The HBS or Book Hoarding Syndrome, and undemocratically listening to people belting out of tune songs

I really don’t update my blog as often as I want to because I’m finding it increasingly more difficult to have the time to write.  However, from time to time when I stare blankly at my blog site, I tell myself, “Hey bud, you better write something or you’re gonna get rusty soon.” Today is that time.

As a writer, I read a lot. So because I read a lot, I have a lot (of books).

However, most of my books have been gathering dust.

I probably have what I call the book hoarding syndrome (HBS), especially when I see books on bargain. Unlike stocks, you aren’t catching a falling knife when you get something that’s 50% off its original price. And mind you, there are a lot on sale these coming weeks at the National Bookstore due to their annual September sale. I also can’t wait for the upcoming Book Fair.

I’m glad that there are now a lot of people flocking to bookstores, probably because of how Fully Booked redefined book reading and book selling. It’s also probably due to the proliferation of books to movies like Harry Potter and Twilight. I saw how teens save up money just to buy copies of the said series. At least people respect intellectual property rights when it comes to the printed media.

Going back to HBS, I found myself in book heaven recently due to the ongoing sale in National (Powerbooks recently ended theirs). I loitered around looking for great bargains.

I am especially drawn to hardbound business books that have lost half or more of its value. Business books are expensive and getting them at dirt cheap prices comes only once a year. So now I have a pile of books sitting on the floor just waiting for my curious eyes to take notice of their words.

During a recent trip to the Robinsons Ermita branch of National, I couldn’t help (actually, you really cannot) noticing (actually, hearing) a girl singing to her heart’s content at the Magic Sing kiosk. She belted one out out-of-tune song after another. I wanted to approach her and ask her if it was really part of her job description.

It’s one of the biggest mysteries of the universe. How do you attract people to buy something when the live testimonial for it is soooo bad? Maybe that explains why there are more people buying Magic Sing at Odyssey Record Bars than in National Bookstore. Or, it can just be a simple case of bad distribution strategy. I could be wrong.

… Killed the Encyclopedia Salesman

I still recall that there used to be door to door encyclopedia salesmen that went around, uhm, door to door on the streets of Manila.  These salesmen even had booths in malls, and they’d give flyers and brochures with heavy sales promotions like “big discounts”, “free bag”, etc.

It’s too bad that when I was younger, I didn’t know about time capsules or storing away these brochures for historical relevance. I mean, probably 20 years down the road, nobody would be using paper anymore, and I could sell them as memorabilia or something. Haha.

I also remember that during those wonder years, I would bug my parents about buying me a set of encyclopedia, and to my chagrin, they’d always say no. So during those days, I’d go to our school library to research for term papers, reports, and the like.

Kids these days would go to Wikipedia, or Google, to research materials for their reports. Heck, if a student has a high level of Internet sleuthing, he might even be able to find downloadable term papers.

I seldom see voluminous encyclopedias being sold in bookstores too. There are almanacs, “world” encyclopedias, but that’s about it. I guess it’s the sign of the times too, people just don’t like reading “nerdy” books anymore.

Anyway, Mr. Encyclopedia Salesman, rest in peace. It’s sad I wasn’t able to buy me a set before your passing.