23/08/2025
i started collecting books back when i was 11 years old. ive outgrown them at 15. but now that im 22, i realized that letting go is a completely different story.
at 5th grade, i learned the value of saving my money down to the last centavo just to buy what i had then categorized as a ‘need’ instead of a simple ‘want’. i remember scouring every single nbs, fully booked, filbar’s, shopwise, pandayan, and even 7/11s every.single.time just to check their shelves. it’s a wonder how my family and relatives survived what i was like every time we went out 😆. it feels like every purchase story i have, they have an equal story of me purchasing it too 😅.
it was my first ever obsession before i even knew what the word meant. collecting books felt like my biggest project then, a hyper fixation, a passion— it was the first real thing ive ever spent my money on, sacrificing a very big window of my very small allowance. they were my very first “baby”; the very first i consciously called my “own.”
i spent four long years actively collecting them, but my dream of having a bookshelf lasted far longer than that. even though ive outgrown reading them at 9th grade, still, i lost count of how many times i mentally renovated our house just to make space for my books. alas, the bookshelf was never built. the books remained kept under my bed, barely seeing the light— and barely even seeing me.
that’s why ive come to a decision to sell them— back in 2020 😆. ate, five years later na AHAHAHHA. recognizing the problem and the solution was easy, but ahahhsbwbdha ang hirap pala pag gagawin na 🥹.
then finally, one day, i found an apartment where i could fully display all of them 🙇🏻♀️🫶🏻. it felt surreal. fulfilling. believe me when i tell you i stared at them for an unhealthy amount of time and had discussed them repeatedly with imaginary viewers— but we’re not gonna detail that anymore 😅😅.
unfortunately, though, i had to move again. meaning, i have to leave the shelf behind and return my books back into the boxes once more.
i guess the universe really just wanted me to experience what it felt like displaying them on a bookshelf and marveling at them, even if only for a while. at least i got the chance to appreciate the blood and sweat ive poured into my collection.
it felt wrong to just proceed with selling them without first commemorating the history and memories i shared with it. so below are some (there’s more where they came from 😅) pictures throughout the years i was collecting 🤗💫.
i know this sounds overly dramatic but bear with me pls HAHAHA.
i feel like im writing all these not because im attached to the books themselves, but because it feels like im letting go of a big chunk of my childhood and early adolescence. back then, this was who i was and who ive known myself to be.
this is a version of myself that a lot of you havent had the chance to meet. and long before i found the people who helped shape the person im becoming, it was these books that first molded me.
here’s to growing up and learning how to let go… i guess. 🥂
posting the books for sale tomorrow 😉📚 (habang tomotolo ang luha k)