The Book Lovers Heaven for Everyone
If you are a book lover like me and enjoy browsing for hours and getting a great deal the Bras Basah Complex may well become one of your favourite spots in Singapore . Located on Bain St. just across from the Raffles Hotel, Bras Basah Complex is walking distance from the City Hall MRT and houses an array of art, book and music shops within it’s five stories.
- On the street level you will find the fine used bookstore of Evernew (01-07) a great place to start your Bras Basah journey. Offering a large selection of fiction, magazines and children’s books Evernew Book Store also sells vintage encyclopedias, computer books and houses a fine collection of oversized hardcover in a second adjoining storefront.
- If you want more kids books or nice hardcover bestsellers at low, low prices, you can do no better than the Lido Book Store (01-69), which is located toward the rear section of the Bras Basah Complex, also on the street level. Lido ’s non-fiction section is impressive and includes a great selection of political and entertainment biographies, sports reference books and lots of top quality computer and IT books. The large children’s section of Lido offers interesting items for both the pre-schooler and early primary students.
- Moving up to level 3 at Bras Basah we come to two bookstores that make up the heart of this unique shopping centre. Knowledge Book Centre (03-15/17) harkens back to the days of the old Student Book Shop on Cashin Street , a fondly remembered shop that was a victim to urban development a few years back. Today the Knowledge Book Centre stocks a huge selection of school and text books for primary and secondary students. It’s also a great place to snag up a copy of that old magazine that you’ve been looking for, used copies of Time, FHM and other entertainment publications are piled up and ready for easy browsing.
Around the corner from Knowledge sits the sprawling book mecca of BookPoint (formerly Book Off) (03-19). This well stocked shop of books and magazines would not be out of place in other great book cities like New York and San Francisco and has a fine selection of biographies, history and law books. It’s geography section is also first rate and it’s aisles and aisles of rare and used hardcovers could keep you busy for many an hour on a rainy day or lazy Sunday.
Bookstores are not the only thing of interest at the Bras Basah Complex, not by a long shot, other places of interest include art supply stores, musical instrument stores and a dazzling new Popular (02-47/67) that features a large multi-media section, as well as a café.
For more information and a complete list of all the shops at the Bras Basah Complex check out their great website at http://bras-basah-complex.com.sg