Russell, you know what i mean?

I am not exactly a Rusell Lee fan, but i am definitely a fan of horror movies and ghost stories.

I remember vividly I was only primary 5 when i first bought the True Singapore Ghost Story book (which was later labelled as Vol 1). It cost $10 and i got it from MPH - Singapore Changi Airport Terminal 1. I duno why, but i seem to get most of my childhood books from there, including some tintin comics.

The TSGS book was a hit in singapore then. Everyone in my class was discussing about it, as the stories did indeed send chills down our spines. One of my classmates told me she did not dare to bathe at night, fearing her arms will appear blood-written words (the "I am David" story) while the other gal told us she would always keep a look out at the ceiling as she fear of seeing someone hanging and swinging by a rope.

I didnt follow up with the sequels, until abt 8yrs later, when i was in the army doing my guard duty late one night. A TSGS book (wow, it was already vol 7) was left at the guard-commander desk by one of my men, and i decided to read it. I was all alone at the shed in my super quiet and eerie camp, surrounded by cemetries from Jews, Chinese, Muslim, Christians etc. There was even a rumour that a lady in red was always standing by a nearby drain. However, i didnt remember i felt spooked from reading the book. Probably i was so used to the ghostly environment in camp that i became very immuned to 'them'.

Another 10 years passed, and i was at the International Book Fair at suntec when i chanced upon the MPH booth, selling Russell Lee's entire set of TSGB books. Wow! The latest book was already Vol 15! (in fact, now is 16). I was very impressed as i didnt expect the popularity of this book to last this long. Excitedly, i picked up the latest volume and headed towards the cashier. It took me less than 5hrs to finish reading this book, with great disappointment. Probably my expectations were too high then, but majority of the stories were so fictitious, boring and to the extend of... stupid. I wonder why so many ppl like to use this phrase "Russell, you know what i mean?" in their entries. It makes me ponder if all these stories come from the same writer. The standard of the stories have dropped tremendously, compared to vol1 and 7.

But i didnt give up. I decided to go online to search whether the other volumes are available at the NLB. I personally visited a few libraries (Bedok, AMK, Geylang East, LKC) but was unsuccessful in finding one, even though the online catalogue stated they are available. Finally, i managed to borrow a few of them from Geylang East Lib., and i went back for more. Within a few weeks, i have finished almost the entire collection of 16 books (except for a few). Yeah, i am glad some of them are still very nice, especially the older volumes like 3, 4 and 6. From reading these older books which stories are mostly based on local context, i also get to feel how much singapore has changed over the past 2 decades. For instance, a story wrote about this gal who has to rushed to a nearby shopping centre to make an urgent call - cos there was no handphone back then. Another wrote about "the newly constructed Newton MRT station". Wow....