IT was only when the guard at the Event Hall’s exit looked at the receipt and said, 38 items, that I realized I bought 38 books.
Welcome to the book hoarding a la Big Bad Wolf Books.
I arrived there a few minutes after 10 am. Yes, I waited outside SM CDO Downtown Premier’s C.M. Recto entrance before the mall opened. And I left BBW at the mall’s Event Hall at 2 pm. That’s almost four hours of reading blurbs.
By 1 pm, though, I was ready to call it a day. Too many books, too little patience to check each one out while thinking, Do I need this? Or even worse—do I have this book already? Or worst—have I read this already? Juice colored. A bookworm should never go to BBW or else he will end up like the wolf in “The Three Little Pigs”—“Then I will huff and I will puff and I will blow your house down!”—while trying to decide what books to buy.
Yes, I finally understand now why it’s the Big Bad Wolf. Whew.
I wanted to go to Cebu when BBW was there last year. But I figured the savings I’d get from the discounts would be erased by the airline’s excess baggage. So, I prayed for them to come to Cagayan de Oro, and finally they’re here. Opened on Feb. 1 for the VIPs, and Feb. 2 for the non-VIPs like me. By the time you’re reading this, it’s still there, and most probably I’ll keep going back for more until its last day on Feb. 18.
Yes, just when I had started to believe that I had read all the books that I need, BBW is here. How timely? Hmmm. And how timely, too, for my current weight. Had I done this BBW hoarding when I was still, uh, fat, I’d have muscle pains after all the bending and the stretching and the diving under tables to reach each book that looked interesting.
“I believe the children are our future” is a more likely scenario than this belief of mine on having read all the necessary books. Apparently, I still need to learn more? Because I was stuck in the self-help section and it was like being stuck in a rollercoaster ride of high-carb and low-carb until my coughs become confused on what I truly want out of life.
There’s one problem with BBW, though—the customer is not allowed to remove the book’s plastic cover, therefore, no reading the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first page, the middle pages. The only hint before buying the book is the blurb at the back cover. Which makes buying BBW books, even if they’re on sale, kind of a risk since reading some pages could still convince me to skip a particular book.
If I realize I don’t like a book once I’m reading it, I’ve simply wasted money on nothing, and not saved money at all through BBW’s discounts. But at least I had a selfie with the dragon at SM Downtown, its decor for the Chinese New Year. A treasured selfie since I’m, ahem, a dragon.
Still, shopping at BBW is a dream come true for me. No need to travel to Manila, Cebu, Davao, or Iloilo anymore for that BBW fix.
