inklingfair The stock-taking today ended three hours earlier than I thought it would, so on a whim I hopped on a jeep to Cubao to… I wasn’t sure where, exactly, but I found myself methodically visiting my old book and record haunts.
First was Cubao Expo (if it still is called that) – Remy’s and its neighbor bookstore. There were the usual Perry Como and Beatles records and even a surprising Boomtown Rats appearance. No U2, of course. I will forever regret leaving that behind in Coron.
Then the Book Sale on the way to Gateway where I chipped the glass front door more than a decade ago – the damage’s still there, but Twilight and Divergent books have since replaced The Lord of The Rings and even *gasp* Stephen King in the “bestsellers” section.
I had a moment of confusion when I got to Gateway’s Fully Booked floor before I realized that it had moved to a smaller location, replaced by Uniqlo. I saw nothing I liked there, so I went down to the next building – National Bookstore. Unfortunately my favorite top floor surplus books section was closed – permanently? I didn’t dare ask – so I stayed on the second floor, browsing graphic novels and three aisles of Filipino contemporary literature (sooo many romance and/or sexy vampire novels). I got a Lampara alamat book for Amy and was sorely tempted to try reading Lucifer (from the character in Gaiman’s Sandman stories).
It was raining as I took the train to New Manila, and I felt transported (ha-ha) back to that time when on weekends I traipsed around alone, sometimes going as far as Pioneer or Makati Cinema Square to hunt for out-of-print books, classic Turner DVDs and old rock records. I was always broke and hungry if I found something I liked – because after a long grueling hunting-day (and rainy days were always my favorite), I’d rather curl up with a new old book and a hot cup of instant noodles than get a decent meal.
Now there’s Spotify and Kindle, I miss the thrill and surprise of finding something unexpected thumbing through dusty stacks of some stranger’s attic throwaways. But I made a search and neither Bill Flanagan’s U2 At The End of the World or Errol Trzebinski’s Silence Will Speak are on Kindle or Google Play (ATEOTW is on Amazon, second-hand). And they aren’t in National Bookstore’s inventory. So there’s still a lot to look forward to discovering, one day.
Photo by Rico Zamudio on Unsplash
