Does Size Really Matter?

MPH celebrates the 10th anniversary of the opening of the first book megastore in the country - the branch in Mid Valley Megamall in Kuala Lumpur, and in Starmag Rouwen Lim finds out all about it.

Says MPH's chief operating officer Donald Key :

Back in 2000, the concept of a mega bookstore was something new. We were not sure how Malaysians would take to this idea but we took a risk and went ahead with it. Right from the beginning, we had contests and events such as storytelling sessions, fashion shows, talks, craft, cooking and hair styling demonstrations. ... This lifestyle concept was an instant hit with the customers. They had not seen anything like it before in bookstores here, and it transformed the entire industry.Today, of course, we are no longer the only player in the industry. But the industry has changed for the better and we are proud to have contributed towards that.

It's interesting how quickly we have got used to the concept of the huge bookshop. I must confess that I seldom visit this branch of MPH because the size of Mega Mall (Mega Hell!) freaks me out, but much prefer the 1 Utama branch.  My favourite huge bookshop, of course, is Kinokuniya, and it's high time I paid it a visit and did some serious damage to my credit card  ...

But I must confess that hugeness for me isn't a selling point - my perfect bookshop would be small and intimate and squidgy and have just the books that I wanted to read. So let me ask you what you think - is bigger necessarily better?

By the way, MPH are celebrating with some tasty offers.

Bookshop Just for Women

So what do you think of this idea - a bookshop especially for women?

Elizabeth Tai writes that MPH Bookstores has introduced Malaysia’s first “women concept” store which is at The Curve :

To begin with, the outlet’s books will be chosen for their appeal to women. There will be everything from women-centric business and management books and autobiographies on prominent female leaders to chick-lit and cookbooks. EspresSOUP is a little corner where you can relax with a cup of coffee and a good book. ... There will also be other products with female appeal, such as wedding stationery, to name just one. Brides-to-be will be glad to know that stationery specialist MOOF will be bringing in its exclusive designs, which will only be available at The Curve outlet.

I think it is a clever marketing strategy, especially as The Curve already has a big branch of Borders and the branch of MPH does need to differentiate itself.

Bookshops also do need to reinvent themselves as destinations which customers associate with a pleasurable experience, if they are to survive especially as we move towards the age of ebooks.

This sounds like a place where women might go to treat themselves and get away from the pressures of the day and that's good and I like the idea of the books club, talks and workshops:  it's bookstore "squidginess", for sure.

But, I do have some reservations.  First, I personally don't like segregation of the sexes. Men need their spaces to relax and hang out too.  

And secondly I don't like the cliched assumptions that women should like certain things whether in terms of decor (usually frilly, flowery pink things) or in the choice of  books.  The concept of women's bookshops is nothing new, but around the globe most have been independents which promoted feminist and/or lesbian thought.

Furthermore, it seems to me that there is an increasing de-emphasis on selling books and a move towards the store becoming a gift shop that also sells books. 

I will go check it out the next time I go shopping at The Curve ... and I hope the EspresSOUP corner serves decent coffee!

Anyway, what's your reaction to this?

It's All White, Borders

After 5 years in Malaysia, Borders is celebrating with some tasty offers.  (Click poster up to size to read.) Congrats!

But the whiteness of the kids in the picture has been upsetting friends.  Daphne Lee asks on facebook : 

So how come there aren't any Malaysian children in the picture? Is this another case of whitewashing?

Amir Muhammad wants to know :

Does reading make you white?

Both of them got plenty of response to their questions.

I reckon the person who put the ad together just reached for a stock image without considering the reaction of Malaysian consumers.   But considering the reaction, one can only hope that a lesson will be learned.

Thanks BookXcess!

You may have noticed the little banner in the sidebar, linking to Bookxcess. It's there by way of a thank you to my friends Jacqueline and Andrew who own the discount bookstore that has made so many of us very happy.

They told me that they are so grateful for the news and information on this blog that they would like to donate towards sponsorship. I was happy about that because I have wanted more targeted advertising for some time. Also I guess I did not have the number of hits to make a decent amount on Nuffnang. (But the small income I made did pay for my air fare to a couple of literary events, which was good.)

I decided that BookXcess' sponsorship money should go towards the cost of the book I'm publishing based on our Readings/CeritAku events.

