Written: Monday. March 23, 2020.
Date of Purchase: June 27, 2019.
Price:
- Jimmy Go - 10 Pesos.
- Scarlet Letter - 50 Pesos.
- Witchcraft - 130 Pesos.
Jimmy Go was the last that I found that day in Book Sale(SM San Lazaro branch). I thought it'd be about a Japanese man's memoir about his hiding days in the Philippines. But it was about a Chinese man who was deeply religious, and a lot of the texts seem to suggest that his strong belief and true faith had a hand on his and his family's survival during the Japanese military invasion. I took it as just a belief system of this man, and reading it further eventually made it hard to distinguish whether he was sharing actual and factual events that occurred in that time, or were they cause by his strong belief, and that his faith made the story into a subjective point of view of the situation. Also, he was more into just noting down the events, and it later on became repetitive, cause the some of the things that were happening were the same, and it was described in the same way, which is what made it dull to read. It's genuine, but I don't know if I gained anything from reading the piece, or if it added anything to me in general, not just as a writer, but as a human being.
Scarlet Letter was the first book I found that day. It caught my attention, not because of the actual story, but because of what I saw inside of the pages. There were several of them that had been highlighted, or written on with notes, guiding the reader of the context of the story. I found it very interesting just for that feature. I was never curious of reading Scarlet Letter in the first place, and seeing this second-hand copy made me change my mind about it. I'm also very keen on the idea that I would someday find a book that had writings inside of it that came from its previous owner. If you watch Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, a key element of that story has to do with a dusty and beaten up old book that had all of these notes and instructions, giving the reader an insider look into what's actually important inside of the textbook, going so far as changing the rules or steps one would take to properly perform a task or a spell or incantation. I've been fascinated by that so strongly, that I wished that I would find a book such as that. And on that day, I did.
- I've actually started making my own version of the described book with my copy of Edith Hamilton's Mythology. Different story.
Witchcraft is what made this an eerie day. I almost didn't want to buy it, for its very dark and gruesome text and imagery inside. But somehow I knew that later on it'd be of use to me in my writing. I'll eventually have to write characters or creatures that are in need of a little 'witchcraft' research to it so that I could grasp an authentic hold to these creatures I'll be making for my stories.
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