5K worth of Christmas delight!

Mode: Hand poised with my pen on a clean sheet of paper - ready to start on my Sociology homework. Eyes on the blank table that is supposed to be my latest blog entry - had been started with a title. Mind running through a stream of fresh new scenes to fill up my planned storyline - very distracting and debatable.

After a few minutes of silent cognitive argument I decided to go for my blog entry.

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Christmas is coming soon and for the last five years I've had since entering pubescence, it's a wonder how I could actually feel "excitement" at last! Growing up, I had always thought that the gifts and money we receive would attenuate when we reach adolescence. True enough, I had a degrading number of bonuses wavering from that cuddly, brown teddy bear when I was 10 to a tiny, brown teddy bear figurine when I turned 12. I learned not to expect too much nor to get over-excited for the holidays to come.

Just when I thought my annual bright-lit holiday would get any stagnant, a great announcement came from my dad in Manila! This coming 26th of December, my family and I will be leaving the confines of our old Zamboanga home to catch a morning plane flying over Mindanao and Visayas and landing on Luzon's Metro Manila for a week-long Post-Christmas and New Year vacation! And I thought I could never age in reverse!

The awesome news came last October. I wasn't too keen on the trip because thinking of the streets and atmosphere of Metro Manila brings back memories of back-flipping tummies and the familiar small, window-like openings of barf bags. Traveling long distances in a closed, air-conditioned, highly apple-scented vehicle in addition to the scorching heat and polluted air of Metro Manila has never really been a looking-forward-to event in every vacation I took.

So it had me quite a few weeks before the real excitement of the whole trip sunk in. This time, as girls who can be rather dependable in handling money and - okay, honestly saying - a rare occasion is at hand, we are each bestowed with an anonymous amount of money as allowances for anything we might want to indulge in the glorious luxury of the malls of Manila. With the idea that the money could be big, my mind tugged at the old heartstrings I had kept quiet for a long time now - my passion for B O O K S.

I have never felt so young and jumpy over the idea of the whole trip! Sure I get to meet my cousins in the father side for the first time but nothing can ever compare to this! I'll get to walk upon the carpeted aisles of National Bookstore, Powerbooks and Fully Booked once again! I'll get to have another sniff of what a notably eminent bookstore smells! One that's got that old and fresh smell of paper and wood. Oh I greatly question why my hometown doesn't have a single popular bookstore around.

Ranting aside, I've spent the last two nights mulling over the list of books I once and recently noted to be bought by Papa. Thankfully we will have a chance to buy anything we want this time and that means that basically anything we buy with the money is totally fine because it's ours to begin with. I have made a hunch that, at most, an allowance of Php5,000.00 will be given to us. I have also visited all three of the bookstores I mentioned, online, to check for the prices and availability of each books I had listed. I'm trimming down on the costs so that I can probably save up a little more for any other souvenirs I might want to buy aside from books.

So here is the list of novels that I have taken a keen eye to lately:

Books that are unavailable on all online bookstores:

1. A Reliable Wife by Robert Goolrick

2. Tales of Beadle the Bard by J.K. Rowling

3. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

4. Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

5. Some Girls Are by Courtney Summers 

6. Fall for Anything by Courtney Summers

7. Need by Carrie Jones

I cannot believe that Courtney Summers' books aren't available in the Philippines! How could that even be possible?! I must admit that I was stupid to type in Fall for Anything 'cause this book is yet to be released on the 21st of December. But still! A single book of Summer's has never yet set foot on the Philippines? Unbelievable!

Ugh.

Moving on. This is the list of my sure-to-be-bought books:

1. The Alchemyst (The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel) by Michael Scott

2. Evernight by Claudia Gray
3. The Gemma Doyle trilogy: A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

4. The Summoning by Kelley Armstrong

5. The Awakening by Kelley Armstrong

6. The Reckoning by Kelley Armstrong

7. Lock and Key by Sarah Dessen

8. Just Listen by Sarah Dessen

9. The Mortal Instruments Series by Cassandra Clare

There are too many but I have been dying to have these! There are a lot more on my list but I can't buy the rest 'cause my elder sister already proclaimed first to own the books. I'm eye-ing The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins and Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick. It's alright, maybe we'll get to share.

One more book. I can't ever forget this one. This is the Top 1 on my list and I have already assured that I'll get my hands on it. My cousin is going to buy it for me so I clearly already own a copy of it: The Book Thief by Mark Zusak.

This is a brilliant - beyond brilliant - book. I can't imagine how I can come up with a description for it seeing that I haven't read it yet. Still. I know it is, anybody would. Just. Believe me on this. I'm lost for words. I highly recommend it. So grab a copy ASAP!

Okay, so I'm done enumerating the titles and authors and I don't know what's next to be mentioned. :D I've probably said enough. This shows though, how much I'm looking forward to the trip. This'll be my best Christmas gift my parents and I can give to myself - an estimated 5K worth of Christmas Book Shopping Spree! I don't know what to say, travel sickness doesn't seem like a threat to me anymore. Just one thing: December come sooner!!!