about two weeks ago, the custom-made bed with shelf headboard was delivered to our flat. since only chief was home to welcome the furniture to our nuclear family, he unloaded books and dvd’s from our renegade balikbayan boxes and proceeded to arrange them in regimental order.
just last week, i decided to browse through the items he arranged and came upon a strange title among the books. the facts behind the helsinki roccamatios, a novel by yann martel (of the life pf pi fame), hardbound, its jacket in pristine condition and the plastic wrap still intact. and i was immediately struck by this heart-warming idea that chief is exerting some effort to read the kinds of stories that i like. so i left it at that.
the facts about the helsinki roccamatios by yann martel
then just three days ago, i decided to go up to chief and ask him where he got the book. he looks me over quizzically and says, “it’s not mine.”
i return the puzzled look to say, “it’s not mine either.”
“don’t be absurd, it’s yours.”
“no, it’s not.”
“it’s yours.”
“it can’t be mine. i have no yann martel book of my own.”
“yes you have, and there it is.”
as i quickly pull the book off the shelf, my eyes immediately catch the colors on its jacket and i am suddenly filled with recognition.
“yep, it’s mine, all right.”
this is supposed to join the other books from this sale-frenzied entry.
i think i have a lot of inventorying to do. and some cruel learning that i can’t keep buying books and forgetting about them. oh, those poor things, neglected and so new. they’re just screaming to be taken out of the plastic wrap…
but they were all so beautiful and so tempting on that sale rack, i can’t just leave them there! they need happy homes. like our littered shelf.
CornerSeat 
this post reminds me of me…
=)
haha i’m glad someone can relate.
have i ever told you that I don’t actually read books. sure i’ve read a few, but in general i like to read short articles. the fact that a book is more than a few pages long already bores me. i think the most complex book I ever read was Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan and some other author. I also like to read “science stuff”, I even tried reading A Brief History of Time by stephen hawking especially the section about black holes and singularities, but realised that it was just too heavy on the head. Now, I’ve pretty much relegated my intellectuality to comics and graphic novels – which are different kind of literature altogether I have to say.
i just discovered the beauty of comics and graphic novels late last year…