Didn’t mean to buy so many books but I could not help myself when I went to my regular secondhand bookstore.
If I didn’t stop myself, I would have bought more. And a few more old issues of the O magazine by Oprah. And In-Style, too.
One of the most exciting finds was this tiny booklet by Gustav Verbeek, a comic artist who lived at the turn of the old century (he died in 1937).
What’s interesting is he only drew 6-panel comics. If you read it one way, you get half the story.
If you read the comic panels the upside down way, you get the other half of the story!
His comics are mainly about the silly adventures of two characters called Lovekins and Muffarroo. Both are odd in their own way. But it is simply amazing how creative Verbeek is because once you turn the picture upside down, a totally new ‘scene’ appears!
You can take a look at what I mean by looking at this drawing of his. First you see how Muffaroo is attacked by a big fish in his canoe but when you turn the comic upside down, you see Lovekins being caught by a giant bird. How amazing is that!
And the story does make sense. And this Dutch-American man did this type of comic every week for the 64 weeks that he was drawing for The New York Herald newspaper.
It’s like the ambigrams made famous by Dan Brown in Angels & Demons. Ambigrams are graphic art where the word reads the same both ways!
Of course, Verbeek’s booklet of 6 stories were a complete steal at RM1.50. I don’t think you can get it anywhere even if you had pots of money.
The things one can get at the secondhand bookstore!
Hi,
Where is the second hand bookstore that you got your books from?
It’s at Midlands One-stop, shop’s on 4th floor called 20/20. 😉 Lots of mags, fiction and lots of teenage boys playing Magic too.
Aik,
I sometimes go there but I could not find those kind of books in the pics.
I thot that shop sells/rent mostly Harlequin novel only.
But I got my Salman Rushdie’s The Midnight Children from there.
Fadli – The best things must be discovered amidst all the junk ;-). I go and grab a plastic chair, sit down and literally take out book by book from the shelves and pore over them for hours! I find great stuff there. I usually buy magazines there too – my Oprah mags. Of course you have to put up with all the noise from the teens playing Magic.
how to go there?can u give me direction to there?
Go to Midlands One Stop at Pulau Tikus. Go up to the 4th floor. 20/20 is a corner shop and visible as soon as you get out of the lift.
Is there have calculus book?
I am sure they have. I see lots of different books – school books, recipe books, specific industry books, spiritual books. So they probably have calculus books too.
Didn’t know you are also a fan of that shop. Chris and I would spend hours there on weekdays…we had the whole shop to ourselves!
The lady would almost always throw in free books or give discounts if you ask her nicely.
The negotiaton would normally go like this :
“Miss, if I buy A,B,C etc would you give it to me for X amount, that is my budget for today”
She’ll go : “OK, lah, you will get these for RmXX, this one, I give you free”
🙂
Hi Jo: Bookworms like us know where the best deals are! I love poring over the books there. I always spend at least 1 hour there and buy lots of mags and books. Oh, the girl is the owner’s girlfriend so she can definitely give you a nice discount. Eh, when are we meeting up for lunch, my dear?
Hi!
Wow, there’s a second-hand bookshop at Midlands? I didn’t know that. The only second-hand shops I know are in Chowrasta and there are already so many books to browse through.
I might drop by the shop you mentioned one day. 🙂
Hi Josette – I went over to your blog. Interesting! Another bookworm like me. I must try your book recommendations. I am not at all a fantasy/sci-fi fan though I do love Pratchett (I don’t know what genre he is in!). Ya, the secondhand bookshop in Midlands has been there for a long time now ever since Midlands opened. The Indian guy and his Chinese girlfriend run the corner shop and they open mostly after 12 noon. A good place for old mags and old books.