Usually the publication of a new book by Haruki Murakami elicits all kinds of fanfares and enormous snaking queues that weave zealously round bookshops. (We can dream!) But this month's publication of The Strange Library seems to have slipped a bit under the radar. First...
We're fortunate to have acquired rare copies of two pioneering studies of Malay dance forms by Mohd Anis Md Nor. In Zapin: Folk Dance of the Malay World (Oxford University Press, 1993) he offers a detailed examination of the zapin dance form, as it evolved...
While we wait for our readers to send in their choices of favourite books of 2014, here we present the choices of the bookshop team. Jaime is the bookshop's web content manager and here are her three nominations: [column col="1/4"] [/column] Neel Mukherjee's The Lives of Others (novel)...
Heritage Trees of Penang – is very close to our hearts and it's been absent too long from our shelves. But we've located a cache of them and now they're waiting for you to discover. Simon Gardner and Lai Ee May's text offers an accessible...
We're waiting to hear from you! It's that time of year to look back and choose our favourite books of 2014. The team at the bookshop will be providing their choices over the coming days. But we'd love to hear from you – our Facebook...
One of the runaway bestsellers over the past few months has been unusual: the ingenious card game which is a tongue-in-cheek reflection of the Malaysian political climate called Politiko – the game of Malaysian politics. Devised by the professional troublemakers at LoyarBurok, the game is...
Goh Hun Meng has been a good friend of the bookshop since its inception – he designed our logo, the signage, the pavement A board and all our bags. A few months ago he opened Ottokedai on Lebuh Victoria, as a new space selling handicrafts,...
When it was announced that Patrick Modiano had won this year's Nobel Prize for literature most people in the parochial world of English-language letters had little or no idea who he was. (Fact: less than 3 per cent of literary titles published in the US...
Since Joko Widodo came to power earlier this year, there have been some important policy advances – even as he battles with the entrenched political elites. He's announced plans to protect rainforests and peatlands; he's ordered a crackdown on bureaucratic excess; he's taken on Australia...
Thanks to our partnership with William Knox of The Penang Bookshelf, we have some lovely rare and out-of-print books on our shelves. Here are two stand-outs. Betty Molesworth Allen's Malayan Fruits (1967) was the first comprehensive guide to the wonderful variety of local fruits –...