Read or Die

I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon browsing books at various stalls at the 28th Manila International Book Fair at the World Trade Center in Pasay with Terrie and Carrie. Can't say it wasn't productive, but I have to admit, it was depressing. Depressing because I don't have the resources to buy all the books I want to buy. Well, let's face it, I'll never have enough resources to all the books I want. Nevertheless, I did walk away with six books for Ben and one book for myself.

To be honest, I have more books that I can read. In fact, my reading list is way too long now. But I've always been a reader. Not a voracious reader, but I read quite a bit. I remember when I was in elementary school, I would go through several library cards in a year because of all the books I borrowed. When I was in the States, I spent countless hours in the school and public libraries. Over the years, I must have read hundreds and hundreds of books, if I haven't passed the thousand-book barrier yet. I don't know, there's just something about books that draws me in. And it's very rare that I go into a bookstore that I come out without making a purchase.

Last night, my friend Terrie cited a quote that goes something like book collecting is for the gently mad. I guess we are all partly mad, since we all look at ourselves as book collectors of sort. Me, I so love the smell of new books; it's addictive. I hope that Ben will also grow up loving books. I've started him early, buying him books and reading to him at night. I want him to know that books are not only great entertainment, but great learning tools too. These days he loves looking at picture books, and he can read some of his books now, those especially written for his age. I hope he'll grow up to be a book collector too. Oh nothing like the book collectors of first editions and rare stuff, but kind of like me.

I also bought some postcards of old photographs from Bookmark at the book fair. The photo of a Chinese cobbler caught my eye. I thought it a beautiful picture so I bought the set, 12 photos in all, taken from around the turn of the last century (circa 1900s). I'm sharing some of them now (I'll post all of them in my Multiply site):

This picture of a Chinese cobbler caught my eye

A banana vendor

Executioner (well, this picture was kind of unsettling. I don't know
if the guy is really being executed or he just posed for the picture.)

We also bought a shirt that with "Read or Die" printed on it. You sure are missing out on life if you're not reading.