Bookish love affair

Let’s just say I love books and bookstores although I don’t have that much time to read these days.

I had always loved books. For as far as I could remember, the moment my parents brought me out to the mall for a weekend stroll, I would immediately gravitate to the bookstores. Well, that was as soon as I weaned off the toy store. As I kid, I was kinda privileged to have lots of toys and the magical time of birthdays and Christmas to ask for a bright shiny new toy. But as I got older, I slowly shifted my attention to a whole new and colorful world of books. Well, it began with Enid Blyton with her endless adventures and misadventures and landing myself squarely in the adolescent world of fantasy and sci-fi books like Frank Herbert’s Dune, JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Ring Trilogy and so on. For me, books was escapades into a world made up of tiny little words.

Although, a passing thought of becoming an author did cross my adolescent little mind but I never really took it seriously. I didn’t even take it seriously when Rinpoche suggested it to me but somehow, fate and a little of pushing and nudging from Rinpoche made to my destiny. With 4 books under my belt, I still don’t feel I am very writerly but that’s ok. At least, there will always be someone who would gain something from what I wrote. I have been told that quite a few times and I am pretty happy about that.

These days, Kino is my most fav bookstore because it has a huge selection of Buddhist books. The only kind of books I read these days. 

Anyway, another dream of mine was to own a bookstore, well not really a chain like Kinokuniya or MPH but something quaint, with lots of books and stuff. I had always dreamt of this and perhaps one day, when I do manage to get hold of some money, I might actually do it. I think independent bookstores don’t really do well in Malaysia for the very fact that there’s virtually none as the bookstore giants dominate the scene. I think if ever start a bookstore, it would be a kinda different, like a bookstore cafe thingy or a spiritual bookstore kinda concept. That has been in my head for the longest time and I really would like to do that. It’s all about the money, time and know-how.

I am not exactly business-savvy nor am I filthy rich and Malaysians are not exactly the most avid readers. These are some of the things that would be major challenges but I am sure there are ways to go around them. Anyway, I have certain writing commitments for Kechara for the next few years. Once that’s over, I might just try to start something.