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.