Bookshelf in review - Part 2.

Section 5.

On the second level we have a collection of mastika magazines, which I never fail to buy every month since two years ago [but I start reading mastika in 1998]. I guess they can be considered as one of my guilty pleasures? The articles on supernatural practices, weird people, social dilemmas and cerita-cerita pedoman are very amusing. Though, it's a typical Malay read, like 'news' you read in Harian Metro. In the magazine files: a mix of photocopied stories used in Mr Barrett's Literature & Composition class [probably the most interesting semester in my life], more half-used notebooks, four copies of Wallpaper* magazine, an issue of TransWorld Skateboarding going back to October 1999 [loads of photographs before the age of DSLRs] and other unnotables. However, the magazine SLEAZENATION was really something when it was still around.

Section 6.

This section is all encyclopaedias. This was a gift from my parents when I was 9, but I wasn't told that it's something really expensive, so in some volumes you can find little scribbles on the pages. The content is quite outdated when you read it today [like how the writers didn't expect digital cameras to be used with computers and Malaysia being the world's number one rubber exporter] but sometimes reading it beats the unreliable Wikipedia.

Section 7.

The science encyclopaedias are still relevant; it gives concise information on stuff like the elements, scientists, experiments and other reasons behind life. I've almost never read the medical encyclopaedias... except looking at illustrations of skeletons, internal organs and a curious article on adolescence.

Section 8.

This section is fit to be in the room of a 10-year-old boy, though, Waiting For Godot and Nancy Drew books are a little off. The magazine file is occupied by Tintin. A brief history lesson : first I saw the animated series when I was about 12 [but didn't really notice Tintin's incredibleness]. A few years later, I began reading my brother's books, and learned that Tintin is better than everyone else [an expression]. It has words, it has pictures, they are all in colour and the stories took place all over the world. I am still short of maybe 4 books before completing my collection. Moving on with the Hardy Boys... a series that gave me an insight on mid-century America, back when the whole town knows your last name, boating as a popular pastime, soda shops and two brothers with a penchant for playing detective and solving crimes. Does this happen in real life?! No, I don't think it does, because it's way more fun to visualise the part when Frank Hardy had to unclothe himself before diving into the sea to save his meatloaf-loving best friend [er.....]. The other blue-spined book was the result of getting too influenced by kids-who-bust-out-criminals books. I thought of wanting to be a detective for awhile... but then, it only looks and sounds good in books and movies. I bought Waiting For Godot just to find out what my mother read for literature class back in secondary school. I think I've written about Stephen Law's books in one of my earliest posts on VOX.

Part 3 appears right beneath this post.