The Big Bad Wolf Book Sale Review

The Big Bad Wolf is in town and book prices came tumbling down, but not all the way down to the ground. Still, you can get a new paperback or trade paperback for RM 8, about what you'd pay for one of those value meals post-tax. But, I'm sure you're more interested if it is worthwhile fighting for parking and then for a spot at the tables. My answer is: if you have the time, and the patience, and if you're not sick in anyway or have an important deadline coming up; and if you've run out of books to read and are tired of the standard book sale fare, then go ahead and take a chance.

The following's a more comprehensive review.


What's this about?

If you're one of those book sale junkies like I am, you'd know that the Big Bad Wolf (BBW) books have been making quite a lot of noise with their print ads in the Star. There was even some decent press coverage about it. Their Big Bad Book Sale was the most talked about event in my house since Sunday.

The details of the sale:

VENUE:
2nd Floor,
Dataran Hamodal Block A,
Jalan Bersatu 13/4 Section 13, 46200 Petaling Jaya,
Selangor (Next to Colgage Palmolive)

DATE: 14-18 May 2009
TIME: 10am - 9pm

The thing that really caught our eye was that these books are new. And I'm not just saying they're "first-hand", I mean that they're fresh blood in a market full of warehouse clearance discards.

Have you been to some of these book sales lately? I keep seeing the same titles, as though they've been carting the same ole books away after every event, and bringing them back for the next. Consequently, most titles are ho-hum and outdated. And they're not giving enough discounts on some of these books.

So, BBW's claim that the competition is "quaking in their boots" is quite on the dot.


But really, do they have the books I want?

Well, this is quite difficult to answer. I didn't really walk around taking notes. BBW claims that there's more than 100,000 books for sale, which is likely true. Again, if you've been trawling the sales like I have, you'd notice that the location is at the same spot as the MPH warehouse sales (unfortunately, I have the last one a miss, so I can't compare the two). But the layout is probably the same; pasar malam tables spread around the entire floor. One entire section was closed to the public, and there, you can see staff separating the books into nice piles. So, likely there'd be enough books to go around all weekend.

They did us all a nice favour by arranging the books nicely too. There's a few tables with Children's books. And if you go anti-clockwise through the hall, this was followed by some puzzle books, cookbooks, computer books and textbooks, general fiction novels, sci-fi and fantasy, romance, biographies, true stories, self-help, how-tos, travel, dictionaries, magazines and Chinese books. In short, the usual fare.

I'll have this to say about computer books and textbooks. Most of the ones I saw were fairly recent, e.g. I bought a book about HTML which was published in 2006. Well, not new new, but it isn't a decade old either!

The general fiction weren't the usual leftover American-Agent-Saves-the-World-thriller types. The titles were varied, and I noticed, mostly written by bestselling international authors. They're likely to be books still found on shelves in our other contemporary bookstores in the general section. If you're the kind who likes to pick up quality books by different authors, this'll be your place. Scroll down for a list of books I picked up. I didn't note all that many faddish books though e.g. by Dan Brown, J.K. Rowling or Stephenie Meyer.

I was quite amused to notice that they've reprinted James Clavell's books, so if you didn't pick up Tai-Pan, Shogun and the lot in the 70s and 80s, there's plenty new ones here. They've advertised quite a few of Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries books, which had a nice prominent location. I didn't see all that many romance books, but I could have been avoiding them.

As for sci-fi and fantasy, there was only one table that I could see, but there were books by Robert Jordan, Tracy Hickman and Margaret Weis, some Arthur C Clarke, and a bunch of Star Wars novels, for example. There's some other authors too, mind you. While the sci-fi and fantasy section didn't overwhelm me in numbers, they did make up for it in quality, that is, if you like these authors.

Got parking?

Uhm, not really. I've managed to park in Wisma Hamodal before, once upon a time. But when I went there today (Thursday, May 14) there was a kindly old pakcik who waved us away. The road shoulders were fully utilised, likely by people who worked in the office buildings nearby. There was a huge parking lot down the road though, past the Glad Tiding's church. It's unpaved; full of gravel and stones and water from last nights blessed rain. And it's in a depression of sorts, so you'd have to climb up an incline on the way out. So don't wear your best high-heels. You'd have to walk about 5 minutes or more to Wisma Hamodal. Don't fall in the longkang


Cash or card?

Payment was a bit iffy. There were only two counters accepting Visa or Mastercard, and the line-up was so long I opted for cash. There were maybe three cash only counters. And oh, magazines should be paid at their own section.


What should I bring?

Water - it's good for you. But the place isn't as dusty as some places I've been to. A good sign that the books are "fresh"?

An extra human - if not for mum, I think I'd have gone mad. But mums are always great to have around. Mum was tired of looking around, and I had a huge box load of books. So I parked her somewhere with the box and went off looking for more. It also helps to have someone check the front of the line while I stand at the back, so that I know I'm at the right spot.

A "green" shopping bag - some of the ones we have are quite hardy. They're a lot nicer to lug around compared to boxes, so bring some along, they don't mind. Most of us picked up boxes lying around, but I'm not sure of their availability.

Good manners - I'm not sure why some people think that they can put their boxes on the books while other people are trying to check out titles. Don't do that lah!

Cash

Credit card



What should I not bring?

Infectious germs - I sneezed, I admit, but it was due to the sun rays shining in the window, and I sneezed into my sleeves. I did want to sneeze at the rude people blocking some book titles, but that would have been quite nasty.

Greed - Take only the books you want and will read!



The Big Bad Book Takeaway?

Here's the books I ended up with. Some mine, some sis' and some mum's. All were RM 8 except the HTML book, which was RM 15 and the Monkey God book, which was RM 5.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and other stories by R.L. Stevenson
Dracula by Bram Stoker
Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood
A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Shadow of the Hegemon by Orson Scott Card
Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay
Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML by Elizabeth Freeman & Eric Freeman
Monkey God by Wu Chengen Translated by Arthur Waley

3 Robert Jordan Wheel of Time books

Critical by Robin Cook
Foreign Body by Robin Cook

Just Rewards by Barbara Taylor Bradford
Sons of Fortune by Jeffrey Archer
Break no bones by Kathy Reichs
Collins Chinese Dictionary

Total price: RM 156


Conclusion: I had a great but tiring time, and I think I walked away with some great buys. At some point, I was quite alarmed by people tossing books into their boxes like there's no tomorrow (children's section near the entry) but by the time I reached the self-help and travel books, people had calmed down somewhat. Parking was a bit iffy. Payment counters were crowded but if you stack them up according to price, it helps. Also helps that books were nicely stacked in their genre. Plenty of books to go around, if you're open to "non-trendy" stuff.




The writer is not in any way affiliated with Big Bad Wolf books. In fact, they took RM 156 away from her today. A small price to pay for her addiction though.