Of a certain Bookshop, and a certain Book
Once upon a time, there was a chain of bookshops called Kingstons, dotted across Zimbabwe. I only ever visited the shop that was in Bulawayo (the second-largest city that is southwest of the capital, Harare), on Jason Moyo Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues, as I’ve lived in Bulawayo for most of my life. There may have been one or two other shops, in Bulawayo; I struggle to recall. In it’s halcyon days, Kingstons was well-stocked with a wide variety of stationery, comics, magazines, books and related goods. When the Zimbabwean economy took a serious nosedive in the first decade of the new millenium, everything in the country went to pot. Side note: I first heard that expression, “went to pot”, used by the sneaky, movie-watching android David (Michael Fassbender), in the 2012 sci-fi movie ‘Prometheus’.
Kingstons was no exception. What was once an oasis for book- and office supply lovers, dried up and turned into a wasteland. The glossy comics, magazines and books, with their ‘brand new’ smell, disappeared from the shelves. The Kingstons bookshop that I frequented, ran with mostly empty shelves for a couple of years, then eventually closed its doors and disappeared. The shops in other parts of the country suffered the same fate, albeit at different times. It was the end of an era. Today, there’s not a single Kingstons bookshop in Zimbabwe. I’ll rewind, as I would like to talk about a certain hardcover book that I came across, in that wonderful bookshop, that I deeply desired but couldn’t afford. There were many such books, but this one seems to be the one I remember most vividly. Another side note: I remember reading about the movie ‘End of Days’ (1999) in the film magazine Empire, inside Kingstons, and hoping that none of the store staff would come and stop me. That, may be how I discovered the actor Kevin Pollak, who plays Schwarzenegger’s wisecracking partner in private security provision, in that movie.
The book was called ‘Karate Warrior: A Beginner’s Guide to Martial Arts’ (I couldn’t recall the title, until I looked it up online), by the martial artist and actor Austin St. John, and Steve Rowe. It was hardly comprehensive, aimed as it was, at young readers, but it was fascinating nonetheless. St. John played the Red Power Ranger in the popular TV series ‘Might Morphin’ Power Rangers’ (1993–1996, original series). I’d catch episodes of it from time to time, and was always impressed by St. John’s martial arts skills. According to Wikipedia, he holds a second-degree black belt in Taekwondo, a first-degree black belt in Judo and a first-degree black belt in Kenpo, and for a time, he worked as a martial arts instructor. As the Red Ranger, leading the Pink, Yellow, Black and Blue Rangers, he exhibited power, grace, flexibility and speed (granted, the footage was sped up a little in post production). I wanted to do what St. John could do.
I wished to buy ‘Karate Warrior’ and read it cover to cover, over and over, and imagined myself as a skilled martial artist. Doing katas (which Michael Jai White, another brilliant martial artist, and passable actor, described as “formalised martial arts movements”), back- and forward flips, spinning kicks, splits, and so on. I may have flipped through the pages of the book, on several occasions, trying to glean what I could, without buying it.
I never got to buy the book, unfortunately.
Fortunately though, the book is available on Amazon! I might buy it one day, for nostalgia’s sake. Plus, there’s no telling what I could learn from it.
Note: Take my recollection of the history of Kingstons, with a grain of salt. I leaned a fair amount, on conjecture.