oh simple thing, where have you gone?

I am a reader. I am half the beautiful girl Warnke described; I am the girl who reads. I am the girl who loves bookstores. The environment, the smell, the feeling one can get just by discovering a new book. It could be Kafka, Chbosky, Tolstoy. Or even Sophie Kinsella and Julian Clary! Magazines, even; Frankie, Nylon, Dazed & Confused. It might as well be a modern architecture book that just caught your eye because of the sophisticated, eco- friendly house on the cover. It could also be a collection of typography. Young Malaysian poets. Old Singaporean poets. I am the girl who rips open the plastic covering as soon as I get the receipt. I am Little Miss Excited In A Bookstore.

Imagine life without a bookstore. Well, I can't.

America's facing a crisis where books don't sell anymore. Everybody is hooked on their iPads and Kindles and other tablets and e- readers one could own. Books don't sell anymore. Bookshops are closing. Owners can't pay their lease. Borders were in a huge debt that they can't afford to run it anymore. 2011 has been a sad year for readers. Not that I represent every single reader out there but I'm pretty sure I'm accurate. The internet is filled with people writing journals, blogs and essays about how these shops in America are closing. About how it breaks their heart. I suppose I'm one of those people. But it's true.

I remembered when I read the newspaper sometime this year and saw at the World section that Borders is facing bankruptcy. I remembered having some sort of a panicky- hyperventilating moment in my head. I remembered running to Google the state of it. To see if the Malaysian branches are affected as well. I remembered feeling relieved but I also remembered feeling really sad and almost teary- eyed. Borders; the bookshop of dreams is closing down? It felt almost surreal.

This cute hipster- manned bookstore is closing? I die a little inside.

So, I made a pledge. I'm going to buy books. I am not going to "invest" in an e- reader. I am going to waste my money buying books. I am going to waste the money my parents probably allocate for my spending (or they might not and I just spend their money recklessly. Oh dear God, save my parents' soul and cash. Maybe I should stop eating to save their money.) on books. From a bookstore. Not from an online shop. Not an e- book. I am going to buy and read for I cannot live without books. For I cannot live not being able to go to a bookstore.

And I had a moment in one.

I'd want to be able to grow old and point at the bookstore one day and say, "I had a moment in there." And smile. Or cry. The place might a wasteland in the future. No one but God knows what fate lies for it.

Current Location: somewhere only we know

Current Mood: sad

Current Music: Sunshine- Keane

p/s I finally got Keane's Hopes & Fears! Thanks, Wan. And I am going to buy Rob Sheffield's Love is a Mixtape. God knows why I haven't bought it just yet.

By the way, anyone remembers Warnke essay about readers? I found an alternate ending. Here you go.

So out with you, girl who reads. Take the next southbound train and take your Hemingway with you. Or, perhaps, stay and save my life.