16 November 2007

Bookstores: Why I keep returning to Borders

I guess it is the atmosphere after all. Borders has light-coloured wooden furniture and wide aisles, allowing for a lightness about the place that is uplifting. Kinokuniya, on the other hand, has always felt to me like a clean sanitised toilet of sorts, a sterile, severe classroom, a tea room for aunties. The sombre dark tiles on the flooring, the sterile feel of the shelves and the narrowness of the aisles. The overall feel. To me, Times and MPH feel anonymous, more of a place that peddles books on an incidental basis. I will speak of PageOne, Sunny, Sans, Basheer, Select and a few others when I feel like it one of these days.

Surprisingly, I find that Siu Hean's opinions regarding Borders and Kinokuniya echo mine.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like Borders in Brisbane. They don't have Kino or Times here. But they have Dymocks and I think that's it. and the rest are either small or I can't remember the names.

So yeh, I like Borders too. Love the surroundings. plus I get discounts from them every Friday. This week - 50% off kids books. yea!!

Ken Lee said...

I prefer Kinokuniya by far, especially the one at Ngee Ann City. Borders has always felt like a random warehouse to me. The wood furniture, the light colour tones, just looks like the place was not really well-planned, and looks just one big mess to me.

In Brisbane, however, the Borders is very nice. Good, clean professional look. But I believe that the second-hand bookstores there have the most quality. There are a couple on Charlotte Street and Vulture Street.