Malay Travel Literature

This is interesting to pursue, especially travel literature before 1970s. Maybe I should start by collecting travel books from the era. I see that Harun Aminurrashid wrote quite a number of books about his travels; I hope any publisher will take up the opportunity to republish his works for younger generation. ITBM? Or has it become national asset of Singapore?

1. Melawat Klimantan Utara (1948).
2. Melawat ke Paris (1953).
3. Kunjungan ke Indonesia (1954).
4. Chatetan ke Tanah Suci (1961).
5. Terbang ke barat (Pustaka Melayu, 1961. 264 halaman).
6. Meninjau ke negeri Sham (1961).
7. Melawat negara tetangga (Pustaka Melayu, 1962. 204 halaman).
8. Melihat matahari di tengah malam (Pustaka Melayu, 1963. 146 halaman).
9. Chatetan melawat ke Eropah (1964).
10. Mengembara ke Andalus (Pustaka Melayu, 1965. 350 halaman).
11. Mengesan jejak pelayaran Abdullah Munshi (1966).

Sources:

• http://exhibitions.nlb.gov.sg/literarypioneers/writers/malay/harunaminurrashid/listofworks.php
• Google Books
• http://www.scribd.com/doc/36677290/HARUN-Aminurrashid

Book Studies

According to Jonathan Rose, among the fields of study that can be brought together to form an interdisciplinary field of Book Studies are book history, book arts, publishing education, textual studies, reading instruction, librarianship, journalism, and the Internet. All these subjects should be taught as an integrated whole. I'm still in the clouds as to most of them, except librarianship. There's really a long way to go.

More Resources!

Found an overview paper by Jonathan Rose in 2003 volume, great as background reading.

Add two more useful resources to extend my reading into book history. They are a journal and a meta-reference database. Some of articles in Publishing Research Quarterly journal are open access articles, alhamdulillah. While www.xreferplus.com, is available through library proxy, somehow mysteriously. These two are treasures for me.

I have also updated my life's list at 43 things. One thing that was newly included: BE A BOOK HISTORY SCHOLAR.

May Allah shows me the best way to achieve it.

Political Influence & Language of Books

I found this in an article by Khaled Abou El-Fadl (2002-2003). Though it is more related to reading, but I like to ponder the fact of how politics influenced the choice of language of the books the people prefer to read at a given time, in this case the Christians of Andalusia revered books written in Arabic more than other languages including those written in their own mother tongue.

The complaint of the Bishop of Cordoba, Alvaro in 9th century C.E. Spain:

Many of my coreligionists read verses and fairy tales of the Arabs, study the works of Muhammadan philosophers and theologians not in order to refute them but to learn to express themselves properly in the Arab language more correctly and more elegantly. Who among them studied the Gospels, and Prophets and Apostles? Alas! All talented Christian young men know only the language and literature of the Arabs, read and assiduously study the Arab books.... If somebody speaks of Christian books they contemptuously answer that they deserve no attention whetever (quasi vilissima contemnentes). Woe! The Christians have forgotten their own language, and there is hardly one among a thousand to be found who can write to a friend a decent greeting letter in Latin. But there is a numberless multitude who express themselves most elegantly in Arabic, and make poetry in this language with more beauty and more art than the Arabs themselves.

El Fadl, Khaled Abou (2002-2003).The culture of ugliness in modern Islam and reengaging morality. UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law 2, 33-97.

Book History: My Cup of Tea?

The purpose of this blog is to be a record of my journey into Book History world. Since knowing about this field I have made up my mind, if I were to do a Ph.D., this is the only field I am willing to dedicate my life to. It is a cocktail of everything I love: books, history, libraries, literature and travel opportunities.

My favorite journal of the field is Book History Journal, published by John Hopkins University Press annually. It is available online; and Tun Sri Lanang Library UKM subscribed to it. The person who started the journal is someone important in the field of book history and also a famous writer (will refer later to Basbanes' Every Book Its Reader because his name was mentioned in the book).

I've planned to do lots of reading soon, hopefully I can spare some time away from the kids. Serious readings are different from leisure one, for sure.

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Currently reading the article from Daedalus, "What is the history of books?" by Robert Darnton (1982).What an interesting piece! How I hope I know French, since for the most part, this interdisciplinary field developed in France during 1960s, before spreading to Europe and later America.