Was at Shahi's this entire week (still am !) and finished with the Sophie Kinsella I'd carried to tide me over. Since the very thought of not carrying enough reading material gives me the shivers, I managed to coerce Shahi & Rishi into accompanying me to the nearest bookstore.
Odyssey is one of those upmarket , mall oriented retailers that purport to sell books, music , gifts, stationery - well you get the drift. Since 'Books' is mentioned in a much bigger typeface on their shopping bags, I figured they were a safe bet for some intense retail therapy (my bad farang - I'm an avid reader).
Well without going into too much detail, I will only say that post 45 minutes of browsing, all I could come away with was 'The Beach ' by Alex Garland (a Penguine edition ?) and Isaac Asimov's Foundation. And that pretty much says it all!!! Oh and I searched and searched for a regular Parker fountain pen - but too no avail - in a store that has a lot of space devoted to 'Stationery' (well I did pick up some cute Chinese make erasers for my niece - atleast someone's happy!).
Actually , the fault is mine . I forgot that in a consumerist world fixated on 'flavor of the day', you can't expect a mall retailer (of any kinds) to offer comfort - they exist to dish up mass produced 'popular' stuff that's off the quicker than you or I can say 'Fountainhead' (MIA at Odyssey - and they don't carry a single copy of the Iliad or The Odyssey - tsk! tsk!). Then again , Crossword is a similar retail chain operating in the same segment (almost) and the experience is so much better !
Anyway - Shahi ended up picking this really cool pair of Shot Glasses (am not so much of a purist farang that I will only lament the irony here - those glasses are definitely the best buy of the lot!)
As for me , I will go back to haunting the old favorites at South Ext. in search of arcane titles and evocative experiences.
And I do have two damned good books to read!!!
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