Book lust

A couple of weeks ago, I finally signed into this social networking site for books called Library Thing, which I'd discovered through an officemate. The next couple of days saw me spending an inordinate amount of time and effort keying in ISBN numbers into the system, and now I've cataloged all my books. (Well, not really all of them... I haven't cataloged books that have been borrowed and not yet returned.)

Anyway, while going through my books made me realize a few things about my collection. It's not particularly big (about a hundred and twenty books or so), but I estimate I acquired about eighty of those in the last fifteen months. Of these, I've read about sixty, slowing down the past few months because I started grad school. That rounds out to about four books a month, which I'm quite proud of. I haven't read this much in my life. A book a week... yun din yung excuse ko ngayon kung bakit wala akong girlfriend.

Also, by my count, I've spent about Php20,000 on books over the same period. Kaya rin wala akong pang-date. It's not really something I feel bad about, given that if I didn't spend it on books, I'd end up blowing the cash on beerhouse visits with Alekos, so books really are a better investment (although, I have to admit, that the derived pleasure is probably a push).

Anyway, when I did my catalog, I resolved to at least rein in my spending on books. So how did I fare? Well, I got this email listing my recent purchases off Avalon:

"The Last Temptation of Christ by Kazantzakis (BANNED!!)".
The final bid price was for P400.00.
"The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman".
The final bid price was for P550.00.
"The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy".
The final bid price was for P300.00.
"Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris".
The final bid price was for P250.00.
"Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (Gaiman Chabon Hornby)".
The final bid price was for P400.00.

Total: P1,900.00



Wonderful.

Labels: books

- posted by jaemark @ 10/21/2006 05:33:00 AM