Can't sleep? Read my latest book - Tun M

Former premier, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad amused the crowd with his charming wit and humour today during the launch of his latest book entitled 'The Wit & Wisdom of Dr Mahathir Mohamad'.

Speaking in front of book fans at the event, Dr Mahathir jokingly said that he that doesn't know whether the book is readable or not.

"I assure you, if you don’t feel sleepy at night or cannot sleep, please pick up the book and read it.

“After two paragraphs, you'll be dead to the world," said Dr Mahathir followed by laughter from the crowd.

He also doubted whether he had any wit nor wisdom within him, although he said other people might find it otherwise.

Nevertheless, the nation's fourth prime minister recommended buying the book for the sake of the publisher, Editions Didier Millet (EDM) and also the fact that people nowadays like to read e-books instead of real books.

"For the sake of Didier Millet, please buy the book," he said.

Unlike the 'good old days', Dr Mahathir said it would be sad to see bookshops closing down because the first place that he would go whenever he visits a place is a bookshop.

"Now, people don't have to buy books anymore; they can illegally access it. I know they do this illegally because one person pays, and others can share it," he said.

`The Wit & Wisdom of Dr Mahathir' consist of a collection of 600 quotations from Dr Mahathir, spanning through years of his political career since the 1970s up to his recent quotes from his blog, chedet.cc.

Dr Mahathir later penned his signature to those who purchased the book and queued up to get his autograph.

According to a statement by Didier Millet, most of the quotes were selected from the resources of the Perdana Leadership Foundation's electronic research library which contains more than 320,000 digital records of speeches, news clippings, books and journal articles of Dr Mahathir.

The quotes in the book are arranged by topic including leadership, race relations, media, economic and development, colonialism, international relations including Israel and Palestine, and Malaysia.

Meanwhile, EDM editorial director Martin Cross said the toughest part is selecting the quotes which went back all the way to 40 years ago.

"We went through all the speeches and found what we thought to be the 3,000 (most) interesting quotations, and narrowed it down to 600 and then we put them into categories," he said.

Cross said the selection alone took about seven months before it was finalised and sent back to Dr Mahathir for his approval.

"Luckily, he didn't reject it," said Cross with a relief.

Also present were his wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, his daughter Datin Paduka Marina Mahathir, Berjaya Corporation chairman Datuk Seri Robin Tan, Borders chief operating officer Yau Su Peng and publisher Didier Millet.

The event was held at Starbucks within Borders, at The Curve, in Petaling Jaya.

The book is the second 'Wit & Wisdom' series by EDM following the publication of the 'Wit & Wisdom of Lee Kuan Yew' in 2013.