The National Library Board has put a reading space with Kobo e-readers on the third floor of City Square Mall, open from 19 October 2026 to 11 April 2027, The Straits Times reported. The Sit-n-Read Node is a tie-up with Rakuten Kobo, and it is the e-book company’s first standalone presence in Singapore.
How the Kobo node works
The node opens from 10am to 10pm daily. Mounted Kobo e-readers carry snippets from a selected digital collection, chosen to push readers towards genres they might not pick on their own.
A reader who wants the whole book borrows the full e-book through the NLB Mobile app and carries on reading on a personal phone or tablet.
The space also has seating, reading nooks and shelves of NLB’s pre-loved physical books for adults and children. Those books can go home without a loan. NLB asks readers to bring them back so the next person can read them too.
A second node at Anchorpoint
NLB opened another Sit-n-Read Node at Anchorpoint on Alexandra Road on the same day. That one carries pre-loved magazines and a Browse-n-Borrow kiosk, where patrons can also collect reserved items while Queenstown Library is under renovation.
Part of the ReadSG push
The nodes have opened in stages since August 2025 and have drawn 400,000 visitors so far. They sit under ReadSG, the five-year national reading movement NLB launched in September, which asks people to read for at least 15 minutes a day.
NLB chief executive Melissa Tam tied the choice of City Square Mall to footfall: “By bringing Sit-n-Read Nodes into high-footfall lifestyle spaces like City Square Mall, we are transforming ordinary spaces into inviting reading corners where people can discover books and enjoy a good read wherever they go.”
Julian Chou, general manager of Rakuten Kobo Asia, put the aim in terms of the device: “Bringing Kobo e-readers together with NLB’s collections gives visitors a chance to explore digital reading for themselves and discover how a good book can become part of their daily routine.”
