Friday, November 28, 2008

Blessed Bookay-ukay Day


Karim and I are slowly rebuilding the library we lost during our exodus here in Manila. It was nothing grand and nothing well-arranged like the books in my virtual bookshelf in Shelfari. We had piles of books in one area and a lot more scattered in different parts of our then tiny house.

So recently, we have been frequenting bookstores to re-collect the stuff we had and to find new ones that never became part of our collection. Between Cole’s gazillion toys and other more important things we needed to bring with us (oh yes, does this sound very “exodus-sy” already?), of course, the toys had to come first. I don’t want him suffering from some kind of psychosis in his latter years in life just because I was the mom who brought everything else but the toys. The skateboard, the scooter, the bike, he had to let go though. I was not going to be impelled into bringing stuff that I had to skate, balance, and pedal all the way here. Lugging along two large boxes of toys and three huge luggage of clothes plus a son who would never stop talking was more than enough for a grand move here in the metropolis.

Last Sunday, with Ate Vi (remember our OC housekeeper?) on her glorious day off, the boys and I had to crawl our way to Box O’ Rice for lunch. No time, no energy, no desire to cook on a steamy midday Sunday. For anyone who has not entered into the realm of eating seafood in a box and on the side of the street, please know that BOR may be the Oprah Winfrey among fast foods. The food is entertaining, a bit pricey but comfortable enough, and the package is quite engaging.

The mommy always gets the best seat (one from the unwritten day-to-day guide “on becoming a gentleman” authored by Karim and studied by Cole) and in a small square table, I opined the one facing the street was the dream seat of the day. Indeed, it was. Something from across the street was screaming at me, hauling me to go over the other side and say “found it!”

Gerese asked me where #55 Maginahawa St. was the other week and I told her I know for sure that it’s somewhere in my neighborhood, but that I haven’t spotted the place yet. She is a booklover who is in constant search for good books. A shop interestingly called Bookay-ukay is a rootage for books that leaves a bookworm salivating.

The three of us marched to Bookay-ukay after lunch and got lost in a huge collection and spent the next three hours picking out books, and then eventually spending a fortune on good finds. Cole was so delighted he found a series he instantly fell in love with. He could only find books one and two of Scholastic’s Abracadabra series so he got hold of those two plus some other books. Finding Bookay-ukay was wonderful especially since we’re starting Cole on short story reading. We don’t want to coerce him into reading (we all know what happens to kids who are ungracefully forced to get into a reading habit. They become serial killers. Of course I’m kidding.)

Karim was ecstatic and looked like he was reunited with a long lost love. I threatened him with a look of jealousy until he held it up to my face: Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock. Not a long lost love, I realized. But a destiny he has endlessly searched for.

Months ago, I was approached to do a book review on Henry James’ “Turn of the Screw”. I went on a long desperate search among the big bookstores but I was always met with “It’s out of stock.” Out of stock? Who’s hoarding all the James books? I didn’t know Henry James had a lot of fans around here. Needless to say, I begged off from the book review.

Bookay-ukay had it for me and it’s mine, mine, mine.

Blessed Bookay-ukay day is next payday…and God help me from this addiction. I’ll be broke before I turn 33.