And if there are any more companies or organisations that would like to offer sponsorship, then I would be delighted to talk to you! (I reckon I will be spending about RM12,000 in total.)

BookXcess is in the middle of a major move, and I went by a few days ago to see what the new store would look like. There's so much space - I can't wait to see it all filled with books!

The new store (which is just next to the present one) opens Friday 19 March 2010! And if you need more information, then just click the banner in my side-bar.

(Thanks Su Lin for the photos.)

The Damaging Irony of Big Time Bookselling

Foyles is still the acceptable face of bookselling, probably because it is still unlike the predators that are now quietly consuming the book trade throughout the world. Conquering giants now want commissions of 60 per cent or more from publishers and then they ask a sum again to display the titles prominently. They strike bargains that enable them to sell three books for the price of two, like lavatory cleaners in a discount store, and much as they draw crowds to their jangling tills, the trail that they leave behind is of closed shops and hand-to-mouth publishers and unknown but probably good writers that do not have the pull of Dan Brown or Harry Potter. This is the damaging irony of big time bookselling; that it consumes the very trade it is meant to be promoting, and many, many books from small publishers never get to be read by the wider book-reading people. So who stands to gain, who stands to lose in this dog-eat-book world? Remainder books are big business now, big enough to have their own book fairs. Testimony surely to the growing value of shelf space in the bookshops that have to be cleared as quickly as books are being churned up by the big boy publishers.

Following the closure of Borders in Charing Cross Road, Wan Hulaimi (our Awang Goneng) writes a passionate piece about the demise of bookshops thanks to ruthless and ultimately short-sighted business practices. I love his description of the eccentric way Foyles used to operate. It brings back memories of when I used to make a pilgrimage down to London as a teenager, to visit what was felt by many to be the best bookshop in the world. (Pic on right - Charing Cross Road)

A Bookseller's Responsibility

Bookseller Abby Wong writes an interesting piece in today's Starmag about how Malaysians :

... are reading more and better books but are still dependent on booksellers’ recommendations and unbiased selections.

And she talks about an role of the bookshop, beyond just having the products available :

Indeed, booksellers – or rather, the book buyers who work for the booksellers – are readers’ readers, and they have a responsibility to love books, to read them and to make sincere recommendations to the public. ... Furthermore, I feel it is the lesser known books that bookstores must bring to their customers’ attention because while their authors might not produce commercial best-sellers, they are often better writers than those who shift thousands of titles at a time.

And then she goes on to list some reads that may well have slipped beneath the radar of local readers (and there is a 30% off voucher in the print edition, in case you decide to check them out.)

Her message to booksellers in general :

Instead of dreading the competition, why not start buying passionately to make Malaysian bookstores as attractive as candy stores to customers of all ages?

I'm in Love With ...

MPH have announced a fun contest for fiction lovers. Tell them about a book you enjoy on YouTube and you stand to win prizes. Find out all about it here.

Singaporean Interlude

Back in the 80's, I used to take a bus down to Singapore so that I could get my fix of cheap second hand books at a row of tumbledown shops in Bras Basah road.

The area was redeveloped (as everywhere in Singapore tended to be) and the shops disappeared. It was only on this trip that I caught up with the booksellers again - in the (aptly named) Bras Basah Complex on Bain Street and thanks to Ellen Whyte who dragged me there during our symposium lunch-break on Thursday. The pictures are of Knowledge Book Centre on the third level of the complex - just one of several bookshops here, and well worth a visit when you are down in Lion City.

(I've lots to post about the symposium over the next week or so.)

Wrong Place to Buy a Book

No, I couldn't believe it either!

(Thanks Liz for forwarding this.)

Bookxcess Turns 2

Sunday is the day to visit Amcorp Mall - the flea market is tremendous fun and provides a great excuse to visit BookXcess to buy a guilt free pile of books.

The shop boasts 100,000 titles ranging from fiction to children to self-help to business and prices are about 50-70% lowers than regular bookstores so the store's slogan Read More for Less! is entirely approriate.

Now the remaindered bookshop is celebrating its second anniversary this coming Sunday: 20 titles priced are going for only RM2 each, others are included in a Buy 2, Get 1 Free, and if you spend RM200 nett in a single receipt, you will be entitled to a RM20 cash voucher. BookXcess’s director Andrew Yap says :

We hope our anniversary promotions would entice the general public to pick up more books as we want people to shed their wariness to read the pages of a book.

