DBS-OpenTrolley Bookstore Christmas Promo 2009

DBS Bank - OpenTrolley Bookstore Christmas Promotion 2009

DBS/POSB Visa and Mastercard cardholders enjoy 10% discount off more than 1.5 million in stock books. Valid for all in-stock books from now until 31 Dec 2009.

Visit OpenTrolley Bookstore, Singapore's largest online bookstore at


http://opentrolley.com.sg

October 2009 Book Sale!

7% off storewide. More than 1 million English, new and bestselling titles available at OpenTrolley Bookstore

http://opentrolley.com.sg

Use coupon code OCTO09 when checkout

7% storewide all discounted books

Checkout and insert discount code SEPT09

Valid until 30 Sept 09 at OpenTrolley Bookstore, Singapore's largest online bookstore with more than 1 million books delivered within 4-7 days.

http://opentrolley.com.sg

Local Singapore Online Bookstore Delivers 1.5 million discounted books in 4 days

Check out OpenTrolley Bookstore.

More than 1.5 million English books delivered between 4-7 days. You can save delivery cost by collecting the books at Plaza Singapura.

http://opentrolley.com.sg

:)

Top 5 Bookstores in Singapore

1. Kinokuniya
With 3 branches and claims to stock around 500,000 books in store, Kinokuniya is a favorite destinations for book lovers in Singapore, as well as regional tourists. Many blogs I read described Malaysians and Indonesians traveling to Singapore in order to buy books from Kino! The price is quite reasonable and the staff are friendly. Location-wise, it can't be better at Singapore's top shopping mall: Ngee Ann City. Kinokuniya also stocks Japanese books and magazines, French and German books.

2. Borders
American-style Borders bookstore is also prominently located in Orchard area and highly-visible from street level. Located at Wheelock Place, the books are priced higher than Kino or other bookstores but have nice ambience and we love the fact that their magazines can be browsed. Most recently the bookstore was bought over by an Australian company and had also expanded to include a new outlet at Parkway Parade. It is noteworthy that their outlet at Wheelock Place is also Singapore's largest bookstore outlet.

3. Harris
This is Popular bookstore's effort in order to tap into more popular imported books segment. The old Popular are known for its wide selection of stationery, assessment books and little stock of imported titles. So they created Harris in order to expand their operation but so far it has not been successful as the outlet at Suntec is closing down and there are many clearance sale periodically. What I like about Harris is that the book titles are handpicked so that only those popular and relevant books are displayed in store.

4. OpenTrolley Bookstore
A full-time online bookstore, OpenTrolley Bookstore boasts more than 1.5 million English books delivered to any Singapore address within 4-7 days. Books are neatly packed and received in excellent condition and the website has since improved since it was launched. A great place to source hard-to-find books and to enjoy great book discounts. Most of their books are priced 15-30% off Kinokuniya and they allow self-collection at Toy Outpost, Plaza Singapura if customers want to save on delivery fee. Visit http://opentrolley.com.sg

5. SANS Bookshop
While the range of books is limited, SANS bookshop offers books at cheaper price and also enable customers to re-sell their books if they do not wish to keep the books. SANS Bookstore has many brances islandwide.

Online Bookstores Singapore

Find the best book deals online. In this blog post, I review several reputable online bookstores that are based or ship to Singapore. This list will be periodically updated.

Books Kinokuniya (http://www.kinokuniya.com.sg)
One of Singapore’s largest bookstores (the other one being Borders) sells its entire inventory online at normal price. Meaning that you cannot find any bargain here, however you can still do some price checkings here before you come down to its store and make purchase.

Amazon (http://www.amazon.com)
World’s largest book retailer recently offered low-cost international shipping at only US$5 per order plus US$5 per book. However this low-cost option delivers books in 18-32 working days. That’s up to 6 months. Alternatively, you can use forwarders such as Vpost to reduce shipping time and cost. Book prices are competitive (if shipping cost is not considered) and the range of books is unbelievably comprehensive.

OpenTrolley (http://opentrolley.com.sg)
Claimed to be Singapore’s largest online bookstore, OpenTrolley sells more than 1 million books at big discount everyday. No membership required. You can find many good bargains here except that textbooks’ prices are higher than local versions.

Berkshire Business Books (http://www.berkshire.sg)
This online business bookstore operates solely online in Singapore. There are many good bargains for business books and I personally like the idea of self-collecting books at some of its partner retailers islandwide. 

Select Books (http://www.selectbooks.com.sg)
The only online bookstore (and perhaps physical bookstore) that sells all books related to South East Asia. Cannot really decide how cheap the books are since there are no other online bookstores selling the same products.

Atcross (http://www.atcross.com.sg)
Atcross sells Christian books and music, and recently sells baby products too. Prices are normal but they offer free shipping to Singapore.

