I love the smell of print. Call me old-fashioned if you must. Call me biased because I am in the newspaper business. Call me whatever you want, but reading is one of the simple pleasures in life that is still worth everything.

I READ at least four books at any one time and they are found in various spots of my house – from the bedroom to the living room to the most private room of all.

There are also books, magazines and newspapers in my car and in my office so I can catch up on my reading whenever I can.

I love the smell of print. Call me old-fashioned if you must. Call me biased because I am in the newspaper business. Call me whatever you want, but reading is one of the simple pleasures in life that is still worth every­thing. In the morning, all I need is a copy of the newspaper, two half-boiled eggs and a cup of Milo with condensed milk at a real kopitiam.

Despite the hype on e-books, I am sticking to well-thumbed pages instead of the touch screen. And I still love the crammed bookshelves in my private library, even if I have to struggle to look for a dust-covered book.

Those who have been to my house can see bookshelves at every floor and I am still adding books to my library. But compared to many other book lovers, I still have a long way to go.

The late Tan Sri Dr Tan Chee Khoon, whose life’s passion, other than being Mr Opposition, was reading, had an extensive collection of books on military history in his well-stocked library.

Former Kedah Mentri Besar Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, also another passionate reader, has a library with more than 20,000 books and I was given a tour of it when I interviewed him.

And our Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is an avid reader as well. Those who have been in the private section of his official residence will be suitably impressed by his extensive collection.

Those who argue that they can have more books on a PC than all these libraries combined do not know what they are talking about.

Horror writer Stephen King, in a recent video interview, said he could not imagine himself reading an e-book in his toilet. He said that if it accidentally fell into the toilet bowl, the device would be spoiled for sure. If it was a printed book, he would just fish it out, dry it under the sun and soon it would be as good as new.

He didn’t add that reading a real book, with the feel of the paper on the fingers, is like feeling an object of love. You appreciate the labour of love that goes into the writing. It just cannot be compared to flipping the pages on a tablet, even if the books are written by the greatest of writers.

Philosopher Alain de Botton, in an interview in the UK’s The Sunday Times, said “I am a recent apostate from e-books. I found that whatever I read on my Kindle, I couldn’t really remember in the long term. It was as if I had never read it.”

Well, here are the numbers: Amazon reportedly launched the UK store for its Kindle e-book reader three years ago and a frenzy of e-book buying followed. In 2011, sales grew by 366%, and the number doubled again last year when 65 million e-books were sold in the UK alone, making up 17% of the total book sales market.

The Fifty Shades of Grey erotic trilogy by E.L. James contributed much to the huge sales, filling the top three slots in last year’s e-book sales charts, the newspaper said.

But this year, growth is slowing, according to the newspaper, with sales expected to grow at around 20% only. The newspaper, however, did not give the figures for the sales of the printed versions.

But to put it in context, a report in The Telegraph in May, quoting the British Publishers Association, revealed that spending across printed and digital formats rose 4% to hit £3.3bil in 2012.

And printed books still accounted for the vast majority of sales, sliding by just 1% to £2.9bil. The share of the e-book market, although up by 134%, stood at only £216mil.

I am not sure about the situation in Malaysia although we are often reminded that reading is not a popular Malaysian pastime. A popular reference point has been on how, in 1995, Malaysians only read two books a year, though the statistics for 2010 showed that the number has increased to between eight and 10. Still, we have not done studies on reading trends that factor in e-books.

But if we look at the local bestsellers’ list published by the major bookstores, we can see that the ones that make the list are usually on management and autobiographies of rich businessmen!

Malaysians seem to prefer such dull reading materials to enrich themselves instead of heading to the fiction section to fire up their imagination. Well, at least something is being read.

Ironically, newspapers that thrive on sex scandals, ghost stories and other ridiculous gossip passed off as news seem to sell better these days, particularly in the vernacular press.

