Book Trip 2012: Philippine Lit Raid

Walking down memory lane... 

I was first introduced to an online library and social network Goodreads a year ago, months after my training outside of the country. My friend invited me to their gathering / palengke meet-up after their first valentine outreach program. And so my love for reading and bookish trips has grown from there. 

Little did I know that this Group, named as The Filipino Group conducts book raids. This is the first time I attended a bookish-field-trip of the group and it was all about Philippine Lit Book Raid. Ayban, a hardcore fan of F. Sionil Jose, took the lead and suggested to go to Solidaridad publishing. And for all his books to be signed.

And so it was, I joined the bookish raid last March 17th 2012. And yeah, it is my first time to visit Solidaridad.

Field-trip attendees (from left to right): Ella, Doni, Ayban, Cary, Sheryl, Kwesi, Rollie

 A photo-session taken, before we go along with book raiding. And trolling. And being torn to buying best books. Actually, books are an expensive investment. 

Counter: Solidaridad bookstore, being a vintage publishing house, houses cash-only cash registers. Too bad we cannot use our credit cards to defer our payment. That made my book hunting a little bit harder, and smarter.

Good thing that Ayban was with us. He recommends good Filipiniana reads. Not only just because it was a best-seller, but also he says some books are full of soul.

Let the book hunting begin - Kwesi looking for additional reads aside from F. Sionil Jose's Rosales Saga.

Overwhelmed: There are lots of books here that I haven't seen in bookshops inside the malls. Novels and short story anthologies coming from other regions of the country.

Torn between two poems: Jim Pascual's or Merlie Alunan's? Since the latter is cheaper, I bought the second one. Poems are hard to define since they are subject to different interpretations. And as a tear-jerker towards books, poems are one of the reading challenges. I even made a poetic review about it.

This is a perfect example of trolling. Photo title: "I'm sorry."

Another trolling! This time it is Rollie's turn. Can't you see the difference? :P

Solidaridad bookshop is not only full of Philippine literature, but also of magazines from abroad. There are tons of NEW YORKER ISSUES from way way back five years. :D

It was a fun-filled field trip! And my love for Philippine literature increased. Level 1 to Level 2, I guess. From that moment on, I decided to read more works from the home country, and try to appreciate the writings, and hopefully, be able to shed tears from all those drama scenes.

KD's diary entry composed of Kudos to Ayban and to all participants who made habol with the bookish raid, for we also visited other bookstores in SM Mall of Asia. And we have had dinner together, and talked about book and simply being perky about it. The cute thing  is, we have had tulaan sa sasakyan because KD brought a soundtrack of poems from Alvin Yapan's Ang Sayaw ng Dalawang Kaliwang Paa. :)

[photos are courtesy of Kwesi Junsan; see his bookshelf and bookish rants and reviews here.]