maktaba_books

We’re back at .sg for our fortnightly Silent Reading session.

A Sunday well spent with books, friends, and a few friendly strangers. What started as a simple round-table sharing about the books everyone was reading somehow turned into a growing list of book recommendations for many of us. The best kind of plot twist, love it!

Swipe to the end to see the list!

Did you know that Maktaba Books📚 is running a peer-to-peer community library? Join our Telegram group and check with the community for that one book you’ve been wanting to read but have not been able to find elsewhere.

We think you would agree, reading is a social thing too.

🎉 You’re invited. Come celebrate our 5th anniversary with us this June!

Thanks to the support and partnership of our bookish community, we’ve hosted many reading programmes and events over the years, but none like this one. 🥳

Join us as we celebrate our community with insightful discussions, good food and, of course, reading.

Head to https://tinyurl.com/mb5thevent (link in bio) to save yourself a spot.

More details to come.

The second One Piece Book Club session is now in the logbook, and here are some snapshots from the crew.

We talked about trauma and discrimination, two powerful themes that Eiichiro Oda often brings into the story through characters, islands, and painful histories.

From longtime fans to new nakama, everyone brought thoughtful reflections on how these stories connect with real life. We also split into smaller groups to make the session more interactive and give everyone room to speak, listen, and be heard.

It was fun, thoughtful, and surprisingly emotional. We hope everyone went home with meaningful insights and a little more love for the Grand Line.

Big thanks to .sg for the collaboration, and to our volunteers for supporting the session.

Should we set sail for another session?
Drop the next topic we should explore. 🏴‍☠️

We’ve started our fortnightly silent reading sessions after the Ramadan and Eid break. The last session we tried a new place at Bussuroh st, it was a slighly different vibe but still a good time.

We are aware that some of you didn’t get our location change update. We are very sorry about that. If you dont want to miss an update, join our telegram group.

🧑‍🎨

Longtime One Piece fans and newbies alike gathered at The One Piece Book Club to explore “Freedom vs Authoritarianism”. 😁

We discussed
🏴‍☠️ interpretations of justice
🏴‍☠️ if and how an individual can uphold their moral code while working as a part of a large entity that causes harm
🏴‍☠️ how support from friends (or a crew!) can empower an individual in the case of Nico Robin and that pivotal scene in the Enies Lobby arc

Special thanks to Maktaba Books’ member, Ying, for hosting the crew! 🫰🏼🏴‍☠️

We’ll be having the second session of the One Piece book club soon! Sign up at the link in our bio or at tinyurl.com/onepiece-bc

SESSION 2 DETAILS
💭 Theme: Trauma & Discrimination
🗓️ Date: 10 May 2026, Sunday
🕰️ Time: 11am
📍 Venue’s Nearest MRT: Bendemeer (venue details will be shared by email closer to the date)

SGBookstagrammers

This Sunday’s Silent Reading session will be at a different venue — 37a Bussorah St.

We had to changed because we were too slow to book the space at .sg 😅.

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First time hearing about this book club?

If you’re not a talker but like books or want to get into books, join us at The Silent Reading Book Club By Maktaba Books or more affectionately known as TSRBCBMB. Yes it’s a long name, but it fits our goal – to make you feel comfortable reading long line of texts (again).

The sessions will be on the 1st & 3rd Sundays of every month, 3-4.30pm.

🗓️1st & 3rd Sundays of the month (usually, this month it’s a bit different because of scheduling conflicts)
⏰3.00pm - 4.30pm
📍37a Bussorah St
📚1h of silent reading of your own books

The Optional Parts
☕️ Self-brought drink or food
🗣️ 30min of making friends and yapping after silent reading

Another session of Sama-Sama Book Club is coming up in May! This time, we’ll be discussing the American classic Catcher in the Rye by J D Salinger and how its story can resonate with many of us here in Singapore and the region.

Event details
📆: 24 May 2026, Sunday
🕰️: 11am - 12.30pm
📍: Launch Programme Room, L7 @ NLB (100 Victoria St)

📖 About The Book
The Catcher in the Rye explores the restless wanderings of Holden Caulfield. His raw, confessional first-person voice is an example of a teenage narrator speaking with unfiltered honesty about pain, confusion and the terror of growing up.

In an era of post-war conformity and suburban optimism, the novel explores the crisis of adolescence. The suffocating need to fit in, the grief of lost innocence, the longing for something real in a world of performances and pretences.

💬 Themes & Discussion Topics
💭 Significance of childhood and innocence
💭 The obsession with “authenticity” vs “phoniness”
💭 Alienation and loneliness while growing up in cities like NYC and Singapore
💭 Angst, anxiety and emotional exhaustion among the youth, particularly boys

✍️ About the author
J D Salinger was an American author who served in World War II. His experiences left him with lasting trauma that deeply influenced his worldview. He published short stories in the late 1930s and early 1940s, with the character Holden Caulfield first appearing in a 1945 short story.

After The Catcher in the Rye’s explosive success, Salinger famously became a recluse, where he retreated to Cornish, New Hampshire.

Yes, we are doing a book club on One Piece! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️

In collaboration with .sg, Maktaba Books will be hosting a discussion on the story and politics of this massive, popular manga, diving deep into its themes and why it’s so significant in the global south.

During the 2 sessions, we’ll be exploring topics – like the meaning of “absolute justice”, portrayals of racism and discrimination, and the impacts history and narratives have on people’s perceptions of others – through the manga’s characters and story arcs.

For more details and to sign up, you can visit the link in our bio or tinyurl.com/onepiece-bc 😄

SESSION 1
💭 Theme: Freedom vs Authoritarianism
🗓️ Date: 26 Apr 2026, Sunday
🕰️ Time: 3pm
📍 Venue’s Nearest MRT: Orchard Boulevard (venue details will be shared with registrants closer to the date)

SESSION 2
💭 Theme: Trauma & Discrimination
🗓️ Date: 10 May 2026, Sunday
🕰️ Time: 11am
📍 Venue’s Nearest MRT: Bendemeer (venue details will be shared closer to the date)

Hope to see some of you there!

✨✨✨

(Although let’s be real, this book club is just a chance for One Piece fans to gather and yap about the manga we’re all so insufferably obsessed with 👀)