Bookaholics Anonymous

Hi I’m Jela and I’m a bookaholic.



After barely surviving Powerbooks’ month-long book sale last August – barely because I still bought 2 books during the sale period (technically, I only got 1 book on sale since John Grisham’s The Appeal wasn’t part of the sale. Pfft.) – here comes National Bookstore’s own month-long book sale! Arrgh!

My trips to bookstores almost always end up in two scenarios: either 1) I will go out of the store some bucks poorer clutching books I had never planned on buying in the first place; or 2) I will go out of the store empty-handed but feeling like I lost a friend.

Lately scenario 2 keeps on happening and that’s only because I’ve done a lot of scenario 1 before! I have to exercise all kinds of restraint not to buy more books to add to my growing collection of books in various state of UNREAD – i.e. unfinished books whether I only manage to skim a few words or already halfway through before putting it down indefinitely; books still covered in plastic wrapping. As of last count, my unread books number to almost 30 and don’t that make you panic a bit?

There has to be a support group or something for people like me who likes to binge on books (I binge on other things as well but that’s another story). I totally could not rely on my friends because instead of helping me discipline myself, THEY JUST PRESSURE ME TO BUY MORE, JEN.

And because I’m a masochist who enjoys tormenting herself more, I went to National Bookstore earlier and managed to add more titles to my Books-I-so-want-like-NOW list before I hastily exited from the store:

From National Bookstore:

1. The Satanic Verses [Salman Rushdie]
2. Midnight Children [Salman Rushdie]
3. Rant [Chuck Palahniuk]
4. Snuff [Chuck Palahniuk]
5. Lisey’s Story [Stephen King]
6. Duma Key [Stephen King]
7. Airman [Eoin Colfer]
8. Final Warning (Maximum Ride series book 4) [James Patterson]
9. Thirteenth Tale [Diane Setterfield]
10. Atlas Shrugged [Ayn Rand]
11. The Race [Richard North Patterson]

Other Books On My List

1. Tales of Beedle The Bard [J.K. Rowling] (but Joy’s getting this for me! Woo hoo!)
2. Kafka On The Shore [Harumi Murakami]
3. Brisingr [Christopher Paolini]
4. Never Let Me Go [Kazuo Ishiguro]
5. The Inheritance of Loss [Kiran Desai]
6. On Chesil Beach [Ian McEwan]
7. Labyrinth [Kate Mosse]
8. Lullaby [Chuck Palahniuk]
9. Invisible Monsters [Chuck Palahniuk]
10. Dangerous Books For Boys [Hal Iggulden]
11. Stranded [Greil Marcus]
12. Housekeeping vs. The Dirt [Nick Hornby]

(Let’s not even count here the mangas I’m planning to collect…)

I just lost, like, 3 of my BFFs…