Big Bad Wolf Book Sale 2018

It's that time of the year again when the Big Bad Wolf comes a-calling to Kuala Lumpur for its annual self-proclaimed world's biggest book sale. After a fantastic outing at the 2016 sale, I had skipped the previous year's sale to give my poor wallet a breather. And with a huge portion of my budget tied up for potential hobby-related stuff in my missus's work visit to Japan (more on this in a future post), I went into the sale with a careful eye on overspending. In the end, I needn't have bothered.  

For me at least, this year's book selection was pretty disappointing with regard to genres I liked i.e. military history, medieval history, art references, fantasy and science fiction. Instead, the sale reverted to form with majority of the books on sale comprising toddler and children books.       

That being said, I still manage get my hands on some gems, some of which were undoubtedly leftovers from the previous sale. I was especially happy to find a copy of Achtung-Panzer! The Development of Tank Warfare by Heinz Guderian as well as Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory by Julian Thompson. I also scored two fantastic DK-Smithsonian visual guides, one on World War II and the other on the Vietnam War. Other military history books I bought were D-Day: Illustrated Edition by Stephen E. Ambrose and Camouflage at War by Martin J. Dougherty. Meanwhile, a historical biography titled Elizabeth of York by Alison Weir rounded up my collection of history books.

Achtung Panzer! by Heinz Guderian and Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory by Julian Thompson

DK-Smithsonian - World War II: The Definitive Visual History

DK-Smithsonian - The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History

D-Day: Illustrated Edition by Stephen E. Ambrose

Camouflage at War: An Illustrated Guide From 1914 to the Present Day by Martin J. Dougherty

Elizabeth of York: A Tudor Queen and Her World by Alison Weir

Art-related books were even rarer this time around with only one table versus at least five back in 2016. I'm a sucker for anything color related so I was happy to discover Colour: The Professional's Guide by Karen Triedman. It turned out to be the only art book that was of interest to me.

Colour: The Professional's Guide by Karen Triedman

Lastly, a visit to any book sale wouldn't be complete without a look at the sci-fi and fantasy display tables. That too turned out to be a meh experience. I guess that's a tad harsh seeing there were a lot of graphic novels and comics on display. But in terms of fiction, I could only find three of note namely The Year's Best Science Fiction 33rd Annual Collection, The Mammoth Book of Nebula Awards SF and Lock In by John Scalzi. A paltry selection at best but still better than being empty handed.   

Two tomes of science fiction short stories compilations

And lastly ... Lock In by John Scalzi

So all in all, this year's book haul wasn't impressive by any means. On the bright side, this means more hobby budget leftover for the missus's work trip to Japan. That will be a chance to get some goodies that are hard to find back home, luggage space permitting. Well, that's it for this post. If you are already off on your holidays, have a good one. If you're like me stuck at home with no respite in sight, hey, at least we have our scale model kits and miniature figurines to work on. To each his own.