BookXcess has also launched its own book blog in conjunction with the celebrations with book-related news, book reviews by staff and invited guests, promotions, contests, freebies and more. You can also become a fan of BookXcess on Facebook.

I was there on Sunday with friends Rob and Elaine, and managed to pick up a good haul including Ian Rankin's short story collection A Good Hanging, Oliver Sacks Musicophilia : Tales of Music and The Brain, J.M. Ledgard's highly acclaimed first novel Giraffe, and the first (huge!) volume of Birds of the Thai-Malay Peninsula. It was also good to bump into other book-loving friends who haunt the place on Sunday ...

Donald On BFM

Another podcast from BFM 89.9! This is time it's Donald Kee of MPH Bookstores talking about the company's commitment to improving the country's readership.

Times - You've Come a Long Way, Baby!

Times has had something of an image makeover and Leowania was kind enough to send me a photo of this tasty window display at Pavilion. What other bookstore has the Donatella Versace home collection setting off the book display very artfully?

They also have some good things happening this month, including discounts for World Book Day. (I'm smiling because MPH always celebrates this in April along with UNESCO. What can be better than two days to celebrate reading!)


And then there are some interesting author appearances. (Do click the posters up to full size for the info.)


This is one I must not miss! Tarek Fatah on March 11th. (Read more about his book and listen to a broadcast here.)


Adeline Loh will make you laugh with her crazy adventures on March 14th.


You can catch writers from Urban Odysseys collection on March 21st.

Literary Dreamscape

Bookshops are important places for us word merchants. The good bookshop will contain an air of intrigue. It will smell musty, it will lure you into its interior and, with warm armchairs and a glowing fire perhaps, it will embrace you and invite you to discover the thousands of stories hidden there. The good bookshop will enhance the delicious experience of browsing, touching covers, pulling volumes from the shelves and even buying a book.

Diane Dempsey in The Age describes her search for the "dream bookshop" on an overseas trip. her search takes her to the London Review Bookshop in Bloomsbury, London, and The Winding Stair in Dublin (which novelist John Banville apparently apparently uses as his personal post office). But its only in Shakespeare & Company on the Left Bank in Paris that she finds her bookish nirvana :

All the ingredients were there — mystery and chaos, and eccentric and lovely people whose passion has created the most fabulous bookshop in the world.

And if you want more, here's the shop YouTubed! Postscript : Jeanette Winterson revisits Shakespeare & Co. and paints a loving portrait of its owners.

Virtual Tour of Charing Cross Road

One of my favourite haunts when I go back to London is Charing Cross Road with specialist bookshops the length of the street, the biggest and most famous of course being Foyles. Now crime, romance, sci-fi bookshop, Murder One, the only one of its kind in the UK, is to close its doors and the street may never be the same again.

Mark McCormick in The Guardian puts together an interactive guide to the area complete with map so you can take a virtual tour with photos and video.

I'm homesick!

Haruki's Magic Diary

Talking of perfect Christmas presents for the reader or writer in your life, I think I have found the nicest one of all - The Murakami Diary 2009. I spotted some copies at Times in BSC today and wish I had gone back to buy one, even though I already have a diary for next year.

It's just a little book, visually lovely, with nice Murakami quotes that would lend themselves for use as writing prompts. As the blurb on Amazon.co.uk has it :

Cats slink across the pages; the seasons are marked by cherry blossom and Japanese maple; spaghetti strands or telephone cords separate the days; and a generous selection of quotations and extracts from Murakami's novels and stories appear on almost every page to inspire, amuse or entertain. This is a diary like no other, faithful to all that is witty, surreal, sexy and beautiful in Murakami's work. A must-have for fans of Murakami, fans of Vintage fiction and fans of unique design, this diary will appeal to everyone as a quirky companion for 2009.

By the miracle of YouTube, you can see it here :

BTW, if you are in Bangsar do go and check out the new-look Times branch as it is very squidgy, and even has a nice little cafe in the back portion. What it doesn't have (fortunately or unfortunately) is the "walk of temptation" anymore, where you had to walk past all the brand new, incredibly desirable titles as you entered the shop ...

