tsutaya is a place to queue
My June reading wrap-up will be posted next week, or the week after that, or combined with July's, I don't know yet.
Anyway.
Kinokuniya is no longer the only Japanese bookstore in town. When it was first announced that Tsutaya was coming to KL, a lot of friends (mostly the same friends who proudly inform me that they purchased something off Amazon/BookDepo) asked if we were worried. And my initial reaction was like... of what? Why kena worry? Then I realised they meant the competition and stuff and I'm like, okay, but why tho?.
First of all, as a book lover, especially a book lover who also loves Japanese aesthetics, and a book lover who definitely visited Tsutaya more than Kino when I'm in Tokyo, I'm excited.
Second of all, as a bookseller, competition can be a healthy thing! Look, maybe it's not quite the Malaysian way or whatever, but it can get kind of boring if you don't even have to try, kan. I actually hope Tsutaya will do well, and do well enough that most of us will get off our lethargic asses and do interesting things again? Maybe? (My colleagues who are allergic to extra work will probably have my head for this opinion, lol.)
And then there's the third thing - as a book buyer, I don't want to be mean, but I also have to be honest: I don't think they'll be able to have Kinokuniya's variety and quality when it comes to selections? I really hope I'll be proven wrong on this, but judging from the fact that not one of their buyers are from Kinokuniya, well... that doesn't bode well for them, selection-wise.
I think they will do fine. I think they'll have all the popular titles they need. And it's really good to have an "aesthetic" bookstore that is actually a bookstore, instead of a remainders store pretending to be a bookstore. They'll do great, because of this. I just worried that they might not be for me, personally, because, well - not even Kinokuniya carries all the books I prefer. I place special orders for myself. So when I'm judging them harshly, I'm basing it off my own preferences, rather than most local readers who will definitely be happy with their offerings.
So, with all of that said - yesterday, they finally opened their first store in Bukit Jalil!
I had the opportunity to visit with my colleagues to check out the opening, and it was... interesting. The queue to get in was insane - it tooks us 1.5 hours of queueing before we were allowed in the store. In a way, this is a good thing, and one of the things I actually like about Japan - they enforced a limit on how many people can be inside at a time, so that when you're actually inside and browsing, you wouldn't be fighting a huge crowd just to get from one aisle to the next, craning your neck to look between the people in front of you to see what's on the shelves. Thanks to this queue, those in the store could browse leisurely. Unfortunately for us, we had to get back to Kino by 6:15 to punch out, and the traffic was going to be bad, so we ended up having to rush, with only about 35 minutes to look around the 31,000 square feet of books and merch.
I mostly looked at the middle grade books - their selection was alright, if not great. Their YA section was a lot smaller than I expected it to be, but the selection was ok. I was surprised to find the books shelved by first name - I don't always remember authors' names and I'm more likely to remember someone's last name than their first, because I won't be able to tell between all the Davids and Jennifers but Kadohata, Lukoff, etc. are easier to remember. But every shelving system is flawed in different ways, and I'm sure this method is preferred by many. It does make things easier for staff who have trouble figuring out middle names vs last names, or different naming orders, etc.
Their comics section... exists, is all I can say. I didn't get to see the manga, but their Western comics section is tiny and they have not a single DC comic which I thought was weird.
Their fiction section was kind of boring, but they did have a few of my favourites being faced out which was nice.
Their art/design section, which I went through very quickly, looks excellent as far as I could see. I was expecting to be impressed, since this is their strength in Japan, and I was not disappointed. I want to go back and browse through it properly! One thing that's really good is, THEY HAVE ZINES.
THEY. HAVE. ZINES.
I love it. Maybe I should contact them and ask if they want to carry mine. I did end up being a few zines while I was there.
The other section that's really nice is their nonbooks, of course. I saw a wall of fountain pens, although I didn't get to look at them up close. The stationery section had a lot of smaller Japanese brands I love that I haven't been able to find in physical stores here, like AIUEO. They had Yoshitake Shinsuke stickers, washi tape, and t-shirts/pouches! I probably would've bought a lot of pretty things I don't need, if I had time to browse.
Pictures!
- AIUEO pencil cases. I hope they also have their paper products around; like I said, I didn't get to browse.
- Aderia Retro glassware. I've been eyeing these online for awhile and really want to go back to get some!
- Display at the art/design section. I only had time to take a picture and leave, I wanted to browse these!
- Zines at the art/design section! Quite mahal but since these are the artsyfartsy type, it's expected lah.