Dubbed “The House of a Million Stories”, the bookshelf measures 70m long and 10m high and occupies the entire seventh floor and part of the eighth at the shopping mall.

It occupies 2,508 sq metres and is stocked with more than a million titles.

Behind the design concept for the bookstore is BookXcess’ chief innovation officer, Chua Yu Jeen, who said he wanted to utilise most of the space while retaining an open ambience.

He said the idea was to provide readers with an exciting and immersive experience within a design totally different from a conventional bookstore.

“Even the 24/7 bookstore we have in Cyberjaya was themed around the car park,” said Chua, who is in charge of the company’s bookstore designs.

The bookstore at the mall is the company’s first in the northern region following its seven outlets in the Klang Valley.

BookXcess founder Andrew Yap said all the books at their outlets were offered at discounts of 50% to 80% below the recommended retail prices to encourage people to read.

“The high prices of books was one of the reasons that caused the number of readers in Malaysia to decline,” he said, adding that making books affordable while providing a conducive environment would make reading books becoming a popular hobby again.

Yap said BookXcess was also looking for potential business partners to open up more outlets throughout Malaysia.

Despite bookstores being categorised as a sunset industry, he wants to place people above profit.

“It is a risk that we had to take but I always believe in good karma (that) things will somehow work out in the end,” he added.