The Ana Book Store is a
second-hand bookstore in stall 1, floor 5 of
Far East Plaza, 14 Scots Road,
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
. The store is owned by a 70-year-old
Bengali man named Mohammad Noorul Islam. It is the last second-hand bookstore in
Orchard Road.
The name, Ana, came from the owner's mother, Sultana.
History
The original store, known as the Modern Book Store, was founded in 1939 by M. Mohammad Aksir, who came from
East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh
Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...
) in 1938. He set up the store on
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
’s
Bras Basah Road. In 1978, M. Mohammad Aksir and his father died, leaving Aksir's son, Mohammad Noorul Islam, to run the store. Noorul Islam later changed the bookstore's name to the Ana Book Store. In 1993, when the building housing the original shop was destroyed, the store was moved to
Far East Plaza. Customers called Noorul Islam the "
Mr Bean of Singapore", something that local newspapers caught on to, providing more publicity for the shop.
References
Used bookstores
bookstores of Singapore
Bangladeshi diaspora
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