BooksActually

BooksActually was established by Kenny Leck and Karen Wai in 2005 on the second floor of a shophouse along Telok Ayer Street with capital pooled from savings and family. The bookstore subsequently moved to Ann Siang Hill in 2007, and opened a second outlet at Club Street in 2008. Due to an increase in rent, they closed up Ann Siang Hill and moved from Club Street to Yong Siak Street in Tiong Bahru in 2011.[1] BooksActually regularly hosts literary events including book launches and poetry readings, acoustic sessions, and mini exhibitions. In 2011, the bookstore organised the exhibition An Ode to Penguin held at The Arts House, that showcased over 1,000 Penguin Books from their private collection.[2]

BooksActually is a regular organiser of pop-up stores at various retail locations around Singapore, such as Orchard Cineleisure, TANGS PlayLab, New Majestic Hotel, HOUSE @ Dempsey, Millenia Walk and Great World City. It hosted the Monocle Seasonal Shop in Shop in 2013,[3].

For three years, The Straits Times listed Kenny Leck, co-founder of BooksActually, as one of the top 20 Most Powerful People in the Arts in Singapore.[4]

In 2015, BooksActually celebrated its 10-year anniversary by holding an exhibition entitled "10 Years of BooksActually" at the Substation from 18 Nov to 22 Nov. [5] A special hardback edition of Cyril Wong's short story "The Boy with the Flower that Grew out of his Ass" was printed for the occasion.

In 2018, BooksActually launched the "BooksActually Shophouse Fund" in order to raise funds to purchase a new premises to avoid having to pay rising rent. This was done through the sale of bricks that sold at $10 and $50. [6]

BooksActually runs a boutique publishing house, Math Paper Press, focusing on developing new literary voices in Singapore, and has published more than 90 titles since its inception in 2011.[7][8] Math Paper Press also distributes books from independent presses like Giramondo (Australia) and design firms like Hjgher and Anonymous Pte Ltd, and recently expanded into publishing comics and graphic novels.[9]

It has published award-winning authors such as Alvin Pang, Alfian Sa'at and Cyril Wong. In the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize shortlist, the press placed four of the six titles for the English Poetry category.[10] The press co-won the 2014 Singapore Literature Prize in English Poetry for Joshua Ip's "sonnets from the singlish".[11] Subsequently, the 2016 Singapore Literature Prize in English Poetry was shared between Cyril Wong's "The Lover's Inventory" and Desmond Kon's "I Didn't Know Mani Was A Conceptualist", both Math Paper Press titles.

It recently placed automated book vending machines at the National Museum of Singapore, Singapore Visitors Centre and Goodman Arts Centre as an alternative means of book distribution.[12]

• Official website