proud of myself
I am happy to have made it to the last day of the Manila International Book Fair. I was not able to go with the Ex Libris Philippines people yesterday because I had to stay home and rest (because of that terrible, blinding, knifing pain once a month that proves I’m female, after all). So even if I’m not yet fully recovered, I dragged my mother to the venue this morning.
Only last Friday did I know that Fully Booked/Bibliarch won’t have a stall in the book fair. I felt a bit bad because last year, most of my purchases were from them. By the way, I got to ask it because I finally set foot in THE Fully Booked in Bonifacio High Street. I was still reeling from a delicious dinner (peppered with lots of laughter) from Kape Isla at Serendra when Ms. C suggested to swing by Fully Booked since we’re there already. I was getting goosebumps as the well-lit five-story edifice neared me. A bit exaggerated but it didn’t make it untrue, eh? So I went inside, reeling once more, despite thinking of my companions who may not be are not as nuts about books as yours truly. They were pretty tolerant, by the way. I restrained myself from buying at first because of the book fair. It was a struggle between thinking of that and not breaking my time-tested tradition of buying anything from a bookshop on my first visit. Except for Endymion Spring, everything I plan on buying in the next few months were all there, even the hard to find The Ministry of Pain. In the end, I bought Gorky Park, the first of the Arkady Renko novels penned by Martin Cruz Smith. Then when I thought we’re going, PA decided to wait for her boyfriend so they indulged me yet again for about 30 minutes so I went back inside, sat on the floor and read about a third of Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.
Today, I am proud of myself for holding out and sticking to my book fair list (which is simply on a Post-it note, stuck to my planner). Three books were not on the list but they were in my Amazon wishlist anyway so they still qualify as “not whimsically bought”. I still cannot fully describe my book preferences and I’m not even gonna try. I just need to plan my pathetic life, day after day, so I can find time to read them, one by one.
Beyond a tap on my shoulder for not further ruining my financial mortality, I think my interest on Russia, anything Russia, is going strong. For this whole month of September, I plan on reading everything I accumulated about it, nonfiction and otherwise. So it’s going to be my Russia month. Then in October, I will go back to my collection of non-fiction/general world affairs books that are gathering dust in my shelf. This could condition me as the second semester starts.
From afar, I appear that I do not have a life. But I do. I believe I do. I am wading on socials that border on fashionable gossiping and unintelligent intercourses, which I only realize as I get home, where I derive mundane, worldy pleasure from, in fairness; but in the overall, leave me empty and more sinful than I already am. =) If only for that, as they are sometimes unavoidable, I try to strike a balance.
At this time though, I’m just proud of myself for my book purchases. Here’s to scrimping and actually missing being able to eat in the next few weeks! Hahaha!!!
P.S. An updated list of my books can be found here. Unfortunately, I rarely lend them. Hahaha!!! Well, I do, if you’re my friend who I know really reads, and most especially if you are as conscious and as loving with the integrity of book spines, book edges, and the actual pages (dog-eared ones make me cringe) as me.
Pathetic and selfish, but nonetheless true.