebih pesat? Kalaulah aku tak jumpa. Kalaulah tangan memilih buku lain. Kalaulah terjadi sesuatu sehingga terpaksa dibatalkan pembelian. Tentulah aku akan melepas membaca sebuah karya menarik. Such a shame. I know this is just my opinion but my taste never fails me. Please, go and buy this book. Understands it. Feel the emotion. Read.

Crossroads

i'm in a crossroads,
which path should i take
i'm in crossroads,
which road should i break.

fighting the demon inside me,
watch the brutality
watch the cruelty
while maintaining my sanity

grass is always greener
will they always be

i will not hate anyone else,
except me.

POPULAR banning Fixi's HILANG and MURTAD

So did you hear about POPULAR banning Fixi’s books; HILANG and MURTAD. As an avid reader of Fixi’s line of books, of course I do have my own opinion in this matter. But first, we have to understand there are always two sides of a story. So for those who didn't got a clue on what i'm about to jibber jabber, Fixi’s got a letter from POPULAR, saying that they won’t sell MURTAD and HILANG because of the obscene words which are not suitable for the so-called “good society” we live in. How ironic is it when this are the society who display a scene from, shall I say, ‘porn clip’ in front of the newspaper and all over the news once? So for those who are lazy enough to click here for the actual letter POPULAR gave to Fixi, I shall put some excerpt of it. 

Oleh itu setelah dikaji, kita dapati beberapa perkataan kesat yang ada di dalam buku ini tidak sesuai untuk bacaan remaja mahupun dewasa. Antara perkataannya adalah seperti yang terkandung dalam muka surat :

Buku Murtad :

a) M/S 9, perenggan 1, "Haram jadah, bangang juga si Adudu tu."

b) M/S 9, perenggan ke 3 "Herr celaka betoi".

c)  M/S 11, perenggan ke 7 "Pergi Mampos la sial!."

d) M/S 12, perenggan ke 5 "Engkau, sama lelaki tua tu...Boleh pergi mampos"

e) M/S 82, perenggan 1 "Cilaka Boleh. Aku dah kata dah...aku dah kata dah.

 f) M/S 85, perenggan 3 "Ini kalau abang aku tau yang teloq aku ada kat telinga, sahih dia gelak kaw-kaw punya kat aku. Nak haram betoi!"

Buku Hilang :

a) M/S 167, perenggan 7 "Kuat betul drug yang Ikhsan bagi aku semalam.  Sekarang aku cakap ada ritma".

b) M/S 199, perenggan 4 "Kadang-kadang mulut kau ni macam celaka kan? Harap-harap ko dapat bini kaki pukul".

c) M/S 225, perenggan 5 "Payu dara dibiarkan tidak bertutup, lalu berayun-ayun bila dia berjalan menghampiri meja solek".

d) M/S 229, dialog "cipetlah kau" maki Jo sebelum dia memelapkan mata.

Seperti yang kita sedia maklum, walaupun dalam masyarakat kita hari ini ramai orang Melayu yang sudah berfikiran moden atau urban, namun saya percaya di luar sana masih ramai lagi memegang teguh pada ajaran agama islam dan mempunyai nilai-nilai murni dan berakhlak mulia.

Okey first of all, banning a book for these sorts of words is ridiculous. I’ve read those two books, and I shall say, (even though MURTAD does have a lot of cursing) MURTAD and HILANG is such a good book. The storyline, the mystery and the excitement. Sorry to say but most the local books here in Malaysia lack those fine quality. So why ban it? I mean, for such a subtle use of such word, plus it doesn’t really imply a real curse words. The character in those books are just saying that things, well because it is normal for human being to curse. This is what our books lack of. The use of human being in a real normal life. Honestly, do you think for example, a normal human being does not curse at all? Never say bad words, not even once in his/her life? Seriously? And it wasn’t even that bad. For me, I do consider this as normal. Is my environment of living bad? I don’t think so. Even tv nowadays are showing us too much of these stuff. You couldn’t really pinpoint the use of bad words only to the books.

Secondly, although I do not support the banning of MURTAD and HILANG, I do not entirely on #teamFixi. Yes, as you can see I’ve almost all of their books, and of course some of it are good, and some of it I can’t even recommend it to my friends. One particular book that I do not really understand the whole purpose of publishing it was CEKIK. Seriously, I don’t condemn people who wrote it. Based on the author lineage of books he wrote, well he do wrote some worthy books like AMERIKA. But not CEKIK.  No. Malaysia are not ready for CEKIK. No, I’m wrong. I am not ready for CEKIK. does it have some super artistic touch in it? I don’t know. But what I do know is this, the scenes in CEKIK are too steamy, and too explicit. The ending was weird enough, and it was a wonder for me why did CEKIK got published. I didn’t understand the plot; I did not see the point of the story. Was it mystery? Was it about life? Honestly I don’t know. What I do remember after reading CEKIK was this; it was so full of sex scenes and the scenes was detailed. Yup, that’s what I remembered.

So later in this night, I’ve read Fixi’s tweet on MAYBE they are not going to continue Fixi’s lineage. Probably they gonna stop publishing any new books or not. It depends. My opinion (thus concludes this sorta pointless debate in myself) is this

1. Fixi is a good way to introduce reading to Malaysian. People are getting tired with too much novels which only tell a story about love,love,love. I had enough. Does it ever make you wonder why Malaysian is such a lazy reader? I have a theory. Maybe, just maybe, Malaysian are NOT LAZY to read, but the only available (or worthy enough) books to read are in English. And to finish it up is such a hassle which is why they prefer not to read anything. By Fixi’s great effort to introduce a so-called urban/pulp kind of books, it opened up opportunities to Malaysian to read more, understand a lot more. Thus Fixi’s have a great responsibility to change people mindset isn’t it? This is why we shall go back to my second point, of filtering the contents inside the books they’ve published.

