Tuesday, September 25, 2007

THE BORDERS ARE CLOSING IN!

The heart of the compulsive bibliophile in me skipped a couple of beats when I saw a branch of Borders (the bookshop in Mof E, supposedly inaugurated by Jeffrey Archer last year) in Deira City Centre...
Layers of dust can escape my eyes but you can never hide a bookshop from me... In fact, my bibliomania goes to incredible lengths... Even when my eyes glance at the word 'book' in the advertisements in the Freehold section of the Gulf News calling potential customers to book their flats in some exotic upcoming skyscraper... I doubleback to the word, only to retreat in defeat... God knows I can't afford to book an apartment... but I definitely can buy a book or two (or even three) if my fancy catches them...

Like I said, it is joyous tidings for me that Borders have opened a branch in Deira City. For one, Mall of the Emirates is far, far away for a Sharjah resident and I have to depend on a reluctant spouse to drive me there... There's no fun being in a bookshop with a husband who reads nothing but the newspaper and other people's minds... He'll just dog you with impatient looks and serve volleys of " Are we done?" s , "How long will it take"s.... and an assortment of grunts and groans... at you which you can not dodge or ignore anymore...and exasperated, you follow him out of the shop promising never to repeat that mistake ever...

Perhaps I am being a shade too harsh on the man. Once or twice a year he takes me to House of Prose, my favourite secondhand bookshop in Jumeira. Since the jewel of a shop is ensconced in a mini mall, he'll happily wander out of the bookshop and amble in after giving me enough time to browse, choose and generally enjoy the smell and sight of books...

This time, I bought a lot of obscure ( to me) writers... Women writers... about women main characters... in those brightly coloured papaerbacks... For a change... Actually I have picked up almost all Michael Palmers, Crichtons and Follets there...

It was only last year that I started enjoying women writers... Like my friend says, I am all for what is called in Kerala ' Pennezhuthu' - Female Writing- I feel women are better at humour these days... Then I read two books by Karen Quinn and enjoyed it without going through the rollercoaster rides I had with Dan Brown... Quin's books were about the upper middle class American women, so different from me... but I enjoyed the books...Somewhere in my forages I picked up a few Erma Bombecks and have become an ardent fan of hers...

After reading A couple of Shashi Tharoors, a Mitch Albom and of course, the last J.K. Rowling, I wanted a change. I picked up Tasmina Perry's Daddy's Girls. Initially, I kicked myself for paying good money for what seemed to be the a lurid account of the lives of the rich and restless British gentry... the book turned out to be good... the spoilt, ambitious and beautiful women showed some spunk and character at the end...

This time, at the House of Prose, I piced up more women writers, like Diana Appleyard and Sarah Webb... Let me see how they measure up...

I have half a dozen books to finish before getting new ones... But will I be able to restrict myself from exploring Borders? I shall have to go all the way to Dubai... It is a pity we don't have really bookshops here in Sharjah like in Bangalore... We do have the Book Gallery and the Book Plus in Malls... But we need a Magrudy's or a Borders here too... May be even a branch of House of Prose. They have two branches in Dubai and one in AbuDhabi... and Sharjah is supposed to be cultural capital of the emirates... If books are not 'culture'... what is? But seeing they cost so much... it is but natural that book shops thrive in Dubai- the commercial capital...

Maybe once RP buys his MRV, I'll get the Nissan and I can explore the bookshops in Dubai at will.... may be that's why he's delaying ... right? OH MY! Sigh!