7 Must-Read Malaysian Books

Conventional wisdom says that we Malaysians do not read.  I do agreed with it. It is just so difficult to get our kids to read. Oopps.... Not just our kids but even to said ourselves. But why not go further? Dive head first into the world of letters with our guide to must-read Malaysian literature! Here are the seven Malaysian literature that one must read.

Sajak-sajak Saleh: Poems Sacred and Profane
Salleh Ben Joned 

The cartoonist Lat famously remarked that meeting quirky poet, Salleh Ben Joned, was "like meeting Hang Jebat on his day off". Ever a black sheep, Salleh never gained a place among Malay-language literary circles, possibly because he was staunchly bilingual. This collection of poetry, now in its third edition, is serious, funny, and scatological - sometimes all three at once!

I Am Muslim
Dina Zaman 

This collection of essays was drawn from column veteran Dina Zaman's old space in Malaysiakini. As the title suggests, it is about Malaysian Muslims - specifically, it dwells in the left-of-centre, middle-class, Muslim women's sphere of experience. That alone makes it a worthy read. Dina Zaman is a riveting storyteller: watch out for "Doubling Gods", an account of her visiting a master bomoh.

Sejarah Melayu
Tun Sri Lanang 

If the classical Malay is too heavy-going for you, try C C Brown or John Leyden's translations. Both are adequate - although academics will quibble over the details - and allow you entry into an epic tale of supernatural swashbuckling, that begins with Alexander the Great and ends with the arrival those insidious, fair-skinned Feringgi: the Portuguese.

Where Monsoons Meet: A People's History of Malaya
Musimgrafik 

This comic-book history of Malaya was conceived and written by members of FUEMSSO (Federation of United Kingdom & Eire Malaysian & Singaporean Student Organizations), back in 1979, in the heydays of student activism and grandiloquent acronyms. Designed to help "young citizens to comprehend the issues ... that led to the formation of the Malaysian union", it is wry, progressive, and passionate, touching on areas - like communism and the Malayan Left - that history books today still fear to tread. And it's snarky. Sejarah is rarely this fun.

Kathakali
Uthaya Sankar SB 

The volume of 16 short stories for young adults is merely the latest in the long bibliography of the prolific, self-aggrandising Uthaya Sankar. He writes fiction exclusively in Bahasa - and, being ethnically Indian, that's weird for some people. In the 1990s, for example, Uthaya's insistence that the Malay language be known as an inclusive "Bahasa Malaysia" led to tussles with Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka. He's an excellent tale-weaver; Amir Muhammad ranks him "among the finest writers in this country" .

Tangerin & Nikotin
Mimi Morticia 

This diminutive pocketbook of poetry comes to us courtesy of Sang Freud Press, a small publishing house that - along with several others - is pioneering a new, urban Malay-language idiom: uninhibited (whether in terms of subject matter or linguistic convention), syncretic (it borrows from English liberally), surreal and mischievous. Mimi Morticia's debut is all these things (Also try Sufian Abas's Kasut Biru Rubina).

Rojak
Amir Muhammad 

Amir Muhammad is one of the most interesting figures in Malaysian literature: a filmmaker, columnist, artist, publisher - it goes on. His latest fiction endeavour is the fruit of Amir's exploration of the British Council Malaysia's City of Shared Stories KL web project: it allows anyone to write a short story (1,600 characters or less) and affix this tale, via virtual pin, to anyway on a map of the Klang Valley. This collection of stories varies dramatically in terms of form and tone, and never feels repetitive or quotidian.

Hope that by reading this post, we will get one of this books and start reading.

Try reading it. It trully will be interesting!