Chapter and verse

I have always believed that you can tell a great city from the fact that it has some great bookstores. New York has Barnes & Noble, a ginormous space on 5th Avenue where you could easily get lost as you made your way from the new releases to the classics section.



Singapore has the best Books Kinokuniya I have ever been to, stacked with every book you’ve heard of or wanted to read (and then some).



London has its hallowed Hatchards, a bookstore positively bristling with history, redolent of the heady smell of paper, and filled to the brim with titles both new and old.



Some of my best holiday moments are spent in such bookstores. I could easily spend the better part of the day simply browsing the aisles, picking up an old book of poetry I last read in college to see if it still speaks to me, glancing through the first chapter of the new book by a favourite author, discovering new writers as I trawl through all the titles on display.