After checking in on our flight home from Hong Kong, I was bemoaning the fact that I was not — cue those gasps now! — able to buy any books on the trip. Nope, not one. Zilch. Our itinerary was packed, and I squeezed in some bookstores at the malls, but the selection of English titles wasn’t that extensive; I couldn’t find any books that weren’t outrageously expensive or were not available to me here in Manila (which makes me glad about how local bookstores have improved in terms of getting the new titles in over the years).
I also did a marathon trek (loaded down with a backpack and two canvas totebags, and streets were going uphill!) from IFC mall to the bargain bookstores in the Central area in two hours (because that’s all the time my siblings gave me — unaccompanied, too, and they left me to find my way to Causeway! Harr, It’s hard to go book hunting when you’re with people with different agendas!) and I spent about ten minutes in each store. Don’t worry, though, I documented everything, and I’ll write a separate post about my book trek later.
