Saturday, December 16, 2006

Bounteous Book Bargains

Went along to the Pay Less Warehouse Sale and took along a young guy called Nicholas who writes very well and has just finished his A levels in Singapore. I don't think he expected the sale to be so big or for there to be so many must read books going so cheaply. Yes, it is a very good sale - just have the others have been.

But maybe because I've been to so many sales lately and my shelves are groaning under the weight of unread books, I didn't jump into the fray with such gleeful abandon. Was very picky about my choices. (Not so Nicholas who filled a huge carton.)

Warehouse sales are a good place to socialise. Here's poet and artist Rahmat Harun.

And here's another friend and poet, Raja Ahmad. We went for a drink and chat with them at the A&W afterwards.

I'm beginning to realise that there is a breed of folks you can call Kaki Warehouse Sale. Here's Justin, Margaret and Joel with boxes and boxes of books. I got talking to Justin and Margaret at the last Pay Less Sale, and learned how they are building a library ...

... and they're so systematic about it. Justin has the list of books he wants to find with many of the books crossed off!

I also bumped into Tina whom I'd also met at the last sale and I was adding enthuistically to her pile! And Yvonne Lee. And Simran, who has just joined our book club. And Peter who works in pay Less in One Utama, but couldn't resist coming to look for books on his day off! (He used to work for Tower records and we used to talk classical music whenever I went in there.)

I came home with this pile of books for just RM36. Not a big pile, but good stuff to keep me happy.


So ... what did you buy?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi dear! You were as fast as I was....in getting to the cashier queue? After having spent three trips, each lasted two hours and two hundred bucks lesser at Big Bookshop Sale this Dec (still on at Atria, till 31st Dec), I told myself, only one hour at Payless, no more and yes, I kept to that limit. Was also more selective.

Sigh. Didn't find any Bill Byson/ Dave Barry/Anne Lamott. But was glad I got:

Paul Reiser's Babyhood

Paul Reiser's Couplehood

Helen Fielding's B J's Diary

Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings

Maya Angelou's The Heart of a Woman

Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

VC Andrew's Petals in the Mist (any fans of VC Andrew here? )

and some children's books. Frankly, I've always preferred BBS's kids' books. I've a big collection and wish my kids are as mad about them as I am....lucky kids, these days! And still don't know it.

BTW, anyone is a great fan of VC Andrew or has the whole collection?

I got my first taste of her book when I was 16 or 17, "My Sweet Audrina" and it gave me that creepy and bizarre feelings but I read on.

I went on to a few of her other books later in my adulthood and still got that same creepy, sinful feeling. Now, as a mother in her mid thirties, am still going to try one more time with Petals in the Mist ( said to be the first VC ANdrews book by a ghostwriter, after the author's death. She left a lot of unpublished manuscript) and see if I still get that creepy feeling.

bibliobibuli said...

i still have that anne lamott novel for you. i'd have brought it yesterday if i'd known you would be there. we must catch up again one of these days.

Miao 妙 said...

Hello, I'm just passing by. I'm from Singapore. I'm really envious of you - in Malaysia you get many good stuff at such low prices! The books sold at warehouse sales in Singapore aren't priced so cheaply - for RM36 I can only get 3 books or so.

lainieyeoh said...

....warehouse sale...Oh-ohhhhhh.................heh.

(link needs fixin)

lainieyeoh said...

also, thought i'd ask you..is the indie scene poetry thing at 4 or 5? cause doppelganger blog says 4pm, but i recall the email stating 5pm.

bibliobibuli said...

i asked jasmine the same thing. she said it's at 5 but always tell malaysians an hour earlier.

synical said...

I was at the Payless sale Friday afternoon and I only got 3 books out of it. (I only buy humour titles from Payless anyway)

Paul Reiser's Couplehood (didn't know there was also Babyhood)

Mickey and Cathy Guisewite's Dancing Through Life in a Pair of Broken Heels

Dennis Miller's The Rants

Anonymous said...

The damage is not as severe as the Big bookshop sale, went there on a Friday morning itself...endure a slight lenghty wait at the cashier, and returned with the following to be read books:-

Paul Theroux – The Collected Stories
Vladimir Nabokov - Lolita
Gerald Durell – A zoo in my luggage
Bernard Malamud – The Natural
Nick Hornby – How to be Good
Michael Ondaatje – In the skin of the Lion
Mitch Albom – Five people you meet in heaven
Granta 86 – Film
Harper Lee – To kill a Mockingbird (this is for the cover, very different cover, not the typical black color nor the light purplelish …but of a lovely little girl)

Anonymous said...

That you did, Sharon (adding to my pile!). I got them books which I really don't know when I'll get round to reading (but hey...it makes me feel good just looking at my collection). I think I need a few lifetimes to finish the lot I have...and from what I've gathered, the same goes to some of the readers here :-)

Anonymous said...

http://sulz.daria.be/archives/99 my post about the sale and what i got from there. 11 books for RM32.50, unbelievable!

Anonymous said...

Probably because its the last day so there werent many good titles left. Not so much suprises as BIG bookshop sale though. In the end I only bought two books:

Joan Didion's Miami
Paul Reed's The Savage Garden

Sufian said...

Lousy sale. I got Gu Debord's Society of Spectacles, and a Judith Butler :(. Went to Big Bookshop and got a copy of Mishima's Sword, a prix goncourt winner, and another book I can't remember.

bibliobibuli said...

am most jealous of bookfetish! i would have snapped up the ondaatje, the theroux, the nabokov (to replace a lost copy) and the malamud (have i read that one?)

i do enjoy this vicarious peep into what other people choose ...

i think i'm going to pop back to big bookshop warehouse sale today ...