New on the shelf

Ajaib RM 18.90	Paranormal RM 18.90	Historical tombstones and graves at St. Paul's Hill Malacca RM 10.00	Kelantan 22 Tahun RM 25.00	Thai South and Malay North RM 65.00
The University Socialist Club and the Contest For Malaya RM 55.00	Colony, Nation, and Globalisation RM 55.00	Intimating the Sacred RM 55.00	The Way That Lives in the Heart RM 58.00	Contentious Journalism & The Internet RM 59.90
Bumi Manusia RM 38.00	The Allah Controversy & other essays on Malaysian hypermodernity RM 35.00	Tipu Pilihanraya, Turun Jalanraya RM 35.00	Rhetoric and Realities RM 35.00	The Prisoners' Diary RM 20.00

Opinion
Obsessed with fame
June 3, 2013

I have always defended young people against criticisms by the old, who accuse them of being lazy, entitled, selfish and shallow. "My customers are mostly young," I protest, "and they read widely." Unfortunately, a recent study appears to show that they may be right, at least with regards to those born in the 1990s. Time magazine calls them the Me Me Me Generation, an entire generation obsessed with themselves and their fake Facebook/Twitter persona. (According to the National Institutes of Health in the US, 58% more college students scored higher on a narcissism scale in 2009 than in 1982.)

I came across two more interesting stories.

The Marshmallow experiment

First from Wikipedia. In an experiment at the Bing Nursery School at Stanford University in the 1960s by psychologist Walter Mischel, children age four to six (over 600 took part) were led into a room and offered the choice of having one small reward (like a marshmallow) immediately, or two if they waited 15 mins. So the children sat looking at their treat after the researcher left the room. Many gave in to temptation very quickly, others took a while and a few managed to get their two treats.

In the follow-up of the experiment, researchers checking in on these same students in high school, found that those with more self-control were better behaved, less prone to addiction, and scored higher on the SAT. (Was it pure self-control or strategic thinking by the nasty little buggers?)

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News
Why authors self-publish
June 3, 2013

From the Digital Book World. According to a new report based on a survey of nearly 5,000 authors of all kind, What Authors Want: Understanding Authors in the Era of Self-Publishing, nearly two-thirds of hybrid authors said one of their reasons was that self-publishing helped them exert more creative control on the final product. Some 40% said one of their reasons was because of the ease of the self-publishing process, and nearly 40% said it was because they could make more money self-publishing.

This caught me by surprise at first, then on second reading I spotted the term 'hybrid authors' -- authors who have previously published the traditional way, but now self-publish -- then it made sense. Many authors feel that publishers mutilate their story. Yes, many publishers, particularly the big ones, are too market driven to retain any form of integrity. They publish what sells. Period. (We have all read books and sometimes wondered about the purpose of some scenes with gratuitous sex, rape, incest, bondage, pederasty, homosexuality and violence in an otherwise good book.

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News
Would you have bought these books?
June 3, 2013

This is from BookRiot. It is one thing to judge a book by its cover, but how about buying books by judging its title? Although, many are now considered classics, how many of the following would you have passed up in the bookshop?

TRIMALCHIO IN WEST EGG (The Great Gatsby -- Scott Fitzgerald)

MULES IN HORSE HARNESS (Gone with the wind -- Margaret Mitchell)

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News
Monday, June 03, 2013 Why authors self-publish From the Digital Book World
June 3, 2013

The next intake for the Silverfish Writing Programme will be on Saturday, July 13, 2013, and run for 10 consecutive weeks (except for holidays) from 10.30am to 12.30pm, and will be opened for registration on June 3, 2013. The past few programmes have been extremely popular and we have had to turn away many late inquiries, because the maximum number of participants we can accommodate is 10 (ten). We have to date received 30 inquiries already. So we encourage those who are interested to register early, and avoid a last minute rush. (Please, tell your friends who are interested, too.) The registration fee will be RM1000.00 per participant for the full ten week programme, but an early bird discount of 10% will apply until (and including) July 1, 2013

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Events
Silverfish's 14th birthday and public talk by Sean Matthews
June 3, 2013

Silverfish Books will be celebrating its birthday on June 26, 2013. Yes, it was fourteen years ago that we first opened shop in Desa Seri Hartamas. We made a lot of friends, offended some, published over 50 books, organised two International Literary Festivals and many readings and book launches, had a few battles, won some, lost some, still fighting others, and we had hope we made a small dent in the Malaysian literary world, and we believe we have. (The presence of so many indie publishers both in Malay and English is a testimony of sorts. We hope more will join the wagon.)

We are organising our fourteenth birthday party on Saturday June 29, 2013 at 5.30 pm, and on our invitation list will include all our authors Special guest and speaker for the evening will be Dr Sean Matthews of the University of Nottingham, Malaysian Campus who will speak on DH Lawrence.

