Books for Less!
An essential part of settling in was finding a good bookshop.
We cannot do without reading and were actually very worried that the prices of books might not match that of India. Among the 'essentials' that we packed were cartons and cartons of books to tide us over till our next visit to India. Of course this was based on the premise that Manila might be a vast wasteland where survival is key and books are on par with solitaire rings...
Anyway, we're happy to report that bookshops are a dime a dozen and the average Filipino seems to read much more than the average English-educated Indian. We actually found several bookshops offering 20-30% discounts on books - the National Book Store chain is one of them.
But Nothing Beats This
We - or rather, Sandi - discovered this little chain of bookshops titled 'Books for Less', which makes up for it's rather unimaginative title by making an awesome collection of sparingly-used books available for anywhere from 30-90% less than the price of a new edition! And not just any old junk but the kind that can make you throw yourself with cries of joy on them.
I've found some excellent business titles (Crossing the Chasm is one) and Sandi has managed to collect literally bushels of obscure titles that she claims have been 'well-received by the literati', whatever that means.
Check them out - there's one in Ortigas (Quezon City), one on Valero (Makati) and another four outlets or so I gather. You'll probably see us there, spending the last of our food money on 'The Secret Life of the Garden Slug'.
We cannot do without reading and were actually very worried that the prices of books might not match that of India. Among the 'essentials' that we packed were cartons and cartons of books to tide us over till our next visit to India. Of course this was based on the premise that Manila might be a vast wasteland where survival is key and books are on par with solitaire rings...
Anyway, we're happy to report that bookshops are a dime a dozen and the average Filipino seems to read much more than the average English-educated Indian. We actually found several bookshops offering 20-30% discounts on books - the National Book Store chain is one of them.
But Nothing Beats This
We - or rather, Sandi - discovered this little chain of bookshops titled 'Books for Less', which makes up for it's rather unimaginative title by making an awesome collection of sparingly-used books available for anywhere from 30-90% less than the price of a new edition! And not just any old junk but the kind that can make you throw yourself with cries of joy on them.
I've found some excellent business titles (Crossing the Chasm is one) and Sandi has managed to collect literally bushels of obscure titles that she claims have been 'well-received by the literati', whatever that means.
Check them out - there's one in Ortigas (Quezon City), one on Valero (Makati) and another four outlets or so I gather. You'll probably see us there, spending the last of our food money on 'The Secret Life of the Garden Slug'.
posted by Unknown at
1:42 PM
2 Comments:
Hmmm...Have your cake and eat mine too !!
Good fun, but, and this blog is much easier for me to reply to than the other one.
By
Sumit, at 11:25 PM
Good book stores...the one at the third floor of Rockwell Power Plant...is the best I have found in Manila...and is comparable to good book stores overseas...Power books is also good...but avoid the one at SM MegaMall..shares it's space with a Tower Records....not a good plan....
By
Madame Chiang, at 3:21 PM
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