The thinking section of the newspaper, (like its Op-Ed section) that includes serious commentary on both the local and foreign fronts, normally do not have advertisements. The advertising fraternity is probably aware that readers are flipping past these pages, preferring to go straight to the news pages as well as the lifestyle, entertainment and sports sections. That’s popular culture and the real world, I guess.

A check on the Internet shows that Malaysia is on the list of top 10 nations with the highest number of public holidays.

IT’S 4.30pm, Aug 8, 2013 – the first day of Hari Raya. I have personally wished the Prime Minister Selamat Hari Raya at his residence in Putrajaya early in the morning before the thousands of guests started drifting into Seri Perdana.

I have sent out countless SMS to my Muslim friends, and that would surely make our telco operators happy. I have visited the homes of my Muslim friends.

I have also been smart enough to call them up before I showed up.

One said he would not have any open house because his house was filled with boxes. He was in the midst of moving house.

I found the gates of another friend’s home completely shut. I wasn’t sure if I had read the invitation correctly or got my dates mixed up. Since there were no cars outside his home, it had to be a mix-up on my part. To save myself embarrassment, I just drove quietly away.

Another friend called to say his dad had just passed away and that he was leaving Kuala Lumpur immediately.

So I am all alone in the house now. The wife has left for a break overseas with her colleagues.

I have nothing against holidays as people deserve to have time to unwind and to bond with their families and loved ones. Holidays are also celebrations to remember national or religious events, thus their importance.

Then there are holidays to commemorate the birthdays of our King and the respective Sultans and Yang Dipertua Negeri. The newest holiday is Sept 16 to celebrate Malaysia Day, where we remind Malaysians that Sabah and Sarawak helped to form Malaysia and NOT that Sabah and Sarawak joined Malaysia! The holiday was gazetted in 2010.

Most of us, as we get older, have realised that we also need another holiday – after a holiday – to recover from jet lag and the stress of too much walking and regimented 6am wake-up calls during the tours.

Having just had a break overseas a month ago, I told my boss that I needed to go for another one during this Hari Raya season.

He wasn’t convinced despite my beautifully handwritten note to support my application, with convincing and clever arguments, which lawyers would have fought to copy for their own use.

Now that it has been shot down, I have to say that Malaysians have too many holidays! We used to just take two days off but now it has become a trend to tie public holidays in with the weekends to extend the time off to a week or longer!

So I wasn’t that surprised when a check on the Internet showed that Malaysia is on the list of top 10 nations with the highest number of public holidays!

Despite the whining and complaining among our middle class urbanites, most of us have chosen not to migrate into shoebox-sized apartments, with no Indonesian maids to clean up our homes, no Bangladeshis to blame during general elections and, worse, to fight for space in sardine-jammed subway trains to and from work!

But nothing beats the long holidays. There seem to be some variations but most portals put us at No. 7 with 14 days of public holidays. That excludes the school holidays and our leave entitlement!

Most said we have good reasons because we are a multi-racial country that respects all religions. Even the right wingers and extremists who think the 9.9% Christians in Malaysia are a threat to national security would readily agree that Christmas must be a public holiday.

Thailand and Indonesia beat us with 15 days despite their almost mono-ethnic and mono-religious make-up.

The top spot goes to China with 16 days but, as one blogger puts it, the billion of Chinese deserve their break as everything is now “Made in China”.

Egypt is at number two – guess they need to chill out even more now from the daily protests.

The third spot went to India with 15 days. It used to be 17 days, it seems.

On the eighth spot is South Korea, which said blogger rightly feels they deserve more with their busy schedule of Korean dramas, K-pop and churning out the latest smartphones and flat screens. If I may add, the busy plastic surgeons!

The last two spots went to Chile and Turkey.

But there are contradictions in these measurements. Another portal claims that workers in Spain have a total of 36 holidays, with 22 statutory holidays and 14 public holidays. I do not know if this is a lot of bull, pardon the pun, but that’s a lot, and I am sure the unions must have fought hard for all these days!

