books

Nourish your brains with Silverfish Books

Independent bookstore and publisher Silverfish Books will be kicking off the Silverfish Festival of Cabbages this weekend.

Its name taken from a Mark Twain quote – “The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education” – from “Pudd'nhead Wilson”, the two-month long festival will run in August and September 2015. 

Held every weekend between 5pm and 7.30pm at Silverfish Books' new location in Bangsar Village II, it is aimed at starting intellectual conversations about a range of topics. 

“The festival started off as The Silverfish Public Talk series, which was initially promoted as a means of getting academia closer to ‘real’ people, to discuss ‘difficult’ topics with levity," said Silverfish Books owner Raman Krishnan.

Activities planned to feed your “cabbages” include discussions helmed by a line-up of guest speakers like musician Saidah Rastam; Susan Philips, senior lecturer in the English Department of the University of Malaya; Singaporean writer Isa Kamari; playwright Kannan Menon; travel writer Rumaizah Abu Bakar and children's book author Heidi Shamsuddin.

Topics range from the history of Malaysian music (Saidah) to the Malaysian counter-culture phenomenon in PopTeeVee's online web-series “That Effing Show” (Philips) to the Malay writing scene in Singapore (Isa).

The festival will also shine the spotlight on the unsung heroes of non-profit activities like Edward Soo who organises the annual Malaysiaku community event, Lightup Borneo which aims to bring electricity into the interiors of Borneo and British Council's The Storybook Project. 

If you're interested in keeping your “cabbages” fed, visit its Facebook page for more event information and announcements. (fb.com/SilverfishBooks). – July 29, 2015.

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