MUHAMMAD, PUTERA KEMENANGANKU...

Salam and very good morning..

This will be the last week of March 2011. In fact today, 28th March is my youngest son’s 2nd year birthday. Selamat ulang tahun kelahiran yang kedua anakku, Muhammad Amir Zafri Bin Abdul Nasir.

Semoga Allah memberi keberkatan usia, kerahmatan dan kesihatan, hidup yang sejahtera serta mengurniakan kamu sekeping hati yang paling cantik untuk kamu menjadi putera kemenangan kami seperti mana makna namamu, menjadi anak kami yang soleh, beriman dan berilmu, cemerlang dunia dan akhirat.
Sayangi Papa dan Umi, kasihi Abang Sofi and hormati Kakak Ayong serta Kakak Abby serta seluruh ahli keluarga, taulan dan temanmu...

Yesterday, as to cheer up our kids and bersempena untuk meraikan ulang tahun anakku yang kedua, kami saja jalan-jalan di Shah Alam. Firstly we went to Popular just to pay a visit to Seandainya... Before that I have promised my husband not to buy anything, sebab kalau ikut sejarah saya pantang masuk kedai buku! How hard to keep on the promise... tak apalah, nanti saya beli di KLIBF... tapi di KLIBF ada ke novel-novel English tu?

We were there about half an hour. Rasa macam dah lama juga tidak masuk kedai buku. I love the aura and the smell of books very much. Walaupun niat awal nak tengok Seandainya... but masuk je kedai buku, terus melangkah ke rack English novel.

Honestly I started my reading life masa umur belasan tahun dulu with English novels. Judit McNaught, Virginia Andrews, Jude Deveroux, Sidney Sheldon, Danielle Steel, Stephen King, Nora Roberts, Jeffrey Archer dan lain-lain. I did not pick any book because of the author only, till now I don’t. I picked a book for the story, therefore I do believe much that the synopsis is very much crucial to picture the overall story of the book.

The first Malay novel I read earlier was Lepaskan Kembali Aku Ke Laut and I love it very much. Lepas tu I read Sakura and Kunang-Kunang (dari buku teks sastera sekolah menengah milik arwah Pak Usu Ayin dulu). Adalah juga few books yang saya pinjam dari library universiti dulu, tapi tak banyaklah. Boleh bilang dengan jari... nanti balik saya check rack. But the books semuanya adult format.

Therefore when I wrote Seandainya (early version), the first editor from the first publisher told me ‘don’t be hypocrite, you must read the Malay novel then you’ll know how you should write best.”

I took her advice and picked a novel suggested by a friend of mine, Wira. A story wrote by Damya Hanna (which Wira thought was me hah hah.). Okay, I like it. Then slowly after that I buy and read Malay novels. After sometimes I found out that I love Nass Alina Noah’s writings very much.

The way I pick a book remain. I did not look at the author’s name, instead I look at the synopsis at the back of the book. Setiap kali KLIBF I will buy books. And my husband, I forced him to read. Alhamdulillah, he started to love reading now...

My sons? They love book of course, tapi... cuma lately they love to ask us reading a story to them. Alhamdulilah... tu papa lah yang mulakan...