It’s been a while and I wanna blog about a lot of things: work, current addictions, travels. But I decided to blog about what I love to do the most – bargain book hunting. I’m such a sucker for book sales! I was able to top up my Agatha Christie collection by going to second hand book shops way back when I was still in UP Los Baños. When I transferred to Diliman, I found a very good book shop at UP Village and discovered another tucked in an alley behind Greenwich at Philcoa. When I went to Johannesburg, I was able to visit one at Norwood, a really old shop with older books. I got one AC book and later found out that I already have it back here. Though there were lots of book shops in Melville where I lived, the chances to find an AC hidden amongst Afrikaan books is almost nil. Well, I got one (The Pig Book) which turned out to be quite interesting. Finding a really nice book amidst all the obstacles for me is such an accomplishment. Bliss. Well, we all have our own quirks.

Last Saturday, my constant companion in everything that I do (aka bunch) and I braved the ride to Shaw via the MRT and tried to find the Powerbooks warehouse sale in Pasig. Of course, we missed the turn and ended up breathing polluted Mandaluyong air and walked passed decaying industrial buildings while bunch entertained me with stories of the factories (i.e., on regular days, the place would smell of Jelly Ace because its factory is located there). This in an effort to shut me up because I was whining the whole time. I can’t believe we’ll miss a place we’ve gone to the first time and which doesn’t have a proper signage. Yadda, yadda.

We found the place eventually and there were a lot of yes, books and less than a hundred people. The sale was quite organized, books shelved according to genre and alphabetized by author. It’s a different story when you walk past through the door which says EXIT. The PB people added a small fenced space with tables, more shelves and banners announcing UP TO 90% off. Now this is critical, the words UP TO should be noted. This means that not everything is 90% off, only a selection and definitely not a new and shiny book about Che Guevarra (P675). But hell, I was excited and just put all the good books I found in my basket. I found Identity by Milan Kundera (P479), a very thin Richard Bach detective novel (P700+), Haruki Murakami’s Underground (P600+), The Official Fahrenheit 9/11 Reader (P39), The Corporation (P400), Gaitskill’s Veronica (P99), Brian Jacques’ Mattimeo (P79), Eco’s The Island of the Day Before (P249), and The Last Temptation of Christ (P349). A huge Lonely Planet Travel the Whole World sells for P3600+ so we didn’t buy it. There were tons of C.S. Lewis books (70% off, purple sticker) which we skipped, lots of hard bounds authored by unfamiliar names for P99, without stickers, which most books are, slashed by 30%. After three hours, we ended up with five quite thick and interesting books and paid P800. Still cheap considering that one book we got normally sells for P700.

My hands got so dirty from browsing through dusty books but the book buying didn’t end there. We went to Fully Booked at Gateway to look for the latest Pugad Baboy but found out that the distributor of Pol Medina’s books are chummier with the owners of NBS so FB only sells PB 3 and the Best of PB. To cap the day off, I bought One, Two Buckle my Shoe instead, and after spending years scouring through dusty shelves, avidly subscribing to book sale forums, and asking for friends for an AC book for Christmas, at long last my collection is complete.