Friday, March 20, 2009

Overheard in the bargain bin

A little piece of heaven

Yesterday, I checked out the hardcover bargain bins at National Bookstore. While it was a bit overwhelming to see so many books on sale for 50 pesos (about a dollar), it was definitely more interesting to observe people who were perusing. I decided to hang out for a while to listen in to their conversations:

Boy (rocker type) with his girlfriend
Boy finds a biography of Kurt Cobain.
Girl: Balak mo ba talagang basahin yan? (Are you really planning to read that?)
Boy: (grunts)
Girl: Ang kapal! Kaya mo ba yan? (It's so thick! Do you have the stamina for it?)
Boy: (grunts some more)
Girl: Tara na nga. Iwan mo na yan. (We have to go. Just leave the book.)
My thoughts: Boy eventually marries girl. Girl castrates boy.

A group of girls
Girl 1: Eto pa, oh, romance. (Here's another romance novel.)
Girl 2: Ay, ang chaka ng cover! Ayoko. (Nah, the cover sucks.)
Girl 3: Etong Nora Roberts -- maganda ba to? (Is this Nora Roberts novel any good?)
Girl 2: Malay. (I wouldn't know.)
Girl 3: (picks up The Plot Against America) Sino ba 'tong Philip Roth? Ay, ang tanda na nya! (Who is this Philip Roth? Oh my! He's, like, old!)
Girl 1: 'to na lang. Manipis. Madaling basahin. (Why not this one? It's a thin book so it's an easy read.)
Girl 3: (loudly reads the synopsis in the book jacket) Sige na nga, eto na lang. (All right, I'll buy this one.)
My thoughts: I was quite happy with this one. Girl 3 was actually willing to experiment.

A mother and daughter (I think)
Mother: Ay! Sale! (OMG! Sale!)
Daughter: 50 pesos lang?!
Mother and daughter scan the bins for about 5 minutes.
Daughter: (reads a text message from her mobile) Andyan na daw sina daddy. (Daddy's on his way.)
Mother: Ah, ok. Tara. (Oh, all right. We'd better be going.)
My thoughts: This was very, very disappointing. I can't help but feel that I was mislead into thinking that these two women are readers.

Anyway, you might be wondering why I'm not browsing through the books on sale. Well, I'm still in my no-book-buying phase, which will end on Easter Sunday. So far, I haven't bought a book in three weeks. Also, looking at the people provides the much-needed distraction from the sight of the hardbacks that seem to be calling my name.

3 comments:

fantaghiro23 said...

Sadly, I hear the same things myself. Once in a while I want to jump in with a suggestion, but I get too shy.

Good luck on your Lenten no-book-buying sacrifice.:)

Hope it's ok to add you to my blogroll. Let me know.

Peter S. said...

Hi Honey! I'll add your blog too! Thanks for the comment!

Unknown said...

what an entertaining post. do you have more "overheard in the bookstore" stories? wish you'd post them. thanks!