Sunday, August 19, 2012

Death by Book Binging


It was the day after the great flood. I was on my way home when the strap of my new bag broke off. That usually happens. I buy too many books that my bag just gives up and dies. 

National Book Store had their Cut Price sale recently and it was a very trying time for me. I tried to be rational and thought of the piles of unread books in my room. It didn't work. I tried to think of my unpaid credit card bill. It didn't work. Nothing seemed to work so I just went on buying. 

National Book Store SM Fairview
When I saw Rushdie, Roth and Dostoyevsky in the 50% off section, I felt my pupils dilate. I reminded myself that National Book Store is not BOOKSALE. Even though they were on sale, most of their books were still quite pricey. I whittled the 10 books I liked to eight. My best buy for the day was a Vintage Lust set (The Rachel Papers by Martin Amis + The History of Tom Jones by Henry Fielding) which I got for only P202.50 (originally priced at P405). Mission accomplished; now I can die happy.

National Book Store Robinsons Movieworld Novaliches
Although their store is quite small compared to other branches, the titles they had on sale were right up my alley. I was able to buy Nick Hornby's High Fidelity for P75. I like H.G. Wells so I grabbed The Time Machine and The War of the Worlds collection (P59.50). My best buy was Jessica Zafra's Twisted Travels. It was originally priced at P250; got it for P25.  

All in all, I spent 3k worth of books. Now I'm dreading the mailman's arrival. My credit card bill might give me a heart attack.

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Seems like you had some nice steals there. :))

Visual Velocity said...

Will: Very nice ones indeed, hehe. Now my problem is paying my credit card bill. :D

Kevin said...

Booksale is still the king of my list! I've seen The Rachel Papers for Php75. I know, it takes years of kneeling and head-tilting around bookshelves to find one (which adds to the joy of finding and buying an Amis on a secondhand bookshop).

Fully Booked is good with discounts, too. I bought Night Train, (which, coincidentally, is what I'm currently reading) for Php75!

Spending 3k on books--you should give me a list of books you want and let's see if I could find you one!

Visual Velocity said...

Kevin: You got Rachel Papers for 75 bucks? Wow. I've been trying to find a copy since forever, so when I saw one in National, I grabbed it na.

I'm a frequent stalker of Booksale too. Was able to find a copy of Crash by J.G. Ballard (finally!). Also got Yasmina Reza's God of Carnage. I'm so excited to read these books, but I'm still stuck with John Fowles' The Magus. It's thick and I find it very pretentious, so I'm struggling a bit.

What branches of Booksale do you frequent?

Kevin said...

Hahaha I also got The Magus, and it's really thick I decided not to read it.

Yes, there's an overwhelming influx of J.G Ballard books at Booksale recently, for some reason.

You might think I'm joking, but I bought my (PHP100) Ned Vizzini together with the Night Train (Amis) at Fully Booked. The very same day they did this 80% off at MOA!

I'll try to find you a Vizzini. I frequent SM Marilao, Alphaland Southgate, SM Shaw, SM Ortigas, Walter Mart Munoz and Walter Mart Plaridel. You should visit Harrison Plaza's Booksale--it's heaven (!!!). SM Manila, too! SM Shaw and--I've been told, SM Muntinlupa--have a lot of quality books and magazines, for some reason (literacy rate? jk).

Also, check out Bookay-ukay and this bookstore at Cubao Expo. Quite pricey but they have all the Nietzsche and the Sartre.

Visual Velocity said...

Kevin: You got your Ned Vizzini book for 100 bucks? And you got it from Fully Booked? I'm green with envy!

Thanks for the heads-up re: Booksale. I haven't visited most of the branches you mentioned. I work in Eastwood, so the one I get to visit most is their MegaMall Ortigas branch.

Do you have an account at LibraryThing.com or any other online book sites?

Kevin said...

I don't have an account, I tried doing one at this other Librarything website but I forgot my password. Anyway, fingers crossed for the Vizzini

Raft3r said...

whoa
hornby at zafra
pareho kong paborito
sayang
bought their books at full price
syet
hehe

Visual Velocity said...

Denoy Eusebio: Cool yung nabili kong Zafra. :D

Teacher Pogi said...

whooooa! pass on some books that you finished reading! pahiram!

Visual Velocity said...

Overthinker Palaboy: Sige, pero may membership fee. At may overdue charge rin. Joke lang. :D

Anong genre ng books gusto mo?

Teacher Pogi said...

mala-allende at garcia-marquez. tipong magical realism. magpapahiram ka nga? haha XD

Visual Velocity said...

Overthinker Palaboy: Ay, wala akong Allende at Marquez, madalang sa Booksale yung mga yun, haha. Meron akong listahan ng mga doble kong libro; pili ka dun. May Gmail account ka ba? E-mail ko sa yo yung listahan.

Teacher Pogi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Visual Velocity said...

Overthinker Palaboy: Na-Email ko na sa yo yung listahan. Nakuha mo? :D

Teacher Pogi said...

yess ser. kakacheck ko lang. The shipping news lang ang nabasa ko sa list mo. haha XD

Visual Velocity said...

Overthinker Palaboy: Buti ka pa, ako hindi ko pa nababasa yung kopya ko ng Shipping News, haha. Busy-busyhan sa work masyado. :D

Teacher Pogi said...

naku ser, nabasa ko siya mga 2004 pa yata yun. basta noon pang college ako na nagkanda lokoloko sa pagbabasa ng mga libro. e nanalo siya ng pulitzer yata yun kaya naengganyo ko kunin at bilhin.