to be honest, i’ve been slacking off on my reading. A LOT. i could come up with a thousand excuses reasons why but suffice it to say that i’ve been “busy.” and obviously, that’s me not being very honest but what else could i chalk it up to aside from that classic cliche?
in my defense, i AM currently reading leo tolstoy’s anna karenin which is definitely an engaging book. nevermind that i have been reading it on and off (mostly off) for three months now. the last book i read was waaay back in january which was alice’s adventures in wonderland. that i read in two months. (a kindergarten could probably read it in about 3 hours (minus an hour for nap time.)
BUT… i still and always will love books.
so when i stumbled into hard to find bookshop in onehunga, auckland, i was in love. in this case, the saying “never judge a book by its cover” holds true. because from the outside, it looks like a plain old bookshop with its wooden door and signage on the glass window double-acting as a magnet for bookworms and a repellent against bibliophobics (if there is such a word.)
but inside?
oh, man, it was a wonderful world of organized madness classified according to authors’ names and genre! i was virtually on my knee asking the bookshop to please marry me. if you’re into books just as much as i am, you know how it feels — the skipping of heartbeats, the loss for words, that flushing feeling of warmth running through your entire body even if it’s in the middle of winter (and in new zealand, at that!)… the whole shebang, i tell you.
when i said i stumbled into this place, i meant i wasn’t supposed to be in this place. (exactly what the word stumble into means, if you have to be really anal about it.) my aunt was supposed to drive me somewhere else so she could teach me how to get to the city but i told her i’d much rather stay in this little corner of paradise and just figure my way out in a whole new country which i’ve only been in for three hours after i’m done.
i did get lost finding my way back to my aunt’s place and was this close to a nervous breakdown but i did wing it. that bookshop was so worth the temporary mental anguish that i experienced for what seemed like a million hours.
apparently, the bookshop has been around since the 1980’s, if memory serves me right. i had a little chat with one of the staff working there and she was really friendly and all. i could tell she loved her job. i told her she has the coolest job in the world. she told me i was free to have a look around and take all the pictures my battery could afford.
so i did.
warning: the sight of books, books, books, and more books might make you feel slightly nauseous, at best. or dyslexic, at worst.
the pauses between 
nindota dira oi 😀
it is. the moment i entered the bookshop i swear to god i was totally blown away! it was a very exciting moment for me. nerd alert. lol.
i think morag ma-crazy ko ig maka-anha ko 😀 ma-eggzoited man gani kaau ko kung mosulod ko ug national 😀
hahaha. pareha ta. i love national bookstore! malingaw ra ko ug tan-aw sa mga school and office supplies. as to buying books, booksale would always be my favorite. mahal kaayo ang mga libro dinhi oi. even the secondhand ones. i always end up comparing it to booksale where i can buy books for only 20 pesos. the cheap secondhand ones here are at least $3. chakadoll.
ahaahahahahhahahahahaahah 😀 happiness ko sa akong kindle but mas nindot jud nai mapakli-pakli ug ma-simhot2x na pages 😀
exactly! nothing like the smell and feel of books. not to mention that gangsta feeling of reading an actual book in public when most people rarely do so nowadays. cool!
or just plain nerdy? lol
old school! 😀
hay books 🙂
but ang akong dream library kay kang belle jud, kanus-a kaha ko maka-in-adto ? 😀
who knows? maybe soon? hehe.
magpalit sa ko ug yuta, para magpatukod na ko balay – kailangan pa ko ug daghang kwarta! 😀 kumusta ka dira down under jan? 😀
life’s okay here, lars. i miss home once in a while especially when i think of lechon and grilled pork belly and baby back ribs, etc etc etc. hahaha.
asus, ang pagkaon jud ang kamingawan, after family and friends 😀 cge, ill eat sa matias ig sat, and ill take a pic for u jan 😀 oi, time sa, u have fb na, or wala gyapon? 😀
waaa!!! i miss matias barbecue too just as much as i miss lartian. =(
no, wala gihapon koy fb, lars. i don’t think i ever will. just this blog and twitter and instagram.
kadto diay imong ka-share, wala na to jan ? 😀
hahaha. that fb was never mine to begin with. =p
oi, wala na pud mo? or is this question too public? 😀
hahaha. you’re funny, lars. =p
🙂
Nindota sa bookshop! Pwede dira nalang magpuyo!?
hay, kung pwede pa lang. humot pa jud kaayo ug libro! the moment i entered, na-high jud ko. lol.