Mt. Cloud bookshop stocks up on more magic

Mt. Cloud bookshop is small but spacious, with a couple of inviting armchairs that double as shelves. For those who prefer the floor, there are throw pillows here and there. The wood paneled walls are decorated with several framed paper cuts by Sinag de Leon-Amado, and other colorful crafty pieces. Almost every corner has something interesting to look at, and it's no wonder that time slips by unnoticed in the cozy shop. Unlike big bookstores, Mt. Cloud doesn't have a cafe inside. Instead, they encourage customers to browse through their collection with beer or coffee from Hill Station, their next-door neighbor on the ground floor of Casa Vallejo, built in 1909 and restored just last year. "It was a long time dream but making the dream come true started a year ago. Completely by chance, we heard that Casa was going to be revived, so to speak, and they were going to keep it in the style of old Baguio, and it dawned on us that this would be the perfect place for a bookshop," said Padma Perez, who owns the shop with her sister, Feliz.

Since she and Feliz are both anthropologists, Padma shares it affects the way they choose their books. She points out that there's a lot of stuff on culture and scholarly work as well. At Mt. Cloud, there is no separate Filipiniana section. Books are arranged according to genre, with local and foreign titles sitting comfortably next to each other on the smooth sunlit shelves. "We really want to support Philippine literature. We thought, if it's poetry, it's poetry. If it's a novel, it's a novel," says Padma. The selection is impressive, despite the bookshop's size. Although many of the titles are unusual, popular authors like Paulo Coelho also have a place on Mt. Cloud's shelves. "Of course, we have to also cater to the general reading public. What we're happy to be learning as the days go by is that there is a reading public," says Padma. Since opening in August 2010, Mt. Cloud has been successful in attracting their target market - "people who seek out the giddy pleasure of reading, who know the joy of buying and taking home a good find, of cuddling up with a book in a cozy corner, or of turning with reverence the pages of a beautiful, venerable book." The charming chalk-written sign that points visitors to the shop's wooden doors is almost irresistible and the informal arrangement of shelves beckons anyone to enter. Bookworms who step into Mt. Cloud know they've found a treasure trove, and realize it will be difficult to keep from buying something on impulse. "I better go now before I spend all my money," said one customer as she left, hugging her newly bought books to her chest. The prices are actually friendly, more or less the same as a regular bookstore. Of course, the rarer books are more expensive, but book lovers know the cost is worth it. Perez shares that they recently let go of two of their rarest titles, both published in the colonial period by the Bureau of Public Printing: The Nabaloi Dialect by Otto Scheerer and The Bataks of Palawan by E.B. Miller. But Mt. Cloud's rarest treasure isn't for sale. A collection of hard-to-find comic books is available for rent at 50 pesos per hour, and 35 pesos per hour for students. Some belong to the owners, while others were given or loaned to Mt. Cloud on the condition that they stay there. "When they learned that we were going to do that, they liked the idea that other people would be enjoying their comics," says Padma. Mt. Cloud is more than just a shop where you can buy books. It's a warm and clean well-lighted place for bookworms, whether they want to spend a quiet afternoon reading or an evening mingling with fellow bookworms. They sometimes invite authors to the shop to talk about their books. "It's special to get to meet an author, to talk about how they wrote the book. It's also part of what we're trying to do which is to create a larger reading community, so it's not just public in the sense that anyone can walk in here and pick a book off the shelf and pay for it but this community of people who love to learn, love to read and meet like-minded people," says Padma. The small events are pleasant, intimate affairs. When a friend from Jakarta visited them, a spur of the moment idea became an all-out party. "She's a singer and a poet and also loves books and we just thought lets do a Jogja night," shares Padma. They read from books with Indonesian poetry, translated into English. "We were reading the translations and some friends were translating the poetry to Ilocano, so we were reading the poetry in three languages that night and just jamming with guitar and percussions," she recalls. "We feel that we have to be more proactive as a bookshop, that we can't just sit and wait for books to come off the shelves and that people can be encouraged to come and get themselves a book as a treat," says Padma, explaining that apart from being a venue for bookworms to mingle, the events are their way of drawing customers to the store. While Mt. Cloud possesses a rather old-school, independent attitude, they aren't afraid of technology, either. In fact, Mt. Cloud has a pretty active Facebook page, where they announce events and new arrivals. "Seven copies of In the Shape of Tradition: Indigenous Art of the Northern Philippines by Eric Moltzau Anderson. Going...going..." went one of their recent updates. Earlier, they posted "Tonight in the Cloud! Meet Herman and Candelaria Zapp who got into a 1928 Graham-Paige car ten years ago in Argentina and ended up driving around the world with a brood of four kids. They're visiting Baguio for a few days and will be sharing their story and selling their book, Spark your Dream, in Mt Cloud Bookshop... As always, everyone is welcome!" Five days after the Zapps' visit, author Mario Miclat dropped by to read from his new novel, Secrets of the 18 Mansions, which was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009. On the same night, they opened with a new art exhibition entitled The Tourist, by Chris Yñiguez. They update their fans as new arrivals come in, and they call it "stocking up on more magic." If it sounds fantastic, that's because it is. As they say in their website, Mt. Cloud is their dream come true, and if you love books, it's yours, too. - GMANews.TV Mt. Cloud is open from Tuesdays to Sundays, 12 NN. to 8 P.M. at Casa Vallejo, Upper Session Road, Baguio City. Visit http://mtcloudbookshop.com/ or Mt Cloud's Facebook page for updates.