A Syud's a Day Keep You Up All Night Long

My current collection of Syud's books (plus 1 physical copy on my bedside)

I discovered Syud when I was searching for a book of one writer. They said, she wrote nice piece of love stories. I hesitated to read her writing at first, because I can't really find her books in Brunei. I meant never found her book here. I thought of ordering online yet I wasn't sure as I am not familiar with her. I didn't even get to read any of her writing from her blog for a start (I didn't know she/he has a blog).

But one fine day, on a Saturday, after a movie date, I felt like going to the bookstore. So I dragged my husband with my usual I-won't-buy-anything-I-promise pledge. I knew he rolled his eyes before he went straight to the motivation books section. But really it was I-didn't-plan-to-buy-book kinda day and that was when I saw Syud's Tentang... Dhiya. 

So I picked it up.

Put it down.

Picked it up again.

Put it down again.

Picked it up and went straight to the payment counter. HAHA. You know, when things like this happened, I never blamed myself for not resisting the urge. Try accepting it as fate. That God wants you to read a brilliant piece and be grateful for that.

So, I started to read Tentang... Dhiya that very night. It was light. Just like ordinary novel. Nothing special yet I felt something when I read the story. I didn't realise what it was though. So I just leave it like that. But to my surprise it cure my book hangover. Then, I tried to search online if Syud has another book. Yes. She does. I even found her blog. So I started reading on Baju Melayu Hijau Serindi. Again nothing special. But I felt I need to get the whole book (at least epub version). So I started hunting on MPHOnline only to find out her books are out of stock but Google being a bestfriend as usual pointed out that there's hope somewhere and finally I found them in e-sentral!

The books are much cheaper in e-sentral that I started with purchasing Baju Melayu Hijau Serindit, followed by Untukmu Teja Aulia. Honestly, I felt whole after I read these books. Still nothing special. Then I started buying Syud's mini novels and each one of these really make me see what I never see in life. Syud's pieces are everything. From the stories, I gained and mostly refresh my perspective on life, love relationship and family relationship. It was just awesome to actually read about these in ordinary love stories.

Secondly, most of Syud's stories are set in Johore. A place where my friendship with my uni friends bloomed. A place where we started our memorable journey. A place where we did 'stupid' things and that became our laughing stock whenever we meet and reminisce our good times. Times when we were young and carefree. Well, mainly bacause Johore is so dear in my heart that I can imagine scenes from the books.

I think all Syud's characters in her stories are related to each other. Mainly because most of them originated or study or work in Johore. This kind of relatable to our life in Brunei, in the context of small world or as a friend once said, Brunei ani damit.. bepusing pusing ahirnya betamu jua.. 

Though this may not important yet small things like this make me realised on my reality and what really happens in my life.

Thirdly, Syud's writing is like listening to real person talking or telling you something. Simple everyday incidents like meeting a hot guy, guys smiling at you or stalking your crush and whatnot. It feels so real. So lively. I've been busy with work and family. So do my friends. So meeting and talking about stuffs are not always possible. Therefore these stories is kinda fix of something I don't even know. Maybe its escapism. I can't make it up yet.

They say, everything happens for a reason. I think Syud is the catalyst to the start of my beautiful relationship with e-sentral. I've used e-sentral months ago but I never liked it because its kind of slow and annoying. To me it was not user friendly. But true to Malay's idiom, tak kenal maka tak cinta. After spending lots of night with e-sentral I found out it was easy to use and most importantly it sells lots of books that are not available in Brunei. Plus, the e-sentral's customer service is so awesome that they provide prompt assistance to you when you need them. I will be writing review on e-sentral soon. Insyaallah if I am not too absorb with readings.

Anyways, I maybe  behind with Syud's books. But I am glad to have read hers/his. 

Till then.

Aa.