On Literature
Phnom Penh is blessed with a handful of good secondhand bookstores which have managed to allay my initial fear in Phnom Penh that I would run out of anything worthwhile to read. Chea Sopheap, Cambodia’s only nuclear physicist fanboy and owner of Bohr’s Books gets profiled in today’s Telegraph (UK)
“I started from zero. I left my job and spent my time buying book stocks here and there from leaving expats with savings made over the previous three years. I built up a stock of about 600 titles at home. I opened my own second-hand bookshop two years ago, and now I have 4,000 titles in stock.”
While on the marginally food-related subject of literature, Bohr’s worthy rival, D’s Books has a grand sale this weekend.
October 20th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
I was impressed by the book shops in cambodia.To see a bookshop amongst the bars and restaurants in siem riep was a revelation.
The cheapo books for sale on the street were also very political and I recommend that everyone should read “sideshow” by william shawcross to understand the grief that we caused these people.
October 21st, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Ever notice that you can’t buy volume three of ‘History of Cambodia’ _in_ Cambodia? The Thai publisher used a few technical tricks to defeat photocopy bandits in the most recent edition.