BooksActually: 10 years, 10 books

SINGAPORE — BooksActually’s head honcho Kenny Leck clearly loves his books. We asked him to list 10 titles that have had a significant impact on him and the bookstore through the years.

2005: DOWN AND OUT IN PARIS AND LONDON (GEORGE ORWELL). This was the first Orwell book I read. To this day, it’s still my favourite book and a title I consistently stock up on in the bookstore.

2006: THE BOY WITH THE FLOWER THAT GREW OUT OF HIS ASS (CYRIL WONG). Our first foray into publishing — and the whole journey as a publisher — was ushered in by Singapore’s prolific confessional poet. We were into the second year of running the bookstore and decided we were good enough to be a publisher, too. It had a limited print run of 300 copies, which sold out in under two years. We also realised we had not learned enough to try to execute two roles at the same time, but without that foolhardiness, we would never have had the chance to know our limitations.

2007: SHADOWPLAY ETERNIDAY (JOSEPH CORNELL). Browsing through less than 20 to 30 pages, something clicked in me that I can, will and want to build the assemblage art boxes as Cornell had done. Since then, I had put up two exhibitions at Grey Projects, which has been a supportive gallery. When time allows me to, I still make them.

2008: BIRTHDAY LETTERS (TED HUGHES). One of the most maligned individuals and a possible epitome of a philandering husband, who was accused of driving his wife, the poet Sylvia Plath, to her grave. You could definitely tell what a cad Hughes was, but the love he had for Plath was deeper than all the accusations hurled at him. It’s a testament of love, suffering and guilt, human folly, the joy and exasperation we find in our children or loved ones, and perhaps what makes us really humans. To me, Birthday Letters is an essential character of what makes up the bookstore over the years.

2009: IN THE COUNTRY OF LAST THINGS (PAUL AUSTER). During our Club Street years, I had suffered a neck injury from carrying too many large boxes of books. I was in pain and bedridden, so I went through a whole stack of Paul Auster books. This was the one that stayed in my memory. Perhaps the protagonist’s struggle to achieve her final goal echoed the bookstore’s struggles back then and what we are still working towards.

2010: ARCHITECT OF BOOKS (LE CORBUSIER). I have always been fascinated by architecture and when I first encountered Le Corbusier’s brutalist creations in 2006, I was inspired by his writings and ideas on architecture. I chanced upon this in 2010, and it reaffirmed why I liked his creations — he had designed books, too, and I don’t just mean the front cover. In some sense, this influenced how I approach the books made by our publishing arm, Math Paper Press.

2011: LADY CHATTERLY’S LOVER (D H LAWRENCE, PAUL SMITH). A book with a colourful history. Banned at one time or another in the US and Europe, it was labelled pornographic and filthy literature that destroyed social and family values. But it has survived it all and is one of the classics now. And our copy was all the more special because it was a limited edition, with the cover of embroidered flowers Paul Smith.

2012: WHAT GIVES US OUR NAMES (ALVIN PANG). Under Math Paper Press, we have this experimental imprint called Babette’s Feast, and Singapore’s poetic son had kindly gifted us with what has since become our runaway success. Since it was published in November 2011, we have sold close to 5,000 copies. And it still sells like hotcakes. Who says Sing-Lit don’t sell? And it’s a poetry title, too.

2013: BETWEEN STATIONS (BOEY KIM CHENG). Published around 2008-09 in Australia, it was an immensely popular title here but notoriously difficult to procure. In 2013, its publisher made an offer to sell us the remaining 500 copies or so at a good price — but we had to take the entire lot with no return option. It was out of the norm — not even the big boys would buy this many copies of a title unless you’re talking about your Hunger Games or Twilight titles. We sold out the stocks in under 13 months. The ability to take risks that seems irrational to many people is exactly this trait of us that has managed to get us to where we are today.

2014: ANTIFRAGILE (NASSIM NICHOLAS TALEB). I have heard and sold his earlier titles but never got around to reading them. But a chance encounter with a second-hand copy of Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder was mind-set-changing. If people thought we the way we conducted our business was crazy and irrational, NNT’s hard-hitting “scoldings” just increased our craziness and irrationality by at least a couple of notches.

(EPILOGUE, AKA BONUS BOOK)

2015: THE RAREST OF THE RARE (DIANE ACKERMAN). On our 10th year, I discovered a second-hand copy of this classic, and it has brought our bookselling journey full-circle. No matter how smart we are or how innovative our creations, nothing matters if we don’t have the humanity to cherish the natural environment around us. Can you recall your first encounter with an insect, animal or plant, and how it gave you a sense of natural wonder? The book made me realise we are not so alone, after all. I can still remember a ladybug crawl on my fingertips while helping my dad with his gardening. The beauty that I experienced in that tiny insect is something that I hope every kid will have in the years to come.

The exhibition 10 Years Of BooksActually runs from Nov 18 to Nov 22, 10am to 8pm, at The Substation Gallery, 45 Armenian Street.

BooksActually is located at 9 Yong Siak Street, Tiong Bahru. For more info, visit http://booksactually.com.