Bookworm

Just this Monday, I was off work early, doing the opening shift and all. I had just finished one storybook which I had bought from Books Kinokuniya quite some time back and was craving for another.Reading was another way of keeping myself busy and off the shopping malls. It was an economical yet good old fashion way to pass time, without being too useless at all.

I am a slow reader and borrowing books from public libraries never really did work for me. I would be too stressed up about the due date to be able to enjoy the book completely and in the end, I would still be late in returning them anyway.

My bus takes me through Orchard Road and the nearest bookshop I could think of was Prologue at ION@Orchard. Then I had a better idea! Recently, I had thought I saw Sunny Bookshop still in business at Far East Plaza and I quickly rang the bell and hopped off. Sunny is a second-hand bookshop that was tres popular during my school days. You bought a book at one price and if you returned it on time, you would get back a certain amount which was lower than that of what you paid for. The difference was that the due date was like a month or so and that did not sound so bad to me. I know, strange isn't it? 3 weeks is not OK but 4 weeks is fine. Maybe it has got to do with the fact that if I did not return a book from a second-hand book store in time, I could still keep it for myself.

I was wrong about Sunny though, for it was no longer there. Luckily, there were two other second-hand bookstores for me to peer into and the first one did not look at all appealing. The collection was in a bit of a mess and there did not seem to be much selection and variety to begin with. I decided to consult the directory and found ANA Book Store on Level 5.

The arrangement of the collections were still quite messy but at least this fella had the popular authors and books displayed upfront, which was so much easier. I did not have too much cash with me at that time though and was too lazy to go all the way back down to the basement to get money. I was also running a little short of time and there was still dinner to settle.

I think sometimes with books, it is also fate. I picked out this unassuming book called Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda. Amazingly, this was a French translated book and little did I realise that it was filmed into a French movie, Ensemble, c'est tout and was acted by Audrey Tautou! I am quite sure that I have seen the film title before as it was one of those French Film Festival screenings.

Well, it felt like I was back in my Uni days where I went to bookshops, picked up books and trotted off to cafes along the cappucino strip in Fremantle. Except that now, I stay in the comfort of my own room until the wee hours of one, two o'clock in the morning and devour the book some more during my lunch break.

This book was that good! I paid $9 for it and will get back $6 when I return it. Technically speaking, the book just cost me $3, but everyone (including the shop owner) knows that one does not stop there. Once you are hooked on it, you would go back for more and the $6 will be rolled over to your next purchase of books, which is just as well in my opinion. After all, one still has to read anyway.

By the way, I really liked how the owner told me after he had given me change, "Now you can feed your mind with knowledge" or was it "Now you can feed your mind with all that reading". Anyhow, I was in a hurry but I was really happy.

On the way, I saw Wasabi Tei serving its first customers. Made a mental note to self that this could be another Monday early dinner place in future. For usually, there would be a long queue for this place. Once it's bar tables are filled up (and there are only bar-table-styled seating, one would have to obediently queue up for like...forever (when one is very hungry).

p/s: Right now, my mind is all messed up with all that emotional shit after reading the book. The author really knows how to bring one right up to the roller coaster and come down with a big bang. Will probably do a book review of sorts later when I get my emo self sorted out.