Readings in Ramadan...

With no travel and less golf in the month of Ramadan, pakdokter took the opportunity to catch up on one of pakdokter's few 'passions' - reading.

The book above is somewhat like one of the many books in the series of "........for Idiots" titles. Easy to read, the stuff it writes about are things which most of us probably know already. Anyhow, pakdokter found it still useful as the chapters are short, almost in 'notes form' sometimes, that pakdokter could easily sustain pakdokter's attention to the end before getting distracted by other things..

Chua Kok Yee is a great story-teller. And he is a Malaysian. The 22 short stories are not only interesting but also easy to read. Maybe our Minister of Education should make it compulsorily available in all our school libraries. Our students can easily relate to the Malaysian settings and Malaysian characters unlike pakdokter who had to imagine what England is like when reading Enid Blyton and some other writers during pakdokter's school days.

Kalau nak budak-budak kita 'improve' dia punya 'English, suruh lah mereka baca buku-buku macam ini.....

A book pakdokter would recommend psychiatric residents (trainee psychiatrists) to read for an insight into the thoughts and emotions of someone who was interned in a psychiatric facility for 20 odd years! A beautiful love-story between Ossayne (the son of an exiled Ottoman Sultan who set up home in war-torn Beirut) and Clara, the lovely Jewish girl whom he met in Paris when both of them were involved in the clandestine revolutionary movement against the Nazi. After marriage and a brief stay in Haifa, he had to return home to Beirut to look after his stroke-stricken father only to be seperated with his wife and later his new-born daughter, Nadia, by the Israel-Arab war which made it impossible for them to be in touch. He broke down into a psychotic?/depressive illness and his evil and scheming brother, in order to deprive him of his share of the family fortune, incarcerated him in a 'psychiatric home' for 20 years or so until the civil war in Beirut forced everyone free and out of the 'home'. The 'saga' of his daughter who through the help of fellow underground 'comrads' of the Nazi era had helped her get into contact again with him in the 'home' and triggered his recovery from the despair of a near suicide experience and the final re-union with his wife at the location in Paris where they had earlier first met made this story a great material for a fantastic movie.

Another discovery this Ramadan! Bahaa Taher is a great story-teller from Egypt. Originally written in Arabic, the English translation is such a great read that pakdokter wonders what it would be like in Arabic. This politico-historical-romance set in the desert of Southern Egypt has stirred up pakdokter's interest in the history and antiquities of Egypt once again. It brought back memories of pakdokter's safari into Southern Tunisia and visits to Luxor and the cruise up th Nile river many years ago. The story of an Irish woman's obsession of locating the tomb of 'Alexander the Great' whom she believed was located among the ruins in this down south oasis drove pakdokter to want to view the movie 'Alexander' once again.






Typically Japanese. Minimal. The story of a man whose many siblings suffered the unfortunate deaths by suicide. Believing they were all the result of an inherent genetic factor in the family's blood, the main character in this story was determined not to have any chidlren of his own.....