Congratulations to BooksActually in Singapore, which is celebrating its 15th anniversary. In September, after being closed for several months because of the pandemic, BooksActually became an online-only store.
In a letter to customers, owner Kenny Leck wrote about the anniversary: "If you'd told me in the 1st year that we'd reach this point, I would have been half skeptical and half delusional. And if you'd told me at the start of 2020 that we'd be an online bookstore instead of a physical bookstore, I would have equally laughed and farted in your face. But hey, as Joni Mitchell would sing, I have seen 'Both Sides' now, and I can't possibly be any more thankful for that. I have made many friends, burnt some bridges, made mistakes, made even graver mistakes but I got through all of it with my team and the people around me.
"As I type this now, I no longer have to 'work' on the weekends or at least, I don't need to be physically standing at the counter, trying to do this thing called bookselling. Now I do that bookselling behind a screen, while watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Netflix.
"2020 has been an odd year. What's ahead? I want to be the Amazon of Southeast Asia but it'd be a BooksActually with a lot more heart, hell-bent on beefing up the bottomline but even more hell-bent on giving it away after the bills are paid. Our motto is to be like Keanu Reeves. To give away as much as what we earn. We only want to hoard books. Happy 15th Birthday, my teenage BooksActually."