Going to the book store

You walked into a book-store.
Went through the "New Arrivals" aisle.
See if there's any familiar names.
Or anything interesting.
Nothing.

You proceed to your favourite section.
The books on the shelves look the same like you checked it last week.
Even the one you purposely turned upside down hasn't been corrected by the store keeper. You corrected the book back. You took a long sigh. You proceed to the next section.

...and the next.

...and the next.

..until you came back where you started: at the New Arrivals aisle.

Going to the book-stores just don't excite you as much any more. You start to question your choice as a hobby. Suddenly it appeared to you that reading and books are your close friends since forever. And the thought of finding a new hobby irked you. You knew there's nothing wrong with your hobby. It's just that they don't sell the books you like no more.

That, is where BookMaggotz comes in.

Thanks to @nurulakmarabd and Family!

BookMaggotz drive is less than a month old but the support we're receiving is HUMANGOUS! Alot of interested donors and friends are buzzing our email to arrange for their books. Since most of the BookMaggotz are working during the day, plus we still haven't work out a good blackmail letter to threaten DeliOasis's owner in Bangsar for letting us using their place as BookMaggotz's gather point, the only time available for books-pickup is at night.

Mr. Abdullah's personal collection

 @nurulakmarabd has been bugging us about the books in her house for quite a while. After much consideration and consultations from local shamans, we agreed to go to her place to pick them up. We cut the whole Lost-in-Pandan story during our way to get there and go right down to business.

The books she was giving were from her old university days. All of them were nicely strapped together and saved in a corner, waiting for us. Mr. Abdullah (@nurulakmarabd's daddy) didn't look too welcoming at first after realising we were there to get his daughter's unused books because he himself is a book lover. But after explaining what BookMaggotz is all about and our plans with the unused books, he himself showed us the family small library AND his small 'secret stash'. Mr. Abdullah got a very interesting taste in reading...

"You sure there's no 'Permata yang Hilang' somewhere?"

@nurulakmarabd's university books

From the small chats I had with Mr. Abdullah, Nurul and her mom, I gather that this is a 'reading' family. You get that 'look' prior to getting an answer, whenever you ask a question. But they are all very warm and very welcoming. So warm that they ask us to come next week to take some more books from Nurul's younger sister's stash pulak. *Lap peluh*

Anyway, BookMaggotz would like to thank Mr. Abdullah and @nurulakmarabd for trusting us with their books and selecting BookMaggotz as THE choice for these books to continue serving their purpose in this world. Thanks again!

p/s: now, to make THE LIST...

Turn your junk into BOOKS!

Schizophrenic zine... In BOOK form!: FINALLY! with LOTSA push from friends and family (even God!), I am going to release Schizophrenic # Five in book form. What sets it apart....

BookMaggotz at Raising the Bar Comedy nite at ECOBA

The first stand-up hiphop-er

A cook and a crook. Oops!

A beatboxer at Raising the Bar

Ecoba's menu book. The cover was
made of wood

Checking out the binding technique. Cool

BookMaggotz at Freedom Film Festival, JayaOne

Yesterday, fellow #BookMaggotz had our little gathering at a friend's crib before heading to Jaya One for Freedom Film Festival's Freedom Arts Fest. As stated in this blog, BookMaggotz plan to use the 'Gone' books for art projects. We can make them ourselves but we thought it would be better if an artist do it. We had no idea what FFF was all about but was attracted to it by the words 'Freedom' and 'Art' in the bunting we saw, some where along Jalan Gasing, PJ. So we went to the so called 'Art Festival' in search for artist who would be interested in BookMaggotz.

Freedom Wall.
Will it be torn down like Pudu Jail?

The first thing that greeted us in the festival was the 'Freedom Wall'. On each sides of the walls were friendly abangs from Kelab Kartunis Indepen. One of them abangs, Mr. Firdaus was kind enough to fill us in with what FFF or KOMAS or KKI are all about. Some of the abangs were busy doing sketch-up for conspicuous visitors, some were showcasing Mr. Johnny's "Umno-nomics", or selling cool handmade spectacles and some other stuffs.  After leaving our marks on the 'Freedom Wall' (and floor), and brainwashing one of their members with #BookMaggotz, we continued our strolls to the other booths.

KKI abangs wear kunings. Yeah...

Next was what we call as the 'Activist Lane'. We got a booth full of socialist and Marxist's books and booklets, a "STOP LYNAS" booth, the Student in Resistance zine booth, The Orang Asal booth, the #pantauPRU13 booth and entrance to the Freedom Film Festival movie screening upstairs. At the stairs, we were greeted by SPR reps (or weren't they? I dunno) who helped us to check whether we're a registered voter or not.

Students in Resistance zine editors: TS and Zi Hao

I like the message although the design is sloppy.
Hei! They're communication students.
Not fashion designers!

A small gallery by StudentsInResistance
I guess they like Sepultura?

Zi Hao trying to use the cryptic graphic to brainwash me

Bahan bacaan sosialisme. Cool

After stuffing our bags with loads of flyers and brochures, we hang out for a cup of coffee while sharing what we find in the Fair. The coolest was from @WolfTrish. What was it? It's a secret among us. The visit to the fair went too quick than we planned. WolfTrish proposed all of us joined him and his friends at Ecoba for an event called Raising the Bar. We all agreed but before that, we need to fill some 'empty bags' first.

Team agreed to head back to one of the Maggotz's crib for a quick dinner. Wolftrish, being a Chef DJ and all, gave instruction to the host on how to cook a nasi goreng that contained lime squeeze, serai and whole-lotta-chilly. And it tasted great!

As a conclusion, this small activity was a success. We managed to gather and have fun. That's the most important thing. And as bonus, we also made friends with them abangs from KKI, Zi Hao and TS from S.I.R, a bigshot (Wolftrish's bragging rights) and all them visitors who we harassed along the way. Hahaha.

Stay tuned for "BookMaggotz at Raising the Bar Comedy nite at ECOBA"

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