Books Actually

We interrupt our usual transmission with a guest post (that is, a post requested by someone):

Across the smoky Thian Hock Kheng temple on Telok Ayer street is the eminently missable entrance to Books Actually, a whitewashed bookshop in the marketing tradition of Waterstones but with a rawer edge. Upstairs, there are plastic green soldiers, flyers for poetry readings onsite and for Softblow, literary matchboxes in neat rows, white open shelves of books without price tags and old telephones on the clean wooden floorboards that invite beanbags and a cuppa in hand before settling down for a long read. Sometimes, if he is terribly unfortunate, there is also the shocked editor of Quarterly Literary Review Singapore. ;-)

The second Poetry du Blanc ("Come, recite poetry/prose. An indoor picnic happens at the same time, so bring along a cushion and a mat. Drinks and tidbits may be purchased at the bookstore.") is this Saturday at 2pm.

shadow: Can I add that it's been a time, times and half a time since I've seen the words "keep the aspidistra flying" (even if they didn't get the spelling right). This shop can't be half bad. In a middle-classy sort of way. ;-))

Check out also the celery-holding models of FLEACIRCÜS posing amongst the shelves of Books Actually.

Edit 11th March 2008: Goodbye BooksActually treehouse on Telok Ayer Street!