A Day with Percy Jackson, Moleskine and NBI

The day was February 10, 2010, a Wednesday. It was supposed to be my first day at the new job but I got a call telling me to report the next day instead. I was all dressed up already so I decided to spend the rest of the day securing a new NBI clearance which I had to submit for work anyway.

My first NBI clearance was 4 years old already. They are only valid for a year actually. I got my first a long time ago from the main NBI office and that was a grueling experience I have no intentions to relive.

Anyway, I knew about the NBI kiosk at SM Megamall so I went there that Wednesday afternoon at almost exactly 3 PM. I read a few blogs about this process and thankfully my own experience wasn’t as unfortunate as the others. I was in and out of that place in less than 20 minutes!

But let’s rewind back to a couple of hours before that. After reading a few traumatic accounts of this NBI renewal process, I decided to go to National Bookstore first to get a copy of Percy Jackson book 4, The Battle of the Labyrinth. Strangely, they did not have a single copy of any Percy Jackson book available. All five books were out of stock!

So I just proceeded to the NBI kiosk and was delighted to see the absence of a long queue! I planned on reading Percy Jackson while waiting in line. Turns out I would not have had the time to read after all.

With my new NBI clearance inside my envelope, I went to see if Powerbooks had the PJ book I wanted. To my surprise, right at the entrance was a table dedicated to the Percy Jackson series itself. There’s even a poster of the movie right beside it. But to my dismay, the clerk told me only books 2, 3 and 5 were available. They had the hardbound 5-book set selling for 3,239 pesos! Tempting but I can only afford the paperbacks right now.

I went back to the MRT Ortigas station with no new Percy Jackson book on hand. It was a long wait for the northbound train to come so I took out my trusty old Creative Zen mp3 player and Sennheiser HD-205 to listen to some Christian songs. That’s how I cheer myself up nowadays. Listen to worship songs.

I might have looked like a pretentious idiot in the crowd with that huge DJ headphones but I don’t mind. I like my music as close to audiophilic quality as possible.

After 3 jam-packed trains scooted across the station, I was finally able to squeeze myself onto the fourth one.

As my train passed by Santolan all the way to Quezon Ave., I had a huge grin across my face as I saw each station sporting a Percy Jackson billboard ad.

It’s the one where he acts like Moses because he’s in between two walls of water. The same one I saw at Powerbooks. I hope the marketing for this movie here paid well. I loved the movie by the way and have seen it 3 times!

Upon reaching Trinoma, I dropped by one of my favorite secondhand bookstores. It looked like it wasn’t God’s will for me to get the fourth Percy Jackson book that day but I wasn’t gonna let myself get back home without a new book in my bag. I felt like another book was waiting for me again. That’s how I got my last book purchase which now dearly holds a special place in my bookish heart.

I chanced upon the trade paperback fictions which sell for as low as 90 pesos. After much internal bleeding struggle, I got “Island From Home”. I chose it over “Master and Commander”. It’s the more juvenile option but I got it anyway just for kicks. Then I took a picture of the store or stall rather, for what else? For this blog post!

Upon arriving at SM North Edsa, I felt myself being pulled into National Bookstore again. Obviously, I’m a hard-headed bookworm. I wasn’t giving up that easily on Percy Jackson. But I’m sure you know what happened. The fourth book was probably available at their Bestsellers branch at the Annex building but I didn’t bother going there anymore because my feet were dead sore from all those walking. So that’s how my search for Percy ended that day.

Oh wait, rewind back again to Powerbooks Megamall. (Get used to it. This is how my mind works. It’s a huge mess, really.) I also checked out the expensive Moleskine notebooks. How expensive? The pocket sized notebook costs 795 pesos while the bigger ones are around 1800 pesos! Yeah, just for a notebook. Obviously, this is not your ordinary school notebook.

I was surprised to see these expensive contraptions at National Bookstore because previously I thought Fullybooked was the only bookstore that carried them.

They are thread bound, have leather covers, straps and acid-free paper. The pages won’t yellow with time. Therefore, they’re perfect for archival purposes. What could be so special that would merit getting written on such pricey paper? I have no idea. Nonetheless, there are legions of sketchers, diarists and wannabe writers out there who would swear by their Mol-a-skeen-a! (That’s how it’s pronounced.)

Me? I don’t see myself riding the Moleskine bandwagon ever. Any white sheet of paper would do for me. For instance, I wrote this article on several small index cards. I’ve been using them whenever I’m not in front of WriteMonkey.

I simply can’t justify spending 800 bucks for a few blank pages. It’s insane. If Apple is the king of the most unreasonably priced notebook computers, then Moleskine is its paper notebook counterpart.

I’d rather buy “The Hunger Games” which costs just as much and is sure to be more fun to read than my (mostly) nonsense scribbles. That was a joke of course. I like thinking I’m the best writer there is in this quiet, little corner of the web.