Today have been the first tough day for me this year, for reasons I will not disclose here. I watched 100 (a Cinemalaya film, starring Mylene Dizon and Eugene Domingo) and used it as an excuse to start crying my heart out, although the plan backfired since some people watched the movie with me. I had to contain my tears until they finally left to grab some lunch, then I went to a toilet cubicle and bawled my eyes out. Crying at home might have been much more convenient, only if my family was not there wonder what might have caused it.

I went to National Bookstore afterward and decided to actually purchase a book, instead of roaming around without buying anything as usual. Books make me happy. They take me back even if I rejected and neglected them for so long. They welcome me back and inside the world in between its pages, allowing me to temporarily escape the world I actually am in.

Neil Gaiman’s Coraline was on my To Buy list for 2012, along with The Sandman. However, I can’t afford all 10 volumes right now (I prefer on buying all of it at once). Unfortunately, it kept calling me and while at the customer service (I had to ask for assistance in locating Coraline), one of the staff was wrapping one of the five volumes of The Absolute Sandman right in front of me. I was torn with regard to asking if I could just take a peek at one of its’ glossy pages (or smell it even, but that would be too weird even though I find the unique smell of new books calming) since I might get rejected (oh, the fear of rejection). If only it wouldn’t cost me around Php 16,000/356 USD for those five volumes (the 10 volumes of The Sandman will cost me Php 4,000/89 USD), I would buy it in a heartbeat. The Lord of the Rings together with The Hobbit was in some kind of a promo wherein buying the four books/two novels together costs cheaper than buying it separately. Unfortunately for me, I only have a single thousand peso bill in my wallet, and the price tag says Php 1175.

National Bookstore, why u make me confused?

Apart from Coraline, I was drawn to a sealed copy of Daniel Handler’s Why We Broke Up, sitting partially hidden in one of National Bookstore’s display shelves. It was tightly wrapped in plastic but I could tell that the pages were glossy and it had illustrations inside (and the cover confirmed that). I really wasn’t planning on buying more than one book since I’m saving up, however, the book just seemed to scream “buy me! Take me home, and read me while you lie on your bed!”, so I added it to my purchase at the last minute simply to make the book’s imaginary voice shut up.

Oh yeah, I definitely am crazy at times.