MANILA, Philippines - Call it a marriage of convenience - technology meeting the traditional: the ease of making purchases fuss-free through a few clicks and taps and that of eventually enjoying your favorite books in their traditional physical formats.
Even with the advent of e-books and e-readers, there are still those of us who prefer to turn the pages, smell the leaves and, for some, even write down marginal notes in our books.
And while browsing through titles in our favorite bookstores is incomparable to making online purchases, many of us have also turned to the internet for the ease of looking for and buying books.
Thankfully, there are numerous online book selling sites in the Philippines
Avalon. We first discovered Avalon when we were looking for Moleskine stores in the Philippines. This was during the time when its journals and notebooks were not yet readily available in the country(The site now also carries Fashionary and Field Notes journals and notebooks). Visiting its website, we discovered that it also carried rare and hard-to-find books that are very affordable. We got four T.S. Eliot books for less than P800 and a hardbound copy of Douglas Adams's complete Hitchhiker's Guide series for around P700. Avalon also carries signed copies and/or rare editions of books.
Ebenta. We came across Ebenta on our way to class one Saturday. According to its poster, you can purchase new and used books, sell your old textbooks, and even have them hunt down books for you. Browsing through its site, we noticed that it is geared towards students because it mostly carries textbooks.
Fullybooked. Aside from carrying a wide array of titles, what we really like about Fullybooked's online store is its feature articles: personality and product features and even tips to appreciating art for instance. The site also keeps you up-to-date with the latest events that the bookstore has in line for a particular month.
Multiply. As we all know, Multiply now has become a marketplace for anything and everything and that of course includes books. Here's a list of some of Multiply online bookstores from the Read Philippines blog.
National Bookstore. Whether they’re textbooks or cook books, local or foreign fiction or non-fiction - National Bookstore offers a really wide and varied choice when it comes to books. And the best thing about it is that you can purchase the store's products wherever you are in the world. Last year, a friend in New Zealand surprised us with a gift purchased from National Bookstore's online store.