MPH Warehouse Sale
MPH is Malaysia’s own home-grown bookstore, equivalent to Borders in the States, Chapters in Canada and Waterstone’s in England.
Every once in a while, MPH holds warehouse sales (as do other bookstores such as Popular, Times and Payless). There’s one going on right now, and it lives up to the name “warehouse sale” as it is literally located inside a warehouse.
I went this morning, and came away with the following books:
As I was Passing I and II by Adibah Amin
The Glass Palace and The Hungry Tide by Amitav Ghosh
A Thousand Years of Good Prayers by YiYun Li
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
It’s ages since I’ve seen paperbacks priced in the 20s. The only chance to buy books that cheap is through Borders’ 3 for 2 offers. And hardbacks for less than 40? That would be the YiYun Li book, at RM35.00.
I’ve dipped into The Alchemist and fallen in love.
Ms Bookaholic Sharon was at the sale yesterday, and wrote about parking being a nightmare. But I didn’t have any problem finding a parking space. I have access to the biggest parking secret in that neighbourhood - a car wash on the premises of a church across from the sale. The car wash is the secret, but the church is not. There are lots of parking spaces on the premises, but it’s private, not open to anyone but people going to the church, and customers of the car wash. I belong to the latter category.
After I’d made my purchases, and returned to the cool wifi-enabled waiting room at the car wash, I heard some funny tales about the public trying to get into the church premises to park their cars. The funniest was of the woman who told the guard and his immediate superior (on duty today) that she was attending a meeting in church. They stood by as she gathered her stuff to watch and make sure she went in the direction of the church. She dithered, and after a while, got back into her car to drive off. Asked the guard’s immediate superior of this woman: “But I thought you said you were attending a meeting in church?” No answer, she ignored the question and drove off.
I did think of telling friends where to park while they went to the warehouse sale, and have their cars washed at the same time. However, the car wash is usually very busy on Saturdays so I thought it might not be able to handle the extra business. But this Saturday of all Saturdays, the car wash didn’t have much business (its regulars must still be away for the tail-end of Chinese New Year) so it was a missed opportunity for the extra business, and hassle-free parking for my friends.
But now you know where to park and get your car washed during the next MPH warehouse sale … provided it’s held in the same warehouse. Oh, the name of the church is Glad Tidings.
Related Posts:
The Bibliobibuli’s Warehouse Wonderland
Lydia Teh’s MPH Warehouse Sale
