The Search for the 3 Penguins Continues

The search for a way to purchase our own copy of And Tango Makes Three continues.  In celebration of the freedom to read, Rocky and I continue to search for a way to get this book without having to sacrifice an arm and a leg.  Interestingly, Canada has its own Freedom to read event, however they hold it on a different date.  One of our attempts had us checking the Gateway branch of Fullybooked and to our horror, not only did they not have the book, but if we were to ask them to order it for us, it was to cost us $25 for the book.

Twenty-five freaking U.S. dollars.

A quick jump to Barnes & Nobles shows the exact same amount if I were to order it myself directly from them.  So what gives, Fullybooked?  I thought bookstores were supposed to help make books more accessible to people who love books?

Yesterday, Rocky had to go back to his parents' place for most of Sunday for some long needed quality time with the family.  Rather than turning into a lonely wreck (and yes I can be needy like that at times, I guiltily admit) I decided to make myself more productive by scouting around for any sign of either that book or a copy of Houses of the Blooded which our dear friend Adrian was able to dig out in a Booksale bin.  After another check to make sure my injured toe was better (and unlike what I did in Facebook, I'll spare you all the details of that here), I drove my car ABA to Gateway mall and began my book-hunting quest.

I started with the nearby Farmer's Market, where I fought the urge to distract myself from the book hunt and get Rocky some nice flowers to welcome him home with.  I decided that most of his day was already to be spent tangling with the family dog.  The last thing my asthmatic partner would need is to come home to a house contaminated with mushy intended pollen.  Walking past the blooms, I concluded the wet market did not have anyone setting up some tiny used books area and made my way to the next location on my path, Farmer's Plaza.  There, I located the branch of Bargain Booksale which our good friend Pao once brought us to and began looking through the shelves for any signs of the two.  Sadly, the only real interesting thing I saw was a series of tiny hard bound books on Faries, Dragons and Goblins, which I would have purchased had not this middle-aged mom snagged them from the shelves and in what I deemed to be long-concealed glee, began perusing each page while hosting a smile that almost literally filled her face.  I wondered how long she had been hoping to find those books again.  Bargain Booksale tends to have that effect at times.  I do hope she decided to finally buy them.

From Farmer's Plaza, I took the connecting bridgeway and crossed back to Gateway mall.  I stepped back into Fullybooked just to check if by any chance the book I wanted was actually there.  No such luck (which wasn't really a surprise.  Fullybooked seems to overstock Neil Gaiman and other hot moving books more than rare ones anyway.) and so I decided to take a dive into the four-storey branch of National Bookstore which was not too far away.  There, almost two hours were spent scanning almost fifteen different bargain shelves for any sign of interesting books after realizing the penguin book and roleplaying game books were unheard of in this branch.

But still, I didn't want to give up.   I walked out of Gateway, and crossed over to the Shopwise side where another branch of Bargain Booksale stood.  It was in this very branch that Adrian found the copy of Houses of the Blooded.  Alas, no dice.  The shop did however have over seven new brown boxes of books that had yet to be marked in their inventory and opened for the public to peruse.  Definitely good signs to go back and recheck that branch in due time.

Already that far from where I left my car, I decided to walk to Cubao X and check if by any chance the other stores there might have any curiosities worth bringing home.  I was also wondering if there was a chance to get the tradepaper back comic I won at the recent 24-Hour comic competition which had some sort of an awarding thing at Sputnik.  But (yeah, it was the pattern for that day) no stores had anything worth bringing home and Sputnik comics was definitely closed.   On the way back, I saw a tiangge with a sign that proclaimed "new stock."  The dusty place however had nothing worth purchasing save for a boxed set of a Murder Mystery Game which I might have purchased had it not been lacking in its contents.

So I decided to at least end the day with an attempt to get either iOmega DVDs for our data backing up, or a new PS3 game to surprise Rocky with.  I knew I would be stupid to give in to the urge to hunt for a new Transformer that Rocky wanted, given the financial saving up necessary to ensure we can visit Boracay this November.  Unlike some people, we did have to earn the money we spend on trips, you see.

To my disappointment, the fun zombie-attack-while-trapped-at-a-mall game Dead Rising 2 was only allowing multiplayer options online and had no 2-player offline mode.  While it was affordable in price for a new game, it didn't offer Rocky and me a chance to play together the way games like Dynasty Warriors or Little Big Planet did.

But I guess the day ended with a happy note.  After nearly a month of not having it in stock, CD-R King finally had replenished their stock of iOmega DVD-Rs and I quickly purchased a set of fifty for us to get back into hygienically reorganizing our data files.

So yes, the search for the book on two gay penguins and their kid continues.
Maybe other than that, I can try at least getting some people to consider reading other options that have been banned in the past.  Rocky was even teasing that we dive into the Twilight series since it was one of the books that was banned from a library.  The idea scares me.   It does.

But the idea of books being banned scares me more.