Tag: national book store

Crazy over the cut-price sale!

The annual National Book Store Cut-Price sale is on!

I’ve been shopping at the NBS cut-price sale since I was in college, and I always manage to take home a great haul over the  three-week sale season. I’ve even developed a strategy for it over the years — I’ve learned to pace myself, because otherwise I’ll just go crazy (not to mention broke).

I spend the first week scoping out a couple of branches, and I usually don’t buy anything (unless it’s something I absolutely must have for my collection); I just check out the books on sale. And then I do my first round of shopping at the one branch, where I do the bulk of my cut-price purchases. Over the next few days, when I have the chance, I drop by the different branches, and see if there are one or two books I still want to buy. And then, at the tail end, I drop by another branch and scrounge for more books — sometimes the prices drop towards the end of the sale!

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Moleskine Shop opens at NBS Greenbelt 1

I’ve been lurking around National Book Store Greenbelt 1 for some time now, because it was under renovation for a few months. It’s one of my favorite branches — I ‘ve been going there since I was a kid — because it’s nearest my house, it’s not overcrowded, it has all the supplies I need (heavy gauge plastic cover, a large pen selection, an expanded art section), and it always has a corner for bargain books.

Tonight I finally found out what they were keeping under wraps: the Philippines’ flagship Moleskine Shop!

I’ve been a Moleskine user for years now (watercolor pad, cahiers, and recently, my Moleskine Passions book journal), and I must say, there’s no beating the quality of a moleskine, from the handcrafted leather, the acid-free paper, the sturdy back pocket, and the signature garter band and ribbon bookmark. It’s great that there’s a Moleskine Shop-in-Shop here now (there are several already across Asia) for Moleskine fans in the Philippines.

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American Book Fair at National Book Store

U.S. Embassy’s Commercial Counselor Patrick Wall, National Book Store general manager Socorro Ramos and U.S. Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Leslie A. Bassett check out the wide selection of American literature on display.

From May 1 to 8, selected branches of National Bookstore will hold an American Book Fair, mounted in partnership with the U.S. Embassy – Commercial Service to introduce new American titles to the local market.

“The book fair focuses on small and independent American publishers without local representation, that have never been exposed to the Philippine market,” states Xandra Ramos of National Book Store. “We are showcasing choice titles from 24 American publishers so they can try and test the market, and we plan to reorder the titles that do well at the fair.”

Over a hundred titles are showcased at the American Book Fair, including children’s books, health books,  work books, reference books, biographies and memoirs, religion and spirituality, world events, business books, and fiction. Among the titles to be found at the fair are:  Graphic Biography: Barack Obama (Saddleback Publishing); Democracy is a Good Thing (Brookings Institution Press); Balikbayan: A Filipino Homecoming (Bess Press); children’s book My Senses: Mis Sentidos (Me+Mi Publishing, Inc.), and the Essential Skills series (Teacher Created Resources).

National Book Store showcases the American Book Fair at eight branches, including  Trinoma, Glorietta 5, SM Mall of Asia, Superbranch-Cubao, Power Plant Mall, Quezon Avenue and Shangri-la Plaza Mall until May 8, 2010.

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photo and event details from National Book Store

Ilustrado

For the past few weeks, I’ve been raving about Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado” to anyone who will listen! Hahaha, I’ve even managed to convince a bunch of people to go out and get copies (Dianne and Mike and Mike’s uncle, haha —  I hope you like it as much I did!) because I couldn’t contain my excitement about it. Here’s my full length review (originally published in Manila Bulletin), and I hope it makes more people want to read it!

“When the author’s life of literature and exile reached its unscheduled terminus that anonymous February morning, he was close to completing the controversial book we’d all been waiting for.”

Thus begins Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado,” winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Award and the Palanca Award, recently launched in the Philippine edition by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (International release is due this week — I think I’ll get myself a trade paperback of the international edition). I was waiting to board a plane to Davao, and I relished the ominous beginning as I settled down at the airport lounge for the first few chapters of this highly anticipated read.

Filipino writer-in-exile Crispin Salvador’s corpse is found floating in the Hudson River, and his student, Miguel Syjuco (yes, the same name as the author), wants answers.  Miguel sets out to piece together Salvador’s life with fragments of his mentor’s body of work, personal history, interviews with friends and relatives, and other sources, telling his own life story along the way.

“Ilustrado” is not your typical Filipino novel, eschewing carabaos in the fields and sunlight the color of mangoes in favor of epistolary-style metafiction that uncannily mirrors Philippine culture, history and politics.

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Miguel Syjuco launches ‘Ilustrado’

I spent most of last week in Davao City, toting along my review copy of Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado, winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Award. It’s a metafictional novel that pieces together the life of Filipino writer-in-exile Crispin Salvador as his student, Miguel weaves together fragments of Salvador’s body of work, personal interviews, blog entries, newspaper clippings, and many other sources as he investigates his teacher’s mysterious death.

I spent most of my spare time engrossed in the novel — at the airport, on flights, and before hitting the sack at the hotel room  —  and I was looking forward to coming back to Manila to attend the press conference and launch at National Book Store.

The review will have to wait; I just finished the novel and I’m reviewing it for Manila Bulletin, so here’s a recap of the launch, the first release of Ilustrado anywhere in the world!

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