THE Big Bad Wolf Books has left Cagayan de Oro, and here’s the Cagayanon bookworm already looking forward to its next visit.
I went there four times. In between the third and fourth visits, I was at the Booksale branch at SM City CDO Uptown to buy more books.
I’m now convinced that my carb addiction has had a TOA—transfer of affection—to books. I already have boxes of books waiting to be read and re-read but why am I still buying more? This is definitely my theme song now: “I’m addicted to you, babe/You’re a hard habit to break.”
My BBW hoarding began on Feb. 2, the day after it opened here in CDO, and ended on Feb. 18, its last day here. I and some friends were then having lunch at an uptown resto when I remembered it was BBW’s last day. We then proceeded to SM CDO Downtown Premier for coffee and the BBW on the fifth floor.
That last day was for panic buying with this thought bubble: What if BBW would never come back to CDO? Que horror! Although the bookworm would always find ways: Booksale, Fully Booked, National Book Store, and soon-to-reopen Basa Books.
Still, better addicted to books than addicted to carbs.
The transition from high-carb to low-carb is like transitioning from BBW to the local book stores.
BBW’s books have a plastic cover which is not to be removed, forcing the bookworm to rely on the back-cover blurb which could tempt him to buy more books than the usual since he won’t be able to see if he likes how it’s written.
For “Not Now: The Procrastinator’s Manual,” that blurb was exactly the same as the front cover: “Not Now” repeated four times. Since it was displayed at the Humor section, I expected it to be funny. Only to realize that the laugh was on me.
It was when I was home and could finally remove its plastic cover that I discovered it has only one word each for pages 8 to 37: “Sit,” “Wait,” “Bask,” etc.
On page 38, it starts to have two words per page: “Make tea,” “Make hay,” “Tie knots,” etc.
And more words for each of the other pages.
“Play hard to get.” Hmmm. Can’t relate. Haha.
“Pen a letter.” My favorite Jurassic Age hobby.
“Fold an origami crane.” A friend did this years ago, making 1,000 origami cranes for her wish.
“Sort your coins by face value and year.” I do a milder version of this once the piggy banks are full of coins that have to be deposited.
“Spend forty-five minutes looking for the right pen.” Another hard habit to break.
“Spell as many words as you can on an upside-down calculator screen.” Used to do this when the calculator was still the smartest gadget in the world.
“Reorganize your books so your bookshelves look like a Pantone Color Guide.” I want to try this!
Local bookstores allow customers to remove the book’s plastic cover. This gives a potential buyer the chance to read the main text which provides more discernment in choosing books, thus, lessening the possibility of another “Not Now” episode.
So, shopping at BBW is like a high-carb diet: indulge in anything and everything. While shopping in local bookstores is like a low-carb diet: indulge in…nothing?
