Fables and more

Saturday was the Flips Flipping Pages Book Discussion on Bill Willingham’s Fables: Legends in Exile, led by our youngest-ever moderator, 13-year old Paolo.

I read my Fables deluxe edition back in March (I had it signed by James Jean in December) and I enjoyed it a lot, so I was looking forward to discussing it with the Flippers.

Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street generously agreed to host our book discussion on their anniversary weekend at their events area, Top Shelf. We had the place to ourselves and I happened to have a stash of tomato sauce at home (courtesy of my brother) so I brought a tray loaded with spaghetti, Dianne baked her yummy cookies, and Paolo and family brought chips, drinks, doughnuts, lollipops, and jellybeans — it was like a party!

We discussed our favorite characters and moments from the graphic novel. Bigby was the runaway winner — we could’ve started a fan club then and there! As a lot of us read Fables for the first time for the discussion, we also enjoyed speculating on the events leading up to the great banishment from the Homelands; and what happens to the characters in succeeding books (thanks to the Fables fans who were more or less able to keep themselves from blurting out the spoilers).

But the story doesn’t end there. The next day, I was back at Fully Booked bright and early because it was the first day of their anniversary sale and I wanted first dibs (hehehe). I was there before opening, peering forlornly at a hardcover set of the Millennium trilogy through the window (hahaha) while waiting for some other Flippers: Maydayeve (on her last stop before heading back to Cebu), Welski, and Marie.

Inset: A moment with Maydayeve, while waiting for the rest (see, still sunny!)

We were busy browsing through the 80% off sale when I heard a strange staccato patter coming from above, I looked up and saw nothing, but when I peered out the window, I found out what the noise was — rain! It was so sunny out minutes before, I was quite shocked to see all that rain.

After a while, I couldn’t find anything I wanted in the bargain area and I was feeling depressed  because I got a ton of stuff at last year’s sale, so I decided to just take advantage of the 20% off on the regular items,.

First, I got the copy of Pacific Rims Flipper friend Mike requested (it was out of stock in the other bookstore on sale, we checked the night before — I find it weird that it’s out of stock in all branches of that bookstore during their sale season. Maybe because they don’t want to include it in the sale?) lest I space out and forget about it.

Then I got the next two books of the Millennium trilogy (I just finished Dragon Tattoo — review up soon) in the UK mass market paperback. I hemmed and hawed over the hardcovers but I wasn’t sold enough on the series. Compelled enough to buy the next two books (even in trade paperback; unfortunately they were out of stock already!) but not fanatic enough to get the hardcovers. The choice was between the US and the UK mass market paperbacks, and the US ones had better covers but the UK ones looked like they had better paper (less gray), layout, and binding so I added those to the cart.

A little more deliberation and I got two more books — Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog, which I’ve heard a lot of good things about, and Rick Riordan’s The Red Pyramid, because I like Egyptian mythology more than Greek mythology. By then Welski had joined us with her cousin and we rang up our packages (ran into my thesis adviser in line too! Nice seeing you, Sir B!) because Maydayeve had a flight to catch.

Marie had caught up with us for lunch, but it was still raining hard outside and we had soup and sandwiches two doors down while waiting for the rain to stop. No luck there, so we ended up returning to the bookstore, as Marie had to return for the books she reserved.

My mom called to tell me not to go home yet because there was flood on our street, so we were technically stranded and I couldn’t just stand there and stare, so against my will (no, not really), I had another go at the bargain area. They had refreshed the stock (!) and an hour or so later I emerged with three more books: The Mental Floss Cocktail Party Cheat Sheets (another trivia book! yay!); The Lacemaker and the Princess, a historical novel by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley; and a lovely copy of The Castle Corona by Sharon Creech — all at 80% off! We also ran into Flipper friend (and Bookmarked! reader) Iya, and writer friend Ron.

We ended up going home at nearly 4 pm; Marie and I had a quick pit stop at New Bombay because we were famished, so I got home right before dark, and had to wade through a patch of ankle-deep flood (ew). So that’s six hours of shopping, seven books (eight if you count Mike’s Pacific Rims), and’over P2000 saved on book purchases (never mind how much I shelled out, haha).

If I had to do it over, I would —  if I had a chance to choose where to get stranded, a book store on sale will always be at the top of the list!

I’ll have to scrimp and save until the Manila International Book Fair, but it was very much worth it!

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FFP group photo courtesy of Rhett de Jesus

[amazonify]::omakase::300:250[/amazonify]