For those who are interested in which bookstore I went to, I went to this one: "Books Kinokuniya Singapore Main Store" (https://maps.app.goo.gl/hAZFrbakUqKWNvBX8)

According to the Google Maps information, it has an area of 38,000 sq. ft. or in sensible terms, ~3,530 sq. meters, which is ABSOLUTELY HUGE AF.

I managed to explore around half of the store's area, specifically, the non-fiction (history, sociology, political science, etc), religion, and literature sections. Sadly, I did not have that much time to explore so I could only go through like 30% of the store. 😭

This store apparently also has Chinese and Japanese books, which I couldn't find since I didn't go in fully. Though, I was impressed with the fact that the "Asia" History section, specifically the Chinese history section, there were TONS of books on Imperial, Republican, and Communist-Era history. There were also books on India, Bhutan, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and others.

Aside from Asian books, there were also books on West Asia / Middle East, the Americas, Medieval History and they, FOR SOME MAGICAL REASON, had the CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE book which covers the entirety of the history of the Byzantine Empire - something you can rarely (practically never) in Thai Kinokuniya bookstores.

Lastly, the thing that impressed me is the self-checkout section. This is not a thing in any of the Thai Kinokuniya branches and OMG, they are AWESOME!

Unfortunately, I could not get all the Chinese Republican-Era books that I wanted because they were so expensive in my local currency so I had to remove some of from my purchase list 😭

#books #bookstore #kinokuniya #singapore