Wellsprings (http://www.wellsprings.com.sg)
Asia’s largest online catholic bookstore has 13,000 catholic books on offer.

My thoughts on David Widjaja's case

I have been reading many theories regarding David's death and so here are what I think about the case. It is not comprehensive of course because I am having exams but the case is intriguing enough for me to read numerous blog posts such as one that is written by David's good friend. 

PHOTOS: http://www.asiaone.com/static/multimedia/gallery/090303_stabbed/

Why he climbed down from 6th to 4th floor?

At first I thought it cannot be suicide if go to a lower floor right (might as well jump from 6th floor)? However, an NTU student mentioned that windows from 5th and 6th floor are not openable, or maybe can be opened partially (REFER TO PHOTOS NO 36). So if he wanted to jump then it is reasonable for him to climb down to 4th floor. I'm not saying he jumped, but the windows might be a reason why he goes to the 4th floor. Maybe he ran away from something and wanted to jump down to outrun his enemy? But the news reported that a witness saw him sitting on the roof of the glass bridge and she even coaxed him to stay put. So I'm inclined to think that he's not running away.

An eye-witness, Mr Liu Yan, 24, a final-year electronic engineering student from China, said he saw Mr Widjaja bleeding from his arms. "He was sitting on the glass rooftop of the bridge linking Block S1 and another building," he said.

Why not go to the rooftop?

My friend and I agree that jumping from 4th floor might not cause death. So if he is committing suicide, he probably do so from higher levels like the rooftop. A friend of mine ventured that he might plan to land head first. The news mentioned there's a blood on the head part. If he was pushed from behind, probably he would protect his head using his hands, thus avoiding fatality. If he's pushed by 'someone' from the front, probably he would have less time to react. But probably he still have time to reposition his body such that he protected his head.

He sat a while on the bridge. So I assume if he was indeed pushed, then he was pushed backwards and had time to land in a safer manner.

Slash on the neck

Yes, the media might be wrong about slash on the wrist. But slash on the neck might also be self-inflicted. The prof said David cut his wrist. Not sure with the discrepancy but if there's no wounds on the wrists, then prof might be lying or maybe under stress that he couldn't remember things. That doesn't mean prof did the neck slash.

Bags full of normal stuff

It might be more convenient to bring just the blade. But probably he brought books to make prof less suspicious? Towel to cleanup? But water bottle which his mom always told him to bring? I think he wouldn't bring it because he will remember his mom. The bottle might be an indication that this is not suicide because he would not dare do such stuff to his mom.

Play games before death

Might be he was trying to relieve the anxiety. Depends on how he plays the game, which I don't know. If he plays as if there was no tomorrow, then most likely he killed himself. If he's conservative in his play, then might not be a suicide.

NTU blocked family's access to Prof

Quite reasonable because the family might try to hurt Prof.

No suicide note

Interestingly although most people believe that a suicide case must come with a suicide note, a check with a suicide-related book in NUS library mentioned that only 15% of cases will leave a suicide note.

Media cover-up

NTU has a reason to cover up if there were dirty laundries. Next week it is open house time and they don't want to receive lower enrolment. The NTU officer who hanged himself did not do any good for the school. The media on Sunday returned to saying that David stabbed, not allegedly-stabbed the prof. Not sure why the writers changed their minds.

Knife without handle

Very intriguing fact. It is unlikely that the handle fell off during the fight. Someone might have remove the handle beforehand. There's no reason to remove the handle if David were trying to kill the prof because it makes his tasks more difficult. Could someone explain where the handle's gone?

Piece it together

Sensing something amiss, and fearing for the student's safety, Mr Tuen ran into a nearby office to get help.

When he came out with some of the staff, Widjaja had already fallen five storeys to his death.

Mr Tuen said: 'It is such a loss, a life is lost.'

Dr Su said that just before Widjaja leapt from the bridge, a female student saw him sitting there and had tried to persuade him to come down.

Widjaja jumped before her eyes. The traumatised student is receiving counselling.

Jumped before her eyes! If this is true then there is no doubt that it is suicide right? If this is false then probably we can start conspiring, but right now if this is true then probably David really killed himself.

Is there a conspiracy within NTU?

Probably it will be too large to handle. The more the no. of people involved, the more difficult to ensure everyone will keep a secret. 

What happenned as reported by Asiaone

'He told me that he had his back to his student and they were looking at his computer discussing the project when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his back,' Dr Su said.

'Prof Chan turned around and saw his student holding a knife. There was some struggling and Prof Chan managed to grab the knife from him.'

The bleeding professor ran out of the room. Widjaja, who had slit his own wrists, ran off in the opposite direction.

Note that David did not finish prof quickly and gave the latter enough time to make struggle. Is this because David's inexperienced and so he thought he could kill prof with one stab?