Saturday, June 25, 2011

Chasing the Books


There's always a certain bibliophiliac joy in going into a bookstore and finding a particular book that you've been looking for, especially one that you've been anticipating heavily.

However, though I've been getting a copy of Dean Alfar's Philippine Speculative Fiction religiously for the past five years, it hasn't been hard getting a copy as I had been getting myself published in the collection yearly.

For this past year, with Philippine Speculative Fiction volume 6, edited by Nikki Alfar and Kate Osias, I wasn't able to get in because of work and life issues. Like I had earlier mentioned, it was a nice run while it lasted. But I was glad that the PSF is still going strong despite the economic hardships and I was happy for those who managed to get in.

After the requisite waiting time for publication, the PSF v6 finally came out last month in a launch at Fully-Booked. I wasn't able to attend the event alas but I fervently waited for the book to make itself available on FB's shelves. It did make me worry that I heard the initial print run had sold out during the event but I heard reassurances that they would have a second print run.

Last week, I finally had my patience rewarded when I saw copies of PSF v6 in FB. It was then I realized that this was the local book I really looked forward to buying, akin to waiting and finally buying the next series book by George R.R. Martin or the late Robert Jordan.

So what does this say about me? Aside from the fact that I don't really look forward buying local stuff (unless it was Indio or maybe Carlo Vergara's next Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah work), it's nice to know that PSF books are always something to look forward to every year.

2 comments:

Jam Lebrilla said...

Does the Philippines Speculative Fiction series have Science-Fiction stories inside it?

banzai cat said...

hi jml! yep, the PSF series normally have SF stories given that dean believes SF fits under the overall umbrella of spec fic. :-)