Book-hunting? Read this.

If you're an avid reader, you may probably know the best places to bookhunt for bargain sales.

In National Bookstore, they have a section featuring classics that cost around 70, 85, 99 and 125 pesos. That's really cheap considering that these are classics and can mostly be used for homeworks like book reviews. They sell editions in a green, thin paper cover and all these cost around P99. Titles include: The Secret Garden, Little Women, Gullivers Travels, Frankinstein etc. If you don't like the green thin paper covers..an if you're really lucky like me, you can buy classics for also P99 but the covers have pictures in them. Find these publishers: Dover thrift edition and Penguin Classics. The novels are thick, and sometimes I also wonder why they're so inexpensive. Titles include: Ivanhoe, Scarlett pimpernel, Scarlett letter, Huck Finn, David Copperfield, A Chirstmas carol..etc.

Sometimes National Bookstore goes on SALE up to 70% I think. The best buys I had so far are A Christmas Carol (P50) and the Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man (P30).

The cheapest probably are the BOOKSALE outlets (my favorite) that have opened in almost all the malls. Not only do you find classics here but also popular novels. You will be surprised at how good the quality of the books still are. You can also find computer books, children's books, magazines, textbooks, references, comics, autobiographies... Sometimes they also sell new items like medical & nursing handbooks & dictionaries. If you're really patient with bookhunting, you will find a lot of popular novels like the Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons (P125), Sisterhood of the Travelling PAnts, Master and Commander, Under the Tuscan Sun, White Oleander.. but you have to always go to that BookSale outlet bec. there are a lot of bookhunters out there who, like you, are very keen in finding the most popular ones. One of the best finds I had there so far is a hardbound Memoirs of a Geisha book worth P350 (still good quality). Sometimes books are the same but priced differently, e.g., one book of Divine Secrets of Yaya Sisterhood cost P70 but when I look in another corner, there I find the same book worth only P15.

My best buys in BOOKSALE: Persuasion (P40) and Gone with the Wind (P90) which sells for 300+ in National Bookstore.

3rd is Books-for-Less., here most books are on bargain but they're more expensive than Booksale. Comparison: Little Altars Everywhere in Booksale (70 to 100), in Books-for-Less 150 to 185. But in this store the books are arranged properly. You will know where fiction is, or where the suspense thrillers are. Danielle Steel books are also put together and so are books from Oprah's books club that's why you will really know what to look for. Here also, it's airconditioned and there are big, comfy sofas where you can just sit, relax and read. There's also an area for children where they can squat with other kids and enjoy their first ABC's.

Sometimes when they're really desperate, they opt to really lowering their prices and going on 2 for P99 or 3 for P150. One time I went to National B..and I found this classic named Age of Innocence worth P99 but I didn't buy it. Then I went to Books-for-Less, and found the same book worth P20!! I bought it and mine's better cause it has Michelle Pfeifer's picture in it as she plays the lead character in the movie rendition of the book.

Share your bookhunting adventures with me.