The British Are Coming!

Heh. Merry Christmas, everyone. Hope the holiday seasons have been good for you.

Popped up in here just to give a small Filipino language lesson, i.e. the word for today is nalula.

For example, Nalula ako sa aking nakita matapos naakyat ko yung Eiffel Tower. Translated, that reads, "I was overwhelmed by the sight I saw after I climbed the Eiffel Tower."

I raise this small point after I checked out the mega-branch of the local bookchain (also a school-supply emporium), National Bookstore, in Cubao two days ago.

Now, as most local book-philes know, National is a good source for the new and popular books. But if you're looking for the ones you really, really gotta have, you're better off somewhere else.

However, National has been surprising me for the past year by coming out with a lot of second-hand/ previously-owned books (mostly culled from libraries is my guess) on their sale tables.

From there, I managed to pick up some gems, including SM Stirling's alternate-history adventure The Peshawar Lancers and John M. Ford's take on "elves in the city" The Last Hot Time. But mostly US-published books, mind.

So I was surprised to learn that their mega-branch, which houses their biggest second-hand/ previously-owned section, had loads of British stuff. And all at 1/5 of of their original price tags.

Thus, for the past couple days, I've been on a buying spree, getting a mixture of SF, fantasy and horror books:

1. Steve Erikson's Midnight Tides;
2. Richard Calder's The Twist;
3. Mary Gentle's Ash: A Secret History;
4. Philip Reeves' YA book Mortal Engines;
5. Adam Roberts' Stone;
6. Ian Graham's Monument;
7. David Zindell's The Lightstone;
8. KW Jeter's Morlock Night;
9. David Gemmell's Echoes of the Great Song and Dark Moon.

Likewise, there were still other books I'm thinking of going back for, including Will Self's Great Apes, Iain Banks The Bridge, Caitlin Kiernan's Low Red Moon, and James Blaylock's 13 Phantasms and Other Stories.

Oh Lordy. Ako'y nalula sa nakita kong kay dami-daming libro. (I was overwhelmed by the huge number of books I saw.)

Or, to quote a couple of customers who were also there, Puta, ang dami nito!

My thoughts exactly.