Illustration: Erica Eng
It’s a seasonably chilly day, one of many final within the outgoing 12 months of the Rabbit. I step off the dusty antique-and-curio-shop-lined avenue that’s Hollywood Highway and sink into the couch at an unobtrusive Nordic eatery oozing with heat, rustic allure. Hjem (pronounced ‘yem’ in Norwegian) is an ideal mélange of East-meets-West, a becoming place for my chat with the brains—in addition to the muscle and coronary heart—of the delightfully christened light books, Hong Kong’s first ever pop-up store for used English-language books for adults.
I’m unusually early. As I await my brew, making a psychological be aware to ask concerning the genesis of the bookshop’s title, I forged my eyes over the book-filled shelf operating alongside the wall. An oblong parcel is propped up invitingly, a tag with spidery handwriting hanging from the festive twine holding the sandpaper-coloured wrapping paper collectively. I later be taught that it’s a Thriller E book, the final of its batch. However I’m getting forward of myself.