According to China.org.cn, No. 2 is actually Venezuela with 36 holidays comprising 24 statutory holidays and 12 public holidays.

The Chinese-portal, not surprisingly and conveniently, left China out, and even Malaysia with its method of calculation, instead listing Austria at No. 1 with a total of 38 holidays including 26 statutory holidays and 13 public holidays.

Going through all these claims, rebuttals, denials and clarifications has been very confusing and complicated but the bottom line is that long holidays are bad for the newspaper business.

When newspapers take a break, it means newspapers are not on sale and when there are no advertisements, it means a loss in revenue. Obviously, salaries must continue to be paid to workers – who are on holiday!

It’s no good sitting alone in the house. I’d better start making calls again to my Muslim friends to tell them I am dropping by and to keep the lemang and satay for me, please!

Selamat Hari Raya to all my Muslim readers and to all Malaysians!

Let’s not expect our cops to fight crime with their hands tied behind their backs. Let them do their job with our support and the necessary laws.

LET’S be blunt: I’d really like to know how those who oppose the introduction of a preventive law against criminals would react if they or their family members were to be robbed and beaten to a pulp by these scums.

It may be fashionably liberal to preach civil and personal liberties but the overall interest of society surely must always come first.

Cop-bashing seems to be a warped way of gaining popularity for some politicians but, again, I would like to know who they will turn to for help when they are in desperate need.

I fear some of these people with their purported lofty ideals and principles are not in touch with the sentiments on the ground.

Ordinary Malaysians are angry at the prevailing lawlessness and inability of the police to stop the criminals, many of whom are “graduates” of the Simpang Renggam detention centre. These ex-detainees seem to be roaming about freely.

Thanks to the human rights advocates who successfully pushed for the abolition of the Emergency Ordinance and the Banishment Act, many of these hardcore criminals are back in business.

They are busy killing each other to regain their turf or have made themselves available as hired killers, according to various press reports.

There’s no reason for us to be angry if Singapore newspapers claim that Malaysia – no longer just Johor – is not safe. Malaysians feel the same way too, and there are plenty of news reports to justify this perception.

Go to YouTube and you can watch some of the most frightening criminal acts in Malaysia captured on CCTV.

Thanks to this video-sharing portal, we can now watch real-life crime unfold and how ordinary Malaysians are suffering.

It is depressing that parang-wielding robbers would even attack ordinary Malaysians having a bowl of mee and a cup of coffee at the kopitiam, and in broad daylight as well. How much can these desperate criminals gain from such mindless acts?

What has angered people is that these robbers are not merely content with grabbing the loot but are vicious enough to slash and hurt their victims.

The videos and media reports are not concocted but are based on police reports and real crime incidents. So there’s no reason for our government leaders, politicians or people in authority to be upset if the media give prominence to such blatant crime stories.

The reality is that even Cabinet members or at least their immediate family members have also fallen victim to these dangerous elements.

So let’s not be angry with the messenger, in this case the media, for reporting on such high-profile crimes.

The harsh reality is that you have to deal with criminals the hard way. You cannot expect a criminal to volunteer a confession over a cup of coffee, and then be whisked to the courts to be charged and convicted. That doesn’t happen in real life and even movie makers would not use that script because it is simply unrealistic.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and the Inspector General of Police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar have the fullest support of this writer to crack the whip on criminals who don’t deserve any sympathy from us.

The many illegal gaming outlets, operating in the guise of Internet outlets, in Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and other major towns should be shut down.

Malaysians have long questioned how these outlets are able to operate openly. Should we be blamed if we suspect that corrupt cops and local government officials are in cahoots with these illegal gaming operators?

It is well documented that gambling and drug addiction are linked to crime in Malaysia. We need to go to the source and stop illegal gambling and drug addiction. Dealing with the symptoms alone is not enough.

