Book Scramble

I needed a novel and I needed it in a hurry.

I'm doing an interview with Edward Carey next week, and I ought to have read at least one of his two novels. Panic! Can I find even one of them in this city?

I try Silverfish. Nope. Phek Chin sounds mildly surprised I should be looking for a book.

I try Skoob. Nope. Thor just wants to talk about all the anti-gay comments on Kakiseni which were posted at the end of my review of Life Sdn. Bhd.

I try MPH. Immediate success! The young man I speak to knows exactly which books are in stock at which branch. The last copy of Observatory Mansions is mine, but they don't have Alva and Irva. I tell them to hold the first book for me, and I'll be straight over there.

Decide, out of curiosity, to see how the other bookshops fare.

I try Times who tell me I've called the distribution centre and they tell me I'll have to phone each branch individually to find out if the books are in stock anywhere. I call Times at BSC. No stock. It will take 4 weeks to come if I order now.

I try Kinokuniya. Same story.

Then I try Borders, the biggest bookshop in the world. Surely with 200,000 books in stock, at least one must be by Edward Carey? Nope. They can get the books for me, provided I can be patient and wait for 6-8 weeks!

Honestly, what nonsense is this? If a book is going to take more than a few days to come I'm much better off buying it on the internet. Abebooks would have the books in my hands within a week and probably more cheaply even after postage ... Bookshops - you just ain't competititive if you take too long to bring in stock. I've heard that Borders is not sourcing books locally, hence orders will take longer to arrive. (Is this true?)

So then a dash to Megahell to pick up the book. The world and his brother seems to be headed for the same place and the jam is horrendous. I've only been here once before. I hate huge shopping complexes, get panic attacks the moment I step inside them. Too many people, too many distractions, too much noise banging at you from all directions. And my heart starts to pound if I cannot easily find my way out to quiet and daylight again. One of these days I'm going to pass right out in the middle of the concourse of a shopper's paradise, I swear.

But I have my mission today and it makes things easier. A few minutes later I'm sitting reading a pizza marguerita and eating Observatory Mansions (on a base of dark fantasy, with a side order of illustrations).