Bookish temptation...

Was at a local bookshop two days ago. Saw Karl Barth's legendary commentary on Romans lying on one of the shelf. It's the one and only copy in Singapore! I have been looking for this book for a while, searching every Christian & secular bookshops in Singapore and Penang. Been asking Steven Sim whether had he come across this book a few times. But he hasn't got the fate so far.

So, when I saw the book, my lustful natural instinct is to get it off the shelf and walk towards to counter with my debit card ready. But I didn't do that. Instead, I quickly ran out from the store to avoid spending on another book.

While walking out, I kept chanting the mantra of Arthur Schopenhauer, "Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents."

And you know what? Today after coming back from office, I got a letter from that bookshop in the mailbox. It's a pamphlet on their current sales. My God!