I guess most malaysians care about what what others think about them when reading in public places. I say this is BS, since the other people won't even give a second thought about you when they get home. It's not like they gonna come up and say to you "You're A NERD"

For those who complained expensive, there's something called book sales, like the twice a year big bad wolf books or bookxcess which sell books at a cheaper price like rm15~rm20 off the price tag.