It’s really just books actually

Bubble G.U.M!

SEE THIS BOOK? It’s Bubble G.U.M and it’s in stock at Books Actually if you’re not buying it online here. BUY it this 21st to 30 April especially from Books Actually. Why? Look at this message:

Dear Customers/Friends of BooksActually:

We humbly ask another big favour of you: please drop by to buy books/vintage trinkets for yourself, your friends, family, or all your loved ones. From 21st to 30th April, we will hold a 10-Day 25%-Storewide Sale to raise money so we can buy a new shop space for our bookstore. (WE REALLY NEED TO STOP RENTING/THEY HAVE TO STOP INCREASING OUR RENT.)

We are finally crossing the next step and making one of our biggest strides forward.

BooksActually is not what it is today without the people who have walked through our doors for the past (almost) nine years. They are that German gentleman who comes in every other day to buy a book before heading over to Jerry’s for a jug of beer; that family who visits us every Sunday after breakfast across the street; the father who comes every Christmas to buy books for his missus and three daughters; the writer who sits behind our counter on quiet afternoons helping us to stamp-chop paper-bags; or the young dating couple who took a picture of themselves in a giant birdcage, creating an illusion of lovebirds (their son is now almost two).

The bookstore is not what it is today without every single one of you who has loved us, hated us, and lightly nudged (or forcibly pushed) us to move forward — to be better, climb higher and dream bigger.

With our deepest gratitude,
The BooksActually Team

So yeah. Cause it’s silly if their rent keeps increasing and whatnot. They might as well buy a piece of property to keep things low since the price of rent is ridiculous. THUS! BUY A BOOK or some random goods from them.

There’s stationery, bags, vintage gear too. If you have no idea what to buy, here’s a suggested list of BOOKS by my friends and me:

Continue reading It’s really just books actually

Sarah Does Sydney Day 1 & 2

Lord of the Fries!

So I went to Sydney and wow. What an adventure, the first thing we did while we arrived at the airport was make sure we had our data stuff! I used Optus and Lyn used Vodafone. They’re just there when you get out of the arrivals at the Sydney international airport.

Both are good but I’m fancying Optus for their $2 per day for 500mb data and free local (Australia) sms and calls. Vodafone had some deal like that too but I just had Optus cause my friend passed his microsim to me in Singapore.

From the airport, we took the train to town hall! Pretty easy really, just got a multipass with an airport exit pass and a 1 week pass. We were going to be there for 6 days so, it’s pretty ok since we took a zone 2 multipass which meant we got to travel around the main city area anyway.

The first place we walked around and look-see-ed was Lord of the Fries!

Continue reading Sarah Does Sydney Day 1 & 2

Land of the Meat Munchers!

Land of the Meat Munchers!

Land of the Meat Munchers is by Nicholas Yong aka Incoherent Boy! It’s his first novel and it’s pretty fun! Think of it as young adult adventure book?

Basically it’s a zombie story SET IN SINGAPORE.

If you didn’t know in Singapore, we don’t have guns or ballistic weaponry easily but Nick managed to get it all believable even if we didn’t have them in this post zombie apocalyptic world!

Continue reading Land of the Meat Munchers!

Ken Liu’s coming to Singapore!

Meet the author - Ken Liu

Yes, Ken Liu’s coming to Singapore in September! Don’t know his work or want to read one of his stories for free? You can check his Paper Menagerie out! It’s also part of Read Singapore this year.

So the important dates would be:

  • 4 September , 7.30pm – 9pm: The Paper Menagerie
  • 7 September,  2pm- 3.30pm: The Writing Life : Science Fiction and Fantasy  or 5pm- 6.30pm: Comparing Notes: Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy
  • 8 September, 3pm – 4.30pm: Author Reading at Origami Exhibition

We’re going on the Saturday sessions. Especially if you’re Nanowrimo-ers COME ON SATURDAY. He has done Nanowrimo before too and well, it’s always great to meet up with others who have done it while meeting an award or rather AWARDS winning author at the library.

This is all free but if you want to register to just ‘chope’ seat here’s the info:

Registration Info: All sessions are free, but seats are limited.

To confirm your seat, kindly email readsingapore@nlb.gov.sg

1) Your Name 2) Title & Date of Session/s 3) Contact Number

See you guys there! I’ll be going to the 7th September sessions.

Make the books!

Intro to book making!

Last weekend I went to the Everest Room at the Woodlands library to go to their free Introduction to Book Making class with Pooja!

It was, as I said, free and that the library got to have it there in Woodlands for a day. Limited seats were had but I managed to sign up once I knew about it since Pooja’s classes are always packed and you mustn’t hesitate in clicking yes.

Continue reading Make the books!

There is only do or do not. There is no try.

Good day to you!

It’s a really packed and fun May the Fourth be with you considering it was Free Comics Book Day and Star Wars Day. There were a lot of places having events but I couldn’t get to them all.

Make sure you check out Red Dot Diva since I know she went to Invasion at Funan, Cavalock‘s post about the mini figs for FCBD and of course the Here Be Geeks when the post about it! Also, Incoherent Boy wrote about it for the Straits Times here (not sure whenever the page will break since I don’t know how they archive their articles).

ANYWAY, I got to Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City at around 10am and hello there cosplayers!

Continue reading There is only do or do not. There is no try.

24 Hours Comics Day! The briefing…

Singapore’s 24 Hours Comics Day will be held this coming Saturday, 20 October 2012 at Bukit Merah Library. More info on registry, it is on the SG 24 Hour Comics website. If you ever wanted to try 24 hour comics day, you should register and go do it with the other artists!

It’s like the comics equivalent of Nanowrimo only you have to do a comic.

In 24 Hours.

Duh.

WELL, the atmosphere is fun and everyone else will be rushing to complete their stories too. The library has rented a lot of tables just for this event and it’ll be like an overnight camp with no less games and more drawing!

Continue reading 24 Hours Comics Day! The briefing…

Skoob versus I Love Books

The only official e-books stores in Singapore at the moment is Singtel’s Skoob and Mediacorp’s I Love Books.

It’s either these two or the altenative is to get e-books from Book Depository and independent stores or go through a more complicated way in which you fake that you aren’t in Singapore if you’re buying ebooks from Amazon itself. The whole the book is not available in your region thing gets to be quite annoying.

So let’s sign up and see how they are!

Note that at this time of post, I Love Books just launched while Skoob has had a lead start in the business even if they don’t seem to do much right now.

Continue reading Skoob versus I Love Books

Back to the Old Kingdom once more

There was a literary cocktail with Garth Nix last week (1 March 2012), technically he was here in Singapore for a few school visits, a free event at The Arts House on Wednesday for a promo of his new book A Confusion of Princes and well, this one!

It was supposed to be at the Blue Room but it was held at the Earshot Cafe.

It’s cozier there.

Continue reading Back to the Old Kingdom once more