What are you reading? 4
Spent an hour prowling the shelves at National Bookstore. There’s a sale on, with discounts of at least 20 percent. A whole bunch of hardcover titles is on sale at 75 percent off—new books, not used library books. I found Mario Vargas Llosa’s The Bad Girl, original price P1199, for P299, and The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander for P262. Warren Ellis’s first novel, Crooked Little Vein, and Away by Amy Bloom were going for less than P299.
If you like historical swashbucklers, you get your money’s worth with Arturo Perez – Reverte’s Alatriste series. The Sun Over Breda in hardcover was marked down to P299. The novels are set in the 1620s as Spain tries to keep its empire together amid wars and the Spanish Inquisition; the hero Captain Alatriste is a dashing swordsman for hire. He has all sorts of opportunities to seize power and wealth, but is too proud and noble to take advantage of them. There’s a very enjoyable film based on the series and starring the spectacular Viggo Mortensen, who has that Errol Flynn thing going. The film is in Spanish—Viggo is fluent in the language, having spent part of his childhood in Argentina. The more beat-up he gets, the better he looks dammit.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
March 23rd, 2008 at 16:12
Yeah, I never really liked clean Viggo. Dirt looks so good on him.
I bought “The Hours” for P70 a couple of hours ago from Booksale because I had the urge to read it after I finally finished “Mrs Dalloway.” The huge National branch was only two minutes away, but I didn’t even think of going inside. Damn.
March 24th, 2008 at 03:27
Word! Slickdeals.
I wonder if Viggo’s post-LOTR talent fee had something to do with making Alatriste the most expensive Spanish-language film ever made in Spain (US$30M). Or did it cost a lot to make him look dirty and beat-up? Tsk tsk.
March 24th, 2008 at 06:58
If National Bookstore goes on sale, they’re really on sale! In Powerbooks, you’d still have second thoughts of buying the sale items, coz it’s pretty much expensive still. Like, where’s the sale?
March 24th, 2008 at 09:37
I’ve been buying books, ever since the sale started almost a month ago, almost every three days at NBS Cash and Carry, after having lunch. Last week I bought The Tropic of Capricorn by Henry Miller (from P900+, marked down to P400), and The Once and Future King by T.H. White (from P600 to P300). Been trying to rummage through the shelves everyday, I might miss some good books, up until the sale lasts, which I think is by the end of this month.
March 24th, 2008 at 10:49
F.X. Toole’s Pound for Pound at 175 pesos. Also from NBS. I heard he never finished this novel and so it was put together by editors from a manuscript he left behind when he died. So far so good. I havent read Rope Burns although I did see Million Dollar Baby so I thought I’d give this one a shot. So far so good. I havent read a story with boxing in it since ‘A Twenties Memory’.
March 24th, 2008 at 16:17
I just finished Eric Puchner’s story collection “Music Through the Floor.” It blew me away like no other collection by a young writer has in years. Reminds me of A.M. Homes, but wiser.
March 24th, 2008 at 16:37
I got Belle De Jour: Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl at NBS for less than 150, I think.
Went to booksale and got a Charlie Brown comic book and Lord of the Flies for 15 bucks each. Also got Politically Correct Bedtime Stories by James Finn Garner which was a big guffaw!
March 24th, 2008 at 20:49
My sister just bought another copy of The Phantom Tollbooth from Booksale for P25. She gives them away to friends.
March 25th, 2008 at 23:05
Bought a Henry James book from NBS last week at 43.00 from the original price 249.00. From Booksale are One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at 15.00 and the 3rd and 4th books of Asimov’s Foundation series at 45.00 each. :-)