PETALING JAYA, Dec 17 — “Good books light up our world.”

If this sentiment by Elaine Lau and Fong Min Hun, the husband and wife team behind Lit Books, an independent bookstore nestled in the suburbs of PJ, seems self-evident, it still bears repeating.

When was the last time we tore ourselves away from our surfeit of digital devices, to spend some quality time with a good book... and really enjoy it?

The two former journalists had long envisioned a space where fellow book lovers may gather and finally took the plunge when they opened Lit Books last December.

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“Lit” has a double meaning, pertaining to everything literary but also a nod to how reading good books can illuminate the lives of readers.

For former journalists Elaine Lau and Fong Min Hun, Lit Books is a true labour of love.
For former journalists Elaine Lau and Fong Min Hun, Lit Books is a true labour of love.

Shelves of English titles, both fiction and non-fiction, abound. Suffused with natural sunlight, Lit Books even has a small in-house café — perfect for a cosier book browsing experience or fuelling really deep conversations.

Regular events add a crackling energy to the space; these have included collaborations with BFM to record the "live" Bookmark sessions every month, the Sweatheart series of "live" storytelling nights and even a literary-inspired jazz performance by WVC Malaysian Jazz Ensemble.

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Lau says, “These events not only help bring people into the store, but helps encourage broader reading habits and brings together like-minded people.

"Part of our vision is to build a community, engage with our customers on a personal level, and be a cultural hub in our location. Hosting events is key to that, and we designed our space in such a way that makes this possible — some of the shelves and furniture are moveable.”

There is even a small in-house café for a cosier book browsing experience.
There is even a small in-house café for a cosier book browsing experience.

A visit to Lit Books can be more than us indulging in our literary pursuits. In the spirit of Yuletide cheer, it can be about finding just the right title to brighten up a loved one’s Christmas. (‘Tis the season of giving, after all.)

One recommended tome is Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, a book Fong first encountered as a student overseas.

He says, “It’s a semi-autobiographical account of the author’s life in Paris in the 1920s, and his encounters with the famous men and women of the so-called Lost Generation — Americans living in Europe in the 1920s following the Great War.

"Unabashedly romantic despite Hemingway’s penchant for spare prose, I’ve given this book away to friends moving away, old friends living abroad, lovers and young people setting for shores anew.”

The book Fong has given away most as a gift is the inimitable Ernest Hemingway’s 'A Moveable Feast'.
The book Fong has given away most as a gift is the inimitable Ernest Hemingway’s 'A Moveable Feast'.

It’s a great book, and not the only one awaiting curious bibliophiles on the shelves at Lit Books. There are pages to be turned, stories to unfold, again and again. But how does one choose what stories get to be shared?

According to Lau, readers can be overwhelmed by choice unless they know exactly what it is that they’re looking for. She says, “By curating our selection of books on stock — our shelves are representative of the reading taste of our buyers – we pre-select what we think are good books which makes the reader-browsing experience a lot more productive.”

Selling books in this day and age is a challenge, to put it mildly. To stand out and arrive at profitability, independent bookshops need to see themselves as more than just a retail space for books.

Fong says, “So we don’t buy based on best-selling lists, and there’s a story behind every book that makes its way to our shelves. The fact that we run the shop ourselves also means that we can share these stories with our customers and make recommendations on the fly for customers looking for a specific mood or genre.”

He admits that their business model, which leverages heavily on personalised customer service, is resource-intensive and may not be easily transferable or scalable.

‘Tis the season for giving... the best time to visit a bookstore like Lit Books!
‘Tis the season for giving... the best time to visit a bookstore like Lit Books!

That said, if larger chain bookstores bank on their breadth — a dizzying array of genres and titles available — then a smaller shop like theirs must go deep. In effect, they are curating their target audience as much as their books.

For Lau, book selection is both an art and a science — and particularly crucial for independent bookstores given that they don’t enjoy the perks of bulk orders unlike larger chains.

She says, “Old-fashioned research such as reading trade magazines and advanced copies of the books that the publishers give form a large part of it. But the other part is also going with your gut feeling.”

Keeping an open mind and encouraging feedback from their patrons is another form of mutually beneficial exchange. Fong says, “We often get customers telling us about authors they love — some even give us books! — that we’ve not read before. Sometimes, those authors and books then end up on our shelves.”

Being small business owners, Lau and Fong also had to learn to adapt rapidly to customer demands. When they first opened, there was no children’s section as neither knew much about the genre.

Observing many parents with young children visiting their store during their first month of operations, the duo dedicated a section of for little readers, from toddlers to pre-teens.

For independent bookstores, it remains critical to develop an engaged clientele who understand what the business is trying to achieve. Lau says, “We’re most thankful for the customers who choose to support us. There are many other avenues to buy books, but they want to support our little bookstore because they believe in what we do and our efforts in serving the literary community.”

Perhaps that’s the secret to success and survival for a little bookstore in today’s unforgiving market: to have some faith in what you’re trying to build, and to have enough of others who have the same faith in you.

Lit Books
Unit P-1-11, Level 1, Tropicana Avenue, 12 Jalan Persiaran Tropicana, PJ
Open Tue & Sun 1pm-9pm, Wed-Sat 11am-9pm, Mon closed
Tel: 03-7886 6988
www.litbooks.com.my