So many questions...

It rained real hard today, brought out the brown waters and the rainy gear. Felt like a downpour in ordinary time, the much-delayed rainy season trying to assert its reign, none too succesfully it seems. The rains stopped sometime during my return trip from the flooded Aurora Blvd-Araneta Ave junction in Sta Mesa to the drizzling quiet of the QC Central Post Office.  Yap, I mailed out the 23 books, to the Netherlands, the US, Canada and Ireland, and of course to my fellow bookmoochers in the metropolis.

It rained on my day, despite what was supposed to be quite a special get-together.  Sometimes you just never figure out why two people who are so into each other just can't let each other be, just be, not to have to try so hard to be anybody. To just be and be accepted as is.

And then there is the question on how hard it is to do a good job... or is that because the standards differ and the commitment to excellence even more variable.

On to the question of choices, happiness or righteousness.  single blissfulness or two-getherness with friction and combustion.  Compromise or independence... 

So many questions today... the answers are not as many, and even harder to accept.

Mooching for books, a treasure and a pleasure

Today I took another trip to indulge the book addiction and retrieved 11 packages from the Central Post Office in Quezon City, from the USA, Lithuania, New Zealand and Singapore.

Thanks to my weekly visits to retrieve packages, the kind lady who releases packages just let me take them home without the required opening to check on the contents. Well, my face is already a regular fixture for them so no hassle.

On the way to work, I proceeded to open each one, slowly so as not ruin any portion of the precious contents. The first one was from Lithuania, two slim tomes wrapped in plastic, both old books written by H.G. Wells. Mooched these from Dovile, a fellow booklover.

Then I opened the one from Singapore, a book about Atlantis, from George. The next one was an old paperback on Stonehenge from Michele in Texas. There was even a beautifully packed coffeetable book on Ancient American Treasures from Glenda in California.

All in all, a total of 16 books received through the Bookmooch network. I read about it from an article in the Manila Bulletin in March, more than four months ago. The concept was interesting: for those with books sitting on the shelves, here was a chance to find a new home for them. The concept appealed to me because although parting with any book is excruciating, the idea of giving the book to someone who wanted it and would take care of it allowed me to consider giving my books away. Especially since there was the prospect of receiving books in return.

So I signed up, ready to send out my books. First had to choose what to give away, believe me, that was not easy. Then listed it in the inventory, receiving 1/10th of a point. With each book I was adding, I was building up points. Enough to use to request for the books I had seen in the inventories of other Bookmooch members.

The point system gives you more points for sending internationally, and also takes away more points for mooching books from abroad. The main expense to a moocher is the cost of sending the book to the requesting party, and with postage also comes packaging. Then again, depending on how much of an obsessive-compulsive bookworm you are, the packaging pretty much varies.

The first book I received was Me & Mr Darcy, from Aspa in Greece, in less than a month since I signed up and mooched a book. The first book I sent out was to Nina in the United Kingdom, a book about getting hitched. She got this 18 days after she requested the book from me, quite fast as I sent it Priority Mail, not knowing there were less costly options for sending out the books.

Four months after, I have received 71 books, and am awaiting 72 more. On the giving side, I have sent out 83 books which have found their way to their new owners, with 48 books still in transit. My pending outbox for books tonight has 23 waiting to be mailed.

Every time I see a notice from the Post Office, my heart flutters from the excitement of adding another book to the bulging shelves. Every time I wrap the requested books in plastic and print out the mailing labels, I realize how small the world has become, what with strangers albeit fellow booklovers sharing their most precious of treasures.

I have been asked by my best friend if it is worth the drain on the budget, the price of mailing out a book starts at P48 and goes up depending on the weight and the destination. And I reply, of course, where else would I be able to find old books, rare titles and not pay too dearly to own them. And how else would I be able to add on to my pop-up books collection without going back to New York and its many many bookstores. [Lucky for me, the best friend likes books too, and indulges me while gently reminding me about bigger responsibilities and the long-term situation.]

Mooching through Bookmooch is a wonderful way to grow my library and meet new people who happen to share the same love for books. Even better, mooching through Bookmooch has meant finding treasures galore, not only in the books but also in the booklovers who make mooching such a pleasure.

Give it a try... but be ready to moderate the greed, and the addiction.



Swap books at BookMooch.com

Bookworm heaven in the south...

Today I found bookworm heaven... some bumps along the way, but definitely happiness when I got there.

We took the long way, exiting at Sucat to get to Bicutan, and got lost on the main roads by sheer lack of initiative to ask where the right way was, but finding the warehouse of BOOKSALE, the biggest secondhand booksource in the Philippines was worth the trip.

Getting the invitation to visit and enter the sanctuary was mostly luck... I had heard stories about the warehouse earlier from among my fellow bookworms on Bookmooch and Shelfari. The kind of stories that make every booklover swoon in bookheaven ecstacy. Just imagine being in the stockroom of the biggest source of secondhand books of these 7,100 islands. Surrounded by books of all sizes, shapes, colors, topics and nationalities. Ready to be opened, waiting to be taken home, lying there, ripe for the taking.

Well, as fate would have it, I found a way to make this dream come true. Just yesterday as I took a quick trip to their V-mall branch to take a look around and hopefully spot more rare book bargains, I stumbled on one of their supervisors visiting the store. I asked about their rare books and you can imagine how the conversation progressed to the "warehouse".

The rumors are true... there is a minimum amount to be spent. one needs permission to get in. and yes, it is bookworm heaven...

Once there, despite the overzealous guard who wanted me to leave my bag in the guardhouse [come again? leave my bag, containing my phone, my keys, my purse, my life, with you?], I finally made my way into the warehouse, thanks to Lisa, the friendly and assertive supervisor who I met yesterday.

Grey walls, unpainted. Rooms closed off with door signs indicating the category or type of books within "softbound" etc. Clerks and gofers sorting, moving stocks, unpacking boxes and boxes of books.

I ended up in the operations hub as it were, the place where their top lady veteran supervises the opening of boxes, the sorting and overall movement of the books from warehouse to store.

Oh what haven, this large enough, air-conditioned room with piles and piles of boxes on one side and floor-to-ceiling steel shelves on three walls. Oh what happiness to spot two whole walls of coffeetable books. So off to work I go... one pile after another, choosing and moving books to make way for the rest... organized madness, organized obsessive book addiction.

More than 200 people make their operation run with steady efficiency and move them books all over the Philippines. I asked if I could apply for a job as apprentice to Dolly, and they just laughed. I said they could pay me with books... that's all I need.

I chose to be a good girl today and limited myself only to the coffeetable books shelves, and, as affirmed by my best friend, to come back another day for the rest of the goodies. But the temptation did not stop, as I waited for them to list my choices after they took their lunch break, they let me open some more books full of big, beautiful coffeetable books. They sure know how to sell and sell...

The session was over in 2 hours, with some precious finds already brought home and tucked into already bulging shelves. I did leave a list of the subjects that I would come back for, especially the pop-up books and the old books on history and rare ones on art and travel. And I know they will make sure that I come back for more... one half-explored room and the rest of the bookworm heaven await me.

Abangan ang susunod na kabanata...