Buying Second Hand Books

Several weeks ago, I found myself at the middle of Marikina Shoe Expo - the U-shaped complex on the fringes of Cubao's commercial district. As I mentioned in my past post the place is being transformed into a place uncommon to Cubao. Some of the old shoe shops were or have morphed into restaurants, curiosity shops, record shops, teahouses and even bookstores.

Yes, the old shoe district seemed to be developing an artistic bent.

Anyway, my salary had just come in and I decided to go to the bookshop called Datelines. The bookstore has an interesting collection of books from Filipiniana to comics. So there I was browsing through the bookrack that had all the second hand books. On the topside was the paperback edition of Philip J Caputo's a "Rumor of War". Then I saw it. The book that I would buy that day. It was one of those old antonym and synonym books, quite useful when one is at a loss for words. And it was priced at thirty pesos. Very cheap. Its pages were a bit yellowish, showing the usual decay of paperback paper, but still its pages were not yet brittle. The book would probably last another three years.

Then and there I bought the thing. Happy with my purchase I proceeded on my journey for the day.

There was another shop that looked interesting, right up front of its window was an action figure of a flame creature one of the main characters in the anime Howl's Moving Castle. There were several things that looked interesting. However, the store was closed for the day. It would have been interesting to see the items for sale inside that shop.

Night time came and I found myself flipping over the book that I got. It came after a minutes of perusing the pages. A faint odor that was neither pungent nor irritating but gave the essence that the book had not been read for several years. It was just like opening the tomb of Tutankhamen. I smelled the odor of age. Not irritating really, I still use the book, but I do not read for long.

I guess when buying second hand books be mindful of the condition of the books, paperbacks do not really age well. Papers were never designed to last that long. Not all of them anyway.

A Tide of Narnia and CS Lewis Books

Yesterday, I dropped by book launching at Powerbooks at Greenbelt Three. And while there I noticed that there was a significant amount of Narnia - related books. It comes as no surprise, since the CS Lewis' tale the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will be making its ways to cinemas this Christmas Season. Unfortunately, for us Filipinos there will a two or three week delay thanks to the annual film festival. I just hope that this year's movies will be at worth watching. Or if not let them be like the wind and pass quickly through.

Yes, there were new sets of Narnia books from soft bound to hardbound books. Nearly all size and style of Narnia books. There were even books based on the books, these included a short children story about Tea with Mr Tumnus, trivia books about Narnia, and of course there were the books that deconstructed the story of Narnia and its author CS Lewis itself.

The upside of any movie adaptation of a book is that just before the theatrical release several books are re-issued into the consumer market. And if it’s any consolation, if the movie is a dud one can always read the book.

I just hope that the movie does justice to the book.

Before I forget, another plus side of the movie is that not only is CS Lewis' Narnia books glutting the book stores but you will find a lot of his other works surfacing as well.

Among his Non-Narnia books for me the good buys would be the following:

1) Screwtape's Letters, both the book and the audio book (read by Joss Ackland)

2) His Ransom or Silent Planet Trilogy: Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength

3) His retelling of a myth in Till We Have Faces.

4) The Dark Tower and Other Stories

CS Lewis was a close friend of JRR Tolkien (they were part of the University of Oxford-based literary discussion group called the Inklings) and was one of the first people who read Tolkien's The Hobbit. For CS Lewis fans the movie Shadowlands (1999) a film about CS Lewis starring Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger.

Encouraging Children to Read

You can never force children to read. To do so would be counter-productive. If you force them to read they would actually stay away from it. Yet at the same time you have to make it as interesting as playing a video game or watching cartoons.

My nephews, like most children of our present age are bombarded by images fast and enticing like the ones on television, films and video games. Well to be fair there are advantages and benefits to being adept at new technologies. Yet a book is still a book.

You do not need to plug a book in. It will not shock you. No worms or viruses can make it crash. Ok, some invertebrates will eventually devour it slowly if certain precautions are not taken. In order to view it you need sunlight or an incandescent bulb. The chances are that it is going to be outmoded by the next model is slight. All you need is interest in order to operate it.

Interest that is the key.

In our family we regulate the use of television. We set-up specific times for viewing cartoons and playing games. Somewhere in between that we were able to introduce reading time.

It was difficult at first. Trying to find the interest of my nephews. The two although brothers are as similar as Felix and Oscar in Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple, the reference might be a bit old, the bottom line is they have different tastes.

In the end we told them they cannot watch TV but they can pick whatever books they want to read. In the end they picked the same set of books. Stories by Dr Seuss, Books about snakes and crocodiles, Peter Rabbit books and comic books. The books came from all over; Some were my old books, some new ones and some second hand books.

Their favourites:

1. The Cat in the Hat
2. Green Eggs and Ham
3. Dr Doom
4. I Don't Like to Eat!
5. A Snake book
6. Where the Wild Things Roam
7. The Five Chinese Brothers

and others