Expelliarmus!

Wow.. a full week without update! What have I gotten myself into? Well, here's why:


Haha! Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.. addictive. I started quite early in this whole Pottermania thing, well before the movie started to come out. I couldn't really pinpoint where did I first picked the book up and read it but I am sure MCKK was a likely candidate. It's amazing at that time reading the book considering its parallelism with life at The Malay College itself; Hogwarts got 4 houses, so does MCKK. Both school's houses are named after the school's 4 founder. Hogwarts Castle got all this secret hideouts and so does the Overfloor at MCKK. Both school dine at a hall with tables according to houses and both have high tables. See what I mean? The only thing truly different was that they can do magic and we don't.. and oh, they got girls too.

Anyway, yeah.. I'm a Potter fan. I admit it. I know not many guys would like to be publicly known as a Potter fan but hey, it's a good read nonetheless. Though I did pre-ordered the previous book, The Half-Blood Prince well before its launch, I didn't really feel the urge to do the same about the latest book. Why? Maybe I haven't read books for quiet sometime.. I lost touch. Anyway, I did went to buy it 4 days after all the hype on the newspaper at Kinokuniya KLCC which happens to be the only place I went to that still have the books in stock. It was initially priced RM 109.00 but they happen to have a 20% discount on the book with a purchase of any other item so I bought myself a Kilometrico pen that costs RM 0.80. The result, a RM 21.00 off the book and a new pen. Quite a bargain.

Concerning the price war between the bookstores and the hypermarkets, I personally side with the bookstores. I know that there's a lot of people bashing bookstores in the newspaper, calling them cowards and afraid of competition but one struck me most. There was this guy who lauded the hypermarket's decision to sell the book at a loss to 'encourage Malaysians to read'. Are you stupid? I believe you don't have an idea how hypermarkets make money. Has it ever occurred to you to think why suddenly the markets are selling Harry Potter books and only Harry Potter books? They don't actually make much money from the sell of the books. What they are after is you because when people come to hypermarkets to get those books, they would most probably purchase something else along with that book too. A housewife taking her kids to get the books would surely take the opportunity to buy some household items too.. you know what I'm saying? More visitors equals more sale. Simple.

Now, imagine the impact on a bookstore that relies solely on books for profit. Since the place that usually sells sugar and spice suddenly selling Harry Potter books for a cheaper price, imagine what would happen to the bookstores. Should they start selling canned food and detergents to compete? Imagine what'll happen to car dealers if suddenly char kuey teow stalls all over the country starts to sell cars for a lower price. Haha.. a stupid metaphor, I know. Still.. I really think people should not really make a big deal out of it. You have to choices, choose.

It kept me wondering how many of those people who complain on the newspapers really do read Harry Potter books if not any book at all. Why? Because if they read it and love it as much as I do, price is nothing. It's worth it.