Wait a minute, where are the books — ?
People sometimes ask me what I miss the most from Arizona, now that I live in the Philippines. For me, the answer is easy: the public library. (A close second would be Mexican food.)
In 1993 my wife and I seriously considered moving here to Davao permanently. We even came over and lived here for six weeks as a kind of test drive. No internet then, no bookstores that carried foreign books – the best you could do was a few foreign magazines. No Skype or Magicjack, either, back then long distance to the U.S. was about 80 cents a minute.
Now, of course, life here on Mindanao is completely different. Internet is available nearly everywhere, and although the available choices aren’t always as fast or reliable as we might like, internet service is reasonably priced and the bandwidth is adequate for most purposes.
But having internet isn’t the same as being able to go to the library. Where I came from (Phoenix) the public library has about 600,000 books, and if that isn’t enough, the university library has another 4.5 million volumes.
You won’t find anything like that here. There is a city library, with about 42,000 books, but, shockingly, providing foreigners with a supply of the latest English-language best-sellers does not seem to appear anywhere in its mission statement. There is a bookstore chain, National Bookstore, with stores in the malls, which carries a small selection of books in English, and there are small shops that sell used paperbacks. So if you read a lot, you’ll probably need to get books from outside.
Personally, I like libraries. I can’t imagine life without books. From early childhood to the day we got on a plane to move to the Philippines, I probably averaged at least one or two library visits a week.
But I also like tropical seashore, and that’s hard to come by in America unless you’re a whole lot richer than I am.
Fortunately for me, Amazon solved that dilemma by inventing the Kindle. For those who haven’t heard of it – and I was surprised at how many of the ex-pats I run into here haven’t – the Kindle is an e-book reader. Amazon has more than a million titles available for the Kindle, and nowadays essentially every new book published is available as a Kindle book.
When you want to buy a book, you simply search for it on Amazon’s web site, buy it online with a credit card, and it downloads automatically to your Kindle. A single Kindle will hold literally hundreds of books, and the battery lasts at least a week or so between charges under normal use.
You don’t even need a computer. You can browse for books and purchase them right on the Kindle. All you need is WiFi, which you can find in most internet cafes, many coffee shops, hotels, etc., and the Kindle will connect automatically.
The Kindle editions of most books cost less, often much less, than the dead trees editions. And best of all, many U.S. libraries nowadays have large collections of Kindle books – you just go to the library web site, check out the books you want, and they download themselves to your Kindle, for free.
Although Kindles are not generally available for sale here in the Philippines, it is possible to order one from the Amazon.com web site. I just did that, after breaking my old one (they are quite sturdy, but like any electronic device with a screen, not unbreakable). By the time you add in the shipping charge and the import duty it turns a $69 item into a $120 item, but for a machine that lets me carry hundreds of books around in my pocket, I consider that a bargain.
So my advice to anyone coming here to live is: if you like to read, bring a Kindle. Might even want to bring two, in case you break one. Don’t plan on being able to get the reading materials you want in bookstores here, bookstores are few and the selection is very limited. But with a Kindle, the world of books is just a few clicks away.
Now if someone would just open a good Mexican restaurant . . .
Thanks for the article, Jack.
I’ll second the request for a good Mexican restaurant.
I don’t own a Kindle, but just got done reading a book on my iPhone via iBooks. It would be nice to have a larger screen, for sure. I will note that the Kindle software is available on the iPhone and iPad, too, so you can still take advantage of those books that are Kindle exclusive if you have those devices instead.
I did stop by National Bookstore to see if they had this classic, but their selection was very small. If I keep reading more I’ll have to look into a better solution. I like the price of the Kindle.
As a guy who works in US publishing & recently moved to Davao, I can relate to the dearth of book selections. Choices have certainly improved though, and I would recommend Fully Booked in Abreeza because it’s a national chain that models itself in the mold of Barnes&Noble type stores — Much better than National Bookstore (though the latter has lower prices, the stock is fairly limited choices).
Regarding online purchases, Amazon is a dependable site for sure, but try checking out http://www.bookdepository.com. It’s a UK based online bookstore that offers FREE shipping delivery all over the world including the Philippines. Local bibliophile friends prefer to buy their books from there.
Kindle & other e-book devices have been a major help in expanding readers choices. A luxury that wasn’t even available not long ago. Another option (though this might not be to the liking of some) is the audiobook. I work on the computer & it’s fairly convenient for me to listen to a story while on the job. Audiobooks are also easily procured online so your reading choices are always updated or relatively new.
I used audiobooks quite a bit back in the US. My job had me on the road most of the time, and I enjoyed listening to books, especially on the longer drives. Some of that was sales type stuff, but not all. With more time here, I think I’d prefer a regular book or ebook since that would be my focus. Even still I have quite s few in iTunes to listen to yet.
I have been in Fully Booked once, but will have to try them again. I bet they have the book that I was looking for. Will be interested to see anyway.
Thanks for the info about Book Depository. My only question is, and I can probably go to their site to get the answer, is the shipping going to come through Phil Post. If so, that’s a major problem for me. I just spent a couple of hours there today (stupid me went over their lunch hour, which is really lunch and a half hour), only to find that the package sent a month ago still wasn’t here. The lady informed me that they had lost two workers, and there would not be any deliveries to our area for awhile. I’m thinking, so same as always. I believe the main Post Office in Davao does OK, it’s from that point on that it enters a dead zone.
BTW I think Jack is having internet and brownout issues, so I’m not sure if and when he will reply.
Thanks for the info, I’ll definitely check those out. I hadn’t seen the bookstore in Abreeza, and I’d never heard of bookdepositary. I too am a big fan of audiobooks, I usually download them from the Phoenix library and listen to them on my mp3 player when I’m walking, driving, exercising, etc.
You work in US publishing and live in Davao? That sounds interesting — what do you do, if you don’t mind my asking?
Jack
Hi Jack,
Yes, the Fully Booked branch in Abreeza takes orders too and ships from their other branches, however I am not certain of how fast they are in that regard.
I’m a book illustrator. Mostly in children’s publishing. I moved back to Davao 3 years ago, but the work load remains the same. An internet connection & a US phone number is pretty much what a person in my field needs these days.
For reference, you can search my name on Amazon (Macky Pamintuan) — I’d rather not give a website link so that I don’t appear like I am self-promoting my work on this site.
@Jack – you can also click on Macky’s name and it will take you to a nice bio of him and his work at MB Artists.
Macky is very well known and respected, I might add.
Thanks for the kind words, Randy.