Surreal In This Lying World

Searching for books to borrow at the library is like rummaging through clothes in a discount shop: you just have to dig through all the crap and hope you pick up a treasure.

At least, that’s how I felt when I stepped into the library just behind my apartment. I had ten storeys worth of books to choose from, and no idea where to start. In the popular library department (for books that have just been released), I tried looking for non-fiction adventure/travel books. Ack, didn’t turn up anything. Poking my nose through the rows of fiction books was just a little less frustrating. As the books were classified by authors, unless you know which author you want, you simply have to slowly make your way through the shelves.

Which could have been a pleasurable past time - except that most of the books I picked up seem to revolve around the same tired plot lines: middle age person has led a pretty ordinary life so far, but then something happens, and his life as he knows it falls apart. Will he be able to pick up the pieces and move on? Who will come into his life and help him find himself again?

In my three hours there though, I did manage to check out some eight books (isn’t it awesome that we get to borrow 30 books at one go?) that caught my eye, including, ooh, Nick Hornby’s 31 Songs. Hehe, I was a great fan of his writing , but for some reason, the bookstores in Manila don’t seem to have a good stock of his books. Nonetheless, I think I laid my hands on most of his works, except for this one.

Escapism!