A little Catholic book center

About a month or two ago, I noticed a poster at the local shopping mall advertising a Catholic book center called St. Joseph's Thesaurus located in the same shopping mall. I was at once interested in checking it out because I especially love reading saint biographies and other Catholic books.

Indeed I did get to check it out a few days after that and found it to be more of a reading room rather than a book shop. The small room had a couple of shelves at the back and a few tables with chairs for reading. From where I stood outside the glass door, I could recognize a few of the books on the shelves: they were a compilation of saint biographies by Ann Ball and published by TAN books. Having a fair-sized collection of TAN books myself (mostly purchased from Goodwill Bookstore over a five year period starting a decade ago when that bookstore was doing well), this peaked my interest all the more. But there were no people inside except for a shopkeeper sitting behind a counter near the door and I was too shy to go inside. Besides, it was a weekday and I had to return to work, having just gone out to buy lunch.

It was only this noon after lunch when I thought I had the time to drop by and spend some time reading. To my dismay, there was a sign posted on the counter saying that there was a charge of Php25 (Php20 for students) for reading. But never mind. Here was a chance to relax even for just a short while and read books I've wanted to read for a long time. So I went in and greeted the shopkeeper who directed me to the shelves at the back. I timidly walked down to the back and looked through the titles. To my joy, nearly all the books were published by TAN books and there were even some (like Celine Martin's My Sister Saint Therese and Joan Carroll Cruz's Angels & Demons) that I had longed to purchase but couldn't. (I was slightly disappointed to not see the biography of the Cure d'Ars by the Abbe Francis Trochu but as this was just a reading room and not a TAN book shop, I wasn't--and shouldn't be--surprised.) Goodwill Bookstore had stopped stocking up on the books and I couldn't buy the ones available through the TAN Books website simply because I didn't have a dollar credit card account. Sigh. Anyway, this little book center was therefore a dream come true for me. Here I was with most of the TAN books I've wanted to have right before me. And so I contentedly spent the next half an hour or so reading a few saint biographies and browsing through a few others I had been eying. One funny thing happened: when I got the second volume of Ann Ball's Modern Saints to browse through, I found myself face-to-face with a picture of the Cure d'Ars, my favorite saint. It was totally unexpected as I thought modern saints referred to saints who lived in the late 1800's and in the 1900's. (In the meantime, the shopkeeper I noticed had been reading St. Teresa de Avila's Interior Castle which he later returned to the shelf. Then I saw that he began reading a Bible and I could hear some Gregorian chants being played on a small CD player.)

It took some time before I could tear myself away from that bookshelf and walk up to the front counter to pay my reading fee. When the shopkeeper told me that it costs just Php20 for students, I realized that I did look like one as I was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. I just replied that I wasn't a student and proceeded to dig out Php5 coins to pay the fee. The smallest bills I had in my wallet were Php100 bills and seeing that the place was rarely visited didn't expect that the shopkeeper would have any change. I handed the coins over and inquired who owned the place and if the books were imported. The young fellow said that his aunt owned the place and that, yes, they had to import the books. At that I said my thanks and left.

When I got back at my office and after a short search through the World Wide Web, it turns out that the shopkeeper was most probably a Discalced Carmelite novice-friar. This explained why the saint biographies available at the book center were mostly about Carmelites like St. Therese and St. Teresa and why the shopkeeper was reading Interior Castle. Then I made a sobering discovery: He had put a few TAN books on an online auction to support the center. All the while I had been wondering if the little place had been making money at all all this time. I might have even been the very first person to go in and read some books!

You know, I'd hate to see this little place fold up like so many businesses that have put up shop in the shopping mall and failed after a short time. Long time ago, someone had a cart making those cute little mini-donuts. I've loved those mini-donuts ever since my sister and I bought some at the Iowa State Fair more than a decade ago. So it was sad to see that cart disappear after several months of doing poorly. A year go, a bakery had also a kiosk selling all sorts of baked goods like brownies and oatmeal cookies. I often bought the latter for snacks. But that kiosk too disappeared. Then just a few months ago, someone had a popcorn stand from which we would buy a big bag of sweet/salty popcorn for Php60 nearly every Sunday after mass. But that too disappeared. The Mister Donut counter that had been located near KFC also closed shop lately. Sigh! And now while I was happy to find that a Catholic book center had opened right here in town, my heart sank to see it practically empty of customers. So I really hope that it will be here to stay--at least for a very long time, if not forever.