When a book series catches my fancy, I can't seem to let go and I devour one book after another of the series.
Case in point: The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson.
This an old series, mind you, written in the 70's. I bought Books 2 and 3 of the trilogy first more than a couple of years ago when I espied them at a Book Sale bin somewhere. Didn't get the first book but I decided to buy the 2 books anyway reasoning (illogically unfortunately) that Book 1 will turn up anyway one of these days in the book sale bin. I finally got myself a second-hand copy of Book 1 last month in Book Sale - Megamall so after I finished The Scar a couple of weeks back, I immediately tackled Lord Foul's Bane, the first book in the Donaldson trilogy. Today, I'm now tackling the last book of the trilogy, The Power that Preserves, and if my reading instances (instances because I don't really have that much "time" to really devote to book-reading but only have instances, snatches of quiet period when I'm free to read) do not change, I estimate to be finished by weekend, or even earlier.
Now, after finishing the third book, I'm sure to be clamoring for more of Thomas Covenant's stories so I'll most likely be hitting the book sale bins whenever and wherever possible and try to score the next set of books namely The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (trilogy) and The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (perceived to be a quadrilogy with the last book still in the works).
I recall seeing a second-hand collected The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant somewhere, just need to remember where.
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Just looking at my book purchases for the year, I see that I've so far spent a little over Php 2,000 as of today with my latest purchase being a copy of The Wizard of Oz (yes, classic fantasy) which I bought for 200 bucks and 10 at the Bibliarch branch in WalterMart - Makati while waiting for my daughter who was taking ballet classes. Out of a total 12 books comprising the aforementioned amount, brand new books edge out second-hand books by two. Book prowls to second-hand bookstores have sadly not been fruitful and I'm discovering new authors whose books have so far only appeared in places like National Bookstore, Fully Booked or Power Books, and not in Book Sale.
Last year, my book purchases totaled Php 4,278.20 for 20 books which comes out to something like Php 213.91 per book bought. This year to date, the 12 books I bought are still manageable at about Php 177.25 each but we've just hit half-way of the year. This "average spend per book" is sure to jump up.
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The Bibliarh branch in WalterMart - Makati, despite the small size and inventory, turned out to be a treasure trove of books. Aside from The Wizard of Oz, this was also where I bought Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire, the first book in the Mistborn series. I've been intrigued by Sanderson so when I saw a copy of The Final Empire while browsing the bookstore's SF&F section I immediately dished out the needed moolah. Over at the fiction section, I saw UK-edition versions of Chinia Miéville's books including The Perdido Street Station, The Scar, The Iron Council, King Rat, Un Lun Dun, Embassytown, and Looking for Jake. However, their prices were a bit on the prohibitive side. I tried other bookstores to see if they carry the more affordable editions of these books but so far I've seen none. My option for now is to save whatever I can to afford these books.
The Final Empire will most likely be the next book I'll be reading when I finish The Power that Preserves.
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And what was the reason for buying The Wizard of Oz?
Well, it's been eons since I've read the book personally but the real reason why I finally bought one is because I promised Ikai and Issa that I'll be reading to them the story of The Wizard of Oz. Yes, starting them early on the speculative fiction fare. I don't see no harm in doing so and it'll be a delight if they grow up liking the genre. If they however decide that they prefer another genre, then that's fine by me. What's more important is that they learn the value of reading early.
So far, I've been reading the story to them for a couple of evenings and we've just reached where Dorothy has met the Scarecrow. Still a long way to go along the Yellow Brick Road :)