Enough is enough. Let’s not expect our cops to fight crime with their hands tied behind their backs. Let them do their job with our support and the necessary laws to clean up the streets.

London, Paris and other parts of Europe are ripe for the picking – to petty criminals targeting unsuspecting tourists. And the fingers are pointed at gypsies, more correctly called Romas, who are mostly from Bulgaria and Romania.

IF you are one of the many Malaysians heading for London, Paris and other parts of Europe for the Hari Raya holidays, be cautious of the many gangs of pickpockets there who are targeting unsuspecting tourists.

Rampant crime by these petty criminals has become big news items in the European media with fingers pointed at gypsies, more correctly called Romas, who are mostly from Bulgaria and Romania.

Having taken advantage of the free flow of travel for European Union citizens, these gangs are often found in many tourist spots.

Britain is already bracing for the influx of thousands of immigrants from Romania and Bulgaria who will seek work in the United Kingdom as a result of changes to EU immigration rules on Jan 1 next year, a report said.

In London, newspapers have published pictures of Romas practically camping near Marble Arch and Hyde Park, taking advantage of the summer weather.

On July 19, police and immigration authorities ordered these gypsies to leave, and taxpayers had to pick up the bill for their flights home. But when I left London last week, I still saw a small number of these gypsies sleeping along Marble Arch. It seems there is little that the authorities can do about the Romas.

The influential Paris Match magazine published an eight-page report and pictures under the heading “The flagrant crimes of pickpockets” to expose how these criminals brazenly target their victims in broad daylight. One report said “the increasingly aggressive gangs are causing chaos and misery” in Paris.

Their popular spots are around the Eiffel Tower and The Louvre museum, where the staff reportedly staged a walkout because of lack of protection against organised Roma groups who are stealing on “an industrial scale from workers and tourists”.

Popular tourist website www.virtualtourist.com carried a picture of a gypsy gang operating outside the Gare Du Nord train station in Paris.

Strolling along Champs Elysees, which is surely Paris’ most famous street with its strip of shops, cinemas and cafes, I saw how tourists were approached by two teenage Romas. They were asked if they could speak English, and they were soon persuaded to sign fake petitions for some dubious causes.

In this case, those who responded were asked to make some donations, and when the tourists realised they were being duped, they walked off, inviting angry responses from the Romas.

The more unlucky ones, according to reports, would be pickpocketed by the accomplices while they were busy talking to the so-called petition interviewers.

In Athens, outside the Acropolis Museum, I saw Romas who were no more than 10 years old playing musical instruments and hustling tourists for money. Their parents, living the nomadic lifestyle of gypsies, do not send their children to school and such form of begging is a norm.

In France, the authorities have reacted strongly against these nomadic gypsies by dismantling their camps and expelling them.

Last year, according to a report, nearly 13,000 Romanians and Bulgarians were deported from France, an increase of 18.4% on the previous year.

In January, the UK’s Daily Mail reported that 28,000 Romanians were arrested for crime over the last five years.

“That is the equivalent of 15 Romanians being held by the police every day. There are only estimated to be 68,000 living in the UK.

“It puts Romania second only to Poland in the list of countries with the most citizens arrested in London – but there are around half a million Poles in Britain,” the newspaper reported.

The newspaper quoted Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta as admitting that Romanian gypsies are posing a “huge challenge” to Britain’s law enforcement by their begging and stealing.

But not all Romanians are gypsies or criminals. Visiting some Chinese restaurants owned by Malaysians in Bayswater in London, I was told that some Romanian kitchen hands are being trained to cook Chinese food.

One Malaysian restaurant owner complained that Malaysian chefs insisted on a minimum of £500 (RM2,450) a week whereas the Romanians only asked for £100 (RM490) per week.

The Romanians were “slow and easily distracted but did not cause problems”, said the restaurant owner.

I have seen a Romanian cook making simple Chinese food such as fried rice, sweet and sour chicken, and noodles.

