Wednesday, March 12, 2008

It was an old bookshop, i was truly fascinated by it, I'm sure Mel would have too if she was here. It was a second hand book shop but the collection was great. That shop was the kind of ideal shop that i had in mind, a bookshop cum cafe, where people could just pick a book and read while they sip and munch. If they like the book, they could buy it.

I was impressed by its collection, there were some first prints of those Enid Blyton's and other good literary pieces. I found three of R.K Narayan's books that I had always wanted to buy. I had searched high and low for it when i was a student but no bookshop was able to sell it to me, finally I found it in this old bookshop, tempted i was to buy it but finally opted not to when I converted the price into RM.

There are many such shops in Sydney and there is a market for old books. Perhaps because the reading culture is popular here. I was impressed by this bookshop and was motivated to explore the other shops. And so, I happily walked into the many bookshops that i came across, every one of it was unique with its own identity. I was innocent and naive until I walked into a bookshop that made me feel so stupid. I had walked into a bookshop that sold explicit titles only and nothing more. I felt so embarrassed to be in that shop. I guess it was due to my upbringing where sex was a taboo topic. My self consciousness seemed to tell me that i should not be in that shop though the liberal me could not see my presence in that shop as wrong or illegal. I avoided making my discomfort too obvious, spent some 5 minutes browsing through the books before i left.

It was indeed an interesting experience for me, again, I felt like a frog under the coconut shell....(katak dibawah tempurung )

6 comments:

mel said...

Oh, be still my heart.

JEremy said...

R.K. Narayan! haha..

I've read 2 of his books...

Talkative Man.
Under the Bayan tree and other stories...

Nice.. haha.. I didn't know you read R.K Narayan...

Heard of Kahlil Gibran? I think his writings are to die for...

Love you!
Miss you!

-Jeremy

jennvaz said...

Mel!!!!

Jeremy, are you sure u love and miss me? People who love and miss each other stay in touch hehehehe. Hmmm...interesting to knw that you read RK Narayan, especially, someone of your age.Kahlil Gibran? I have not heard of him, but if you think he is good, guess its worth exploring

JEremy said...

Don't be surprised...
Kahlil Gibran is magic la...
He's Lebanese American. Very poetic and vivid in his expressions. He writes on issues like society, man and God, philosophy and the whole lot, but in the form of stories, poems, and what not.

I'm pretty sure he's catholic, because he was excommunicated, during his time, the church was still... Vatican 1, and they very shallow minded about his writings... hmmm....

Go read! hahaha...

mel said...

I meant the books in the secondhand bookshops, not the porn & sex stuff :p

jennvaz said...

well Mel, since you have a collection of books, if i really open a shop, u culd run the 2nd hand books hehehehehehe

Jeremy, Kahlil Gibran sounds really old, perhaps I'll check him out at the library here, the collections are wonderful. I could spend a whole day in it. The frog under the coconut shell speaking again......