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...