If you don’t know it yet, Borders has arrived on our Penang shores. (Yay… Doing mental somersaults!*grin, grin & grin some more*)
It used to be that we made trips to KL just for the books.
Whenever we land in KL, we have two must-go places: Kinokuniya and MPH. Absolutely. No arguments whatsoever. Then we discovered Borders in Berjaya Times Square. It was problematic since both Berjaya and KLCC weren’t exactly ‘neighbours’ but never mind, at least we could hop on the LRT and whizz our way to both places.
We would spend the entire day at Kinokuniya sometimes; only taking breaks for a quick bite and maybe to visit the restroom (it can get quite chilly if we’ve been hanging around there TOO long!). Of late, we have even skipped MPH because we have MPH in Penang.
And when we discovered Borders, we wished it would come to Penang. And now it has!
We visited Borders in Queensbay Mall two days ago and we were in bookworm heaven!
Shelves and shelves of pristine books, of all shapes, sizes and topic. Lovely spacious aisles. Nooks for browsing books without being pushed. shoved or ‘excuse-d me’ by other shoppers.
And what better way to complement all this than strategically placed black leather armchairs and wood benches to read the day away?
Oh, and softly piped music to create that ambience for reading. So…. wonderful! Since it’s going to be Christmas, what could be better than Christmas songs to make you feel all gooey and warm inside as you ogle at the amazing titles in the store?
Similar to Borders Berjaya, this one has Starbucks too. You can sit and enjoy a cuppa and gaze at the magnificent Penang Bridge in the far distance. Or you can definitely sink into the plush sofas and chat away…
We promised we wouldn’t buy any new books this month - not until we’ve finished our stash of new books. Book buying for us is a predominant activity and it shows in our credit card bills each month.
But we did. All because Borders had a Bargain Book Corner and 20% discounts on selected titles.
We finally bought two books (although if given free rein and giving into our book-greed, we would’ve bought a couple more) - one is Jeffrey Gitomer’s highly readable Little Red Book with smart answers and smarter questions.
Borders even has a whole shelf dedicated to Moleskine notebooks which is all the rage now (and which I wanted to get my hands on one but didn’t know which size yet). Of course, one can get the Moleskine wannabe notebooks which were a little bit cheaper but I think being original counts and buying original counts too. If you don’t know what a Moleskine is, learn more at www.moleskine.com (it’s a notebook with a story and a fascinating lineage, mind you. Except that now, as with all things, it’s produced in China. Blah!)
Anyway, we’ll probably be there lots more often now that Queensbay is but a short drive away.
If you see us there, come on over and say hi, and maybe even join us for a cup of coffee?