The return of the book hoarder

It was bound to happen: I finally broke my promise to not buy any books until I was done with my reading list. In fairness, here's where my book list stands:

1. About a Boy by Nick Hornby
2. Love the One You're With by Emily Giffin
3. The Other Side of the Story by Marian Keyes
4. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
5. The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
6.The Birth Order Book by Dr. Kevin Leman
7. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
8. Certain Girls by Jennifer Weiner
9. The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
10. Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult
11. The Diary by Eileen Goudge
12. Old School Ties by Kate Harrison

So I had four more books to go before all hell struck loose. By "all hell", I mean "before all bookstores decided to go on sale and have 80% off bins". Gaaaaah...

I kinda already cheated with the Powerbooks Powerbarter, which had me trading in eleven of my old books for eleven new-old books, whose titles I don't even remember now. (Classic sign of a book hoarder.)

Then I hit Fully Booked Bonifacio High Street, which held an exclusive sale for discount card holders in honor of its anniversary. I was able to get The Man of My Dreams by Curtis Sittenfeld (hardbound edition) and Brown Owl's Guide to Life by Kate Harrison (trade paperback edition) from the 80% off bin and The Accidental Bestseller by Wendy Wax and The Don't Sweat Guide for Couples at 20% off. Thank goodness their anniversary sale ended yesterday!

Powerbooks was up next, where I ended up getting two books again, The Position by Meg Wolitzer (hardbound edition) at 80% off and Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner (trade paperback edition) at 40% off. The Powerbooks sale ends on August 15, so it looks like I should steer clear until then.

Then I dropped by National Bookstore in Shangri-La yesterday and was surprised to see that all imported books have a 20% discount. Apparently, the annual Cut-Price Booksale kicked off last July 30 and runs until August 22. I already had My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares in my hands, and I was really thinking if I should get it already (trade paperback at P420?! A steal, my mind screamed). Good thing my parents called to say we were leaving, so I dropped the book like a hot potato and ran out of the bookstore before I could change my mind.

Thing is... I can't get that book off my mind! Waaaah! And it even has five star reviews on Amazon! That's totally not helping! Granted, the cover available in National is different from the one that's on Amazon (which is also the trade paperback edition available in Powerbooks), but it's also P224 cheaper. Oh no oh no oh no!!!

That means that with my new acquisitions... 11 books from Powerbarter, plus 4 books from Fully Booked, plus 2 books from Powerbooks, plus the 4 books carried over from my previous reading list... my book list is now up to 21!!! Thank goodness I'm starting to read Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger!

[Edited 07 August 2010] So I couldn't resist. I ended up getting a copy of "My Name is Memory" by Ann Brashares because I saw a copy in National Bookstore SM Megamall: it was the last piece, had the same cover as the one in Amazon, and was still cheaper than the one in Powerbooks. Original price was P675, so with the 20% discount, I was able to get it for P540. Then I also took the chance to get the P99.00 edition of "Pride and Prejudice", just so I could somehow move along on my list of 101 things in 1,001 days. So... that brings the book list to 24, including the book I received for my birthday! Yikes!