moggle / Marginalia
— Independent Books, Curated by Adrian —

Marginalia

Indie presses · used books · hard-to-find titles. Slow shipping, careful packaging, and a personal note tucked in every parcel.

Volume IV · No. 18 ✦ Established 2024 ✦ 189 Members ✦ 3,412 Titles
A
By
Adrian Wong
Bookseller. Singapore — by way of Tokyo and Edinburgh.
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In stock this week

See all 24 →
Haruki Murakami
Kafka on the Shore
First English ed. · Knopf, 2005 · Translated by Philip Gabriel
Listed by Adrian · host pick
Very good S$45
Joan Didion
The White Album
Hardcover · Simon & Schuster, 1979 · DJ intact
Listed by Charlotte L
Good S$35
W. G. Sebald
The Rings of Saturn
New Directions, 1998 · First US ed. · trans. Hulse
Listed by James W
Excellent S$52
Elizabeth Bishop
The Complete Poems
1927–1979
Farrar, Straus and Giroux · Paperback, 2008
Listed by Wei Lin
Very good S$28
Clarice Lispector
The Hour of the Star
New Directions · Paperback, 2011 · trans. Moser
Listed by Roshan P
Excellent S$22
Jorge Luis Borges
Fictions
Penguin Modern Classics · 2000 ed.
Listed by Hannah K
Good S$18
Zadie Smith
Feel Free: Essays
Penguin Press · Hardcover, 2018 · DJ intact
Listed by Marcus T
Excellent S$32
Various · Tokyo Zines
Jimbocho Bundle
3 issues · risograph · self-published 2024
Listed by Adrian · sourced in Tokyo
New S$28
From the bookseller
No. 18 · 7 May 2026

On the Murakami first edition, and what to read in the rainy season.

Picked up in Jimbocho last month, in the back room of a shop that used to specialise in early Showa first editions before the owner pivoted to Western fiction. The binding is tight, there's some yellowing on the page edges (expected, and frankly preferable), and no underlining whatsoever — which is rare for a copy of this novel. I'd suggest starting it on a quiet Sunday afternoon and not stopping until you've reached chapter six.

This week we also have a fresh stack of Didion, a small run of Sebald, and three risograph zines I picked up at a Tokyo basement press. The zines will go fast — I only got five sets and two are already spoken for.

— Adrian

Reading lists

All lists →
CURATED · 12 TITLES
For the rainy season
Slow novels, melancholic essays, and one cookbook that feels like a poem.
From S$22 →
CURATED · 8 TITLES
Translation, in translation
Books that taught me how translators are quiet co-authors.
From S$18 →
CURATED · 6 TITLES
The zine drawer
Self-published, risograph, mostly Tokyo. Few copies of each — when they're gone, they're gone.
From S$8 →

The full catalogue

Sort: newest in →
All · 3,412 Fiction Non-fiction Poetry Translation Zines & small press Art & photography First editions
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James
Riverhead, 2014
First ed. · Hardcover
by James W
Very good
S$48
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Olga Tokarczuk · trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones
Riverhead, 2019
First US · DJ intact
by Roshan P
Excellent
S$36
The Years
Annie Ernaux · trans. Alison L. Strayer
Seven Stories, 2017
Paperback
by Charlotte L
Good
S$24
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Annie Dillard
Harper Perennial, 2007
Paperback · 35th anniv.
by Sara T
Very good
S$22
Severance
Ling Ma
Farrar Straus, 2018
First ed. · DJ
by Wei Lin
Excellent
S$32
A Moveable Feast
Ernest Hemingway
Scribner, 1964
First ed. · light foxing
by Adrian · host pick
Good
S$60
Open City
Teju Cole
Random House, 2011
First ed. · Hardcover
by Hannah K
Very good
S$28

About Marginalia

I started Marginalia during the pandemic, when I was stuck at home rereading my own shelves and realised I had more books than friends. Since then it's become a small operation: I source from estate sales, indie presses, library de-accessioning, and trips to Jimbocho. Every book I list is one I've handled, and most are ones I've read.

I write a small note for almost every listing. If a book is truly unmissable, I'll say so. If it's middling, I'll say that too — life's too short.

House rules

  • Open to all buyers · no application needed.
  • Slow shipping (5–10 days). Each parcel is hand-wrapped.
  • 14-day return window for any reason. Postage refunded.
  • If a book is mis-described, you keep it and I refund. No exceptions.
  • Want me to look out for a specific title? DM me — I keep a list.