Tips in Buying Cheap Books in Tax-Driven Malaysia

A few weeks ago, MPH Click (a local bookstore in Malaysia) posted this at their Facebook page:

And if you read the comments on the right side, many people are saying that books nowadays are getting more expensive what with the taxes of importing international books. 

Of course, in Malaysia everything imported is immensely expensive. If a book in London on average costs around 10 Pounds and in the USA costs around 15$, then in Malaysia no doubt it will reach around RM30-RM50. Which not many people can afford. Hence, the result of many complaints. You can't blame the bookstores, because book taxes are really high now compared to 10 years ago. And if you think MPH is expensive, you haven't seen some of the prices at Kinokuniya yet (and still their business is going strong because of their diverse selection of books!)

I know I am truly blessed with supportive parents (an my extended family on my dad's side) who has always encouraged my reading habits ever since I was a toddler. I know of friends whose parents don't even consider buying books for their children because of the price. So that's why kids opt for comic books or local reads cause it's much cheaper. 

But when you think about it, reading itself is a great investment to your future, it improves your vocabulary, use of language, knowledge and helps you be more confident because of all of these. 

So, in my post today I'd like to write about how to buy international books at cheap prices.

There are a lot of ways really:

1. KEEP A LOOKOUT FOR DISCOUNTS/BOOK SALES.

- They're EVERYWHERE. I know MPH and Popular has tons of discounts every month at their physical stores for different kind of books. I always buy books on discount unless it's a book that I MUST read NOW (which happens more than you think). These 2 bookstores give reasonable discounts, from 10%-25%, on some really popular and great titles. So you save a lot when you accumulate books. They even do school holiday promotions so it's a good way to encourage your children to pick up the habit at home when they're free and have nothing else to do all day except watch bad TV. 

And if that's not enough Big Bad Wolf Book sale makes an appearance once in a while this year to sell very very cheap books (like discounted-95% cheap). Though they sell old outdated books, it's worth it if you just want to find cheap reads and don't care about the latest published books :D 

I personally prefer MPH (even if they have less discounts compared to Popular) because their books are more up to date than Popular. Not sure about Borders, but I know Kinokuniya has some discounts at times but too bad it's so far away in KLCC :(

2. MAKE USE OF YOUR BB1M VOUCHERS (for college students)

- Seriously RM250 to buy any books/magazine/comics (meh) that you want?? Who wouldn't want that? And if you're still complaining that books are expensive, you're just being whiny. 

3. PURCHASE BOOKS ONLINE

- Some bookstores (eg: MPH, Kinokuniya. Popular and Borders have long disconnected their online website) have online offers that aren't available in physical stores. And if your total purchase exceeds a certain amount (RM50 for MPH, RM300 for Kinokuniya), you can get your books shipped to your house for free! Otherwise just add RM6/7 :) So save money and time now that everything is literally a click away. Aside from famous local bookstores, you can also purchase very cheap books from discounted online bookstores such as Bookalicious and DeBook Room. They're local Malaysian online book providers which sells cheap books, and you only add RM7+ for the postage! 

- You can also buy books from international shipping companies like eBay, Amazon.com, and even Book Depository , but the downside of it is that you have to pay for the international shipping fee which can be a bit expensive (though Book Depository offers free international shipping) and it takes weeks for your books to arrive. 

4. FIND ALTERNATIVE PUBLISHERS FOR A BOOK

- Not many people know this, but one of my tricks to finding cheap books is finding a cheaper publisher. Though this rarely happens, it does happen at times. Especially for classics books. One of the affordable and cheap publishers is Penguin. Their classics are usually below RM15 and their young adult fiction are usually RM30 and below. Compared to other known publishers this is considered cheap since some books can range RM40-RM60 for other publishers. I've experienced this for all of my classic books and a few John Green books :) 

5. TAX REFUND 

- This is probably one of the best things of buying books in Malaysia, you can claim your tax relief from you books and they will deduct RM1000 from your annual tax income! You can definitely redeem back the expensive book tax that you were complaining about, who doesn't want to save RM1000? :) 

I hope these tips help you and encourage more youngsters are more interested to read. Statistics have shown the average number of books Malaysians read in a year is only 10-12 books. That's not much honestly. If we want a more improved and knowledgeable nation, we have to pick up a book/newspaper or read more of internet articles/journals. Forget those gossip columns or artist magazines, it's time we read something that feeds our mind with valuable knowledge.

Don't make  money the issue when it comes to reading, there are always the pdf-versions of books and local libraries (though they tend to be far and not very updated, but still worth a try) and infinite sources of reading on the internet. 

It's whether you want to pursue the knowledge or not :)

Happy reading and have a good weekend!