There are two places that I usually got lost whenever I am at a shopping complex or at the airport. My wife knew about it since twenty years ago. After her window shopping, she will look around for me. If I am not with her, she will call me to locate my whereabouts. In the event of no telephone signals or busy lines, she will go to the bookshop or a cafe. Most of the time, she will find me there.
Kinokuniya is the biggest bookshop in Kuala Lumpur. It has the stock of most books whenever I want to buy one. At the same time, the bookshop has a cafe on its mezzanine floor. That is why it is my favourite and preferred bookshop in Malaysia.
Another two bookshops I like to go in and look for books are The Borders and MPH. Their bigger outlets also have cafes. Both have branches near my place in Bangi.
When I was a student at SDAR(65–68), TIKL(69–72) and Sheffield University(73–76), I don’t have enough money to buy any other books than my textbooks. The WEB did not exist back then during my student days; so my knowledge had to come from my teachers and the school and town libraries. How lucky is my children generation where ICT is their great enabler to access information, get knowledge and facilitator to communication.
As a typical Malaysian student, I only read to pass the examination. My reading habit picked up when I was in England. When I returned home to Malaysia, the good habit fades away. Thank God, I managed to get back my reading habit when I joined the corporate world in the 90s. There was a lot of things I need to learn to move from the engineering world to the business world. Through seminars, workshops and reading books, I can get access to knowledge for my new job responsibilities.
From my experience living in Kelantan, Kedah and Kuala Lumpur, we cannot depend on public libraries for our books to read. I have to allocate RM50-RM100 for my reading materials. It means that I must buy books from the bookshops. That is why I visit bookshops twice a month.
Reading made me want to write. Since I am not good enough to be a writer, I become a blogger. So here I am-blogging about bookshops.
