Stuff Saturdays Are Made Of
Book in Hand: Dancing Girls by Margaret Atwood
Song in Mind: Ipaglalaban Ko by whoever sang it... :)
I wish more Saturdays could be like this.
I don't have to worry about deadlines, or bosses flaring up, or the demands of other people I wouldn't really give a damn about if I wasn't working there at all.
I believe I created some mental space I could start somewhere from once again. For a while, my head's been so crowded with stuff which would be utterly useless if it ever came down to life and death.
I just watched a re-run of that Meg Ryan - Hugh Jackman movie - - Kate & Leopold - - and I guess something about Meg Ryan's character makes me sympathize with her. She hates Sundays because it's the day before Monday, simply put. It puts a downer on things. She dreads going to work --- ah, familiar story, bet a penny on it. My only prayer is that someday, I will find that one thing I was designed by God to do and I will do it well and I will do it happily. People say the ideal job is a myth, but me, I can keep on hoping. I was built that way.
Meanwhile, I do my work here willingly because I firmly believe it is a preparation of sorts for that great mission I was born to acomplish. Whatever it is. No matter how small or ignoble it is. It must mean something to God if he deigned to allow my existence in His Universe.
“Her work, I really think her work is finding what her work is and doing it; Her being human. Her being in the world.” -Ursula K. Le Guin
I CAPTURE THE BOOK!
O joy! I've been on some book-buying spree today and I must've spent a thousand bucks for the whole lot. It makes me feel a bit guilty and a bit selfish since the only way I could afford it is to ask my parents if I can keep the whole of my salary this fortnight. Not that they demand me to give a monthly due or anything. It's just a way of making ends meet around the house. But it looks like we can have a little extra this month and I get to keep all of my money. It's not much, but after years of halving it up, I feel like a millionaire. :)
Here's the list of books I bought today:
1. The Year's Best Fantasy - Second hand copy. I have to say I'm getting more into short stories and this book is chock full of them. Not bad that it's fantasy too.
2. Search of the Moon King's Daughter - Second hand copy. It looked very interesting. It's a piece on Victorian times England, about a girl from a poor family whose brother was sold as a chimney sweeper.
3. Yukon Ho! - Second hand copy. I think this just about completes my Calvin & Hobbes Comic Book Collection. Or nearly there.
4. Waifs & Strays - Spanking new. A Charles de Lint anthology with a beautiful cover and a way out there you gotta be kidding me that's too low for a de Lint book price. I think I may have ripped off Fully Booked for this one by not telling them they made a mistake in pricing the stuff.
and the best thing that has happened to one whole year of my book-hunting life:
5. I Capture the Castle - Second hand copy. JK Rowling was raving about it. Sarah Ban Breatnach, my favorite inspirational writer, also made mention of it in her book "Romancing the Ordinary." Two amazing women writers call it one of their staple reads when they were younger. So I just had to find it. I must've scoured all the Booksales I know. And then today, there it was, lying almost too casually on the top of the side table display at National Bookstore-Cubao (previously owned books section). I hyperventilated for a moment and something must've short-circuited somewhere in my head as well. My hands shook while I grabbed the copy as if there were seven other people after it. It totally can't be true. I still can't believe it. Cassandra Mortmain, I'm about to find out all about you now. :)
I do get the book I want, sooner or later. Sometimes it's much, much later but i have learned to honor the wisdom that it'll turn up when the time comes in some bookstore or second hand shop somewhere. I wish I could have just as much patience in other areas of my life. Anyway, for other bookworms out here who may be reading this blog and who are living in Manila, let me share with you some of the best places to find that one book you can't help but want:
For the latest and newest books :
1. Powerbooks Live! in Greenbelt 3 and in SM Megamall - you an be sure that there's always something new every week. Of course, that's great, only if you have the money to buy a brand new book every week.
2. Fully Booked in the Powerplant Mall and Gateway Mall - assortments and arrays of books on every conceivable topic in the universe could be found in these stores. But before purchasing anything, make sure you are familiar with the going price of the books you want, since there are instances when I discovered they could price stuff up to 20% higher than what the books wold cost in NBS.
3. National Bookstore in Shangri-la Plaza, SM Megamall and of course, their Main Branch in Cubao
For hard-to-find / previously owned / low-priced books:
1. National Bookstore (Cubao Main) -- a whole floor of previously owned books could be found at the top floor. The downside is that, they are shelved in absolutely no order save for general categorizations (i.e. fiction, cooking, classics), so it might take you one whole day to scour every nook and cranny. But the effort is usually worth it.
