Well, Prof. Madder thought he would make good use of his leave and have a look around the bookshops, to examine at first hand the debris left behind after the Harry Potter War in Kuching. Only had time to visit two of the town's most well-stocked emporia. The first one, T***s Bookshop in Crowne Plaza Riverside, showed many signs of the mighty struggle arising from the heroic standoff made by this and other shops against the forces of the Free Market.
Not only was the shop nearly empty (mind you it was lunchtime on a Tuesday!), but Prof. Madder noticed two mountainous piles of unsold copies of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, right in the middle of the children's section. A quick count revealed approximately 180 unsold copies of the most popular book on the planet, all arranged in nice neat little piles resembling two lonely hillocks!! And, shock-horror, the price was RM 109.90!!!
I thought I would take pity on T***s, which is probably Kuching's best bookshop, by buying some (non-Potter) books - an excellent collection of horror stories by Rudyard Kipling, and two diet books for the wife. Interestingly, when I went to pay, there was a rather contrite letter posted on the counter that apologised for any inconvenience now that an agreement had been made to sell the Potter book at RM 109.90, and that, as a special consideration, the book will be available at 20% off to normal buyers and 25% off to members like me.
But even the RM 82-odd reduced members' price is too much to pay. These cartels need to be punished, so I am going to wait until Christmas or thereabouts, when the price will inevitably go down below RM 50. And I'm going to studiously avoid any plot spoilers in the newspapers and on the net! So please don't tell me who died in the end!!
The other bookshop I went to, P*****r in the Hock Lee Centre, interestingly had hardly any Potters left, and they were selling for the RM 109.90 price tag also. An interesting anomaly, that, but probably an exception that proves the rule, as Holmes might have said...
And a tiny crumb of satisfaction lifted the corner of Prof. Madder's mouth as he walked away to his car...
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