MPH Book Fair

I went to the MPH book fair this morning. It was a very last minute decision, so turned out to be a lonely outing, because none of my friends I called could make it in such short notice. If you know me well, you’ll know that I adore seeing Mr. Bean naked as much as I adore making last minute decisions, so, as always, it’s my fault.

Anyway, back to the book fair. The fair is typical of any MPH book fairs in the past; its like looking for a needle in a cow farm. Cheap gems were hard to come by, unless you dig deep and look at every shelf. The fair was split into various sections offering different discounts to no discounts at all. Avid readers will enjoy the 30% discount offered on almost all the latest books found in their bookstore, which for me isn’t high enough, considering that most of the books cost as least RM50. If you want to know, the Twilights and LOTRs and Outliers were on 30% discount.

The older publications were on 50% to 70% discounts, and by saying old, they were really old. I did manage to unearth some good marketing books, but didn’t have the heart to fork out RM20 for a 2001 publication. Almost all the children and cookbooks were in this section, as well as some books written by the Olsen twins.

This time, the largest section of the fair would be Value Buy i.e. no discount. There weren’t any discounts, but the books were relatively newer than the ones in the 50% and 70% discount section. But, I must say again, they weren’t cheap too. The hardcover book entitled Shift, a book on Nissan’s turnaround costs RM44++, and so as some Donald Trump books, all but a few ringgit cheaper that market price.

I wouldn’t say that it isn’t worth going if you’re into the latest books, but if you are looking for cheap, older publications, such as storybooks and textbooks, you ought to look somewhere else.

And then there’s the parking. The place was in an industrial area, so as expected, there weren’t any proper parking. I parked at the road side, feeling less suspicious because it was 11am, and there were many other cars parked along the road too. I went back to my car, and fair enough, there was a ticket stuck on my windshield. So I walked around the place, and almost every car had a ticket too. The bikes parked behind me were gone, presumably towed away. Then I drove around the area, and THERE’S NOT A SINGLE LEGAL PARKING SPOT. The roadsides were not painted, so no white or yellow line.

So, if I want to be nice to you, I’ll ask you to drive there with a companion waiting in the car while you do your shopping. If I’m the devil, I’ll ask you to walk there from home, cos no matter how tired you are, it’s still better than getting a ticket stuck on your wiper.

At the end, I did buy a RM30 book, with a 30% discount. So my total expenses would be the book for RM30, and 2-hour parking for about RM150. What a deal.

Here’s a map of the place, if you want to get there.



The fair ends this Sunday, and opens from 10am to 8pm.