Titi & Drew's - Emma's Point Of View (I'm A Poet, And I Didn't Know It)

Driving home from work on Friday I was thinking I could use some new books. And since I can already smell the weekend, a viable winding down activity could be browsing bookshelves, so (at Zippy's suggestion) I paid a visit to the recently reopened Titi & Drew's Rent-A-Book. Titi & Drew's (T & D's) previous locale was the Halimatul Saadiah Building in Gadong. Now it is located at the same building as the recently shut JustToys in Gadong. My first impression of the bookstore was that the owners are tentative. Their bookshop is contained in one large room and simply functional; there is a cashier desk, a table and some chairs makes a seating area (I liked the large window) and a couple of low shelves. Books were nicely spaced, which made it easier to browse. T & D's also had a good mix of reading materials; new titles, the usual commercial suspects, Chick-Lits, some gems from my childhood, new teenage series, short romances, fantasy genre, a shelf of books translated to German and, some of Tintin's Adventures. After a few minutes of some quiet browsing, a couple of young girls walked in and talked the girlie chatter over choosing which romance book to read first. If I closed my eyes, I swear I was in a girl school in Brunei during lunch break. I think the ambience could be a little quieter, but perhaps this is what makes Titi and Drew's Rent-A-Book appealing. It suddenly felt like a school library, without the 'Silence Please' signs. They did well in catering for the younger crowd. There was some hip music piping from a boombox somewhere. The whole renting-a-book experience is also a novelty of sorts. You walk in and you choose a book you like. You rent it according to the price on the inside cover, and you make a promise to yourself to return the book within the stated time (usually one month) and get back the money you paid for the book, usually at a dollar less. For the young this is the nearest to signing a hire-purchase form. It feels adult.

The bookshop serves primarily as a book rental for those who are not attached to the books they read, or those who like to give books a proper try before returning the duds and start afresh and young voracious readers who have less money and thus, renting books are a wise option. On the other hand, the bookshop imposes no penalty for a late return (except perhaps a guilty conscience) and the book renter has the option to keep the book. I have all the good intention to return the books I rented yesterday, but I may not, and Titi and Drew's have made it easy for a lazy-ass like me.

The major plus point about a book rental shop is that it makes books fairly affordable to everyone. T & D's needs more books as the place looked a little bare, but maybe they are still testing the waters. I hope they jump in and keep the books circulating, bring in current favourites (for the young, old and in-betweens) and trawl the jumble/carboot sales for old gems. The bookshop also scores major points in its charming and knowledgeable Shopgirl who definitely ended my experience on a high note. I wanted to rent Judy Blume's Forever, a book I had (secretly) read during my teens. Before she registered the book, thinking that I could be buying the book for my child, she told me it was not a book for younger teens despite the book's youthful cover design. I remembered how saucy the book was, and I was pleasantly surprised that this young woman knew that too.

She was the stuff Book Shop Girls are made of and made me want to return.

Comments

[[email protected]]

Hai Emma, do they have good coffeetable books? Or any coffeetable books at all?

[EmmaGoodEgg]

Hi John Doe - No, I can't say I have been to IckleBooks. Whereabouts is it?

[john doe]

Have you been to Icklebooks?

[Fij]

omg! titi & drew are back!!! i used to love going there & was disappointed when they closed down. Speaking of guilty conscience, i still have one of their books that i forgot to return (they were closed by the time i found it). I can now return it back! Thanx for the report...u made my day :)