Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Roald Dahl Rocks My Socks.

Once, there were 2 little girls who decided to spend some time at a bookstore. They were sisters. One sister was little in height but not in age. The other sister was little in age, but not in height.

It was an enormous bookstore, filled with racks of books that went on forever, drowned in the never-ending sea of people made from all sorts of shapes, sizes, and colours.

As the sisters were glancing and browsing about at the mind-boggling number of books on display, they chanced upon a table. They had passed by a few other tables like this before. These tables were used to promote the many works of an author of the bookstore’s choice.

1
Amalkanlah Sifat Suka Membaca!

The particular table that the sisters chanced upon was covered in a pastel satin cloth (more to hide the messy piles of books stocked underneath the table than aesthetic purposes), and on top of it, a whole mountain of books. Thin. Thick. Hardcovers. Paperbacks. Boxed gift sets. Special editions. Every book cover was gaily illustrated in bright happy coloured pictures of simple, but oddly drawn images of people and animals which are no doubt the main characters of the book.

It was promoting the works of the sister’s (the one who was little in height) favourite childhood author. Memories of her childhood flooded her heart. The other sister looked at her funny because her sister had a funny look on her face.

Above the table hung numerous, round, Styrofoam cut outs which were plainly decorated with simple but oddly drawn images of people and balloons on it, just like on the book covers. Beside the table there was a large poster. It wrote that the bookstore was offering free button badges to people who bought a book from that author of that display table. Just one book, any book at all, but only from that author.

2
Happy Birthday RD!

It wasn’t just any free button badge. It was a commemoration button badge in celebration of that author. 13 September was the author’s day, it printed, in an all-too-familiar scrawl. The badge itself was plainly decorated with simple but oddly drawn images of people and balloons on it.

The sister who had the funny look on her face finally decided that she HAD to buy a book from that table! So what if 13 September had come and gone? So what if she was already 26? She didn’t care! He was her favourite writer! She grew up reading most of his books! It was a FREE BUTTON BADGE DAMNIT!

So she bought the book, redeemed the badge and she was happy!

Oh the joy which are derived from such simple things!

3
Mine. My only. My precious.

The end.

37 comments:

  1. I WANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WANT THE BOOK!!!!!!
    mUaHAHaha did you go for the reading session? and sat down among the lil kiddies for the book reading session, or you read the booksto them and told them about ninja kitten jellybaby lovers ... ELRiheljncdd i forgot what terminology of yours you use :D

    FA: Got reading session meh? I just wanted the damn badge and I was happy damnit!

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  2. oh shit

    *heads for the nearest bookstore*

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  3. No picture of the sister of height but not of age?

    FA: Kenot kenot. Underaged. Shoo. Shoo.

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  4. dang, i'd love one too...

    badge i mean.

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  5. Princess Kiko had a baby at 40 (although it was by C section). 26 is nothing, another 14 years of happiness and prosperity. :-)

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  6. That is a good book. Especially liked the first story.

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  7. at one point of my life, i actually believed the henry sugar story.

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  8. Love Roald Dahl too. The Twits, the Witches, the Chocolate Factory. Amazing. Love buttons too. Gosh I gotta get myself one of those.

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  9. when i was a kid, i didnt have money to buy books. but the school library had a copy of The Witches. It was great :D

    FA: I loved my school library. I remember it had a huge collection of TINTIN. Omg, I need to get my hands on the entire collection Tintin too why won't money fall from the sky and onto my lap?!?!?

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  10. Whoa . . . where was this ? . . . Is it still on ? . . .Borders ? MPH ? . . . where ? . . . gawd . . .

    FA: This was at the Megamall MPH. I'm not sure if the other bookshops have it or not heh

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  11. RD. Cool. They are all old friends.

    I'm sure you can get a virtual copy of Tintin somewhere.

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  12. "One sister was little in height but not in age. The other sister was little in age, but not in height."

    Wadda way to describe...haha....gotta see the sis in height to confirm.... ;)

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  13. I read one of ur lines with "humping tables"

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  14. i loved danny the champion of the world

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  15. i have his Omnibus collection.
    :)

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  16. My Roald Dahl collection got pwned when moving houses :(

    I had almost all of his books, even some of the adult ones.

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  17. Roald Dahl Day = My Birthday.
    kthx for sending me the button.

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  18. ooh roald dahl. have you read 'my uncle oswald'? it's a romp!

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  19. I've got a hardback Omnibus collection of Roald Dahl's stories which I 'curi-ed' from my sister and she's not getting it back. Muahahahaha!

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  20. No one escapes the Dahl, it seems. I just saw one a couple days ago at the one of Beijing's largest bookstores.

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  21. I. WANT. THAT. BUTTON.

    FA: ... and that's NOT the only thing you want, apperently. :P

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  22. I LOVE ROALD DAHL. i love charlie and the chocolate factory, the witches, BFG..... Did u watch charlie and the chocolate factory ( the movie with johnny depp as willy wonka)???

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  23. Heh...i highly recommend "My Uncle Oswald". ;)

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Uncle_Oswald

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  24. I absolutely love Roald Dahl's quirky style and his dark, sarcastic, twisted humour. Oh and Quentin Blake's illustrations too !! Have you read his poems? Their wicked !! But I haven't read many of his adult stories though, mostly children books :p

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  25. (yeah, comment got cut) i lurrrve dahl! just bought his Songs & Vile Verses ^_^

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  26. loveee roald dahl,LOVEEEE the badge!!!! quentin blake's illustrations are genius....there's abso-bloody-lutely no doubt bout that.

    yeah, i've alwiz been hoping for a ton of $$ to fall from the sky so that i can get my hands on the entire collection of tintin too. looks like bookworm madness is sprouting among us...haha

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  27. Roald Dahl ROCKS and so does BLEACH! I want to see Ichigo kicking Eizans butt too but more importantly the totally surprisingly new (or old hehehe) shinigami that appears in the Manga!

    p.s. What happened to the shoutbox?!? NO.....

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  28. Not such a fan of his children's books, but the more adult collections (Switch Bitch, My Uncle Oswald, etc) used to leave me helpless with laughter in school.

    Between him and Enid Blyton, no wonder I'm so fucked up as an adult.

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  29. Roald Dahl is cool, I especially liked "The Visitor", "Lamb to the Slaughter", "Genesis & Catastrophy", "Skin" and "Edward the conquerer".

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  30. Ooohhh, jealous... pretty badge... How come nobody mentioning his memoirs, Boy & Going Solo?? Very good also.. he very handsome, just check out photo of him in uniform. ;P

    Oh dear, if Dahl & Blyton is gonna screw you up for life... die lah, I've read practically all of Blyton's works right down to the adap of 'The Pilgrim's Progress' & at least 70% of Dahl. ;)

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  31. thats cool i didnt get any for free i had to pay but still hey

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  32. Hi! I just wanted to ask if you ever have any problems with hackers? My last blog (wordpress) was hacked and I ended up losing several weeks of hard work due to no data backup. Do you have any methods to protect against hackers?

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