It looks like the face of cities in Europe, especially London, is fast changing. The Italian restaurants are already full with Bosnian cooks, and now the Romanians are taking over the Chinese restaurants.

What’s new? In Malaysia, the Myanmar people are operating hawkers stalls in coffee shops.

The writer is baffled over the resistance to the move to make Titas a compulsory subject. Titas was already mandatory for Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia students more than 30 years ago and it has, he feels, fostered better understanding of different civilisations among the different races.

THE move to make Islamic and Asian Civilisation Studies (Titas) compulsory for university students in private institutions from Sept 1 has kicked up a storm.

But for many graduates of local universities, particularly Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, it has certainly not raised an eyebrow.

Thirty years ago when I was studying at UKM, it was already mandatory for us to pass the Islamic Civilisation course.

It did not matter what we studied; we all had to pass the paper if we wanted to get our scroll at the end of our studies. No one, even Muslims, was exempted and often there were non-Muslims who were top scorers.

As I can recall, none of my friends was converted into Islam, and certainly this writer did not become a Muslim. We didn’t complain about the requirement to pass the ZI course, as it was code-named, as we already knew about the condition when we picked UKM as our choice.

Certainly, taking the course has given me a better understanding of Islam. Like it or not, Islam is the religion of the majority of Malaysians.

The course at UKM was simply an introduction to Islam and it has helped me in the course of my work as a journalist.

As I had sat for Islamic History and Malay Literature in my Sixth Form examination, the ZI course was pretty easy for me. That arrogance and complacency, however, proved to be costly as I did not score as well in ZI as I had expected. The others who did not have that academic background studied harder and performed better in the end.

I still passed the test but it was lectures by the late Datuk Fadzil Noor, who went on to join politics and become a PAS president, and Datuk Dr Haron Din, with his profound story telling of jins and spirits, that caught my interest.

I have continued to collect books on Islam, improving my understanding of the subject, and building up a decent private collection.

Certainly, reading plenty of books on this subject and my ZI classes have benefited me in many ways, particularly in my interaction with friends, colleagues and other acquaintances who are Muslims. I am glad I took the ZI course in UKM.

But I also believe that studying and appreciating the other main religions, especially Buddhism, Christianity and Hinduism, will also benefit all of us.

The idea is not to belittle any religion or to extol one’s belief as more superior, but rather to emphasise the commonalities such as compassion, tolerance, love, sharing and peace.

We all call God by different names and we practise our beliefs in different ways but there will always be many common values and areas because we all believe in the importance of goodness and respect for each other.

In fact, students of Islam in UKM, like in other institutions in the Middle East, are also required to study other religions including Judaism and Christianity.

Likewise, students who want to become Catholic priests and Protestant pastors will need to study Islam at their seminaries.

I have been lucky growing up in Penang and later working in Jalan Mesjid Kapitan Keling, previously Pitt Street. It was always a joy to walk past, or at least drive through, the road which has a mosque, a Hindu temple, a Taoist temple and a church located next to each other.

As a child who grew up in the Chulia Street area, where my grandmother’s home was located, it was common for me to walk through the Kapitan Keling mosque to take a short cut.

Today, two paintings by the late Penang artist Tan Choon Ghee hang on the wall of my home in memory of my childhood days. There is no religious hang-up of having drawings of a mosque in my home.

In Singapore, schools regularly organise visits to places of worship as part of their extra-curricular activities.

We shouldn’t be afraid of learning the religions of all communities. It should not be restricted to just one religion.

Non-Muslims should learn about Islam and at the same time, there is no reason why Muslim students in universities, both public and private, should not study other religions which have been here for centuries.

It should be made compulsory for everyone to study each other’s religion in order to have a better understanding of each other.

In this period of Ramadan, breaking fast with our Muslim friends and colleagues is certainly encouraged. It will be a good way to understand each other’s faith.