A Pandemonium Of Paper

Fuck.

That was the notion that first hit me the moment I stepped out of the lift and into the hall. Rows and rows of tables. Books on every one of them. So many books! It should have been a haven of the ohmigawdbooksomanybookseveryfuchokingwhere! variety. Except that the only thing I could think of was: where do I fucking start?!

Bargain book hunters know the perils of book clearance sales. It's pretty inevitable that you'd have to sift through a whole lot of junk before finding those gems, especially gems at prices that are seriously marked down. But at least you'd usually have an idea where to look.

Not at the Times clearance sales. To my perhaps-untrained eye, it looked like there was no discernible order to the place. After browsing for just a few minutes, it became obvious that I was mistaken. No discernible order? Make that absolutely no order. Period. The books where strewn from table to table with no organisation at all, whether by genre or author or whatsoever. Kid's books lay side-by-side with romance novels with some self-help books somewhere in the middle. Heck, lying on top of one pile was a book called Adult Origami, not because of the complicated, highly-challenging techniques of paper-folding involved, but rather because of the *ahem* adult nature of the subjects involved. I can imagine a kid picking up one of these and goes to ask daddy, "Why are these bunnies called 'randy rabbits'? And what's this funny looking thing called 'schlong'?"

Anyway, I was already there so I did what I could and just glided past row after row, scanning for whatever caught my eye. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised to see that there were some pretty interesting stuff there (besides Adult Origami).

Among my better finds there was Kylie: La La La. Yes, that showgirl book (aka the pseudo-intellectual, coffee-table-adorning must-have-collectible for aspiring gay princesses). At a very affordable RM15, it was a steal! I so wanted to get my grubby hands on it. Unfortunately, it seemed that a lot of other grubbier hands got to it first because the copy I found was all scruffy and crumpled. Not something you would want to put on your coffee table for your sisters to see. Darn.

In the end, I didn't really bother to do a thorough search of the place. I didn't even look at every single table much less flip through every book. There were some usual ones that kept popping up everywhere, but they were usually the ones I wouldn't bother with anyway. Still, it turned out that there was a pretty good selection, particularly for fiction of the various genres, and if you weren't too picky.

I eventually walked out with three books:


WarCraft Archive - to slake my thirst for epic fantasy. It was a book I had considered buying only a month ago. I think it was RM50+ or maybe RM60+ when I saw it. This was going for $45, and with FOUR(!) books compiled in there, I figured it was an already good buy made even better. Way better.


number9dream - to build up my contemporary fiction collection, which is lagging far behind my fantasy pile. I already have the first book from David Mitchell, called Ghostwritten. That first book impressed me enough. His third book, Cloud Atlas, had such a beautiful cover I wanted to buy it just for that. But a quick look at the contents told me it wasn't something I'd get very far in reading. This one, the second, seems more promising, with one critic blurbing:

Eiji Miyake, 20, naive and wholly loveable, encounters a frantic, exotic world when he comes to Tokyo from his small island home to find the father he has never met.

I think I was convinced by the time I reached "20, naive and wholly loveable...".


Basket Case - for some laughs (hopefully). Never read his books before but this one's supposed to be a comedic crime fiction. I suppose I could use a little light reading.

All in all, the sale was not too bad an affair. My only complaint was that it was way difficult to find any specific genre or author in the mess. Finding a specific book would be like finding a needle in a haystack (unless you happen to want something they have a lot of). The prices were fair enough - RM20+ for most regular books, which is about 20% to 30% off normal prices. Some titles were marked at between RM5 and RM20 (some of these included hard covers), which is a pretty good deal in my eyes.

In the end, I was actually thankful for the haphazardness of the whole place. If it was easy to find what I wanted, I would have spent at least three times what I actually did. Or more.

For those in the Valley who haven't been there and would like to brave the madness, the sales has been extended till 6th May. As for me, I'm wondering if my wallet will allow me a trip to Borders for their 2nd anniversary sale, then onwards to the Kuala Lumpur International Book Fair.