lately, i think my life has been pouring into the books I read or vice versa. That sentence didn't make sense and I don't feel like I make sense at the moment since I just woke up and had about only 3 hours of sleep.
Anyway, I'll illustrate so it'll be clearer. A few days ago I got into the mode again of making plotlines for possible stories and the lazy me just thought it up in my head and let it stay there.. didn't even write it down. I had the light bulb moment the day I read Howl's moving castle at one go (I bought it Thursday and finished it by Friday night. I was reading like woah! while riding the MRT, while walking on the streets, riding the escalator, having lunch, waiting for a page to load, all the itty bits of time I can squeeze in I squeezed because I couldn't put it down, and I JUST HAD to know what happens next). I digress! let's go back to my ah-here's-a-potential-plot moment. It was about a girl, who is living a pretty ordinary (read: boring life). One day, while taking a bath she saw some scars on her arms. not really big scars but big enough to leave a mark. The wounds were not fresh and seemed to be a few days old but she couldn't remember where she got it. the next day she noticed some new ones. She got alarmed and almost contacted a doctor but some things she was busy with put that off.. anyway the main thing is ... this happens pala when she dreams.. turns out whenever she dreams she has big adventures where she has to fight some evil (thus the wounds and scars) so she goes to this place where her life is as remote from her boring one as it possibly can.
I was pretty happy with that plotline.. but not for long. Last Sunday because of certain happy circumstances I found myself killing time in Mega Mall where I haven't been to for like ages. So I hopped from bookstore to bookstore and browsed to my heart's desire and was pleasantly suprised that both Powerbooks and GoodWill were having a sale. GoodWill won out in the end and I went out of their store carrying 4 new books for less than a thousand pesos. One is "The Lost World" by Arthur Conan Doyle (which I've been looking for and thankfully got for only P80), Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto (this one for P399 which the girl on the counter said had no discount... but this particular books goes for more than P500 in Natio, I know 'cause I keep picking it up and imploring it to go on sale everytime I go there). Next is Amrita also by Yoshimoto...it's P599 and it's 50% off! If I were Sengoku (PoT reference) I'd say "rakki!" but I don't believe in luck .. so I don't ^^. Last is this seven story collection by Charles De Lint (anthology) (got introduced to the guy first in the anthology called "Green Man" and have been on the look out for his stuff (already got The Rose Grey Harp from FullyBooked, haven't gone past the first chapter though). His story collection is called "Ivory and Horn". I read the first story and it was good, but no Eureka or "man! this is awesome!" moment yet. But the second story was exclamation worthy for me. I truly did a double take because it was about this weird girl who dreams up this guy who owns a bookstore and there was a blurring between her reality and her dreams. Aaaaah! there goes my plot-line T_T. I knew it! There's nothing more disheartening for someone who thought he just came up with a good idea... only to be dashed to pieces the next moment because somebody beat them to it already. I feel like exactly like that guy Jacopo (if I remember his name right) in Eco's novel "Focault's Pendulum". Everything has been already written, and that was why instead of a becoming a writer like he wanted, he ended up being an editor.

But wait, there's more! I stayed online last night until 5am at first with the excuse of talking to my friend online and just virtually spending time with her since we don't get to go out that much. but later after she signed off I continued getting lost in the web doing this and that until finally when it was about 5 I put my foot down and determined to sleep. I couldn't really sleep at once so I opened up the plastic packaging of Amrita and started reading. It started out with the main character rattling off about her being a night person and how she was woken up before 9 and it was hard because she slept at 5 the previous night and she normally starts her day early afternoon. She could very well be talking about me. Finally sleep took over but not before I had this lingering thought in my head that books are taking over my life! ^^