"Pin-to"? Not simply a question
By Maggie Leung

The word "pin-to," believe it or not, is the word that we say almost everyday. It means "where" in Cantonese. How about "Pin-to Book"? Does it ring a bell? "Pin-to Book" is a new bookshop which does not sell popular books like Harry Porter, but is special in terms of service, location and types of books available.

Mick Lei, shopkeeper of Pin-to Book.

"We are special in a sense that we may not have the books that can be commonly found in other bookshops," Mick Lei, the shopkeeper of Pin-to Book explains, "but on the other hand, we have books about gender education, architecture and design, which may not be available in other bookshops."

Besides offering a variety of special books, the bookshop is also unique by holding seminars on different topics. "When we host seminars inside our bookshop, we would put aside the shelves and tables. The audience just sit on the ground, having some coffee and sharing opinions with writers and scholars. It has lots of fun and the environment is really warm," Lei says.

The Social Culture corner.

Books about design, architecture, and social culture are the most popular. Lei shares an interesting discovery, "Many visitors are reading in the Gender Education corner of our bookshop, but not many people buy books from that corner." Lei believes that it may be due to the embarrassment many local people have towards sex. In order to make readers feel easy while browsing books about Gender Education, he renamed the corner as the "Social Culture" corner.

While flipping through the books, one may hear some interesting music playing in the shop. Lei explains that the music is sort of "ambient music", which may be void of vocals or whose melody may not necessarily be consistent. As the shop is located on the second floor of a building, Lei believes that with the music in the air and free coffee provided after nine each night, it makes the shop "home".

Though the bookshop is hidden in a building located at the Senardo Square with only around 200 square feet, the shop attracts not only local readers, but also Hong Kong readers. "One third of our customers are from Hong Kong, it may due to the sources of our books," Lei says. "Most of our books and CDs are directly from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and even Europe. Some of the books may not be available in Hong Kong."

Leung Hoi Yan, a local customer who goes to Pin-to Book almost every month, indicates that the books in the bookstore are special, "Books about design are not very common in Macao, I'm happy to see a great variety of design books here at reasonable prices."

According to Lei, the name "Pin-to" has several meanings. Its pronunciation is similar to "where" in Cantonese. Lei explains, "As a DJ, I'm especially sensitive to words, 'where' is the word that we say everyday; I wish the bookshop can be part of our customers' daily life." Lei adds that "Pin-to" reflects the uniqueness of Macao, as it is also a Portuguese surname.