In case you’re wondering why I haven’t posted in the past few days, it’s because I’m trapped in the holiday frenzy — Christmas shopping to complete, presents to wrap, parties to attend and the horrible city traffic. Plus the dawn masses have started and I wake up at 4am to go, so I’m running on very little energy at the moment. Hopefully normal blogging resumes after Christmas, but I’ll try and post more before then.
Anyway, I was supposed to be shopping for books on other people’s wishlists, but they’ve been elusive so far, and I’ve illicitly gone a-looting for myself (I promised not to buy any more books for myself until Christmas, but I’ve given up on that) because well, the holiday stress was getting to me and book shopping is therapeutic (and yes, I have no self-control)!
TUESDAY. I took a day off from work and, together with friends from Flips Flipping Pages, facilitated an alternative class for boys from Ateneo High School: Book Hunting! We organized a book scavenger hunt for the boys around various bookstores in the Cubao area, and it was a blast (more on that later!).
Anyway, after the boys had finished hunting, of course, the facilitators did their own hunting and here’s what I took home:
From Book Sale: The Great Mom Swap, one of my favorite 90s movies;
book light (only P65 — will review it soon!); the graphic novel Babymouse: Queen of the World.
Also loaded up on patterned scotch tapes (not in photo).
From Libreria: The Deception of the Emerald Ring, another book in the series by Lauren Willig;
and To Kill a Mockingbird, which I plan to read next year.
WEDNESDAY. Got a nice present from Scholastic, Linger (the sequel to Shiver), which I’m actually looking forward to reading. Oh, and little frosted cuppycakes too, but they did not make the picture because, hee hee, my officemates and I polished them off (mmm, good!) already.
That night before I went shopping for presents for my officemates (our Christmas party is tomorrow), I also found these:
A Jose Aruego book (will do a feature post on him soon, too), The Crocodile’s Tale,
and a Spanish Tintin and the Seven Crystal Balls, which means MORE BOOKMARKS!
THURSDAY. Today, I had to go on another last-minute shopping run.
I got these from Book Sale:
I got And Now You Can Go because it’s set in the Philippines;
and Cathy’s Key, a novelty book I’ve always wanted.
But my greatest finds this week came from National Book Store, from the P99 hardcover bargain bin. My cousin Dianne tipped me that the Harrison Plaza branch had a fresh stock of new P99 hardcovers, where she got a hardcover 2666 (will finish within the year, I swear) and a hardcover copy of The Angel’s Game for me. I couldn’t take the suspense so I purposely went to that mall tonight to check it out. And I’m so glad I did (*cold sweat*).
Voila (and it gets better and better):
Being Nikki, the sequel to Airhead (if only to find out
how Meg Cabot pulls off the lobotomy thing)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,
which my book club friends have been raving about
*deep breath*
first American edition of Stieg Larsson’s
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
and, drumroll please, one of my most awesome finds ever:
Art Spiegelman’s oversized book, Breakdowns: The Artist as a Young Man,
a collection of his early, long out-of-print work.
I’m worn out and it’s not even Christmas yet, but the books really help!
Squee! :D
Hi Blooey – do you know if all of the NBS branches have that P99 bin? =)
No, not all Ruby. I’ve been to Glorietta 5, Greenbelt 1 and MOA and they didn’t have bargain bins.
These are from Harrison Plaza, I saw a bargain bin in Cash and Carry also.
Blooey, did you notice if the bargain bin has multiple copies of Angel’s Game and 2666? Hahahaha susugod nako dun if ever. :)
No luck there, JM. Was looking for another copy of 2666 also for a friend of mine, but the one Dianne got appears to be the only copy out there. No spare of Angel’s Game either.
awww too bad they didn’t have a bargain bin in NBS Glorietta/Greenbelt. Checked St Luke’s Bestsellers and they have a bargain bin! Although nothing struck my fancy :(
Hopefully there’s one in Festival Mall =)
Thanks for the info =)
Ruby! I didn’t know you were going today, I should have brought your snitch!
They keep the bargain bins out of the “high end” malls. NBS Rockwell never has one and never will. I keep forgetting about St. Lukes Bestsellers, that’s so near me. But NBS Greenbelt 1 will replace the bin after Christmas.
Wonderful finds, Blooey! I was going to ask you to find me something in Libreria earlier but no worries :)
Oh, the Rockwell gets bargain bins during cut-price sale season :)
The Glorietta 5 branch does have a regular bargain area, but the ex-lib hardbacks aren’t the fresh stock.
What i sorely miss is the bargain bins in the old Glorietta 2 branch.
Hi! nice to meet you.
glad to stumble upon this site. I’m so happy to find a fellow Filipinol who blogs about books. One thing that draws me into it is that, I’m a bibliophile like you!!! :-)
I also love books. I don’t have a book blog, though.
However, buying books here is a bit of a challenge. Korea has limited books written in English.
I’ll be home for xmas time…so I’m so excited to shop for books that I could bring over.
what genre do you like to read most?:-)
I read a lot of YA, but I also like reading historical novels, mysteries, picture books, trivia books, classics, and general fiction
the NBS in shangrila has a 99 bin pile too. snagged a copy of Garth Nix’s Lady Friday and a copy of Jasper Fforde’s First Among Sequels! pigil pigil na yun ahha sigh if only there was a cheaper way to ship books here
Cool! How is that series of Garth Nix related to the Sabriel series? Am planning to finish reading Lirael and Abhorsen this year.
san lit nabili ung mighty brick light? ung book light? gusto ko nun??? i have now the really tiny book light so far ok pa naman.
@Ella, check out my latest post.
Wow! You found an Art Spiegelman book!
It’s actually the fifth one I’ve gotten off the bargain bin. I’ve gotten an ACME collection, a two Little Lit books and In the Shadow of No Towers in the past.