I'm valiantly resisting the Pearson-Penguin Warehouse Sale in Petaling Jaya and drooling over the pictures of The Guardian's picks for the 10 best secondhand bookstores. The two I really want to visit are no. 2, Barter Books, Alnwick Station, Northumberland (left) and, no. 8, The Haunted Bookshop in Cambridge.
For more of The Guardian's best book shops, see here.
Today's the last day of The Big Bad Wolf Booksale. Thanks to Jacqueline and Andrew for a fabulous week of great books at ridiculously low prices.
I went again yesterday, and today. As I left today, at 5pm, they were still unpacking boxes. Ah well ...
Here's what I got yesterday and today ...
Illustrated Books
Outsiders by Kevin Crossley-Holland, with amazing illustration by Christian Birmingham
Vampire Loves by Joann Sfar
Quirky graphic novel about a romantic vampire named Ferdinand.
The Fiction
A Country Christmas by Miss Read
Nooo ... not the plus-size store ...
Heaven's Net is Wide by Lian Hearn
It's the prequel to the Tales of the Otori trilogy. Now I need The Harsh Cry of the Heron, the sequel to the trilogy.
Non-Fiction
Spellbound: The Improbable Story of English Spelling by James Essinger
Probably because I can't spell.
The World is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul by Patrick French
Morbid fascination.
Time was Soft There: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co by Jeremy Mercer
Battlefield Walks: Kent and Sussex by Rupert Matthew
Because I miss Sussex.
Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography by Richard Stirling
Impossible to resist. I love Julie Andrews - even in The Princess Diaries movies.
Homer's The Iliad and The Odyssey: A Biography by Alberto Manguel
The Origin of Species and The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin
Led Zeppelin: When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth: A Biography by Mick Wall
Plus about half a dozen others to give to friends. And a whole lot of board books, and DK books that my children chose for themselves.
I raved about the books I got at the Big Bad Wolf Sale but realise I never blogged about the ones I bought at the Kuala Lumpur Alternative Bookfest.
Being KLAB (alternative to the boring old mainstream bookfest that flogs mainly text and self-help books, and the all the usual stuff found at bookstores), it was mostly about local small presses, distributors and authors. The Dram Projects was allowed to sell secondhand mainstream internationally published books because we were fund-raising - thanks Amir and Zulhabri.
Anyway, here's what I picked up at the festival:
The Book That Was Handed Down by Yixian Quek, illustrated by Grace Duan Ying
(a picture book that was self-published with funds awarded as part of the Singabore National Book Development Council's First Book initiative)
Still Life: An Autobiographical Novella Comic by Ming
What it says.
A Nation Cheated by Chee Suan Juan
The author is the leader of the Singapore Democratic Party.
Window Shopping for Enlightenment by ... A.N?
(A sort of graphic novel thing inspired by Tarot suits)
A Love Letter by Chin Yew
A short comic I helped to edit. Looks pretty, printed on recycled paper.
mostpodern by Munkao
Typical of Munkao's zines - wacky, weird and weirder.
Akulah Perempuan Muda Itu: Himpunan Puisi Pop Untuk Pari2 Terbuang by Shaira Amira (Sang Freud Press)
A collection of poetry.
Kacip by Pipiyapong (Sindiket Sol-Jah)
A compilation of blog posts by Pipiyapong
Why Does She Laugh at My Tragedy by Chi
Stick figures ponder the tragedy of love gone wrong
Godspeed
A zine from Spore
Untitled by Adila
A zine about the strange world of Adila Abdul Malik
Che Untuk Pemula by Sergio & Agung Arif Budiman (Resist Book)
Che Guevera for beginners, a graphic guide, from Indonesia.
Marxisme untuk Pemula by Rupert Woodfin and Oscar Zarate (Resist Book)
Marxism for beginners, a graphic guide, from Indonesia.
Perempuan Simpanan (Sindiket Sol-Jah)
A compilation of blog posts by various women bloggers
A short story by Zedeck Siew, illustrated by Sharon Chin
(see illustration at the top of this post)
Just love the covers indie publishers come up with. Why do books by some of the big local publishing groups look so godawful???
Here's the list of books I bought at the Big Bad Wolf Sale. I got double copies of many of the children's books. And also, a couple of travel guides for a friend, which I haven't included here. And, yes, I am going back ...
