I read about the Big Bad Book Sale in the Sunday Star (Nov 22) and couldn’t believe I missed the first one!!
What rock had I been under all this while? I MUST pick up the papers more often, difficult to do when you work the night shift and all you want to do is sleep ALL day until it’s time to wake up and get ready for work the same evening. Sigh….
Anyway, after reading the article on the book sale and the fact that all books were going for 70% to 90%, I thought “Yeah, right!” but decided to go anyway. And I couldn’t have asked for a better first day of sale than Nov 26, when I had the day off, and so could catch up on my sleep once I got home. So I informed my book-crazy best friend, who was up for it as well.
Come Thursday morning, we met for breakfast, drove down to Amcorp Mall – where the sale was being held – and had to endure a long queue of cars entering the vicinity to find parking. Lucky for us, we didn’t take long to find a spot and promptly made our way into the building. It was 1030am when we got there, so the crowd wasn’t so bad, but within a half hour, it swelled. And during that time, I was picking up book after book after book!! I wasn’t too concerned about the damage it was about to do to my budget, but after a while, I couldn’t carry that many in my hands. I wasn’t prepared with my own bags, and the thought of lugging those boxes around looked like too much work. So I got a max of a dozen books, which were a puny amount, by my standards, and waited another half hour in line to pay for them.
My friend got about the same amount, and after paying for everything, I realized with dread, that I should have gotten more!! Then I realized that I had a big problem…. I was addicted to books!! So addicted in fact, I could feel myself shaking from not spending enough time at the book sale, not smelling and feasting my eyes on enough hardcovers, paperbacks, puzzle books, magazines!!!
When I got home, I told mum about the sale, and on Monday, Nov 30, she went there around 4 and came back with 6 books. Mum’s not much of book-crazed fiend like me, but she enjoys books all the same.
I was so excited about going back to the sale on Dec 2, I sit here behind my work desk, narrating this. So the last day of the sale, I was there at 12pm, and saw a smaller group of people browsing what was left after the whilwind that hit the first few days of the sale. This time though, all books above RM5 were going at that same price. FOr one last time, I made my rounds, picked up book after book of what I thought would be good reads, and this time I carried a shopping bag to put them all in. My brother, needless to say, join in the fun, and after picking up his 4 book, was afraid that he may taken too many (four is too many??) but I encouraged him along, and the damage later on, was a mere RM88, for about two dozen books. Still too little, but it was my first massive book sale experience.
I'm already waiting in eager anticipation for the next one, which may probably only happen next year, MONTHS away from now. For now, there is a pile to go through, and I've already finished reading two. :D
