Second Hand Books and a Second Gen Business

There aren’t a lot of stores in Bras Basah Complex that started off from the now-demolished shop houses of Bras Basah Road, but Book Point is one of these gems.

With a 50-year history, Mr Jawahar is a second-generation shop owner and under his charge, Book Point has amassed a whopping 1.5 million titles, making him one of the largest collector of books in Singapore.

What then, is his vision for Book Point? For each and every book to be read by someone. Ironically, despite owning such a vast collection, Mr Jawahar never finds time to read beyond the title and author of the book – the 2 critical features he needs to help his customers locate these book. Gone were the good times of the 80s and 90s as Book Point is buffeted by strong headwinds in today’s digitalised world. Mr Jawahar, however, remains unfazed and possibly optimistic of the situation. As he reinvents his business model and attempts to extend his outreach to global readers, he firmly believes that the true value of his collection of rare, hard to find, antiquarian books will surface in time to come.

Andy Gwee, a regular customer cum avid book collector shares the significance of Book Point for him. Book Point is the turn to place for him when he is looking for books by local authors, as some of these titles cannot be even found in the National Library. At Book Point, you’ll never know if the next book you pick up could be a rare gem waiting to be uncovered.