On Sharing the Love of Reading
I have always loved reading.
When I was in high school, I read more than I did for my classes, and I read more than I wrote. The only problem was my lack of budget for good books. The only bookstore around Vigan area is National BookStore, which houses books too pricey for some bookworms.
Good thing I had good friends who are well-off enough to purchase their own books and had the same taste as I did.
When I started working, one of the joys that I got to enjoy was the satisfaction of smelling a crisp new book, touching a perfect non-creased spine, browsing over the non-yellowed pages, and internally screaming with the realization that I now have the means to go get myself a new and decent book. I am aware that not everyone has this privilege, though, especially in my hometown.
This led me to create this page with the desire to share the love of reading that is less pulled down by the weight of price tags.
Aklatan sa Vigan is an online thrift-shop which offers really cheap books. I only upload books for sale every four or six months, but everytime that I upload, all the books actually get sold. I continue to receive messages from people who are thanking me for bringing low-cost books to Ilocos (yes, pun intended).
This bookstore is more of an advocacy, really. Through my networks and the people who were inspired by Aklatan sa Vigan, I was able to collect more than 150 books and donate it to the Vigan City public library.
Reading is something worth sharing-- even when the consequences are far from being favorable, which, in my case, includes the hassle of looking for books, invoicing orders, transporting those books from Manila to Vigan, and meeting up with customers, especially since the fare and other expenses incurred from transportation and meetups are shouldered by me so that the very minimal profit from the book sales may be used to help make the Vigan public library a lot better.
Nevertheless, this doesn't stop here. I'm still looking forward to more opportunities to share the love of reading. Padayon!
