Just stumbled through the door a couple of hours ago, much-overweight bag full of too many books, some of them so kindly gifted by other writers. Two notebooks of stories which will be spun over the coming days with the photos I took.Met Anita Desai, William Darymple, Madhur Jaffrey and many many more writers. (Around 100 in total! Imagine!) Spent a lot of time being totally starstruck. Also - some pretty famous writers had slipped beneath this wannabe literati's radar, others were new names to me and I'm glad I've banished a few more areas of ignorance and made new friends. I was very pleased to be able to meet up with other writers from the region and hear what's happening in Singapore and Indonesia. (We often have more news about the literary scene in London, New York and Sydney than we do about what's going on in other parts of South-East Asia - have you noticed?)
Gave everyone I could, my card, and said come to KL when you can. So I hope we might get some exciting people turn up and do readings for us, or drop by to talk books.
And learned a great deal about how a literary festival runs, what makes it a success, which should be useful knowledge to pass on if/when the next KL Litfest happens (hopefully next March, I believe).
Will be gradually putting up photos and transcribing the scrawl in my notebook into posts.
Have a deadline for a book review to rush for first, so crave your patience for a couple of days while I wrestle recalcitrant words down to the page first for the Star.
Oh yes ... when I left Bali this afternoon, the sky was bright blue and the air scented with frangipani. When we began to approach Malaysia I thought the plane was on fire because of the smell of smoke from Sumatra ... and I thought we were flying through thick cloud but.
The haze season is back. Which could be ended with a little more political will from both countries, don't you think?
14 comments:
Miss Biblio,
welcome back.
may i send you my short story? everyone who's read it finds it utterly confusing!
no obligation to read it right away. u can keep it for a rainy day if you like.
but i'd like your feedback.
I'm so glad you're back. Missed you loads.
i think this entry should have been titled "Biblio's Bubbly Bali Babblings."
try saying that real fast.
LOL
i'm not bubbly tonight tho', visitor. much too tired. and yes, send your story tho' it may be a few days before i can take a look.
jane - nice to see you again too!
Blah visitor, you should maybe post it. Then everyone can give you feedback :)
Sometimes I wonder if Sharon actually _reads_ anything. She seems to spend all her time doing book reviews, meeting authors, arranging books, rearranging books, going to book sales, going to book readings, but does she actually sit down (or lie down heh) and read a book, I mean for fun, not for a review ? :)
yes i do. reading "in the hearts of men" by hisham matar at the moment, not for review, tho' will write something here i'm sure. i've almost got halfway in a day and don't want to put it down.
most of the stuff i read is for pleasure and i try to review books that i will enjoy as well. but there is a certain amount of having to read certain things too - some i enjoy and some i don't so much. i want to read the booker shortlist as quickly as i can and then read some non-fiction for a change.
sometimes i feel swamped. i'm not a fast reader and there's just too much stuff out there.
Sharon doesn't read for fun! She just does it to make her eyes move from left to right to simulate REM while she's awake.
BTW Sharon, welcome back. Can't wait to find out what you brought back. Book lists! I demand a Bali Book List!
good comment about the REM, Ted!
books i brought back include elmo jayawardena's "the last kingdom of sinhalay" (gift), alfian sa'at's "a history of amnesia", ayu utami's "saman", ambai's "a purple sea", mong-lan's "why is the edge always windy?" (gift), "desperately seeking paradise" by ziauddin sardar (gift), anita desai "the zizag way", one of madhur jaffrey's indian cookbooks
tried to get some books i would find it hard to get here ...
but i wish i could have carried more ...
good to have you back! commenting at the wrong post but.. the villa's beautiful! I'm glad to be away from the haze this year but bushfire season has just started here..not very good news.. the government always makes a big deal out of it when the season comes around but after the haze disappears, all the noise about taking action fades away along with it...
so true, acid burn. i'm tired of hearing all the hangat-hangat tahi ayam fuss they kick up each year. how hard can it be to bloody do something about it? anything!
Welcome back, Sharon!
Bali looks wonderful! Glad you got to meet so many writers. Isn't Anita Desai, Kiran Desai's (of Booker fame) mother? I'm a huge fan of William Dalrymple, infact, I'm reading his newest book at the moment, "The Last Mughal".
:-O Next year, I must come with you and Dina!
welcome back, Sharon! missed your posts, but glad to see i've a few to catch up on now.
as for the haze, what political will, when newscasters are still calling a neighbouring country "a neighbouring country"?
Welcome back Kak Bibs!
Starlight, you want to do something about the haze? Call me. Sharon has my number.
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