Readsmonthly Rocks!

In yesterday's Readsmonthly section of Starmag, I got to pay tribute to Doris Lessing. There's also a list of suggested reads. Writing it really had me scraping round in the far corners of my brain for traces the books had left behind decades before ... and left me wanting to reread especially The Grass is Singing and Memories of a Survivor.

The shy and very talented Shahril Nizam is interviewed by Daphne Lee about his new collection of poetry and art If Only. Daphne is absolutely right about how self-effacing he is in public, but she told me that she'd found Shahril so fascinating to talk to that she had forgotten to take notes at points during the interview!

The poet/illustrator says about his work:

Drawing and writing are just ways of externalising thoughts and ideas ... But I find it hard to be direct all the time. Maybe that’s true of everyone. Sometimes we are open and sometimes secretive, even with ourselves. Sometimes, there are things we don’t truly understand or even want to admit. That doesn’t mean we can’t be honest, too. ... I find writing a poem or drawing a picture allows me to be honest without revealing too much. The imagery, symbolism and so on can mean anything. And it can mean one thing to one person and another to someone else. It can be different truths to different people.

Celebrity reviewer Tom Abang Saufi talks about Paul Theroux's The Elephanta Suite. (Tom of course is one of Malaysia's top fashion designers.)

I've read a lot of Theroux, travel writing and fiction, and very much enjoy his work. But he's so prolific that I gave up trying to keep up some time back. But I think I've just been talked into picking up this one! Especially as I love the idea of intertwined stories.

I had to nick this lovely picture of Amir Muhammad from the page listing author events happening up and down the country! Both Amir and Shahril Nizam are appearing at the Courtyard, MPH Mid Valley Megamall, on November 11th 3-4 p.m.