We first heard about Popular Bookstore from one of Ambeth Ocampo's status messages in his Facebook page. The actual store was familiar, we passed by it a couple of times before while running errands, the name just didn't register and we never got around to checking it out. Ambeth's status reminded us of the shop, and being book hounds, bf and I trotted off to check their wares.
Contrary to what you might think when seeing the store from the outside, Popular Bookstore is not a big, flashy bookstore. It exuded a mom-and-pop store vibe.
We arrived around 30mins before closing time. The first thing I noticed was how quiet the place was. No mechanical sounds, no chatting salesladies, even the patrons were very quiet. In the upper floor, it was even more quiet. That time, bf and I were the only ones browsing in the upper floor. I was surprised to see a youngster (the owner's child perhaps?) just sitting there, probably to watch customers and prevent shoplifters.
 |
| Popular Bookstore (from their Web site) |
Before coming to Popular, we were expecting the place to be a haven full of unique and dirt-cheap books. We love places like that. However, upon checking out some of the books that caught my attention, I was disappointed to see that the books were very expensive. Many of the books there looked a little old, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them were already out of print hence the high price.
I bought a local personal finance book for P395. Bf had better luck finding inexpensive books that appealed to him and got the following: Looking Back Part 3 (P95), an Andres Bonifacio book (for a whoa price of P11), and How To Read a Book (P120).
I went outside while bf took his sweet time perusing the books (good thing the store owners were nice enough not to kick him out for making them stay beyond their closing time). I spent those minutes staring and admiring the painting outside the store. Man, I loved that painting. Very colorful and vibrant, but not too loud. Too bad I didn't have a camera that time. There were several other paintings in different sizes, some of them matching. Don't forget to check them out when you visit Popular.
Popular Bookstore
#305 Tomas Morato Avenue
Quezon City, Metro Manila
Popular Bookstore Web site
No comments:
Post a Comment