Singapore Book Booty
In Singapore last week. Plaza Singapura, one of the never-ending gleaming malls, had a book sale. Not a cardboard- box- full- of- still- overpriced- crap sale like you normally get in bookshops, but a honest to god 30 foot long trestle table literally heaped with thousands of the buggers. Most of them were going for $3 Singapore Dollars each - that's about a quid a book. Magic.
From the top:
- He Kills Coppers - Jake Arnott
- The Genius Factory - David Plotz
- Don Delillo - Cosmopolis
- Martin Amis - Yellow Dog
- Bruce Chatwin - Nicholas Shakespeare
- Norman Lewis - A Voyage By Dhow
- The Nudist On The Late Shift - Po Bronson
- Italo Calvino - Hermit In Paris
- Oracle Night - Paul Auster
- Songs From Nowhere Near The Heart - Jon Baird
Second-hand Eng. Lang. bookshops in foreign parts offer an insight into expat tastes. Do you know that place on Sukhumvit (Bangkok)? Elite, I think it’s called. They’ve had a copy of The Young Latina’s Bible there for years. It’s a guide for Hispanic teenage girls growing up in the United States. wtf?
I was in Elite for the first time this evening. Pleasingly chaotic. Aporia, over by Khao San Road, has stacks of brand new Derrida, Blanchot, Foucault et al titles – who the fuck is buying and reading that here?
Thanks for the advice. I’ll try and get to KSR this evening (dodging the gappers),