Buying Singapore editions of books online?

[koreth]

Does anyone know of a bookstore that will ship Singaporean simplified-Chinese books overseas?

When I visited Singapore last year I made the mistake of buying only the first three volumes of the simplified Chinese edition of "Death Note," the Japanese manga. I figured that was enough to last me until my trip to China, at which point I'd be able to buy the rest if I was into the story.

Well, oops. Although from what I can tell the series isn't banned nationwide, it is banned in a few cities and apparently that's enough to cause all the Chinese book-selling sites (and Taobao) to remove it from their listings. It looks like there's no way I'm going to buy the rest of the series in China.

I can obviously buy the rest of it in English once I get back home, but that's cheating. I want to read the whole thing in Chinese. So now I'm trying to figure out how to get it shipped from Singapore. The problem is that as far as I've been able to tell, there is no mail-order bookstore in Singapore that sells non-English books. Even searching for the ISBNs of my existing books doesn't turn up anything useful.

Any suggestions, short of flying to Singapore?

[isela]

You should thank God! I'm going to Singapore in 2 days. Tell me the place you found these books, and I'll buy the rest volumes and ship them to you once I came back to China (in a bit more than a week).

Am I to understand you're also in China now?

[koreth]

I'm in China now, but sadly I'm flying back to the US in just over a week (leaving the morning of July 4) so it doesn't sound like the timing would work. Thanks for the offer, though -- that's very generous of you.

[isela]

You're very welcome!

In fact, in that case, if you can wait until Aug 8th when I get back to the US, I can ship them to you there, too. My flight going to Texas actually has a stop-over in LA, so it shouldn't be so expensive on the shipment if I can find a post office at the LA airport. Now, you DO live in CA right?

It's really up to you. Not too much trouble on my side. Just let me know!

[koreth]

Yeah, I live in CA. I'll PM you my address.

The bookstore is in the Bras Basah Complex next to the national library and is called "Popular" (it's a chain, but the other branches I visited were English-only.) Their web site is www.popular.com.sg.

I'll drop them some email to make sure they still have it in stock.

Thanks!

[skylee]

If you don't mind, you can just read it on-line.

Like this -> http://dm.www.wangyou.com/html/class37/comic218.html#

[Daan]

Good to see there are still people willing to help others out on this planet these days

Last summer, I was in Singapore as well, hunting for Chinese books amongst others. I also tried to survive the Singapore 360 at the East Coast Park, but failed ;) Anyway, if I recall correctly, the Popular branch at Marine Parade also stocks Chinese-language books...dunno which would be easier for you to go to, isela. That particular Popular is, however, slightly hard to find. I knew its address and was at the mall, and still spent ten minutes looking for it. It's pretty close to the NTUC Fairprice supermarket there, and the entrance is at the back of some nondescript building. Alternatively, you could always check with Kinokuniya (at Takashimaya, on Orchard Road), as they stock an incredible amount of Chinese-language books. And they're cheap, too...bad combination

[Meng Lelan]

wow! skylee! Thanks, I'm going to read this banned manga online right now.

[isela]

Thanks for your information, Daan!

Pertaining your question which Popular Bookstore it's easier for me to go, we are talking about Singapore right? Believe me I'll be fine, as I survived 7 years on that island.

Thanks again!

[Daan]

Oh, I didn't know that! I lived in Singapore for four years in the 1990s, and have been back a few times to visit old friends. I never found it particularly hard to survive there Do enjoy your stay in Singapore! [end of slightly off-topic message]