Our next ship date has not been finalized yet but it will be sometime in September or October. If you would like your books to arrive before Christmas, please be sure to order them now.

It could be out of curiosity or maybe people like to read what other people are reading, our customers usually like to know what other customers are ordering. Here is a peek at a few of the books we have been getting requests for this month.

• The Blue Place by Nicola Griffith
• Cases and Materials on Modern Procedure and Judicial Administration by Arthur T. Vanderbilt
• The Companions (Dragonlance: The Meetings Sextet, Vol. 6) by Margaret Weis
• The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
• The Deadline: A Novel About Project Management by Tom DeMarco
• Digital Designs for Scrapbooking by Renee Pearson
• Egyptology by Emily Sands
• Getting Started in Hedge Funds by Daniel A. Strachman
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J. K. Rowling
• Harry Potter 1-7 Box Set by J. K. Rowling
• Hegel’s Logic: Being Part One of the Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
• Jurisprudence by Roscoe Pound
• The Lady in the Tower: The Wives of Henry VIII by Jean Plaidy
• Lime Ricky by Jill Winters
• Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa
• Never: Jens Pulver And the Wednesday Group that Will Change the World by Timonthy J. McKinnon
• Riches Within Your Reach: The Law of the Higher Potential Robert Collier
• Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled by Tim Irwin
• To the Ends of the Earth: A Sea Trilogy by William Golding
• Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell
• The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good by William Easterly
• The Wrekening: An Ancient Mirrors Tale by Jayel Gibson

We are glad we are able to get books and people together this way. Ah, it does feel good to help.

The Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (Umpil) would like to invite writers and lovers of literature to its 33rd National Writers Congress to be held at the Pulungang Recto, College of Arts and Letters Building, University of the Philippines , Diliman, Quezon City on August 25. The session will start at exactly 9:00 am and will last until 5 pm .

The Congress theme is “Literature and Writers’ Welfare.” Four noted writers will receive the prestigious Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas, sculpted by renowned international artist Manuel Baldemor.

Senator Francisco Pangilinan III will be the guest of honor, and will speak about his legislative vision for writers and Philippine literature in general. Atty. Louie Calvario of Intellectual Property Office will expound recent developments in intellectual property rights agenda, while Ms. Debbie P. Gaite of Filscap (Filipino Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, Inc.) will discuss the model of a collective management responsible for collecting royalties of its members.

A general election of the new set of Umpil board of directors will be held afterwards. For inquiries, please call Vim or Joey at 922-1830.

Adarna House, the country’s first and largest Filipino children’s book publisher is looking for storytellers. No details yet on what the job entails but here is the text of their invitation –

If you have a lot of free time, love the company of kids, and enjoy sharing stories, send your resume to ergoe at adarna.com.ph and gear up to tell us your favorite story!

For those who received a copy of The Daily Prophet carrying the news item about a museum robbery with their copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, here is a clearer photograph of the scene. Since the picture is a bit fuzzy and some of you may not be able to drop by and look at the display for yourself, we have provided a few clues below. Remember, you will have to identify the objects in the museum and, if you can and it would be better if you could, provide a caption for each object as it should be in a museum. Answers can be specific or general, as in the name of a specific bird, or just what that bird is. The person who gets every item correctly and who can provide the best captions (as determined by our judges) gets as a prize one of the items on display.

Clues:
1. red and feathery
2. you need a broomstick to catch one
3. helps to catch flying keys
4. the size of a walnut with silver wings
5. a wizard’s weapon of choice
6. hourglass worn on a chain
7. silvery grey cloak
8. 10 inches in diameter
9. silver with rubies
10. used in Potions class
11. “…neither can live…while the other survives…”
12. sings a different song every year
13. postal service

Also, below is the text from The Daily Prophet. Thank you to Mercury, our resident Harry Potter fanatic, for introducing us to Professor Clio Curio.

Just before sunrise today, a daring robbery occurred at the renowned Museum of Witchcraft & Wizardry in Libis, Quezon City where magical objects, devices, and artifacts of all kinds from the Harry Potter books are on display.

“Everything…Everything is gone!” cried a shaken Professor Clio Curio, curator of the museum. Although the museum’s collection was intact, what the professor was talking about was how all the knowledge in the museum had been stolen.

Signs, captions, and descriptions of the collection, files and records, every bit of information was erased including, unfortunately for the Professor, the information in her head! She remembers nothing about any of the items in the exhibit.

While the top wizards and witches from all around the world are looking for a spell that will restore Professor Curio’s memory, perhaps you, loyal reader, can help out.

