Running into old books in thrift stores is like bumping into old acquiantances or friends. Last week, I stopped by Books for Less at the SM Mall of Asia not really thinking I’d buy anything; but there it was sitting on a shelf near the entrance.
The book was The Tattooed Map by Barbara Hodgson and published by Chronicle Books. I first saw the book way back in 1999 at the now-closed Powerbooks Branch along Arnaiz Avenue. I had just graduated from college and was a couple of months into my first job as an Account Manager at an advertising agency. The job was getting to me and I liked losing myself in the bookshelves of the store.
The Tattooed Map was a heavily illustrated book and would inevitably draw comparisons to Nick Bantock’s Griffin and Sabine series (a college favorite of mine). I wasn’t ready to but it at the time, so every couple of lunchtimes I went to Powerbooks to read a few pages of the book. I didn’t get very far and the book remained unread and unsought for years.
That is, until I saw it sitting on a shelf in Books for Less near closing time. So I finally bought it and now waits to be fully read and relished.
