[642] Of RM132 will get you only three paperbacks

Remember my entry about wanting to read Burgess’ Malayan Trilogy?

Immediately after posting the entry, I left my desktop and headed straight for a bookstore at the base of Petronas Twin Towers to look for it. The books weren’t in store however and I was rather disappointed that I couldn’t find it. Right now, the internet and some obscure second-hand bookstores in Kuala Lumpur are my best bet.

However, instead of getting the trilogy, I went on a minor spending spree, spending, quite unbelievable, RM132 on three paperbacks – Burgess’ The Wanting Seed, Lewis’ Liar’s Poker and Stiglitz’s (I attended his lecture back in Michigan! w00t!) The Roaring Nineties – while I had only brought RM50 with me. Given the situation, I was forced to use my debit card.

On debit card, might I add that Malaysia really needs to upgrade its financial system, urgently. I don’t know how it’s like in Thailand or Singapore but the US is far, far up there and it makes me feels that all the economics I learned at Michigan is part of an elaborate science-fiction. No kidding.

Anyway, I used to remember that imported paperback on average cost merely RM25 back in the early 1990s. After 1997, it cost around RM30 each and now, on average, it’s RM40++.

I wasn’t familiar with Malaysian pricing at first and you could imagine that I was in shock. But then, after I silently converted MYR into USD in my mind, the prices didn’t seem to be too outrageous. In fact, this case actually almost conforms to Law of One Price. After realizing that, that shock turned into a sigh.

Still, I couldn’t quite believe that three paperbacks cost me more than a hundred buck.

After the disappointment and the shock that became a sigh, I strolled from the Twin Towers towards Jalan Ampang. To my delight, there are patches of green here and there right before the interception of Jalan Ampang and Jalan Yap Kwan Seng (I think).

At least, I don’t have to pay to enjoy a bit of green amidst Kuala Lumpur’s smog.

When I saw the fire hydrant in the middle of a green patch, I became attracted to it at once. The contrast is just remarkable, at least to my untrained eyes. And before you keep wondering why I never keep the object of interest in the middle of the photo, suffice to say that I prefer non-conventional style, whatever that’s supposed to mean.