I passed by National Bookstore yesterday to buy a plastic sleeve for my passport. They didn’t have any. The only time I’m a fan of National are the days leading up to the beginning of school. I’ve been using the same brand of pens since first year high school and the same brand of notebooks all through college. Now that I’ve finally graduated, those days are over. Thank god.

Contrary to its name, National Bookstore doesn’t have a very diverse collection of books. Sure, they have your Twilights, Harry Potters, Gossip Girls, Goosebumps, Coelhos, and Shakespeares, but they don’t have Elements of Style. It’s a grammar book; also called Strunk and White. In desperate need for a copy, I once visited two branches but they were both all out. How do you run out of Elements of Style? They’re, well, elements of style.

About a year ago my friends and I went on a trip to Tagaytay. In an old Lite Ace we drove for hours through hard rain and steep slopes. Visibility was extremely low, the engine was groaning in agony, and the thought of suddenly plummeting down a ravine made us all nervous with laughter. Concerned for our safety, we stopped to eat at Pancake House overlooking Taal. Minutes after taking our order of pancakes, the waiter approached us, shuffling his feet, apologizing to say they ran out of pancakes. How the hell does Pancake House run out of pancakes? Does that just make them House? Would you forgive KFC if they ran out of chicken? French Baker if they ran out of bread? The President if she ran out of lies? It dumbfounds the mind.

So I went around looking for a plastic sleeve, realized they didn’t have any, and found myself rifling through a pile of used hardbound books selling for 99 bucks each. I like used book sales. If you dive into a pile with enough patience and persistence, there’s always that one book that will make all the inhaled dust worth it: a brand new copy of Beowulf, a first edition Sedaris, Catcher in the Rye with a cover design (they’re not supposed to have covers), or a brand new Grisham novel mixed in by mistake. My dexterity in browsing through pirated DVD titles comes in handy during this time.

Thirty minutes later, I surfaced through a cloud of dust cradling Ian McEwan’s Saturday, Augusten Burroughs’ Running with Scissors, and Christopher Buckley’s Boomsday; all hardbound and at 99 each.  If I bought the same thing from Amazon, it would’ve cost me about P2500, plus shipping. The only thing I feel bad about is the amount of book backlog I now have. I swore to myself I’d finish all my unread books this summer, but Ken Follet’s 1000+ pages in The Pillars of the Earth distracted me. It’s by far, the longest book I’ve ever read. Then again, I’ve never gone through a Tolstoy. Anakarenina looks like a hairy beast waiting to be conquered. But for now it’s an expensive doorstop.

They came already covered in plastic.

Shelved.

What’s been happening with the whole duties on imported books brouhaha? I think I can survive on Booksale. Meanwhile, I asked my brother in the States to get me Elements of Style. He bought the illustrated version (red book on the left).