34 Struggles Only A Pinoy Bookworm Would Know

The life of a bookworm is hard, especially where we’re from. Here are 34 *struggles* only Pinoy book lovers would know. Share if you can relate! 🙂

1. Browsing through National Bookstore or Fully Booked but can’t find the book you want
2. Browsing through NBS or FB and finding ~too~ many books you want
3. Entering NBS or FB, find the book but your wallet is empty so you have to leave your babies behind. T_T
4. Running your hands through their spines and whispering “I’ll come back for you~” and earn a weird look from other customers
5. Hiding Strategically placing the books on the shelves and praying to God no one picks them up until you have enough funds to buy said hidden book
6. Risking varicose veins because you’re reading the books on the aisles for hours on end
7. Why don’t we have public libraries that have actual books, anyways??
8. Seeing a really rare edition of a classic (hardbound, gilded pages, the works) and falling in love with it. Then you see the price tag and collapse into a fetal position and cry
9. Wondering how many lunch breaks or jeep rides you’ll be skipping just to add to your Book Fund
10. Doing other people’s homework just to add money to the Book Fund
11. Selling a body part just to add money to the Book Fund
12. Spending 4 hrs at Booksale in search for a good read but all you find are old versions of Twilight :/
13. Selling your book babies because you need school books
14. Scouring the internet for cheap books and trying to determine if this shop is a scam or not. Also why do they call me “sis”.
15. Encountering the words abbreviations HM, SF and VGC for the first time (They mean How Much, Shipping Fee and Very Good Condition, respectively)
16. Using all the haggling skills you learned just to get the lowest price
17. Waiting a solid month or two for the mailman to deliver your books
18. Going to the post office just to find out u have to pay extra (!) for the books. I mean, seriously?!
19. Meeting up with strangers in malls and jeep terminals because they’ve gots the goods
20. Waiting 30 minutes for said strangers to show up and taking 5 seconds for the actual transaction to happen.
21. Learning how to send money through Palawan express lol
22. Camping outside the mall for your favorite author’s book signing
23. Keeping pesky receipts just to have your books signed, too.
24. Not making the cutoff for book signings!
25. Spending a small fortune on merch
26. Those subscription boxes look so cute but the Book Fund is steadily dwindling so you have to think of other creative ways to supplement it.
27. Finally deciding to try a subscription box but they don’t ship to your area T_T
28. Looking at all those cool bookstagram shelves  and realizing youre too lazy to organize your pile of books on your shelf
29. Wait, you don’t have a shelf
30. Losing your book babies to a typhoon
31. Losing your book babies to people who borrow them but never return them! That hurts so much worse.
32. Letting people borrow your beloved books and people return them with creased spines or dog ears. Monsters!
33. Parents or peers not understanding your “obsession” for books. They’re insisting you spend your money on other “important” things instead, like clothes. AS IF.
34. Trying your best not to buy books but you simply can’t stop.