January 2011
By Emma Chong
Skoob is not your average shiny mall purveyor of bestsellers. Located somewhere at the back of Menara Mutiara Majestic (ignore the guards and walk through), it looks, upon first inspection, like a small town library. The floors are bare concrete and the bookshelves homemade, and owner Thor Kah Hoong is usually hunched over a computer in the corner. But this offshoot of the London tree will suck you in and won’t release you till you’ve acquired a stack of books.
Books are charmingly shelved in categories you don’t often see - esoteric and pre-1900 prose are some of them - and prices are pencilled on the fly-leaves.
They’re all second hand but in great condition, and there’s no specific agenda as to their purpose. You get the impression on browsing that all these books are there based on the whims and fancies of one person (aforementioned computer sitter).
There’s no filler, only books of interest, and consequently it’s a lot like shopping a personal library.
Most prices are in the RM10-20 bracket, and you can easily pick up a gold tooled Dickens for that, with sale prices hitting rock bottom. There’s a coffee table next to the window where you can stack your wares, a few chairs on which to contemplate your buys, and no music to distract you from the surrounding bibliophilia. It’s in the air. And the dust.