It’s the first day that I arrived, and I just came back from East Coast Mall. It didn’t take long for me to start missing KL. Though I’ve been here a million times already, this is the first time I found out how lousy some shopping centers can get. Mind you, this is not the first time I’ve gone shopping here, but nevertheless this is a real eye-opener.
Getting to the mall is perhaps the most comforting thing to do in this outing so far. There’s no traffic at all, the basement parking is abundant and easy to find and, surprisingly well lit. So up we go, and I first headed to a bookshop (so that I don’t have to stare at dresses and high heels and stuff like that). I’m not going to name it, otherwise I’ll go into another fit of rage, but never mind, the interior décor is kinda nice, and that's where the complements stop. I started reading TOPGEAR to burn some time, and I could sense the ever presence of the sales girl, keeping a lookout at me relentlessly like I’m going to run out of the store with the July issue of FHM. Never mind, I thought, this isn’t KL. Then I went on to read a paperback, FREAKONOMICS, if my mind, and rage didn’t fail me. As I reached the 10th page or so, this same dudess came to me and said, “Tak Boleh Baca”. I went, ‘OK, where’s it stated?’ and I looked around for a sign or note. She just said “Kalau u sudah baca, mesti beli buku ini.” This is my holiday, and I didn’t want to ruin it so quickly, so a quick “idiot” whisper (and another ton of maternal expletive later) and I stood up and left.
Only two things that came to mind when hearing her ‘statement’, one by far is what distinguishes KL shopping malls from the ones here; bookstores in KL leave chairs around the place for customers to sit down and read whatever they like. The stores here not only expect you to stand while BROWSING, they also expect you to but something without knowing the content. Ok, some might think that you can read the rear leaf on paperbacks to understand what’s going on, but the leaves don’t tell you the author’s writing style, or the size of the fonts (this for me is important, because paying more than RM30 to squint doesn’t make any sense) .
The other funny thing is, and this is for you, Ms. Stalker, WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THAT I’LL BUY A BOOK IF I’VE READ IT?? Sudah baca, mesti beli…..go back to kindi, goodness. How am I supposed to baca the 200+pages in less than a day? Heck, even if my eyes can take it, my legs would have given in long before, ‘cos you didn’t provide any bloody chairs.
So now, here I am, constantly reminding myself that this is not KL, and it’s not a BORDERS that I walked into. Bookstores here don’t have chairs for you to sit (they have chairs to stand and reach up the cupboards) and everyone in the store is a stalker. I could have gone on with the stalkers in the DVD shop, but never mind, I'm letting you off with a warning. Hopefully its only in Part I that I’m ranting.
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Funny. Never had come across such bookstore before and I hope I will never come across anything like that.
ReplyDeleteBut then normally small bookstores won't let you read their reading materials there. Unlike those like Popular, Borders or MPH or any other bigger bookstores.
But I'll prefer to think that by allowing readers to read a book, even for a few pages, they might be more interested and inclined to carry on reading and thus might just buy the book. And if they really don’t want anyone to read the books onsite, then I dare them all, I mean DARE them all to wrap all the books in the store. Better still, fix a counter at the storefront like a clinic, then bring whatever books we request, so we don’t get to browse around. Anyway, all I can say is that I’m not in KL.
ReplyDeleteHa.Even stores in KL have books all wrapped and we can bring it over to the counter to ask them to unwrapped them for us to browse. and i remember reading the whole book at MPH last time. save my RM30+++ of buying the book.
ReplyDeleteHmmm.....I guess if the "Stalker" Lam mentions saw Michl reading for the whole day, I think she will only let Michl off if she buys the book.
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