Wisdom's Keep

How many drops must trickle
Before we wonder; will it flood?

How many grains of sand must fall
Before a dune smashes the hourglass?

How many stories make a life
And do they all have to be true?

How many books make a library
And how many bookshops make a city?

If joining dots make lines
Do linking machines make thought?

Perhaps I’ll ask the minds I meet
While turning pages in wisdom’s keep.

Alhamdulillah, we have secured the bookshop’s tenancy at 58 Bussorah Street for the next couple of years. We thank you for your concern and prayers. We know how important it is for us to remain in Bussorah Street, and we know we will continue to exist here  inshaAllah as long as you the readers support us. We will never take that for granted.

Our bookshop is a portal not just to contemporary publications, but can be thought of as a spring that founts from an otherwise invisible aquifer of Kampong Gelam’s religious scholarship, of storytelling, of speaking truth to power, and of thinking together. A bookshop is so much more than the sum of its books: it is an anchor for a community of readers.

But there is a price to pay to remain here, and we hope for your understanding as we make adjustments to accommodate this increase in operational costs in the weeks and months to come.

Where there are readers, there is hope.