i had envisioned a quaint little nook being administered by a matronly librarian-type, but i was instead met with a bustling, uncharacteristically large store managed by a number of young men furiously texting or calculating something or other...
taking my time to pick through the various sections of the store, i finally arrived at my objective - the history shelf...
by a stroke of luck, i managed to find two books which i thought would make good reading in preparation for my coming tests -
Immanuel Hsu's The Rise of Modern China, basically a basic guide to all you need to know for the IB's regional option: China (with this you quite literally not have to attend any lessons)
John King Fairbank's The United States and China, awkwardly titled since most of the book doesn't quite deal with relations between these two countries, but more with the general developments of domestic China, though with some general insights on foreign relations...
at payment, i was pleasantly surprised by a 25% discount on my purchases, bringing the tally for both books to a reasonable $33, though i probably took away from that bargain quality when i, clumsily and unfamiliar with the nature of old texts (the Fairbank text was written in '48, though my edition was from '71, so i'm exaggerating slightly), was slightly too physical with it that i almost split the book in half, though mercifully not completely...
so i'm now happily marking all the important sections in signature red, and hopefully this will provide sufficient revision material...
after my book hunt, i met Han An for an afternoon out in the town-fringe, and i must say the raffles area on a weekday is a rather calm place to eat/chat/walk around...
we had some food at Thai Express, CityLink Mall before heading over to Coffee Club, Milennia Walk, for cake and drinks...
