Beneath The Rubble of Book Ruins

By Alexander Tzonis

   In the world of book lovers, there are special creatures called book scavengers or hounds. These archaeologist like to hangout in the sale section of the bookstore.You can find them digging away beneath the crevices of crappy and obviously saleable items such as sweet valley high and how to collect pogs. Their work seems pointless but there is a science and an art to what they do since there is a lot of eye and hand coordination put into it. I know because I joined one of them in his excavations years ago. It does take a lot of patience but the work does pay off. For example, my uncle who is moving into collecting coffee table books has found a lot of great sale finds in National Bookstore Bacolod. One of them is the book Classical Greek Architecture: The Construction of the Modern by Alexander Tzonis which is pictured above. The book's inside as he showed me when I visited his home is a breathtaking homage to the Greek ruins thanks to its black and white photographs that play with the light to capture the romance of the gods. It is true nerdy delight to see its contents which aren't even found online.

  The book originally sold for $50 in Amazon turned into a Php 500 ($10) jewel when found by my uncle. Isn't that amazing? He showed more great finds last sunday through skype and what fascinates me more is the giddiness he has over his treasures. It is really fun to see other nerds happy. 

  Anyhoo, if you have your own share own great archaeological finds, please post them here and share your discoveries.