It’s been a month since I got my salary from the tutoring program, but before that I spoiled myself first with my memorable trip to the bookstore. I’ve been meaning to visit one since the last time I set foot on a bookstore before, yet unlike that first time where I was just there book-seeing because I didn't have a budget, this time I finally have the money to purchase some books of my liking. I was really looking forward to that day because it was also the day off of my sister, so she'd be able to join me there. I already shared here before that the nearest bookstore was really far from our town, so I have no choice but to spend a considerable amount of time and money just for getting there.
However, my mood started to dampen when I saw the clouds clumping and the sky getting gloomy. I’m really not fond of rainy weather, so I quite hesitated to go there; thankfully, I was convinced by my younger sister to just go with the flow that day. I was definitely hoping that rain wouldn't fall, but it seems fate taunted us because the time we almost arrived at the mall, the rain poured heavily, and by the time we arrived at the entrance, we were basically drenched. What’s more is that the moment we’re done drying ourselves...the rain stopped. I’m starting to get really upset, but anyway, I tried my best to shove that feeling away by eating.
We hadn't eaten yet that noon, so we decided to stop first at a fast-food chain to get our stomach filled. By the time we finished eating, my mood already improved and I’m more excited to get going and finally satisfy the craving of the reader in me. After a short trip to the comfort room and couple of wrong turns, we finally arrived at our destination—Booksale! Not literally a book sale, but Booksale is the name of the store, though you somehow feel that you’re in a book sale because there are a lot of affordable books there. Just looking at it outside already overwhelmed me because it’s not every day I see that many books!
When I got inside, I was so amazed at how packed the place is! It isn’t really spacious inside the bookstore plus, all sides are cramped with books. The pathway was perhaps the only space that was not filled with books because even the counter there was stacked with a lot of books. It took me an hour just to calm my overstimulated system and focus on finding the books I wanted to buy. Recently, classics have been popping up on my feed, and there are a number of titles I encountered that somehow piqued my interest. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any of those in the bookshop save for two, one of which was in the hands of another customer, and the other was among the stacks near the counter. The Count of Monte Cristo was one of my TBR, but sadly it fell to the hands of another reader. It was too late when I saw it was there, so I was left with no choice but to look for another.
It wasn’t long when I realized that the other one was among the stacks beside the counter, and that was Anna Karenina, which I didn’t expect to be really thick. I’m somehow familiar with the gist of its story, but I’m really curious about how the events will unfold and lead to the ending I’m already expecting. So much for that; I spend another hour casually scanning the books among the stacks and shelves. There are ones that were still inside the boxes, and there I find familiar titles…mostly quite recent novels. By the time I found the second book I purchased, almost three hours had passed. It’s one of the novels of my favorite Wattpad author, greenwriter or J.D. Ruiz. I already read it before, but I really wanted a physical copy—especially the early novels she published.
Aside from familiar titles, I also found some interesting ones that I’ll surely look up on the internet later on, and before I forgot, my sister also bought one. I’m kinda skeptical when I see the condition of the book she picked because it seems that it was soaked with water, but when I skim through the pages, the texts are fine, which is a good sign. I asked her if that’s ok with her, but she insisted she’s really buying it no matter what its condition is as long as the text is complete and readable.
That got me curious because usually she’s quite particular with book covers, but my curiosity soon vanished when I saw its familiar title. It’s the book Where the Crawdads Sing. I already encountered more than a couple of book-talk videos recommending this novel, but it always slipped past my mind. Anyway, I’m now quite curious about it, so prolly I’ll borrow it once she’s done reading it (only if I’m still interested because I know she’s quite yappy and mostly she spoils me enough to dissuade me from reading haha).
It was past three when we decided to check out the books, and even on our ride home, I’m still feeling the butterflies in my stomach. I don’t know, but I always get happy whenever I feel surrounded with books. It was no wonder why I spent most of my after-school hours during my high school years in the library because I felt at peace and happy whenever I was with books. I hope when I’m already stable in life, I can transition into a job that lets me spend a plethora of time with books. Ahhhhhh that would be me living the best of my life!
I guess that would be all for this sharing, and if you’re reading up until here, thank you so much and hope to see you on my next blog~
All of the pictures used are mine.
PHOTO DUMP
Our book haul:
My sister perusing the books:
