The anime was finally released on DVD recently and I had the chance to watch it. I had a tough time trying not to compare Goro Miyazaki’s directorial debut to his father’s previous works. Gedo Senki is quite bland on its own with a weak storyline. I was truly disappointed because in my humble opinion, the name Miyazaki / Studio Ghibli represents the epitome of excellent Japanese anime.

To date, my favourite Studio Ghibli anime productions are Totoro and Spirited Away, stories that speak of ordinary heroes finding courage in the face of adversity. I love Miyazaki’s (senior) interpretation of magical realism in these two animes that ties in very well with the characters and worlds he created.

Comparisons aside, Gedo Senki is somewhat amazing with room for further development in terms of character and story expansion. The Ghibli trademark of vast sceneries and beautiful music score is present here as well. I particularly love the main theme, Teru no Uta sang by Therru (voiced by Teshima Aoi) one of the main characters in the anime. When I first heard the theme song in the trailer release, I thought the vocals were somewhat hauntingly beautiful. The song never fails to evoke a strong sense of sadness in my mind whenever I try to visualize it. Sounds odd but it’s true.

Don’t skip this, it’s worth a watch.

When representatives of the four major bookstore chains held a press conference last Friday, 4pm to announce that they will not be selling HP7 to walk-in customers, most people were unaware until the next morning. The unanimous decision was made in an apparent move to pressure local distributor, Penguin to ‘do something’ following the indiscriminately-priced HP7 by two hyper-marts advertised on the same day.

Today HP7 is back on shelves after some negotiation between the bookstores and Penguin. HP7 will be offered at a discounted rate of 20%–25% from the original retail price of RM109.90 to customers. Pre-order customers can expect to get some refunds.

It is not fair to label booksellers as childish for refusing to sell HP7 in retaliation to the lowered price by hyper-marts. Yes, competition is vital to stay relevant in any business, but healthy this isn’t. Hyper-marts are loss leaders. Why ruin the book industry market in the name of attracting customers not to buy books but other consumer products? If this plan is successful, there’s no stopping them to adopt the same tactic to other bestselling titles. I hope local book distributors are learning something out of this.

Booksellers not only represent major bookstore chains but independent bookstores as well. Major chains will always be able to find a means to cover their losses through other bulk orders, but what can independent stores fall back on? Although saddened by the dampened Harry Potter celebrations, I fully support the decision made by the four booksellers as it is a brave move to stand up against bullies who threaten to break the booksellers’ rice bowls. After all, books are the main products of a bookseller.

Although books are not controlled items, they are regulated entities. As long as books are not priced above the recommended retail price, publishers / distributors / booksellers are not doing any wrong. The hyper-marts move to price HP7 at RM69.90 gives booksellers a bad impression that they are a load of greedy profiteers. It is standard practice to mark up at least 40% and even so booksellers are not making sky-rocketing profits.

Some people remarked that books are expensive and not affordable in Malaysia. Really? Let’s take the price of a normal paperback novel which retails at about RM34.90. If you purchase one novel per month, that’s about RM1.16 spent per day. Is that not affordable say, compared to two movie tickets and popcorn on a weekend night? That’s about RM30.00 spent for a mere two-hour gratification. Hardbacks are always much costlier than paperbacks and the latter is usually released at least six months later. So what is there to complain when the more affordable version is on its way?

In the long run, books are not actually expensive. Books are knowledge pitchers, meant to be reread and passed down to future generations. I’m sorry that some people read a book and sell it away because they think they are done with it. Books are lifelong companions. Books shape your thoughts, tell you about the world outside your circle, books are worthy investments.

I don’t think pricing books cheaper will make us a reading nation, although it could be a start. In our brand conscious society, an LV bag is much more affordable than a paperback novel. But it is our ‘books are not important’ mentality that is causing us not to read. You don’t have to read a Pulitzer prize-winning book or classics to qualify as a reader. In fact I rarely touch these but instead choose contemporary titles that interest me.

Just buy a book and quit complaining.

While most muggles are busy finding out what happened to Harry Potter in the final installment, I chose to immerse myself in another magical realm called ‘The World of Neil Gaiman’.

M is for Magic is Gaiman’s latest children’s book to hit bookshelves. It’s a compilation of 11 short stories, some of which are no longer in print. The first story is a whodunit murder mystery where PI (Jack) Horner investigates the death of Humpty Dumpty. It’s a twist on some crossover nursery rhyme characters infused with dark humour similar to Roald Dahl’s retelling of fairy tale stories in Rhyme Stew. I’ve not completely read the book yet but I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in the magical fantasy genre. High on my recommendation list is Coraline, I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish and Wolves in the Walls by Gaiman, artistically illustrated by the very talented Dave McKean.

The next book I had to get was Clown by Quentin Blake. The story tells of an unwanted toy clown trying to find a place to belong in. Told in a series of pictures like a silent movie rolling, Blake proves that a picture is truly worth a thousand words. This is a must-have in any Quentin Blake treasury collection.

Since chancing upon Oliver Jeffers, I decided to check out his previous works. Lost and Found and To Catch a Star were all brilliantly visualized in Jeffers’ minimalist drawings. In Lost and Found, a boy one day finds a penguin at his doorstep presumed to be lost. The boy begins an adventure of returning the penguin to where it belongs. To Catch a Star is about a boy who wanted a star and embarks on a quest to catch one. Both books are great for reading to kids before their bedtime.

It’s about a boy who one day tasted a page of a book and found it yummy. And from a page, it became a book and then books. Of course, he became smarter along the way, absorbing information like a sponge. Then again, there’s no shortcut in the learning process as the boy soon found out.

This is a great book for kids as it teaches the fact that reading is good and a great way to learn about things instead of erm eating the book. The illustrations also by the author are slightly wacky with texts imprinted on the background. Yup I love it but darn, it is way too pricey for a book that I could finish reading in less than 3 minutes. So I read it at the bookstore instead.