Update (27/12):

I am gobsmacked with happiness after my friends at Times read this post and couriered a copy of the book!!! I really love it and it will be my constat companion in 2009. Thanks so much!

Arresting Books?

Raman of course writes about the confiscation of Farish Noor's book in his Silverfish newsletter :

... this is totally unacceptable besides being absurd. This is not because Farish Noor is the country's leading public intellectual whose non-partisan views are well known, not because the book is almost four years old and everyone who wants to read it already has, but because we have a rule of law that presumes innocence until guilt is proven.

By their actions KDN have reversed this. Books are proscribed until they are proven to be innocent. What next? Thoughts and ideas? Are all our thoughts and ideas guilty before being proven innocent?

Kinokuniya is a business concern. True, they have probably already written off this loss as one of the costs of doing business in Malaysia. But they should not have too. They should not have to operate under a constant threat, not knowing if they have violated some vague (sometimes, non-existent) rule, not knowing when they will be raided, and not knowing what for.

It is almost seems a waste of time asking the Minister for an explanation, and listen to some inane platitudes or a quote suitable for Amir Mohammad's next collection. He (or she) probably doesn't know what is going on, has no control over what departmental staff, and is not likely to take any responsibility. But, ask we must.

So Minister, can you please tell us if all books by Farish Noor have been banned?

This blogger wants an answer too. And really an answer to this whole business of "arresting books". Or maybe an answer to the question "Is Malaysia a de facto Police State"? Because that's where you would expect to see such things happening!

Bookselling in the Big Apple

Opening an independent bookshop doesn't seem like the kind of activity that will get you noticed by the New York Times. But when you realise 75 independent bookstores have closed down since 2000, you begin to appreciate the extraordinary leap of faith Jessica Stockton Bagnulo is making.

All I had was my ambition and my passion

she says. Now she has experience gained from working in the trade, a business partner and a whole lot of supporters. I really wish her luck and will be dropping by her blog from time to time to see how its going.

Oh, and hands up, how many of you also harbour a dream of opening a bookshop? I do.

(The pic above from the New York Times shows the opening party.)

Bibliotherarapy

Can literature sort out your life problems? A group of authors including Alain de Botton have set up a "cultural apothecary" to dispenses bibliotherapy to those who need it :

On offer at the School of Life: books; artwork; holidays; courses; food; sermons; and – most popular of all – "bibliotherapy". Split over ground floor and basement, the building offers a sanctuary where visitors can read, relax and think for themselves.

The bookshop also offers intriguing weekend trips :

De Botton, who six years ago published The Art of Travel, will take customers to Heathrow, where they can expect a guided tour of the new terminal, meet baggage staff and chat to plane spotters – all for £250. Another holiday will feature a tour of the "great tarmac institution" of the M1, promising meetings with "architects and historians, artists and truckers".

More on the shop's website and on the School of Life blog.

City Lights: 50 Years On

City Lights is a flagship local bookshop for a flotilla of self-sufficient booksellers and publishers around the world who are committed to independent thought and who refuse to succumb to a mass-marketed literary canon. We may not like some of the books but, if we care about their right to be read, City Lights is an indie institution whose actions still speak louder than words. The beat goes on.

The Times' Megan Walsh visits the famous City Lights in San Fransisco which was established more than 50 years ago and looks forward to a bright future. The bookstore's website is here.

A "Real" Bookstore Online

Buying books with an Amazon click provides nowhere near the fun of browsing a real bookshop. Now there's a website (found via The Bookseller) that seeks to replicate that experience.

Visit Zoomii and you find yourself able to browse shelves of books, organised as they would be in a real shop. You can zoom in on covers and titles that catch your eye, open the book to see what's inside and read about it, and then, if you so wish, order via Amazon.

Chris Thiessen says he set up the site:

Because I love bookstores. Spending afternoons wandering the shelves. Happening across great books I didn't even know existed. But it's an experience I never found online. Online bookstores are wonderful. They've got amazing prices, huge selections, and they're open all the time. If you know exactly what you want, they're perfect. But somehow I kept coming back to the bookstore just to browse. Zoomii is my attempt to bring online as much of the real bookstore experience as possible.

It's certainly a nicer interface than Amazon's, though I'm scared of how much time I might "waste" here. Amazon, incidentally, may be buying the site.