2. Booksale - they are everywhere. If you could, just visit as many as you can. Booksale is a hit and miss thing. it's either you're lucky or not. The secret is constant vigilance. :) The one in SM North used to be my haven when I was still a UP student. But now I frequent the SM Fairview& Robinson's Novaliches branch. The nice thing about dropping by once or twice a week is that you get to know the pattern of their new deliveries, and you get to be friendly with the sales people. They wouldn't mind reserving a book for you or placing a call to other branches to check if they have the book you want.
3. Antique Stores in the Marikina Shoe Expo, Cubao - Mariel showed me this place and I go there when I'm in the mood for old edition books. They have loads of books on romances, mysteries, even horror genres. But I am more appreciative of their vintage books: PG Wodehouse, Arthur Miller, Alfred Hitchcock & William Faulkner to name just a few. They also carry quite a good selection of fantasy books. Today for example, I saw a Le Guin book but I had to forego purchasing it since I'd be going way out of the budget. The plus side of going there is you also get to sift through the antiques. Other stores are also selling vintage pop items. Ultra electro magnetic Cool.
4. Goodwill bookstores - there's one in Megamall and another one in Glorietta. For some reason, Goodwill carries cheaper editions of popular books. Sometimes, the price difference could be as much as 5% less of what it actually costs in the other bookstores.
When you just want to borrow something:
1. UP Library - I am proud to say that most of my book cravings in college was satiated by the UP Library, especially the classics. I'm especially oddly proud of borrowing every available Rabindranath Tagore & Pablo Neruda books of poetry and (UP student as I am), photocopied it (prohibited as it is now) so I can have a private collection myself. I also did the same with Coelho's The Alchemist. We must have thousands of books there. I am actually thinking of activating my alumni pass so I can still visit it once in a while. And it's like, totally free.
2. Join a Book club - It doesn't have to be an official organization with badges and merits of honor or something. Could be just a set of friends with same interests in the books you read. I'm lucky to have found my orgmates in college. Some of the best books and authors I have read were recommended by them. Of course you would have to invest on books you believe you could share with them. But if you're going to buy stuff you like anyway and they would too, spread the goodness by swapping and lending it to each other for a month or so. Plus factor is, it's nice talking about the books you've all read and fighting over details and stuff like that. :)
Oh my god. Did I just go on for more than ten paragraphs about books? Well, I started on it, and since it's one of the things I passionately live for, I can't help but go on and on. I'm just so happy today, it feels like I've just eaten cotton candy while lying down on a grassy patch on a hill looking up at the cumulus clouds framed by an infinitely blue sky. :D
Song in Mind: Ipaglalaban Ko by whoever sang it... :)
I wish more Saturdays could be like this.
I don't have to worry about deadlines, or bosses flaring up, or the demands of other people I wouldn't really give a damn about if I wasn't working there at all.
I believe I created some mental space I could start somewhere from once again. For a while, my head's been so crowded with stuff which would be utterly useless if it ever came down to life and death.
I just watched a re-run of that Meg Ryan - Hugh Jackman movie - - Kate & Leopold - - and I guess something about Meg Ryan's character makes me sympathize with her. She hates Sundays because it's the day before Monday, simply put. It puts a downer on things. She dreads going to work --- ah, familiar story, bet a penny on it. My only prayer is that someday, I will find that one thing I was designed by God to do and I will do it well and I will do it happily. People say the ideal job is a myth, but me, I can keep on hoping. I was built that way.
Meanwhile, I do my work here willingly because I firmly believe it is a preparation of sorts for that great mission I was born to acomplish. Whatever it is. No matter how small or ignoble it is. It must mean something to God if he deigned to allow my existence in His Universe.
“Her work, I really think her work is finding what her work is and doing it; Her being human. Her being in the world.” -Ursula K. Le Guin
I CAPTURE THE BOOK!
O joy! I've been on some book-buying spree today and I must've spent a thousand bucks for the whole lot. It makes me feel a bit guilty and a bit selfish since the only way I could afford it is to ask my parents if I can keep the whole of my salary this fortnight. Not that they demand me to give a monthly due or anything. It's just a way of making ends meet around the house. But it looks like we can have a little extra this month and I get to keep all of my money. It's not much, but after years of halving it up, I feel like a millionaire. :)
Here's the list of books I bought today:
1. The Year's Best Fantasy - Second hand copy. I have to say I'm getting more into short stories and this book is chock full of them. Not bad that it's fantasy too.
2. Search of the Moon King's Daughter - Second hand copy. It looked very interesting. It's a piece on Victorian times England, about a girl from a poor family whose brother was sold as a chimney sweeper.
