Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
I like giving books as gifts, especially when I’m familiar enough with the person to know what kind of books they like, but I’m way behind on this year’s Christmas shopping so I’ll have to shop double time in the next two weeks.
If like me, you have some books to check off the Christmas list, here are some places worth checking out:
Last week I talked about how much I was looking forward to the National Book Store Christmas Book Bazaar and by the time Nov. 19th rolled around, I was all stoked to go book hunting. But alas, I got caught in traffic coming from the other side of the metro, got caught in more traffic on the way to the book bazaar, and by the time I got there, it was 45 minutes ’til closing time and I must say, I do not shop well under pressure!
So I had to go back. Saturday was out of the question, as my day was packed with the Lumina Pandit Tour (yes, I know, I owe you that post — I’m wading through hundreds of photos!) and the End of the Affair discussion, so on Sunday, after my morning visit to Iya’s place to check out her advent calendars (have you seen them? get one at Tie Me Up Buttercup before December 1!), she dropped me off at the book bazaar and I happily dug in!
My cousin Dianne and I love bargain book hunting; the cheaper, the better. Our favorite haunt is Book Sale, a bargain book store chain with lots of branches across the metro and even in the provincial malls. No week goes by without at least one visit to a Book Sale branch (or else we suffer from withdrawal symptoms), so we pretty much have our own system of trawling through the wonderful jumble of books for bargain treasures.
We were gabbing on the phone last Friday when we got the crazy idea of hopping through various Book Sale outlets across the MRT-EDSA line to go bargain book hunting. We set a generous budget of P500, roped Flipper friend Marie into joining us, and set off on Saturday morning for our book hunt.
Three days to go until the Manila International Book Fair! A lot of people have been asking me for tips about the Manila International Book Fair, so I decided to create this (unofficial) guide based on what I’ve seen over recent years.
I’ve been attending the MIBF for five years running now, covering events, shopping, and just generally enjoying the flurry of bookish activity around me. And every year, the exhibitors offer something new, and there is always a different lineup of special events to look forward to.
Continue reading “A rough guide to the Manila International Book Fair”
This is actually a piece of fluff masquerading as a novel, like I suspected that I never bought it til there were stacks of them on sale at National over the weekend. And for good reason too, now that I think about it. I mean, what kind of book gets marked down to 50 bucks? (Hehe, they marked down citizen girl to P30! I knew it! I knew it was a rotten read. But at least that one had a story, albeit also not a very good one.)
Sigh. There are so many chick lit titles around, but there are good ones, and there are abysmal ones. On that scale, this is almost negligible.
***
My copy: I had it mooched as fast as I could, haha, a mass market paperback from the NBS bargain bin.
My rating: 1/5 stars
