The great hardback sale

Once again, National Bookstore is having a sale of hardbacks that go for 50 and 100 pesos (about $2). I usually find the time to do the rounds and visit as many National Bookstore branches in the metro as possible. Not this time though, since I'm still in my no-book-buying phase.

Most of these books are library copies that haven't even been read or opened; some of them are even practically brand new. I saw Nassim Nicholas Taleb's The Black Swan yesterday at Robinson's Metro East on sale for 50 pesos! That's a steal, since the trade paperback of the same book goes for around 600 pesos.

I've found many hardback gems in these sales. Last year, I bought Tom Perrotta's The Abstinence Teacher and Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke in the bargain bins. If I'd bought the brand new ones, they would've cost me more than 2,000 pesos. I bought those two books for 10% of that price. Just don't be disheartened if you see books, which you've bought at full price, being sold at dirt cheap prices.

Books on sale: a book lover's ultimate wet dream