Big Bad Wolf founders reveal 5 of the craziest things people have done for books

How far would you go for a book?

With vast piles of discounted fiction and non-fiction works up for grabs, book lovers couldn’t help but go a little crazy at the Big Bad Wolf book sale.

But because the world's biggest book sale event could only come to the Philippines virtually this year due the pandemic, we asked BBW's co-founders Andrew Yap and Jacqueline Ng to share some nostalgic stories about the craziest things they saw happen at the physical sales over the years.

1. Yearly treasure hunt

Some clever "wolfies" like to get to the stacks early and hide books somewhere for their friends to find later.

Andrew discovered this after spotting one customer who kept sticking his/her head under the table instead of browsing the titles.

He asked the customer what he/she was up to, and he was amused by the answer.

"Let's say this particular title only has three or four copies, right?...What they do is they will hide the books under the table and tell their friends how to get it. [They'd say] this book is under the table, I kept it for you guys, you come in and get it from under the table," Andrew told GMA News Online.

"One day many years ago I was asking the customer, 'Why are you looking under the table?' [I said] 'Oh okay. I'm not stopping you.' I think it's quite good right? People are helping people right?" he added.

2. The man who bought a thousand books

When BBW went to Cebu a few years ago, there was a Filipino book lover who wanted to buy not one, not 10, but a thousand books.

According to Andrew, the man couldn't get his haul to fit inside his car so he asked for some help to transport them all to his house.

"We sent the books to him the next day, and three days later he came back. He said I need another thousand!"

3. Malaysia's 'Wall-E'

The BBW sees a lot of familiar faces who like to come back every year, but there's one customer in Malaysia who's hard to forget.

"There's one guy who would come every year as [the Pixar character] Wall-E. Everything -- the clothes, the glasses, the full costume!" Andrew said.

"[Even in the Philippines] There are people who do cosplay, you know? It’s a fun outing for them," Jacqueline added.

4. The traveling book lovers

Jacqueline still thinks about a woman from the US Peace Corps who came to BBW in Cebu many years ago.

She had travelled nine hours by bus to accompany a group of Filipino youths who wanted some books.

They got only one book each as they were able to stay for only an hour because they needed to ride the bus back home.

"It really touches our hearts because they took so much effort to come," Jacqueline said.

"They love to read but they can’t afford it but they still want to be part of it ... I just felt so moved by this group of very young people," she added.

5. The girl who was one year late

A 16-year-old girl volunteered to work at the BBW book sale in Malaysia, but she did not show up.

A few days later, Jacqueline learned that the girl was diagnosed with cancer and had to seek treatment.

Because she couldn’t make it, the BBW team picked out 100 books they thought she would like and delivered them to her home.

"She was overwhelmed," Jacqueline recalled. "It was a big surprise and she was so touched and, of course, the main message we wanted to give her is to encourage her to fight whatever she was going through."

To Jacqueline's surprise, the girl showed up at the sale a year later. "So she went through the treatment, she came back and she purposely texted me that she's actually at the sale."

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Big Bad Wolf book sale returned to the Philippines through its online platform.

The ongoing book sale is scheduled to run June 30 -July 7, 2021 with discounts of up to 90% on over 60,000 titles.

Filipino customers can also avail of various promos, including free shipping and PHP10 book deals.

Big Bad Wolf’s primary mission is to cultivate reading habits and boost literacy by making books more affordable in several cities across Asia.

Its last physical sale in the Philippines in February last year, where it brought two million discounted books to World Trade Center in Metro Manila. – RC, GMA News