Fiction
UnLunDun by China Mieville
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
The Roman Mysteries Omnibus II by Caroline Lawrence
The Wish House by Celia Rees
The Magic Lands: Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland by Kevin Crossley-Holland
The Diving Pool: Three Novellas by Yoko Ogawa
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
Non-Fiction
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
At Large and At Small by Anne Fadiman
Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship, and Other Leaps of Faith by Anne Diamant
BBC Woman's Hour, From Joyce Grenfell to Sharon Osbourne: Celebrating Sixty Years of Women's Lives
A History of God by Karen Armstrong
The Curry Companion by Sonja Patel
The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster by Bobby Henderson
Atlas of the World
Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear
Shakespeare's Face: The Story Behind the Recently Discovered Portrait by Stephanie Nolen
Nigella Lawson's EXPRESS
Picture and Illustrated Books
Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kahara
The Gruffalo (Gift Set)
What If by Jonathan Shipton and Barbara Nascimbeni
Smudge's Day Out by James Herriot
Dragonology: The Frost Dragon
Sun, Moon and Stars by Mary Hoffman and Jane Ray
The Terrible Tudors
Dark Knights
The Cut-Throat Celts
The Savage Stone Age
The Rotten Romans
Quentin Blake's A Christmas Carol
The Groovy Greeks
An Elephant and Piggie Book: I Will Surprise My Friend by Mo Willems
Whatever by William Bee
Snail, Where Are You? by Tomi Ungerer
Nim and the War Effort by Milly Lee
Augustus and His Smile by Catherine Rayner
Moomins: The Complete Tove Jansson Comic Strip Vol 3
We're Going on Bear Hunt Pop-Up Book
Dilbert: Thriving on Vague Objectives
Asterix Omnibus: The Magic Carpet; The Secret Weapon; All at Sea
I went for the Big Bad Wolf Sale preview last night. They were still unpacking and things looked pretty chaotic but ... wow! My first reaction was palpitations and blurred vision
What hope did I have faced with this ... [right]? And I'd brought my credit card!! Help!
At the end of two hours, I finally decided to head for the check-out. The damage: RM410 for about 50 books, including several hardbacks. I reckon I'd have had to pay more than RM2k at a bookstore so I'm well chuffed.
Will return on the last day, Monday, 18th May, 2009.
The Big Bad Wolf Sale is on from 10am to 9pm at 2nd Floor, Dataran Hamodal Block A, Jalan Bersatu 13/4, Section 13, 46200 Petaling Jaya.
I spent a pleasant morning at Kinokuniya Bookstore. Well, it's always a good place to be, as any book-lover living in the Klang Valley will agree.
Drooled over several books and thought about buying them, but ended up with just one: Behind the Attic Wall (Avon Camelot Books, 315 pages) by Sylvia Cassedy. The cover is really shockingly unattractive, don't you think? Kino's children's and YA books buyer, Kit said to me: "American books have the ugliest covers."
Here's she is, in rock star/reclusive movie star mode: "Don't take my picture. I vant to be alone!"
Continue reading "Picture Books, Pride and Prejudice and The Gift of Rain" »
I was really disappointed with the Times Warehouse sale that started with a cardholders' preview today.
I thought I would try to get some books for birthday gifts and such, but couldn't find many titles I wanted to spend money on. In the end, practically everything I got was a classic and for someone other than myself. And I spent a grand total of ... RM54.90!
Edward spent RM13!
Don't take my word for it though. Someone else thought it was quite good. I guess it's a matter of taste. There were lots of Buffy and Angel books. And bestsellers too, but no Penguin Classics, no Byatt or Drabble or Proust or Atwood. And no children's picture books except for some Nickleodeon and Disney stuff that I thought too tacky for words.
Philip Pullman's The Broken Bridge was going for RM3 though. And there were classic Pooh stories, Narnia and Lord of the Rings boxsets, and those mini Penguin 60s books that I adore.
I got ghost stories by Charles Dickens and Sheridan Le Fanu, John Buchan's John MacNab, and E. Nesbit's The Phoenix and the Carpet - all Wordsworth classics - for RM5 each.
I guess it's just as well really. I'd hoped to restrict my spending as I usually go crazy at Times sales (last year I spent RM300+, the year before that RM600+), but, as it turned out, I didn't even have to make the effort.
Continue reading "Times Warehouse Sale: Not the Best I've Been To" »
I paid another visit to Borders yesterday. Unfortunately it was another short one - a long, leisurely browse is impossible when Ekath (my two-year-old) is around.
The day before I'd been told by someone who works for a book distributor that a lot of stock hadn't arrived in time for the opening on the 19th. Lo and behold, when I went in yesterday, there were several Joan Aikens on the shelf, including The WItch of Clattering Shaws (the latest and last in the Wolves of Willoughby Chase series). Had I simply missed them the last time or had they come in in the meantime? Whatever the case, I got myself two titles: The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (to replace a copy that appears to have gone since I moved from USJ to Ampang) and Midwinter Nightingale, the penultimate book of the series. (I'm going to wait til Clattering Shaws comes out in paperback. I can't afford the hardback - RM68!!!)
Dec 2009: Minfong Ho, illustrated by Holly Meade: Hush!: A Thai Lullaby
A Thai lullaby is the basis of Minfong Ho's soothing rhymes in this bedtime book. A mother rocks her baby to sleep and begs various animals to be quiet for the sake of the sleeping child. The animals make Thai-animal noises, that will sound and feel unique to Malaysian ears and tongues - for example, "Jeed-jeed," says a Thai mouse and "Hoom-praa" goes a Thai elephant. The illustrations, which won a Caldecott honor in 1997, are done with paper collage and depict Thai culture and simple rural life in a variety of earthy colours and interesting textures. "Hush!" was a Caldecott Medal Honor book in 1997. (*****)
