Simple Pleasures
Paul’s comment in my previous post reminded me of one of my favorite pastime, post-college: bookbin diving. Bookbin diving is essentially, bargain hunting for books - an ukay-ukay raid for bibliophiles if you will.
To do a bookbin dive, you must first have an ideal budget for the day. With that established, resolve that you will spend the next four to five hours patiently wading through obscure, dusty, hardbound novels and promise to be resolute in the face of an avalance of cheesy paperbacks with Fabio on the cover (unless you’re into those).
To have a successful bookbin dive, you must first locate a target rich environment, preferrably an area with several different book stores (Goodwill, National), bargain bookstores (Booksale) and/or antique shops (you’ll be surprised what you can find at the Old Manila shop and such).
My favorite haunts were the Araneta Center in Cubao and the Malate-DLSU area. Araneta Center had several Booksales (Ali Mall, Rustan’s, Farmers Plaza) bins, a Goodwill along Aurora Blvd, Alemar’s and the National Bookstore (’Super Branch’) whose top floor feels like a morgue for used books. My favorite target in Malate is the La Solidaridad (mostly new books though) and the university mall near DLSU (the one beside McDo).
I’d still go visit the bargain books when the opportunity presents itself which rarely happens these days. Once, when I was bookbin diving in Cebu (another great place to look for bargains), I found Stephen King’s Green Mile paperback series seling for 150 pesos for all the books and At the Mountain of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft for 60 pesos. Nothing like the feeling of finding something in a huge pile of books.
Of course now Booksale is already online and Books for Less (priced just a little less than brand-new) is specializing on used books. I’m collecting books not just for my personal enjoyment anymore.
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The past few days have been a Dilbert kind of week. No it’s not as funny as you’d think. Where’s my Dogbert when you need him? My books offer some great ways to escape idiocy.
3 Comments, Comment or Ping
Mic
My best bookbin dive finds: The Stranger by Albert Camus (P50) and Fear and Loathing in Last Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson (P75). Both from Booksale Katipunan circa 1994. My favorite Booksales are the ones in Cubao (we used to have a route that covered all of them and we’d end up at the National Bookstore Superbranch) and the one in Pedro Gil in Ermita. I don’t consider La Solidaridad because it’s not a used book store.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the used book shops in the UP Diliman Shopping Center. I found a copy of Neuromancer there for around P100.
Nov 4th, 2003
jen
Booksale going online wreaked havoc on my budget. During the first month when I found out, I spent more than I would’ve liked. Cheap books, good quality.
Nov 5th, 2003
Paul
Bookbin diving. I never thought of it that way. More like flipping for titles, similar to flipping for LPs in the old days.
Nov 5th, 2003
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