Warehouses are for Tagalog Action Film Finales

I did not have plans of going to the National Bookstore warehouse sale that day. All I know is that I was going eat that day - the cheat day way (I think like this every day, so this wasn't really special). But I was going to have brunch with twins Fati & Thea - both bookworms since I met both of them in college.

"Let's meet around 11, after we go to the National sale," said Fati.

"The sale. I've forgotten about that," I thought. Then I texted back the grand plan. "Let's all meet at the sale."

And so we did. It was Saturday. I was there before the store opened (and before Fat and Thea), and there was already a long line from the ground, leading to the giant warehouse on the fourth floor.

While falling in line, these were some of the interesting conversations I heard from the crowd of mostly bespectacled college girls carrying backpacks.

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Girl 1: Nagpunta friend ko kahapon, madami din daw tao.

Girl 2: Ano nabili niya?

Girl 1: Breaking Dawn daw. Yung totoo? Nakigulo ka sa ganito kadaming tao para bumili ng Breaking Dawn?

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Girl 1: Ano ba bibilin mo?

Girl 2: Yung sinusulatan, yung mabango?

Girl 1: Stationery!

Me thinking: These people are so young, they don't know what stationery is called.

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So when I reached the main hall, this is what I saw.

My immediate thoughts:

1. MRT.

2. Where are the book? There are more people than books.

3. This is why we must start embracing e-books. Less paper, less fuel, less time wasted.

4. I'm stressed.

5. I wanna eat.

6. Wait. I hate Sale days. What am I doing here?

My phone rang. It was Fati. "Where are you," she said. "Right here beside a wall that says SALE," i said, but I was trolling since every wall says SALE. I looked for a space where there are less people and found this spot:

"Let's meet by the Christmas trees," I said and it took the twins about five minutes to find me. 

"Eh let's leave," said the bookworm twins who love bargain books, but obviously thought it was a good idea to stay and rummage through the literally hard to find books. (There were indeed stacks of Breaking Dawn paperbacks with the movie tie-in cover.)

But the twins won't leave without buying something of courese. So that day of the National Bookstore Warehouse Sale, we went to the Quezon Avenue branch to buy... bottled water. Yes, that's what we got.

On the way out, we passed by the actual National Book Store where the regular-priced books are housed. We stayed and browsed through the shelve. We all found something we like and one of these books is the big one somewhere in this picture:

Day off with the twins!

A photo posted by Elvin (@elvinelvinelvin) on Aug 14, 2015 at 8:05pm PDT

And so we're happy again. That day of he National Bookstore warehouse sale, I realized that there's no need to break-up with paper books just yet. Ebooks are fine but you can't hug them when you're sad or burn them when it's the day after tomorrow and you're stuck while it's freezing outside.