Bibliophibian Loot Alert
It’s the time of year when stores, radio stations, and your neighbors start playing Xmas carols (“Ber na, so let’s deck the halls and ride those one-horse open sleighs with Frosty the Snowman down Edsa in the searing heat!”), and for bibliophibians in the Philippines it’s time to get elbow-deep in books. Bring out your biggest biodegradable shopping bags and fill them up at National Bookstore’s annual Cut-Price Book Sale
In the bins at the Glorietta 5 branch, from the bottom: Flashman on the March by George MacDonald Fraser, hardcover, P20; Downtown, My Manhattan by Pete Hamill, hardcover, P20; The Oxford World Classics editions of Alexandre Dumas’s The Vicomte de Bragelonne and Louise de la Valliere, softcover, P79.25 each.
The 20-peso hardcover books are those library volumes with adhesive plastic covers. Take off the plastic and they’re practically new. I’m particularly pleased with the Flashman, the twelfth in the series of rollicking adventures starring the scandalous Victorian arch-cad and reluctant hero, Sir Harry Flashman.
These two volumes are the prequels to The Count of Monte Cristo The Man in the Iron Mask. Not only do we love a good swashbuckler (Scaramouche, Alatriste, Captain Blood, The Three Musketeers), but Alexandre Dumas has some influence on Philippine history and literature.
Huh? Simple, my lips-moving-while-reading friend. Dumas’s The Count of Monte Cristo was a model for Jose Rizal’s El Filibusterismo (A man unjustly condemned, a rich mysterious stranger, Rrrrevenge!).
Beginning this Saturday at midnight, National Bookstore brings you a series of weekly contests on this blog. We’re giving away Books Books Books—new ones, with that fresh ink on paper smell!—and all you have to do is submit your answers to the weekly challenge.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
September 1st, 2009 at 00:26
Yehey! Yehey! Yehey!
September 1st, 2009 at 00:33
I bought Thomas Hardy’s The Return Of The Native Oxford World Classic edition at 150 pesos months ago. It was my first Hardy, I loved it. All Oxford chuva were on sale for 150 pesos then, but yours are cheaper. Must. Go. To. National. Book. Store. Immediately.
September 2nd, 2009 at 07:44
I also have both copies of the Dumas books. But the Vicomte de Bragelonne and Louise de la Valliere (along with Twenty Years Later), are prequels of the Man in the Iron Mask (not the Count of Monte Cristo), and sequels of The Three Musketeers. And yeah, the Oxford World Classics editions are the way to go, as they have very useful notes (hope I can find an Oxford edition of The Three Musketeers and Man in the Iron Mask).
September 2nd, 2009 at 14:46
Hi. I’m one of those regular readers here who took up your crash-course plan/movement on “method” reading. I can barely finish 1 300-page John-Steinbeck kind of book a week. So how can you possibly read these enviably many novels (along with your pending backlogs) at a short period of time? Do you finish all of them?Do you do speed-reading, which Woody Allen said led him to nothing but understand War and Peace as just some book about Russia? Or is all this reading only for the High-IQ elite few like you? Apparently, if one finishes a book a week, one couldn’t possibly read more than 2000 350-page books without speed reading, before one becomes senile. I tried NO-TV, eliminating unwanted friends, practically having no social life and really reading-for-pleasure for at least 5 hours a day. I still can’t seem to pull it off, even after I tried your tips in Twisted 8 on reading fast.
Also, my friends noticed some weird behaviour change after all this reading. They said I’m beginning to appear crazy. Like crazy crazy. I can’t see a doctor as that would just make me even more uneasy. Do you know anybody who got clinically crazy by just reading so many books, disregarding other factors? If you wish to aspire to even more successful world domination and Cory-based culture revolution, we hobbits would really appreciate if you do a post (again) here on (sane) reading like you.