Bookshelves

I have a love for reading, fiction mostly, from Sci-Fi to the classics. Noromance novels for me though, I outgrew them before I left secondary school. Now I alternate between reading autobiographies and fiction sourced from book warehouse sales, or out-of-copyright classics on my phone. Yes, I’m a cheapskate, I know 😛

As a consequence of a voracious reading habit, I have a sizable collection of books, mostly paperbacks. They laid in every corner of my room, and stuffed in the bookshelf in the living room. That was before I got married and moved to my current home.

This is not a post on reading though. This is all about bookshelves, or more accurately, lack of bookshelves. I have no bookshelf in my home. My books are packed into boxes, on the very spot my imaginary bookshelves are suppose to be.

I have hunted for bookshelves at furniture shops around town, but the solid wood ones are all at least RM600 and upwards. I need at least 2 sizable bookshelves for my books and my growing collection of cookbooks. 2 of them, with extra shelves will cost around RM1600!

I have been eyeing on the Ikea Billy bookcases for a long while; they are cheap and functional.  A Billy, although made of particleboard, costs $79 (for the white one), or RM185 at the KL branch. I can buy 3 Billys and still cost less than the solid wood ones I have been looking at. And white Billys blend into the white walls! Every time I drop by Ikea for cheap hotdogs, I would wander off to the Billy displays, drool a bit, then walk away one hour later to the cashier counter with a bunch of stuff I didn’t know I need an hour before. I want a 2 3 Billy bookcases for my home!

The only problem was, KL is 300km away, and how do you get a 202cm long box in a car across the JB customs? My little car can fit the flat packed case if I flatten the backseat and front passenger seat. But, driving through JB customs like that will surely attract the attention of customs officers, and goodness knows how I could get away with that.

What shall I do? Has anyone ever carted a Billy bookcase or other similar items across JB customs with their wallets intact?

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