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Books
Terence Gomez: It ain't over till the fat lady sings
May 02, 2013

That was the gist of Dr Terence Gomez's talk at Silverfish Books last Saturday: Malaysia's 13th General Elections: Policies, Institutions and Social Change. The turnout was not huge, but good, and, best of all, intelligent. (This is the first in a series of (hopefully) monthly public talks we have planned to cover literature, performing arts, history, philosophy, politics and so on, at Silverfish Books.) It was not a talk for those (on either side of the divide) who'd prefer to keep their prejudices intact, unencumbered by facts or logic. For those of you who'd have liked to be present, Dr Terence Gomez started by handing out two printed spreadsheets (five pages) showing Differences in BN support in Electoral Trends in (i) Malay Majority constituencies, and (ii) Non-Malay Majority constituencies, from 1990 to 2008. (We still have some copies left at Silverfish Books.) Briefly, the main ten points (there were many more) were:

1. There is no material difference in the public policies as announced in the manifestos of BN or PR.

2. Generally, percentage Malay support for the BN has been on the decline since 1990 (including the Mahathir era) except in 2004 (Abdullah Badawi's first GE)

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Opinion
Why I don't own a mobile phone
May 02, 2013

I hope this clarifies the question once and for all, though it probably will not. I'm the one without the mobile phone, but my friends, for some reason, are the ones who feel the pain. Some have been on a virtual crusade, with the evangelical zeal of Jehovah Witnesses, to 'save' the recalcitrant non-believer. Others take delight in saying, "I told you so," at the slightest inconvenience arising from my 'stubbornness'.

Truth is, stubbornness has nothing to do with it. I simply value my time and sanity more than others do, I guess. I did own a mobile phone some twelve years ago, but then someone did me a favour by stealing it. I have never been more thankful since.

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News
Online retail
May 02, 2013

A recent US Census Bureau News indicates that online retail accounts for only 5.2% of all retail in the US. That is, 95% of all purchases are done in brick-and-mortar stores. A story in Wired says, "Forrester Research surveyed 4,500 U.S. adults online and found that in every major consumer category other than travel, shoppers said visiting a store served as the most important source of research before buying." The research suggest that no one in the selling business can afford to ignore the primal satisfaction of touching and holding something in your hand before you buy. "Human toolmaking and trade both started as hands-on endeavors; as much as we now love Amazon Prime, we as a species aren’t likely to give up in-person consumption anytime soon."

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Events
Silverfish Public Talk by Jothi Ratnam
May 02, 2013

Topic: What Darwin did
Time and place: Saturday, May 25, 2013, at Silverfish Books, 28-1, Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03- 228448 37

Who's Jothi?

A quick visit to the website, Jothi's World, will indicate a man inordinately curious about all manner of things, and has been trying to understand the way the world works, in all its myriad facets, works, as well as to convey his understanding of this to all and sundry for most of his life. Originally trained as a scientist, he has explored the world of knowledge widely, and has tertiary-level academic qualifications in a variety of different fields, ranging from the hard sciences, through the social and behavioural sciences, to the humanities. He's studied, lived, and worked in several countries, and as a result speaks several languages.

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Events
Children's Book Week
May 02, 2013

Update on Children's Book Week, 11-18 May 2013 at Silverfish Books, 28-1 Jalan Telawi, Bangsar Baru, 59100 Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03-228 448 37
Children's Book Week is here again. Selected Malaysian children's books will be available at special promotional prices throughout the week. There will be storytelling and activity sessions for children on Saturday, 11th May and 18th May, in addition to meetings with children's book writers and illustrators. And lots of balloons will be given away! The Children's Book Week is organised by Yusof Gajah Lingard Literary Agency and Oyez!Books for Children, with the support of Silverfish Books.

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Opinion
Censorship in Malaysia
April 01, 2013

A news report in FMT on March 23 said that Berjaya Books Sdn Bhd, which owns the Borders bookstores in Malaysia, and two others today succeeded in their attempt to quash the decision by the Federal Territory Islamic Department (Jawi) over the seizure of Irshad Manji’s Allah, Kebebasan dan Cinta in May last year.

Justice Zaleha Yusof said at the time of Jawi’s action, the book was not subjected to the prohibitory order that was only issued three weeks later.

So is that the end of another sordid episode in the annals of book publishing in the country? Not by a mile, no!

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News
Chinua Achebe passes on
April 01, 2013

Albert Chinualumogu Achebe, 82, died in a hospital in Boston after a brief illness, on March 22, 2013. He was widely regarded as the father of modern African literature, and lived and worked as a professor in the United States in recent years, most recently at Brown University in Rhode Island. Nobel prize winner, Wole Soyinka; poet, John Pepper Clark; fellow Nigerian who died in the Biafrah war of the 70s, Christopher Okigbo; and Chinua Achebe were the 'brother' African writers of the 50s and 60s.

There was a minor 'literary' furore in Malaysia in 2006 about Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the news of which took a trip around the world. Malaysia had banned Things Fall Apart. This is what happened: we had ordered copies of the books, which we had kept in stock since we opened in 1999, but were told by our distributors that they could not supply us because the book had been 'banned' by the government.

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