Wazzup Pilipinas!
Many were saying that the Big Bad Wolf Book Sale held at World Trade Center did not disappoint. Almost all Children’s Books were under PhP200. The 24/7 bookstore with as high as 80% markdown is a must-go for everyone especially parents and teachers. “Bring a maleta” is not an exaggeration because there's too many choices available. It’s until February 25 so don't miss it.
The organizers held a preview for media and selected guests (plus gave away extra passes for friends) on the day after Valentine's, February 15, before it opened its doors to the public the following day.
You have around 2 million titles to choose from with various genres, and at amazingly low prices (and I am not paid to advertise). Hurry up, since stocks for your favorite books might be running low already.
Books and stuff start at php100 and ranges from that price point up to 1000php++ for premium titles. Well, they are open 24hrs so you literally have all the time to scan, sort, and find what you want.
All the books your heart desires. This in an opportunity to score your dreams books for cheap. A Lady Gaga photobook is sold at PHP580, that's 95% off!
However, I am exaggerating when I say all because the graphic novels that I were looking for were not there. I was looking more on superhero hardbound books with amazing illustrations. I guess what they have there are not the limited and rare editions.
But what is more going on inside my head is to demand that it is about time they lower the price of books to make them really affordable by even the masses. We need to give the people more access to quality books that are not available online to further educate them.
Speaking of online, I understand why some people love books but for those of us who live and breathe online (being active in blogging and social media), I would rather read the digital versions not just to save the trees but also to pack light. Books just add unnecessary excess weight in the backpack when I travel. For us who like to read while on the road, the physical books just aren't practical to bring.
I could store thousands of digital books on my smartphone and even share them to friends. Though I also understand about copyright laws and stuff, but just as how we can give away physical books to our friends or loved ones, we can do the same with the digital books we legally purchased.
Flipping the pages of physical books do have its own magical experience, but we have to be practical that they just don't really lasts and eventually rots and adds to the heaps of garbage. But to compensate, at least they do survive our lifetime and even longer if we take good care of them.
However, just as how some people buy comics to collect and then put inside vacuum-sealed plastics, there are also some who buy books just to display them on their shelves....or hand-carry to show-off to other people that they are smart enough to understand the complex one, or could well afford to buy the expensive ones.
Passing physical books from person to person is also unsanitary because all that unseen miscroscopic dirt accummulates in the books. Yup! I'm a bit conscious about hygiene now eventhough I am brave enough to handle dirty chores when I was younger. Ever since I got a terrible case of chicken pox, I try to stay away from dirt as much as possible.
I've received quite a few books that I have barely read because I just couldn't find the time to even finish a chapter. There will always be something more urgent or important that I need to attend to.
But I'm sure when I retire I'll be able to appreciate books more just as how I did when I was younger.
I cannot deny that I was a bookworm myself when I was still schooling. Now I am trying to bring back that excitement in reading, but fails miserably.
My father once bought a lot of second-hand foreign books from a garage sale which introduced me to the likes of Rudyard Kipling and other famous authors back then. It was also my first reads for illustrated or graphic books like Dr. Who which started my love for such illustrated sci-fi titles which eventually got diverted to comic books from Marvel and DC. I was going through book sales, book stores and other places that sells magazines featuring science fiction, adventure, mystery, horror, etc., In college I collected X-Men, Justice League, Spiderman, Batman, and Superman titles which expanded to Image's Spawn and other similar genres.
I lost all of my childhood collection because of the Ondoy flood which struck our home almost waist-deep. Sad that the memories are gone now but it did taught us a lesson to always store our precious stuff at higher drawers.
Maybe that somehow caused why I don't like investing on books anymore. Disasters like floods, fire, etc., could easily destroy them. Or maybe it is also because I have a family now, I would prioritize the basic necessities instead of going to a bookstore to find something to read. It is also faster to get information online and even coming from different sources giving me a broader perspective of a topic.
But again, it would all be probably different if books are sold cheap. Thus, we appreciate the 10-day book sale by Big Bad Wolf. The cheaper prices and 24-hour strategy gives us no reason not to drop by.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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