\n<\/p>\n
For the organisers, SGIBD is about more than putting 20 bookshops on a map. It is also an opportunity to highlight the communities, conversations and encounters that already take place in and around Singapore\u2019s bookshops.<\/p>\n
“The perception people have of bookselling is that it’s a mere transactional act, but we are more than that,” Ibrahim said. “We are here to build community, to educate, and to bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Yuree Hwang, founder of Korean bookshop Bommoi, the community around a bookshop can be seen most clearly in the ways customers choose to support the space itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have so many customers coming up to me saying, \u2018If you need somebody to look after the store for a couple of hours a day, I can. I’m here. Just call me’,” she said. “Our readers are ready to show up for us, so we want to do this for them, too.”<\/p>\n
The organisers also want the event to showcase the breadth of the country\u2019s indie bookshop scene, including smaller and less visible shops that readers may not otherwise encounter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And while books can now be bought easily online or borrowed from libraries, they said, independent bookshops offer something beyond the transaction of buying a book.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf a bookshop closes, you’re not only losing an avenue for the purchase of books,\u201d Ibrahim said. \u201cYou’re losing community, you’re losing conversations, you’re losing encounters, you’re losing so much more than an avenue to buy books.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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CELEBRATING THE READING COMMUNITY IN SINGAPORE For the organisers, SGIBD is about more than putting 20 bookshops on a map. It is also an opportunity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":79204,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=79203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/79204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=79203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=79203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=79203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}