3. Yukon Ho! - Second hand copy. I think this just about completes my Calvin & Hobbes Comic Book Collection. Or nearly there.
4. Waifs & Strays - Spanking new. A Charles de Lint anthology with a beautiful cover and a way out there you gotta be kidding me that's too low for a de Lint book price. I think I may have ripped off Fully Booked for this one by not telling them they made a mistake in pricing the stuff.
and the best thing that has happened to one whole year of my book-hunting life:
5. I Capture the Castle - Second hand copy. JK Rowling was raving about it. Sarah Ban Breatnach, my favorite inspirational writer, also made mention of it in her book "Romancing the Ordinary." Two amazing women writers call it one of their staple reads when they were younger. So I just had to find it. I must've scoured all the Booksales I know. And then today, there it was, lying almost too casually on the top of the side table display at National Bookstore-Cubao (previously owned books section). I hyperventilated for a moment and something must've short-circuited somewhere in my head as well. My hands shook while I grabbed the copy as if there were seven other people after it. It totally can't be true. I still can't believe it. Cassandra Mortmain, I'm about to find out all about you now. :)
For the latest and newest books :
1. Powerbooks Live! in Greenbelt 3 and in SM Megamall - you an be sure that there's always something new every week. Of course, that's great, only if you have the money to buy a brand new book every week.
2. Fully Booked in the Powerplant Mall and Gateway Mall - assortments and arrays of books on every conceivable topic in the universe could be found in these stores. But before purchasing anything, make sure you are familiar with the going price of the books you want, since there are instances when I discovered they could price stuff up to 20% higher than what the books wold cost in NBS.
3. National Bookstore in Shangri-la Plaza, SM Megamall and of course, their Main Branch in Cubao
For hard-to-find / previously owned / low-priced books:
1. National Bookstore (Cubao Main) -- a whole floor of previously owned books could be found at the top floor. The downside is that, they are shelved in absolutely no order save for general categorizations (i.e. fiction, cooking, classics), so it might take you one whole day to scour every nook and cranny. But the effort is usually worth it.
2. Booksale - they are everywhere. If you could, just visit as many as you can. Booksale is a hit and miss thing. it's either you're lucky or not. The secret is constant vigilance. :) The one in SM North used to be my haven when I was still a UP student. But now I frequent the SM Fairview& Robinson's Novaliches branch. The nice thing about dropping by once or twice a week is that you get to know the pattern of their new deliveries, and you get to be friendly with the sales people. They wouldn't mind reserving a book for you or placing a call to other branches to check if they have the book you want.
3. Antique Stores in the Marikina Shoe Expo, Cubao - Mariel showed me this place and I go there when I'm in the mood for old edition books. They have loads of books on romances, mysteries, even horror genres. But I am more appreciative of their vintage books: PG Wodehouse, Arthur Miller, Alfred Hitchcock & William Faulkner to name just a few. They also carry quite a good selection of fantasy books. Today for example, I saw a Le Guin book but I had to forego purchasing it since I'd be going way out of the budget. The plus side of going there is you also get to sift through the antiques. Other stores are also selling vintage pop items. Ultra electro magnetic Cool.
4. Goodwill bookstores - there's one in Megamall and another one in Glorietta. For some reason, Goodwill carries cheaper editions of popular books. Sometimes, the price difference could be as much as 5% less of what it actually costs in the other bookstores.
When you just want to borrow something:
1. UP Library - I am proud to say that most of my book cravings in college was satiated by the UP Library, especially the classics. I'm especially oddly proud of borrowing every available Rabindranath Tagore & Pablo Neruda books of poetry and (UP student as I am), photocopied it (prohibited as it is now) so I can have a private collection myself. I also did the same with Coelho's The Alchemist. We must have thousands of books there. I am actually thinking of activating my alumni pass so I can still visit it once in a while. And it's like, totally free.
2. Join a Book club - It doesn't have to be an official organization with badges and merits of honor or something. Could be just a set of friends with same interests in the books you read. I'm lucky to have found my orgmates in college. Some of the best books and authors I have read were recommended by them. Of course you would have to invest on books you believe you could share with them. But if you're going to buy stuff you like anyway and they would too, spread the goodness by swapping and lending it to each other for a month or so. Plus factor is, it's nice talking about the books you've all read and fighting over details and stuff like that. :)
Oh my god. Did I just go on for more than ten paragraphs about books? Well, I started on it, and since it's one of the things I passionately live for, I can't help but go on and on. I'm just so happy today, it feels like I've just eaten cotton candy while lying down on a grassy patch on a hill looking up at the cumulus clouds framed by an infinitely blue sky. :D
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