The Philippines has a wealth of talented writers and poets, and there's certainly no shortage of Filipino bookworms either, if the presence of big bookstore chains is anything to go by.
But many book lovers only get to scratch the surface of what's out there in terms of Filipino literature—after all, the Filipiniana section is often relegated to just a shelf or two, and most of the time contains a mix of coffee-table books and works of well-established authors you've probably already encountered in school. It's no wonder the rows and rows of foreign books often catch readers' eyes first.
But the team behind Mt. Cloud Bookshop—a cozy, Baguio-based independent bookstore—has made it their mission to promote Philippine literature. And they're helping readers to step out of their comfort zone with their book subscription service.
All you have to do is fill out a form on Mt. Cloud Bookshop’s website, and the team will handpick the books they think you'll enjoy the most based on your answers. The form is aptly called the "Mt. Cloud Subscription Slumbook"—apart from your favorite genres and books, it asks interesting questions like, "If you could have a conversation with any author, dead or alive, who would you choose?" and "If you could have a conversation with any fictional character, who would you choose?"
It takes the team about one to two weeks to go through your answers, choose the books, and ship them out. You'll get one book a month for three months, plus a couple of freebies. The fee is P1,200 for Baguio residents and P1,800 for those outside Baguio, inclusive of shipping charges.
Mt. Cloud Bookshop owners Feliz and Padma Perez started the book subscription program back in 2015. "We wanted to make online sales and promote Filipino books at the same time. We had seen several programs like it from bookshops abroad and we decided to give it a try," says Feliz.
It took a little while for the program to gain traction, but it's still going strong three years later. "There was a lot of interest but people didn't want to spend P1,800. We had to make programs to point out that it was cheaper than a bouquet of flowers and other things like that," she adds.
If you need a bit of help finding your next read, want to get out of your comfort zone, or rediscover Filipino literature, try Mt. Cloud Bookshop's subscription service by filling out this form.
This story originally appeared on Esquiremag.ph. Minor edits have been made by the Spot.ph editors.
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