Reading-related memberships

I finally caved and got a two-year membership at Kinokuniya. I should have done this earlier, but I kept putting it off because I kept telling myself that books are cheaper in the Philippines. Which is true, but then the selection generally isn’t as good. I finally went and got the card, telling myself that I’ll be able to make up the membership fee since I’ll be getting:

  1. All of Kamio Yoko’s Hana Yori Dango,
  2. All of Takaya Natsuki’s Fruits Basket, and
  3. Garth Nix’s Keys to the Kingdom series

…among others. Just getting all of Hanadan within two years actually makes up for the membership fee already! I bought a couple of things today and already got a discount of a bit over six dollars.

I remember when we were children, our parents got us memberships at one Armchair Reader, which is an interesting library concept: it was a pretty comfortable, borderline posh place (well, pretty usual nowadays with Starbucks dotting the cities, but as ignorant kids the huge cushy armchairs were posh) with shelves upon shelves of books of pretty much whatever genre. A membership apparently granted you free stay at the “library” for however long, where you can read whatever books that you liked, and then discounts for borrowing books. Our parents would leave us there while they do “grownup stuff” (like look for paints, lights, household fixtures, etc). I still have fond memories of the place and feel sad they shut down a long time ago.

I’d have to say, though, that aside from these two and the usual school library memberships, I haven’t been part of anything else that’s reading-related. That’s kind of sad, although as a kid I don’t seem to have suffered adversely from the lack of it.

4 comments

  • I don’t have any of the books yet :s I’m a bit of a stickler for having series books in one edition! :(

  • I really need to get the rest of the Keys to the Kingdom series. I only have the first three :(

    There are a lot of reading-related organizations here in the Philippines now and I’ve been trying to find the time to join one but sadly, I still haven’t made it to even one meeting.

  • Thank you! Yes, and I believe they also have stores in the US. :) As for Armchair Reader, naturally there are public libraries in the Philippines, but I think this was a bit more of a specialty sort of shop/library. I was still quite young to understand the mechanics of the membership/etc, so I probably am missing out on a lot of the specifics!

  • Congratulations on getting the membership. I’m thinking it’s a Japanese chain? From the Japanese site it has… lol.

    The library- would it be like the public library in the US or Japan, where you just sit there and read and then rent books?
    I didn’t know there were libraries where you had to pay to rent books. :O

    I hope you’re enjoying the books you are reading right now! Still the beginning of July and 20 books already is pretty impressive!

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