booksale

another major reason why i love davao is because of the ukay-ukay bookstores everywhere. from these three stores, i have been able to:

buy at least five roald dahl books from 20 to 45 bucks (roald dahl is simply one of the best children's writers ever! do get a copy of the wonderful story of henry sugar and six other stories. not available in ukay-ukay stores but very much worth purchasing on regular price);

gather three of the seven narnia books for 35 bucks each (i still havent completed the collection thus have not read the series. bummer.);

recover my judy blume teen and pre-teen collection from 20 to 45 bucks (my books got flooded while i was in calapan serving as a jesuit volunteer);

buy at least three stephen king, michael crichton and john grisham titles from 75 to 125 bucks (they cost around 350 in national bookstore);

find hard to find books like "fried green tomatoes at the whistle top cafe" (i saw the movie first. i hardly remember how it went but i knew i liked the movie at 14. the book was absolutely fantastic), "the great gatsby" for 35 bucks (at that time it was hard to find, now national has it again), "what's eating gilbert grape?" (anyone have the movie? i want to see this! this was a time leo de caprio was less of a pretty boy and more of an actor), "big trouble" by dave barry for 20 bucks and seinfeld's sein language for ten!

but the national bookstore sale has also started and i'm going nuts with the fact that i don't have much money to splurge. aaargh! though it's still more expensive than the ukay-ukay stores, i still plan to get a lot of titles either to give as gifts to my pamangkins for christmas or to add to my collection. national has newer titles which you won't be seeing in thrift book shops for another five years at least. sigh.

yesterday was absolutely frustrating, having so little cash (which was not mine). but there were some good finds that i had to buy or else it might go away soon.

i ended up buying:
the best fantasy stories of 2004 for 50 bucks. already worth more than that with a neil gaiman (hail ye to the modern literary god!) story included and a roald dahl story for 75 bucks ("the pelly, giraffe and me" ba yun? i forget the title. basta it's about window washing.).

i plan to get for sure:

harry potter and the half-blood prince by jk rowling

enid blyton's mr. pink-whistle series (i finally prove that he was not a figment of my imagination! haven't met anyone who knows him which is sad because he was one of my favorite childhood companions. huhuhu! but he exists. yey! still torn though whether i should give this to pamangkin number 3 or keep it for myself)
the zahir by paulo coelho

otherwise known as sheila the great by judy blume (for nonay. but i'd rather find a "starry sally j. freedman as herself because that's my absolute tween's story of judy. naks, close!)

am still poring over toni's suggestions based on interest and budget. they all sound interesting so it's a bit tough. there isn't any copy of the christomenci series by dianna wynn jones which was a suggestion of bunny. so we will see what fantasy stuff i can get other than the short stories.

might get "eragon" since it will be a movie next year. and i've been eying that for quite a while already. but it has a sequel. and i'm trying to avoid series stories especially since i haven't completed the bartimaeus trilogy by jonathan stroud because book three is still in hardbound.

sigh. this is the only wrong thing about being raised by your parents to love books. you feel so pobre after. sigh.