Book Village launched in Malacca

A new book village was launched in Malacca at the Botanical Gardens In Air Keroh as reported by Star Online. It is hoped that this one will be better than the one in Langkawi which closed last year.

The idea of a book village is very appealing to a bibliophile like me. The idea of wandering around from bookstores to bookstores is my idea of paradise. Reading and seeing pictures of book villages in other part of the world, especially in Hay-on-Wye was very enticing. Another example is the Hobart Book Village.

Many years ago, I went to the Langkawi Book Village or Buku Kampung Langkawi with high expectations. Buku Kampung Langkawi was billed as the first book village in South East Asia! It was launched with much fanfare in 1987. Finding the book village and getting there was not easy, as it was situated somewhere in the middle of Langkawi.


The village itself was made up of many small stand-alone buildings. It was hot walking in the sun from one building to another. There was no shade. About half the stalls were empty. Only one or two is air conditioned. That itself was not the disappointment. The disappointment were the books. There were no selections. What was on sale were revision guides for SPM and STPM, school textbooks, a few popular novels and magazines. The local newsagent in any town will have more stock. So that's the Malaysian book village I encountered. In the end, I only bought a mug with the words, "Langkawi Book Village" printed on the side as a souvenir! So much for the vision of going home with boxes of books.

I hope the Malacca one will do better. A question I do want to ask is whether a book village will promote a reading public? Or does a reading public promotes a book village? Have we put the cart before the horse again?