In pursuit of the Great Big Obscure Novel...

I woke up one morning and suddenly decided to buy that novel I've been thinking about reading for a while from my local bookstore. Heaven knows when was the last time I did some good old-fashioned 'physical' book shopping, what with all this Internet shopping and online bookstores and all that.

It would later on reveal itself to me as one big mistake. I simply didn't know what I was getting myself into. The simple, straight-forward visit would end up being one long, arduous adventure into the world of Bahrain's unnaturally tapered book shopping.

Now mind you, I tend to lean favourably more towards what others would only describe as nothing less than obscure novels. What can I say, I'm not a big fan of the commercialised, hyped-up books out there. Call me a hypocrite if you like.

I started by playing it safe and drove to one of the biggest and better known bookstores in Bahrain. After a relatively quick browse, I went up to the counter to ask the smiling gentleman behind it if they had the Great Big Obscure Novel I was searching for. He turned to his computer and punched a few keys and, completely engrossed, delved into the results shown on his screen.

"Sorry, sir, we don't seem to have it," he apologetically told me, "but you can order it through us."

I thanked him for the offer. Knowing full well that it was most probably going to take 10 to 14 days to get here.

"Of course, you'll just have to pay a small shipping fee."

"Oh," I frowned, "so it'll likely take up to two weeks AND you'll overcharge me for it? Why don't I just go ahead and order it through Amazon?"

He smiled again, this time nervously. When I leaned over the counter and glanced at the screen, I realised that he was actually browsing Amazon.com. Great.

My visit to the next stop was a lot shorter. A skip through their "Fiction" section revealed to me that whoever was the purchase manager of that shop must still be living in the 80s.
All I found, stacked all together over a few shelves, were cheesy romantic paperbacks with bare-chested men on the covers - think John Holmes meets Joan Harris- in the A-Team era - and some political thrillers that had something or other to do with the Russian communist party.
And yes, they, of course, had a couple of Tom Clancy chunkies.

I drove to the other side of the island for my next visit. This time I didn't bother browsing. I went straight to the shopkeeper.

"I'm looking for this novel ?" I paused. The poor bloke looked as if I had just told him he had three seconds to live.

"Uh, never mind. Thank you."

It's frustrating that Bahrain to this day does not have a great source for a wide variety of reading material. It would be brilliant to see some of those big bookstore chains arriving on the island.

But until that happens, all we have is a couple of decent stores and several jumbled ones that don't appear to know the basics of bookselling.

One of the things I make sure I do whenever I am abroad is visit as many bookstores as I can find on my path, even if I wasn't looking for anything in particular. It's an experience. It's not like, say, going to Geant for the weekly Friday afternoon shopping. As long as e-books (books in digital format) don't completely replace printed books, the need for physical bookstores won't be overshadowed by the online stores.

By midday I abandoned my pursuit. My dream of spending a bright weekend morning at one of the many beautiful coffee shops around the island, sipping on an aromatic cup of coffee, indulgingly reading that Great Big Obscure Novel, dissipated.

*Appeared on Vol XXIX, NO. 157, Thursday, 24 August 2006