In the photograph are 13 items that have to be named and re-captioned. Place the name of the object/device/creature and your own museum-worthy description for it based on the Harry Potter books on the blanks provided. Your captions can be as long as you want. Use the back of this sheet for the captions.

Submit your answers to the museum (that’s Booktopia) or send mail to info at booktopia.com.ph. The correct answers with the best captions will win a prize!

You may have to visit the museum yourself to see the artifacts themselves. Photographs are allowed and photographs with the exhibit are also allowed but please ask first.

The museum is located at Intrepid Plaza, Libis, Quezon City and you may get in touch with the curator at 634-6544. Learn more about this quest from booktopia.com.ph.

To those who are availing of our free delivery service, please make sure that you have already given us your complete address and phone numbers. If we are unable to contact you on Saturday, we cannot deliver to your home.

Many have suspected that one of the Horcruxes can be found in the Muggle world. I think we may have found it while mixing a special batch of batter for this Saturday’s Harry Potter release. This may sound strange, but, it was in the form of a small cake. However, the Horcrux refuses to be revealed and has magically compelled us to make many cupcakes that look just like it.

Now we don’t know which one is the Horcrux and we need your help. Come on Saturday, at 7am, and have a cupcake. Bite into the cursed cupcake and you win a prize!

This seems to be a good year for young adult fantasy fiction crossing over to the big screen.  Aside from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, here are other books that you can expect to see in theaters soon.

I remember reading Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising.   Maybe I was too young or I let my imagination run away with me or Susan Cooper writes a good story, because I know it scared me and I had to put it down a few times before I could finish it.  It is the story of a boy who finds out on his eleventh birthday that he is an Old One, someone destined to protect the world from evil.  The book is part of a series of five volumes.  The movie is scheduled to come out towards the end of the year.

Being released as a Christmas movie is Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass (known in the UK as The Northern Lights).  The story is set in a world that is like ours, but isn’t, where humans have animal companions representing their own souls.  Lyra, a young girl, becomes the bearer of a compass that can tell you the answer to any question.  The story has missing children, daring rescues, and armored polar bears.  It should make for a good movie.

Coming sooner to a theater near you is Neil Gaiman’s Stardust.   It is the story of earnest Tristan who promises to fetch his lady love a star they saw fall beyond the enchanted wall of their village.

Here’s a new website from the nice people of Read or Die.  They describe it as “…an online Filipino literary portal and community…hosts blogs, author and group sites, reading guides, reading lists, reading challenges, podcasts, news of events on literacy and literature, online book clubs and digitized publications.”

The site looks nice and neat and is packed with information.  Anyone with anything to say about the local reading culture can and should use it.  You can visit it just to read what’s new in the Philippine literary setting.  You can create your own blog to, let’s say, promote your new book.  You can join the forums and discuss books, events, writers, etc.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is just a few days away.

Make sure you’re getting the best deals on the most-awaited book of the year!

* Avail of our low price of P1,450.

* If you live in our neighborhood — and by that we mean: Acropolis, Bagumbayan, Corinthian Gardens, Eastwood City, Greenmeadows, Kapitolyo, Libis, Loyola Heights, Ortigas, St. Ignatius, Valle Verde, White Plains, etc. — we will deliver to you for FREE on July 21. Our owls will start delivery by 7am, the official release time for the book.

* If you work in a company that will order the book in bulk or if you can get your officemates to reserve the book with us, we will give you a 10% discount.

Riches in Foreclosures: Buy Your Own Home, Get Quick Cash or Create Passive Income! (Signed)
By Dinna Revilla
Foreword by Atty. Alex Lacson, 12 Little Things Every Filipino Can Do to Help Our Country

If you have read Think Rich, Pinoy!, Larry Gamboa’s practical and successful interpretation of Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad, Poor Dad, you probably know Dinna Revilla. She was the mentor that Larry Gamboa spoke of. Now Ms. Revilla has come up with her own book based on her experiences in the real estate business. The book is now available at the store at the introductory price of P99.

Buying your first home? Want to make money? Want to create passive income?

You can buy and hold, opt to get quick cash, or get passive income from the properties you’ve had your eye on.

Dinna Revilla, the “Action Woman” and mentor of the Cash Flow Group tells you how you can do it.

This book documents 30 real life transactions, 17 of them are shown with the pictures of the moneymaking properties.

Discover the secretes of negotiations and deals. Get to know about the perks you can get from banks. Know how easy it is to buy foreclosed properties. This book tells you all about it.

This book will give you an insider’s perspective on the real estate business. Take pointers from someone who has done all these transactions and has been right at the heart of the market herself.