Queens Street

 Today, I went down to Queens Street Mall to look for a book recommended to me. I will discuss about that book after I take the time to sit down and read it.

While there are shopping centres (I may have missed one or two as I walked around), most of the shops are located on the street level. It covers a large area and includes cafes, supermarkets, electronic stores and bargain shops. The picture above is a public performance by different school bands taking turns playing their chosen pieces.

As I walked around, I found a gem of a shop.

Archives Fine Books

From the outside, it looks real plain, with a green banner and a simple Archives above the doorway. However, once you step inside it is a different world altogether. This is a second-hand bookshop that sells every kind of books. As you can see, they are packed all the way to the roof.

Many people argue that the age of the written texts is over, that the digital forms far outclasses the printed works. In my years as a student, I have argued for such a stand as well, with reasoning including the need to be environmentally friendly, convenience etc.

However, the physical book is, to me, like fine wine. Preserved well, as it ages, it develops character. The creases in its spine are unique to it, the slight comforting musty smell as you ease it out of the book shelf and open it. The comfort of lying back and reading a novel, the joy where you flip page after page and despair as you reach the back cover. 

These are elements that cannot be explained, 

only felt.

The book does not, should not end with you as well. As you finish one, you may pass it on to a friend or even sell it to a secondhand bookstore. Your scribblings inside, the thoughts you have invested as you read and pen down the ideas on the side gets passed along. You become a guide that leads the next reader onwards, deeper into the book. Within these secondhand books are the ideas of people that become as real as the characters in the book, apparitions held in stasis, a hiatus till the book gets opened again.

Alright, emotional, deep thinking session aside, here are the two additions to my room. Two companions that will accompany as I sail the academic waters, brave the currents of tutorials and slay the serpent that is the finals. Meet my two new Wombat Plush Toys or Plushies as I call them.

~Look in to their eyes, You will spread the word about this blog and praise it and its author.

-ARP