 

2. Fixi is a good way for talented people, such as Khairulnizam Bakeri (author of PECAH,whom I admire so much), kak Dayang Noor (author of HILANG,JERAT) , Nuril Basri (author of DOSA), and others to shine. If, for example, FIxi’s gonna terminate their work, it would be such a shame for Malaysian, to have lost a great deal of opportunity to witness a masterpiece in literature. Maybe, if they were to continue their publishing, maybe we could somehow produce a line of great work, great author who will come out with such a great storyline. Who knows right?

this is such a lengthy post i don't know whether you people are still with me or not. So for those who've been reading these shit till the end, i must congratulate you. With the grammatical errors here and there, i now conclude my case with this statement, Fixi must survive and adapt to the changes that they are faced with. Because, without realizing it, Fixi has become a trend (or a culture, if you insist) to society now. If you can achieve that sort-of title in a few years, then whether you like it or not, you have to bear this responsibility. Filtering the works of 'bakal-penulis' is not limiting creativity at all. Just remember that you have these social responsibility and you should think on a bigger picture.

With that, I rest my case. Thank you.

Sepucuk Pistol di Dalam Laci

"Anis?"
"Ya, Harun?"
"Maafkan aku."

***

aku baru usai (atau selesai) menghabiskan buku ini. It was so good, that i urge myself to write about it instantly. i must truly say that i do feel satisfied with this book. funny, simple, sempoi, imaginative. tapi, bila sampai waktu dan masa untuk serious, kamu akan rasa kesungguhan penulis yang cuba menyampaikan hati dan perasaan nya. ada waktu yang aku betul-betul gelak, sampai menangis, dan buka mukusurat yang seterusnya, aku terdiam, menghayati watak dan suasana dan cerpen tersebut.

cerita dalam buku ini simple, but deep enough for the readers to understand the feelings involved dan pembaca mampu membayangkan sendiri bagaimana perjalanan cerita dan suasana ketika satu-satu peristiwa itu berlaku. seperti contoh dalam cerpen Istana Kres, aku dapat bayangkan bagaimana pulau itu,perjalanan menaiki bot dan dari gambaran yang begitu sedikit itu kita boleh dapat tahu apa sebenarnya yang terjadi.

how do i say this? The writer are good with his word. he sketch the rough edges and we ourselves will be able to draw every fine details that associates with the story. Seolah-olah aku diajar untuk meneroka alam fantasi aku sendiri. hah!

i love how Sanolo act in this book. dia seperti harapan palsu yang diberikan pada manusia dan saya suka pertembungan antara Sanolo dan Harun. dan cerita bagaimana Saka dan Rais. dalam 'Keganasan Pendekar Gajah', kita dapat lihat perkembangan watak Pendekar yang mulanya dianggap sebagai tidak berdosa, dan akhirnya menjadi syaitan itu sendiri. dan pada masa yang sama,'Kebetulan' adalah sangat kelakar. Begitu juga dengan 'Gerai Pak Ali'. ah yang penting tidak ada satu cerita pun yang aku tak suka dalam buku ini!

a very recommended book!

****

honestly i must say that i never really prefer a Malay book. Aku terlalu dihadapkan dengan kisah-kisah Alaf 21, kisah cinta yang begitu mengada-ngada macam cekerarama tv3, dan pulak tiba-tiba ada halangan orang ketiga. Aku tak pernah mempunyai buku novel melayu sebelum ini. kenapa harus aku beli sedangkan cousin aku sndiri mempunyai longgokan yang super banyak kat rumah dia. itu pun tak berabis untuk aku teroka.

Most of my collections were in English, that is until I discovered 'Pecah'. (Ni dah masuk ke berapa kali saya promote Pecah. Korang tak beli jugak tak tahu la). Start dari situ, baru la terbukak hati nak beli Fixi. dan Sepucuk Pistol di Dalam Laci (panjang gila nama dia) adalah buku terbitan Sang Freud Press yang pertama aku beli. IT WAS WORTH IT. :)

Kenapa aku boleh tergerak hati nak beli buku ni? Sebab aku dah lama gila baca blog penulis dia, Hadi M Nor di sini. Walaupun update jarang-jarang, (kalau awak baca ni Hadi, ni saya nak bagitau awak hapdate JARANG-JARANG BETUL sekarang ye), tapi setiap cerpen dia kelakar. dan seronok. Imaginasi dia.........tinggi. Itu aku kagum. haha

Kenapa seronok? sebab dialog bersahaja dan sempoi. honestly. kalau aku tengok drama, even baca novel, ayat terasa.....skema gila. macam tak betul. Macam palsu. tapi dalam buku ni, ayat semua...normal. Macam kau dengar orang bercerita pada kau. Ah! dah sepuluh kali kata seronok! KALAU KORANG TAK BELI JUGAK SIAP LA! <<<--- dasar suka memaksa

Saya doakan rakan-rakan yang eager gila nak beli Sepucuk Pistol ni lepas baca blogpost saya dapat beli buku ini. Sebab...sebab buku ni terhad! Terhad gila. Geram rasanya. Mana jual kat kedai buku mainstream. buku ni hipster okey! Hanya terdapat di tempat-tempat yang tertentu seperti facebook Sepucuk Pistol dan juga tempat yang jual buku-buku Lejen dan Sang Freud Press. Saya pun beli masa Pesta Buku Selangor 2012. Oh ya pesta buku still berlangsung kat SACC (yg dewan okey bukan sacc mall) sampai 9 Julai 2012 ni. Good luck!

saja nak berlagak letak hasil belian kat Pesta Buku Selangor. :DD