Any serious booklover will tell you that this is the most crucial time of the year for us. The annual sales of PowerBooks and National Bookstore occur on August and September, respectively, and the annual Philippine Bookfair kicks off in September. Plus, Not Page One is having a minor sale of their own, with some interesting titles (Haruki Murakami's Underground [at half-price!], Brian Aldiss's Supertoys Last All Summer Long and Other Tales of the Future, etc.). For me, it's usually a time to complete certain collections: the Calvin & Hobbes collections, the Far Side collections, Tintin, Asterix, A Series of Unfortunate Events, Jeff Noon, Chuck Palahniuk, Douglas Coupland [All Families are Psychotic still isn't out on softcover], etc. Sometimes you'll find inconsistencies: for example, in PowerBooks Arnaiz, Calvin & Hobbes books are 50% off, but in PowerBooks Tower Records, they're only on 20-30% off (but it's too late, all the C & H books at Arnaiz are gone).

Some people I know, like Gina Sales, seem to spend a couple thousand during these two months alone so that they have enough books to tide them over, and they don't need to buy another book until next August.

Of course, all the serious booklovers I know have at least 10 books on their shelves they still haven't gotten around to reading. Some of these books I've literally had for years.

---

PJ, I saw Battle Royale first at Brash Young Cinema, and then recently borrowed Harvey's Region 3 DVD. :)