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THE WORST BOOK SALE IN THE WORLD
Dec. 23rd, 2016 09:46 pmRecently we lost another bookstore chain in Hong Kong: Page One, whose home base is in Singapore. The last one in Singapore shut down last year. The last one here in Hong Kong shut down last month.
Last week, word circulated on the Facebooks that Page One was having a receivership sale in one of the old industrial warehouses in Kwai Hing, with 40% discounts on everything. Of course I had to go check it out.
Here's what I thought it would look like.
Here’s what it actually looked like.
It’s literally books and magazines piled randomly onto pallets, with barely enough aisle space to walk around even before you fill it with people.
Which explains the crowd-control queue out front when I arrived.
It was not a good experience. I enjoy scavenging for books, but it’s a drag when there’s no logic or order, most of the books are buried and the venue is really crowded, so you basically end up skimming the tops of the piles and go for pot luck.
My expectations weren’t just set by the flyer photo. Years ago, when Borders closed shop in Singapore, I was lucky enough to be in town when they had a similar clearance sale in a rented warehouse space. All the books were arranged in boxes with the spines facing up so you could at least see what they were. They weren’t organized by category, but you could at least see what was available.
That wasn’t the case here.
Anyway, I was damned if I was going to go all the way to Kwai Hing, brave the crowd and come away empty-handed.
So here’s my booty.
The one about Kim Jong Il is actually one I’ve wanted to read for awhile. I’ve read Priest and McCarthy before, but I’ve never read Umberto Eco, and while I do plan to read The Name Of the Rose next year, I thought this book of essays might be worthwhile.
Living in chaos,
This is dF
Last week, word circulated on the Facebooks that Page One was having a receivership sale in one of the old industrial warehouses in Kwai Hing, with 40% discounts on everything. Of course I had to go check it out.
Here's what I thought it would look like.
Here’s what it actually looked like.
It’s literally books and magazines piled randomly onto pallets, with barely enough aisle space to walk around even before you fill it with people.
Which explains the crowd-control queue out front when I arrived.
It was not a good experience. I enjoy scavenging for books, but it’s a drag when there’s no logic or order, most of the books are buried and the venue is really crowded, so you basically end up skimming the tops of the piles and go for pot luck.
My expectations weren’t just set by the flyer photo. Years ago, when Borders closed shop in Singapore, I was lucky enough to be in town when they had a similar clearance sale in a rented warehouse space. All the books were arranged in boxes with the spines facing up so you could at least see what they were. They weren’t organized by category, but you could at least see what was available.
That wasn’t the case here.
Anyway, I was damned if I was going to go all the way to Kwai Hing, brave the crowd and come away empty-handed.
So here’s my booty.
The one about Kim Jong Il is actually one I’ve wanted to read for awhile. I’ve read Priest and McCarthy before, but I’ve never read Umberto Eco, and while I do plan to read The Name Of the Rose next year, I thought this book of essays might be worthwhile.
Living in chaos,
This is dF
